Migration Category: Feminist Newswire

Stories from the Feminist News Wire.

Women Surge in Texas’s Congressional Primaries

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On Tuesday, Texas was the first state to hold primary races in preparation for the November 2018 midterm elections. For the first time in 25 years, Democrats are running in all 36 of Texas’s congressional districts.

This year, 50 women, 37 of them Democrats, filed to run for office in Texas, up from only 18 who filed in 2016. In total, a record 25 Democratic women won their primaries or will advance to a runoff election. Today, only 3 of Texas’s 36 congressional districts are represented by women.

Judge Veronica Escobar and State Senator Sylvia Garcia both won their primaries in heavily Democratic districts, positioning them to become the first two Latina politicians elected to Congress from Texas.

Because Texas requires primary candidates to win a majority of votes to advance to the general election, there are many U.S. House districts that will hold run-off elections on May 22 to determine a winner from the two candidates who earned the most votes yesterday.

One of the most exciting candidates headed to a run-off election is Gina Ortiz Jones, who is running to represent the 23rd district, which stretches from San Antonio along the US-Mexico border to El Paso. She earned more than double the votes of her primary competitors, and if she wins the run-off, she will go up against Republican incumbent Will Hurd in a district that is considered one of the only swing-seats in the state. If elected, she will be the first openly gay person from Texas to serve in the House of Representatives.

Texas is just one of many states that have seen a surge in women running for office since the election of Donald Trump. Emily’s List says that in the ten months before the 2016 elections, about 1,000 women had contacted the organization interested in running for office. Since Trump’s election, that number has jumped to over 26,000.

“The Women’s Marches one year ago led to the largest number of new candidates, especially women, running for political office, as well as unprecedented victories for feminists in the 2017 state and local elections,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority. “Today, a record number of women are running for Congress, state legislatures, and state-wide offices and we intend to win. We are going to send a pink wave through Congress and the states.”

The difficulty of progressive candidates competing for seats in Texas stems from the state’s heavily gerrymandered congressional map. Last year, a panel of federal judges ruled that Texas’s congressional map was unconstitutional and discriminated against minority voters. The case is currently pending before the Supreme Court, and the Texas legislature could be forced to redraw district lines before the 2018 elections.

 

Media Resources: CNN 3/7/18; Business Insider 3/18; Vox 3/5/18;

Supreme Court Declines to Hear DACA Case, Leaving it in Place for Now

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President Trump set March 5 as the arbitrary end-date for the Differed Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, but a decision by the Supreme Court last week has left an injunction in place that keeps the program on life support for now.

The Court refused to hear the administration’s appeal of a federal judge’s January nationwide injunction that forced the office of Citizenship and Immigration Services to continue accepting DACA renewal applications until a court can rule on whether or not Trump violated the Administrative Procedure Act when he hastily rescinded the program in September.

The Supreme Court determined that a federal appeals court must hear the case before they do, in compliance with typical Court procedure. The case likely won’t return to the Court until next term, but Dreamers and their allies continue to press Congress for a long term solution, including at a protest today at the Capitol.

President Trump announced in September that he would let the program expire in March, forcing Congress to come up with a bi-partisan plan if they wanted to save the Dreamers from deportation. Congress has made several attempts to revive DACA as part of a broader deal on immigration policy, but they have yet to pass any solution, largely because the President has sabotaged many of the most popular proposals.

Immigrant rights activists say the DACA program has improved the lives of thousands of immigrants. Approximately 800,000 undocumented immigrants, who are commonly referred to as “Dreamers,” have been issued work visas, received a college education, or deferred deportation because of DACA, allowing them to stay independently and safely within their communities.

Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 8/31/17, 2/16/18

Oregon Legislature Passes Strict Gun Law

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Just one week after the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Oregon lawmakers passed a new gun control bill that bans domestic abusers from purchasing or owning firearms.

Formerly, Oregon’s gun control laws only prohibited convicted domestic abusers and stalkers from buying and owning guns if they lived with, were married to, or had children with their victim. The wording of the existing law created a loophole that allowed abusers who had been convicted of domestic violence, but did not fall into any of those categories, to purchase and own weapons.

The new law closes what has been referred to as the “boyfriend loophole” since it includes abusers who may not live with their victims or share children with them, and includes the more general term “intimate partner.” The bill will also include those convicted of stalking or people under restraining orders in the list of people banned from owning or obtaining guns.

The bill passed the Oregon House of Representatives 37-23 and the state Senate 16-13  and has been sent to Governor Kate Brown who is expected to sign the bill. Women’s rights advocates claim the bill as a victory, since more than 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men will be the victim of intimate partner violence in their lifetime. The chance of a woman in an abusive household being killed by her partner quintuples when a gun is in the home.

Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 10/6/2016; USA Today 2/23/2018; Newsweek 2/23/2018; The Hill 2/22/2018; Oregon Live 2/22/2018

Black Women Gather to Create a New Political and Economic Agenda at First Power Rising Summit

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Hundreds of Black women from across the country gathered last weekend in Atlanta at the inaugural Power Rising Summit to create and strategize around a new political and economic agenda centered on the needs, hopes, and aspirations of Black women.

Organized by a powerhouse collection of Black women leaders—including Leah Daughtry, former Chief Executive Officer of the Democratic National Convention Committee in 2008 and 2016; LaToia Jones, co-founder of Black and Engaged; Minyon Moore, a founder of  Women Building for the Future; Tamika Mallory, national co-chair of the Women’s March; Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation; and more—the Power Rising Summit was an intentional space for Black women to assert their priorities for themselves and their communities.

The idea for the Summit came out of a retreat organized by the women members of the Congressional Black Caucus after the 2016 presidential election. Though Black women’s preferred candidate, Hillary Clinton, who earned 94 percent of the Black women’s vote, did not win that election, co-conveners of the Summit, citing the special election in Alabama and recent elections in Virginia and New Jersey, reminded participants of Black women’s political power as well as their economic and cultural power, noting that Black women own more than 1.5 million businesses in the US and are the largest users of social media. The goal: leverage that influence “to ensure equity, opportunity, and representation” for Black women and Black communities.

The Summit was organized around five pillars of activism and engagement: (1) Business & Economic Empowerment; (2) Culture, Community, and Society; (3) Education, Technology, and Innovation; (4) Health & Wellness; and (5) Political Empowerment. Attendees, including staff from the Feminist Majority Foundation, heard from keynote speakers that included Congresswomen Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Robin Kelly (D-IL), and Yvette Clarke (D-NY), together the co-chairs and co-founders of the Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls; black feminist professor Brittany Cooper; transgender rights activist Elle Hearns; political commentator Angela Rye; and legendary actress Cicely Tyson.

Through workshop sessions, the co-conveners of the Summit gathered toplines for the Black women’s agenda, which included action, among other things, to support Black women-owned businesses, protect Medicare and Medicaid, and reform the criminal justice system. Participants also discussed maternal and reproductive health, violence against Black women and girls, advocacy for Black undocumented women, support for Black women and tech, civic engagement, and digital organizing.

Summit co-convener Star Jones also challenged participants to create their own personal agendas: to register 5 new Black women voters, support 5 Black women candidates, support 5 Black women-owned businesses, give 5 hours per month to community service, mentor and learn from 5 Black women, and dedicate 5 hours per week to self-care.

Apart from developing an agenda, the Power Rising Summit provided a space for joy, wellness, and transformation. It was a restorative space just as much as it was a space to design collective and individual action. As Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (D-OH) stated while delivering remarks in a workshop session, “The story of this weekend is going to be Black women doing what we want to do just because we feel like it.”

State Department Report to Downplay Global Women’s Rights Violations

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In the latest attack on women’s global health, officials at the United States State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor will curtail the section on women’s reproductive rights and family planning in the annual report on human rights.

According  to Politico, which cited five unnamed state department officials, an order was handed down to cut language from a section of the annual report that usually discusses family planning, women’s reproductive rights and health, and discrimination against women. Additionally, a section on LGBTQ and racial and ethnic discrimination will also be shortened.

According to Human Rights Watch, “The United Nations Committee Against Torture has found denial of a woman’s reproductive rights as tantamount to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Access to contraception and safe abortion are critical to help prevent the estimated 800 maternal deaths that occur each day globally.”

The annual report is used by NGOs and policy makers to address human rights and reproductive rights across the globe. The report deadline is February 25 and is tentatively scheduled to be release this week.

The order to curtail the section on reproductive rights is not considered by women’s rights advocates to be surprising. State Department has yet to appoint anyone to serve in the position of ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues. In addition, the Trump Administration reinstated and expanded the Global Gag Rule last year, a deadly U.S. policy that forbids international nongovernmental organizations (NGO) recieving U.S. global health funding from providing counseling or even referencing abortion, even if these activities are done with non-U.S. funds.

Marie Stopes estimates that Trump’s Global Gag will lead to the deaths of more than 21,000 additional women over the next three years. It is estimated that over 50,000 women a year already die from unsafe abortions around the globe. According to the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, 800 women die every day from preventable pregnancy related causes.

 

Media Resources: Politico 2/21/18, The Hill 2/22/18; Human Rights Watch 2/22/18

Title VII Covers Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation Says Court

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On Monday, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that sexual orientation is protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination against employees based on sex.

The lawsuit was filed by a now-deceased sky diving instructor, Donald Zarda, who claimed he was fired after a customer complained that he was gay. The case was originally heard before a three-judge panel for the 2nd Circuit, which ruled in April that sexual orientation is not protected under Title VII. This most recent decision comes after the court agreed to hear the case again before all 13 of the circuit’s judges, otherwise known as the en-banc court.

“Sexual orientation discrimination is a subset of sex discrimination because sexual orientation is defined by one’s sex in relation to the sex of those to whom one is attracted,” read the appellate court ruling, “making it impossible for an employer to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation without taking sex into account.”

The court’s ruling goes against a brief filed in this case by Donald Trump’s Justice Department, which argued that Title VII does not protect LGBT people from employment discrimination.  This brief from the Justice Department came the same week that President Trump announced via Twitter that he wanted to reinstate a ban on transgender individuals serving “in any capacity” in the U.S. military. The courts have stepped in to block this administration initiative as well.

Earlier this month, the Department of Education said they would no longer investigate or take action to protect transgender students who are denied access to the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity, claiming they do not believe Title IX requires them to protect trans students from discrimination in publicly funded educational institutions. Title IX prohibits discrimination in education based on sex. Two federal appeals courts have already ruled that transgender students’ access to restrooms is protected under Title IX.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has notoriously opposed protections for LGBT individuals throughout his career. During his confirmation hearing, it became a serious point of contention that as a Senator, Sessions had refused to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, in part because it would have extended protections to domestic violence victims regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

In January, the Trump administration announced the creation of a new division at the Department of Health and Human Services that seeks to defend healthcare workers who choose to discriminate against LGBT patients on moral or religious grounds. Under these protections, health workers will be able to refuse to provide care for transgender patients, gay or lesbian patients, or people who have had abortions.

Media Resources: New York Times 2/26/18

West Virginia Teachers Enter Third Day of Strikes

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Teachers in West Virginia participated in a third day of strikes on Monday to demand higher salaries and better benefits, closing every public school in the state’s 55 counties and impacting nearly 277,000 students. This is the first ever state-wide teacher walk out.

West Virginia pays its teachers one of the lowest amounts in the country. They make on average $45,622, the third lowest in the U.S., compared to a national average of $58,353. Teachers say they are forced to go on government assistance just to feed their families.

“We collected on the (Women’s, Infants and Children food and nutrition service program), so that’s how low teacher pay is,” said teacher Jacob Fertig. “There were a lot of times where we got to choose between groceries and health coverage for my family. This isn’t just an issue of a bunch of people squabbling over a little bit of insurance benefits or a little bit of pay—we are really in a bad place here as far as that stuff goes.”

Teachers began their strike on Thursday of last week, outraged over the meager 2 percent raise the Governor signed into law while claiming it was the “responsible” option.  Teachers say that 2 percent raise is what is needed just to cover their rising healthcare costs through the state’s Public Employee Insurance Agency, the health insurance provider for all state employees.

In order to ensure that students who rely on school-provided lunches do not go hungry, teachers prepared for the walk-out by handing out food to students ahead of time. Makeshift childcare centers were also arranged at churches and community centers.

The third day of protests comes as the Supreme Court hears one of the most important labor rights cases of the 21st century. The decision in Janus v. AFSCME will determine whether or not public sector unions can require public employees to pay “fair share fees” since all benefit from collective bargaining.

Media Resources: Time 2/26/18; CNN 2/26/18

Delegation of Afghan Women Discuss Country’s Progress

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A delegation of eight high-ranking Afghan women officials visited Washington DC last week to discuss their country’s progress in women’s equality, fiscal reforms, peace efforts and foreign relations. The delegates included:

  • Adela Raz, Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs for the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  • Naheed Sarabi, Deputy Minister for Policy for the Afghan Ministry of Finance
  • Ghazaal Habibyar-Safi, Deputy Minister for the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum
  • Shararzad Akbar, Senior Advisor for the President of Afghanistan on High Councils
  • Naheed Esar, Director of Policy and Analysis for the Administrative Office of the President of Afghanistan
  • Ghizaal Haress Commissioner for the Independent Commission for Overseeing the Implementation of the Constitution of Afghanistan
  • Muqaddesa Yourish, Commissioner of the Independent Administrative Reforms and Civil Service
  • Zohra Nawabi, member of the Provincial Council of Kabul Province.

 

The delegation started their visit at The Brookings Institution, a leading public policy non-profit organization. While there, the Afghan delegates lead a discussion about the new generation of women leaders of Afghanistan, including their responsibilities, stories, and current women’s achievements and struggles within their country. The event was hosted by the Foreign Policy program at Brookings, in collaboration with the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security and the U.S. and the U.S. Afghan Women’s Council.

During this event, the delegates shared their personal stories of growing up in Afghanistan or as refugees, as well as their work on bringing positive changes in Afghanistan. When asked how hopeful delegates are about their country’s future, most of their responses were above 80 percent. They mentioned that change is slow, but it is happening. They encouraged the audience not to only rely on media and press, but also positive stories of Afghans.  According to Commissioner Ghizaal Haress, “People’s views in Afghanistan towards girls’ education have changed. [Positive thinking] to encouragement of young girls to attend school and pursue an education at the highest levels have increased.” They also noted that the younger generation in Afghanistan cannot be forgotten or ignored since they are committed to advancing social justice, human rights, and resisting terrorism within the country.

When they were asked about what the U.S. did right and wrong in Afghanistan, Deputy Economic Affairs Minister Adela Raz answered that it was wrong for the U.S. to announce withdrawing from Afghanistan, but she supported the U.S. recent decision to stay with Afghanistan to fight terrorism, because according to her it gives a strong message to the Taliban and gives more hope to Afghans to move forward. When asked about effectiveness of Promote for Afghan women, Minister Raz suggested that donors should stop looking for short term results. She advised the audience, “Let’s stop thinking of Afghan women as victims and recipients of help and support that you think they are just survivors, start to think about them as your partners.”

The Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington DC hosted the delegation to meet with US government officials, Members of Congress, and media outlets to further discuss the country’s social, political, and economic reforms. They also went to the US Capitol to talk with members of Congress about security, education, reform, and the way forward in Afghanistan with the U.S. support.

After a jam packed week full of public and private engagements, interviews, and meetings, the team ended their last day of visit in Washington DC at the United States Institute of Peace where they spoke about the government’s reform agenda, regional economic connectivity and more.

Austin Passes Mandatory Paid Sick Leave

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Last week, the Austin City Council voted to become the first city in Texas, and the first in the entire South, to mandate that all employers offer paid sick leave. More than 200 people testified in favor of the measure, which received a final vote of 9-2.

Some 87,000 workers are expected to receive new benefits under the ordinance. Businesses with less than 15 employees will be required to provide 48 hours, or six full eight hour work days, of paid sick leave and all other private employers will be required to provide 64 hours of leave. Employees will earn their sick leave at a rate of one hour earned per 30 hours worked.

The move is expected to spark a power struggle between the progressive city council and the extremely conservative state legislature and governor. Some have already promised to pass legislation that could block the municipality from carrying out the initiative, a task that might prove difficult as the ordinance will go into effect before the legislature reconvenes in January 2019.

The Mayor of Austin is calling on other cities to pass similar measures before the legislature can block it, and a Dallas city councilor has already pledged to move forward with a paid sick leave ordinance.

Austin joins the ranks of dozens of cities that have passed mandatory paid sick leave including Chicago, Seattle, Washington DC, and Philadelphia. A number of states have also passed paid sick leave laws including Connecticut and California.

In a survey of women living in poverty or at the edge of poverty, 90 percent said paid sick leave would be even more beneficial to their lives than an increased minimum wage, largely because it would guarantee they would not be fired for taking time off to care for sick children. The United States is the only developed nation in the world not to guarantee paid sick leave.

Media Resources: The Statesman 2/16/18; The American Prospect 2/21/18

Supreme Court to Hear Major Labor Rights Case

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This coming Monday the Supreme Court will hear one of the most important labor rights cases of the 21st century. The decision in Janus v. AFSCME will determine whether or not public sector unions can require public employees to pay “fair share fees”, even if the employee opts out of being a member of that union.

Union members and labor rights activists across the country are rallying in dozens of cities on Saturday for the Working People’s Day of Action. Organizers argue that strong unions are what provide equitable pay, affordable health care, and quality schools for millions of people in the United States.

Currently 22 states require all public employees to pay union dues, some 5 million people. Labor rights activists argue that these union fees fund collective bargaining, the results of which benefit every public employee covered by a union whether that employee chooses to be a  member of the union or not.

Deciding against the unions would overturn a 40 year precedent set in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education in which the Court ruled that public sector unions can require fees because all people working in that sector benefit from bargaining, contract negotiation, and representation. They made a distinction with regard to supporting political candidates, mandating that public sector unions must make political contribution fees optional. But recently, the Court has indicated flaws in this argument.

A similar case was recently argued before the Supreme Court but ended in a 4-4 tie due to the vacancy left after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. His replacement, Justice Neil Gorsuch, is expected to rule against the unions, as he has typically sided with corporate interests over people.

Only 10.7 percent of American workers belong to a union, down from around 20 percent 35 years ago and over 30 percent 60 years ago. 34.4 percent of government workers belong to a union compared to only 6.5 percent of private sector employees.

Media Resources: New York Times2/22/18; Huffington Post 2/19/18;

Equal Pay Day for Asian American and Pacific Islander Women

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Today is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Equal Pay Day, the day into 2018 that AAPI women would need to work to in order to earn the same amount that white men earned in 2017 alone. There are currently 10 million AAPI women, transgender, and gender non-conforming people living in the United States.

On average AAPI women earn 87 cents for every dollar a white man earns and 77 cents to every dollar an Asian man earns. In addition, there is a massive wage gap within AAPI ethnic groups. For example, while Korean women earn an average of 91 cents to a white man’s dollar, Burmese women earn only 51 cents for every dollar earned by a white man. And while on average Indian, Taiwanese, Sri Lankan, Chinese and Japanese women earn more than a typical white man, they all earn at least 14 percent less than men of the same ethnicity.

While AAPI women are stereotyped as dominating fields in science and technology, one-in-five work in a service industry and nearly a third earn less than $15 an hour. 18 percent of AAPI transgender and gender nonconforming people report a household income of less than $10,000 a year.

This wage gap persists at every education level and is widest among those with the least amount of education. AAPI women without a high school diploma earn 69 percent of what is earned by a white man without a high school diploma. And Asian women must earn a bachelor’s degree or more in order to exceed the wages earned by a white man with only an associate’s degree.

Advocates for women are pushing for the passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that has been introduced in Congress 11 times. The bill aims to strengthen discriminated workers’ position in court, end retaliation against workers who speak out, and improve federal enforcement capabilities concerning anti-discrimination laws.

In April, President Trump revoked an Obama-era executive order that required companies with federal contracts to comply with labor laws and sought to protect women in the workplace by requiring pay transparency and proper adjudication of sexual assault and discrimination claims. The wage transparency clause required companies with federal contracts to declare to their employee’s comparable information related to specific deductions, rate of pay and total hours worked, empowering women to make sure they are paid the same as their male coworkers.

The gender pay gap persists across all racial groups. For every dollar earned by a white man, white non-Hispanic women earn 76 cents, black women earn 62 cents, American Indian women earn 58 cents, and Hispanic/Latina women earn 54 cents.

Media Resources: National Women’s Law Center 2/18; The Hill 6/7/17

Assault Weapons Ban Gets Renewed Attention

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Florida State Representatives rejected a proposal Tuesday to move forward with debate on a bill that would ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. The measure was rejected 36-71 as survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida watched on from the gallery in tears.

Meanwhile a Florida Senate committee endorsed a proposal to put police officers in every school, despite the fact that there was already an armed guard at Douglas High School who failed to stop the gunman. Last week’s shooting was carried out by a 19-year-old man armed with a legally purchased semi-automatic assault rifle. He has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Students flocked the state capital ahead of the vote to urge lawmakers to support the assault weapons ban. They are just some of the thousands of students who have stepped up in the last week to demand politicians address the epidemic of gun violence and to call out those who take money from the National Rifle Association (NRA) in exchange for silence and inaction. Young people are organizing nationwide “March for Our Lives” rallies on March 24 and Women’s March Youth EMPOWER is calling for a National School Walkout on March 14.

67 percent of Americans support banning the sale of assault weapons. Calls to ban assault weapons are stretching from state legislatures to the halls of Congress which is paying renewed attention to Senator Dianne Feinstein’s bill to reauthorize the Assault Weapons Ban.

The 1994 federal Assault Weapons Ban successfully led to a decrease in total gun murders, and use of assault weapons in crimes declined by two-thirds over nine years. Yet since the ban expired in 2004, Congress has refused to reauthorize it, despite mass shooting after mass shooting in which assault weapons were the primary cause of carnage, including the massacre of 20 schoolchildren and 6 teachers in Newtown, Connecticut.

Feinstein has regularly reintroduced reauthorization legislation, most recently in November 2017 with a statement that read, “We’re introducing an updated Assault Weapons Ban for one reason: so that after every mass shooting with a military-style assault weapon, the American people will know that a tool to reduce these massacres is sitting in the Senate, ready for debate and a vote.”

Feinstein is also calling on the Congress to ban bump stocks in the wake of President Trump’s announcement on Tuesday urging the Department of Justice to regulate them, an action the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has already said it does not have the power to do. “If ATF tries to ban these devices after admitting repeatedly that it lacks authority to do so, that process could be tied up in court for years, and that would mean bump stocks would continue to be sold. Legislation is the only answer,” said Feinstein.

Bump stocks turn semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic weapons, allowing for more rounds to be fired more quickly. A bump stock was used by the gunman in Las Vegas who killed 58 people and injured over 500.

Media Resources: Huffington Post 2/20/18; Office of Senator Dianne Feinstein 11/8/17; The Hill 2/20/18

Students Demand Gun Reform, Condemn NRA Influence

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Students across the country are demanding that politicians address the epidemic of gun violence and are calling out those who take money from the National Rifle Association (NRA) in exchange for silence and inaction. These actions come in the wake of last week’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, during which 17 teachers and students were killed by a 19-year old man armed with a semiautomatic assault rifle.

As President Trump was preparing to visit Parkland, students were clear that they were outraged over his refusal to callout easy access to military style weapons as a problem. During his trip, Trump met with first-responders, medical staff, and some hospitalized victims, but did not meet with any of the students, teachers or parents calling for accountability. The NRA, an interest group that is widely considered to be an advocate for the gun manufacturing lobby, was the single largest donor group to President Trump’s campaign and has spent tens of millions of dollars on Congressional campaign contributions and on candidate spending in order to buy political influence.

“This is about us begging for our lives; this isn’t about the GOP, this isn’t about the Democrats, this is about us creating a badge of shame for any politicians accepting money from the NRA and using us as collateral,” said Cameron Kasky, a junior at Douglas High School.

“Any politician who is coming to just talk or just to give their thoughts and prayers, that’s not needed,” said Michael Udine, a county commissioner in Broward County, which includes Parkland. “Thoughts and prayers are not good enough anymore.”

Despite the majority of Americans supporting commonsense gun reform like universal background checks, bans on assault weapons, and barring gun purchases for people on the terrorist watch list, the NRA has succeeded in blocking almost all legislation that would implement stronger gun laws.

Multiple high schools in southern Florida staged walkouts last week to demand commonsense gun reform, and on Monday, students held a protest in front of the White House, laying on the ground in representation of the lives lost in school shootings and chanting slogans like, “Hey, hey, NRA, how many kids have you killed today?”

“We might be 16 now and we might not be able to vote, but we can protest and we can use social media and we will make our voices heard,” said Whitney Bowen, an organizer of Monday’s protest. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t come down to politics. It comes down to kids dying in classrooms.”

Young people are organizing nationwide “March for Our Lives” rallies on March 24 and Women’s March Youth EMPOWER is calling for a National School Walkout on March 14. In July, the Women’s March, the Feminist Majority Foundation and several other organizations participated in a 17-mile, two-day rally in the Washington DC area to protest the NRA’s promotion of violence against progressive activists—especially women and people of color, as well as the lack of action the NRA took in response to the shooting death of Philando Castile.

Today’s teenagers are part of a generation that grew up after Columbine and have been practicing active shooter drills since they were in elementary school. Dozens of schools in states from Michigan to Massachusetts were shut down last week after copycats threatened similar mass shooting attacks. Parkland was the 18th school shooting of 2018, an average of one every sixty hours, more than double the amount in the same time span from the previous three years.

 

Media Resources: Washington Post 2/18/18; Huffington Post 2/19/18; NBC Miami 2/16/18

Trump Administration Collaborated with Hate Group to Target Planned Parenthood Says Whistleblower

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The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) colluded with the national hate group Alliance Defending Freedom to rescind Obama-era Medicaid funding protections for Planned Parenthood and other women’s health centers, according to a letter written by Representative Elijah E. Cummings, the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

In the letter to HHS, Representative Cummings asks that the department provide documents related to the January 19 decision to allow state Medicaid directors to terminate qualified women’s healthcare providers from state Medicaid programs without cause. He is also asking that all communications between the HHS and Alliance Defending Freedom are shared by February 26.

His request came after a whistleblower turned over documents to the Democratic Minority on the committee. While it is common for departments to receive input from outside organizations on proposed rule changes, it is uncommon to meet with designated hate groups. In his letter to the HHS, Cummings stated that the information provided from the unnamed whistleblower reflects an apparent “clandestine effort to tip the scales of justice in favor of states that are targeting Planned Parenthood in violation of federal law.”

In Response to Rep. Cummings letter, six prominent health care providers, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Physicians, and the American Academy of Family Physicians, released a statement calling the allegations shocking and outrageous, saying “If there was ever any doubt, it’s now clear that the Trump-Pence administration’s actions to try to block women from accessing preventive care at Planned Parenthood health centers are not only politically motivated, but being driven by extreme organizations, including designated hate groups.” They then called on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to revoke the Trump administration’s new policy and end “all politically motivated attacks on health care.”

The Alliance Defending Freedom is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center due to their work supporting the criminalization of homosexuality and state-sanctioned sterilization of transgender people. They are active in the movement to outlaw abortion, as well as the movement to bar transgender students from using the bathroom corresponding with their gender identity.

Under federal law, Medicaid patients are supposed to be guaranteed the ability to receive medical services from any qualified person or institution that provides such care. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as well as the courts, have consistently upheld this right and forbidden states from defunding a provider simply because they offer a legal medical service, such as abortion.

Before Tom Price resigned in disgrace from HHS, he released a new strategic plan that makes the claim that life begins at conception and that “A core component of the HHS mission is our dedication to serve all Americans from conception to natural death.” The plan goes on to read that the HHS intends to create partnerships with state and local governments as well as “non-governmental entities, including faith based and other community organizations.”

Trump Again Sabotages Senate Attempts to Pass an Immigration Bill

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On Thursday, after voting on several immigration amendments, including a promising bi-partisan agreement, the Senate failed to pass any bill to protect recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program from deportation.

The most promising bill was a crafted by Senator Rounds (R-SD), Senator King (I-ME) and Senator Collins (R-ME). It would have extended protections for the 1.8 million young people in the U.S. who qualify for DACA and provided $25 billion for increased border security.

But right before the vote, President Trump sabotaged the bi-partisan amendment by threatening to veto it. While it earned 54 votes, the bill was 6 votes short of the 60 needed to pass.

Instead Trump put all of his support behind the most extreme right-wing amendment option that gave relief for Dreamers in exchange for $25 billion to build a border wall, terminating the diversity visa program,and eliminating the process through which U.S. citizens can help their parents, adult children and siblings come to the United States. This bill, which would have implemented the sharpest limitations on immigration since the 1920s, failed sharply with only 39 votes.

If Congress can’t reach a consensus in the next two weeks, the Supreme Court could be forced to rule on whether or not Trump violated the Administrative Procedure Act when he hastily rescinded the DACA program. Two federal judges have already issued an injunction on rescinding DACA, offering Dreamers a potential life-support. Thanks to the injunction, the office of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has continued to accept DACA renewal applications.

Trump’s decisions to sabotage all attempts to resolve the DACA emergency are reportedly being pushed by Stephen Miller, a presidential adviser with a white nationalist base who is known to reinforce many of Trump’s more racist and hard-line instincts.  Miller’s passion is restricting legal immigration, and as an aide to then-Senator Jeff Sessions, he had a heavy hand in undermining the 2013 comprehensive immigration reform bill that was passed overwhelmingly by the Senate but blocked from coming up for a vote in the House. Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly is also considered to be to the extreme far-right on immigration issues.

Media Resources: Vox 2/16/18; NPR 2/16/18; Washington Post 1/21/18

Gunman Kills 17 Students and Teachers at Florida High School

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

On Wednesday, at least 17 teachers and students were killed by a 19-year-old man armed with a semiautomatic assault rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The gunman has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

The FBI had previously been alerted to violent and threatening content on the gunman’s social media and YouTube accounts. For a while he had been receiving mental health treatment at a clinic, but hadn’t been there in more than a year.

Many were aware that the young gunman could be capable of extreme violence. Prior to being expelled from the same high school he later targeted, school administrators had required that the future-gunman carry all of his belongings in plastic bags so that no weapons could be concealed in a backpack.

Despite these concerns, the gunman was able to legally purchase high-capacity magazines and an AR-15, one of the most deadly military-style firearms available on the market. There are an estimated 8 million AR-15 rifles across the country.

The gunman was reportedly a member of a white supremacist militia group who claimed that he had trained with them at least once, training that likely helped him carry out his attack on the school. Members of the white supremacist group and students at the school both confirm that the gunman was stalking a girl who is currently a student at the high school.

The girl he was stalking is believed to be a former ex-girlfriend whom he was abusive towards. More than half of mass shootings have been committed by gunman with a history of violence against women.

In his address to the nation on Thursday, President Trump did not once mention gun reform policy, instead blaming mental disturbances.

But a year ago, the Congress and President Trump quietly rolled back an Obama-era order that made it more difficult for people with mental illnesses to purchase firearms. In doing so, Trump stopped approximately 75,000 people who suffer from mental illness or are not trusted to handle their own finances from being added the national background check database. At the time, the White House tried to cover up the rollback by not publicizing the bill signing and burying the alert about it at the bottom of a press notification.

Despite the majority of Americans supporting commonsense gun reform like universal background checks, bans on assault weapons, and barring gun purchases for people on terrorist watch lists, the National Rifle Association, an interest group widely considered to be an advocate for the gun manufacturing industry,  has succeeded in blocking almost all legislation that would implement stronger gun laws.

The NRA was the single largest donor group to President Trump’s campaign and has spent tens of millions of dollars on Congressional campaign contributions and on candidate spending in order to buy political influence within the Republican Party. In the last year, Democrats have introduced over 30 pieces of legislation aimed at curbing gun violence and only four of those bills have had GOP co-sponsors.

In addition to making it easier for people with mental illnesses to purchase firearms, Trump has taken a number of other measures to put guns into the hands of potentially dangerous people. Last year he purged the background check system of 500,000 people who had been barred from buying guns because they have warrants out for their arrest. The GOP has also been attempting to pass a bill to make it easier to buy gun silencers, though debate on the legislation keeps being delayed due to high profile mass shootings. And Trump’s most recent budget blueprint calls for a 16 percent reduction in funding to the program that gives states resources to improve their national background check databases.

The 1994 federal Assault Weapons Ban successfully led to a decrease in total gun murders, and use of assault weapons in crimes declined by two-thirds over nine years. Yet since the ban expired in 2004, Congress has refused to reauthorize it, despite mass shooting after mass shooting in which assault weapons were the primary cause of carnage, including the Las Vegas mass shooting that killed over 50 concert goers in October.  The NRA has been very active in advocating against the assault weapons ban. And in spite of promises after Las Vegas to ban bump stocks, Congress has yet to pass any legislation on the matter.

Parkland witnessed the 18th school shooting of 2018; that’s an average of one every sixty hours, more than double the amount in the same time span from the previous three years. Three of the ten deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history have occurred in the last five months.

 

Media Resources: Huffington Post 2/14/18, 2/15/18; NBC News 2/28/17; New York Times 10/4/17; Boston Globe 2/15/18; Senate Office of Dianne Feinstein; New York Magazine 2/15/18

Winter Olympics Kick Off with 109 Women Athletes Representing Team USA

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

The Winter Olympics kicked off last week in Pyeongchang, South Korea and women athletes comprise a record 43 percent of the competitors; 45 percent of Team USA’s diverse group of 242 athletes are women.

Team USA ranges in ages from 17 to 39 and includes 10 African Americans, 11 Asian Americans and the first two openly gay American Olympic athletes. There is a major gender gap with regards to parent athletes: there are 20 fathers and only one mother competing—cross country skier Kikkan Randall.

A standout star from the beginning has been 17-year-old Chloe Kim, who on Tuesday won her first Olympic gold medal in the women’s snowboard halfpipe with a final score of 98.25. Even four years ago Kim was considered one of the best snowboarders in the world, but at 13 was too young to compete in the Olympics. She is now the youngest female medalist in Olympic snowboarding history.

“I need to go home and process everything and I’ll probably bawl my eyes out some more,” Kim said, “but this has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl, so just to be here and to be able to do it when it mattered feels amazing.”

When the Winter Games were held 94 years ago women made up only 4 percent of the 258 athletes, and they were only allowed to compete in figure skating. While many winter sports opened up to women in the 1950s and 1960s, it would be decades before most of them offered an equal number of events as the men, and ski jumping and Nordic combined still have yet to reach gender parity in events. The sharpest increase in female participants came in the 1990s as social acceptance rose around women participating in “traditionally male sports” like the biathlon and ice hockey. This year all but two disciplines are open to women.

Since 1988 China has consistently been the only country with a majority-women team at the Winter Olympics. The country began providing women with equal funding, facilities and coaching in the 1950s, two decades before Title IX advocated for equal opportunity in sports for women and girls in the United States.

Title IX mandates that schools ensure an equal number of resources goes to fund sports for both men and women. Although Title IX has prompted many educational equity victories for women and girls over the last 45 years, there is still a long way to go. Advocates have been urging Members of Congress to pass the Patsy T. Mink Gender Equity in Education Act, which would allocate greater federal funding to help schools uphold Title IX.

Two weeks ago, Congress passed the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act, which makes it mandatory for sports organizations to report alleged sexual abuse of athletes to law enforcement or social services within 24 hours. The bill was passed as former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to a combined total of over 200 years in prison for possessing child pornography and sexually abusing over 200 women and girls who sought medical treatment.

Media Resources: The Guardian 2/8/18; National Public Radio 2/9/18; NBC 2/12/18; Feminist Newswire 2/6/18;

Activists Call for Resignation of Scott Lloyd, Office of Refugee Resettlement Director

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

Women’s rights activists are calling for the immediate resignation of Trump-appointed Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) Director Scott Lloyd, who is abusing his power over pregnant teenagers in his custody by pursuing a policy that systematically denies them access to abortion.

ORR is a division of the Department of Health and Human Services that is responsible for caring for undocumented minors who are taken into federal custody after crossing the border without their parents or guardians. At least four pregnant teens in ORR custody have been forced to take the administration to federal court in order to access an abortion, and there are surely more out there that the public does not know about who never got the medical care they asked for.

In 2017, there were 420 pregnant teenagers in ORR custody. Instead of bring them to comprehensive reproductive healthcare providers, ORR has been forcing pregnant teens to go to fake clinics, otherwise known as crisis pregnancy centers.

The director of ORR is required to sign off on every single medical treatment sought by teenagers in custody. Director Scott Lloyd has almost no experience with refugees but an extensive background in anti-abortion and anti-contraception activism. Lloyd has previously advocated for forcing every woman who has health care through a government program to forfeit all right to access an abortion with her own funds.

During his tenure at ORR, Lloyd has personally traveled to at least one minor in his custody to intimidate and coerce her out of having an abortion. Lloyd has even been responsible for personally denying abortions for teenagers who pregnancies are a result of rape, a clear violation of national and international law.

In court, the government has argued that if the teenagers do not want to carry their pregnancies to term, then they can “self-deport” back to their home countries. Abortion is illegal in the majority of Latin American countries.

The public first learned about the government’s unconstitutional policy several months ago, when a 17-year-old-girl–named Jane Doe in court documents–crossed the border without her parents. While being held in a Texas facility funded by ORR, Jane found out she was pregnant and immediately voiced that she needed an abortion.

Jane received financial and legal assistance from a non-profit in Texas that assists pregnant minors. They raised all of the money necessary for the procedure, and a Texas state judge approved Jane for an abortion in compliance with the judicial bypass requirements under Texas law.

But when Jane tried to leave for her first appointment–a state mandated counseling session 24 hours prior to the procedure–federal officials stepped in and instead took her to a fake health clinic, otherwise known as a crisis pregnancy center. Additionally, ORR informed Jane’s parents of her pregnancy without her consent, even though Jane had disclosed the physical abuse suffered by her sister after their parents discovered her pregnancy. Jane had to fight a multi-week court battle before the Supreme Court finally demanded that ORR allow her to have an abortion.

 

Sign this petition calling for Scott Lloyd’s immediate removal and an end to ORR’s unconstitutional policy banning abortions for those in its care.

 

Sources:

The Independent 1/11/18; CNN 12/20/17; Washington Post 12/20/17, 1/11/18; Newsweek 1/11/18; Feminist Newswire 10/23/17

Education Department Will No Longer Protect Trans Student from Bathroom Discrimination

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

The Department of Education told BuzzFeed News on Monday that they will no longer investigate or take action to protect transgender students who are denied access to the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity.  The Department has yet to release an official statement.

An agency spokesperson confirmed that Betsy DeVos and the Trump administration do not believe they have a duty under Title IX to protect transgender students from discrimination with regards to restrooms in publicly funded educational institutions. Title IX mandates that any education institution receiving federal funding not discriminate on the basis of sex, safeguarding equal access to education.

The Education and Justice Departments have not yet announced when they stopped considering complaints from transgender students or how many complaints have been rejected, but Huffington Post reports at least three recently dismissed cases. According to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, approximately 150,000 teenagers 13 to 17 identify as transgender.

A year ago the Department of Justice and the Department of Education issued a joint letter rescinding Obama-era protections that allowed transgender students access to whichever restroom corresponds with their gender identity. The letter claimed that the Obama administration had not sought proper legal analysis or provided appropriate explanation for why these protections were guaranteed under Title IX, adding that states and local school districts should be responsible for crafting education policy. Since the letter was issued, complaints over the treatment of transgender students have dropped over 40 percent, as many students feel that advocating for their civil rights would be pointless under the Trump administration.

But two federal appeals courts have already ruled that transgender students’ access to restrooms is protected under Title IX. In May, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Wisconsin school district violated a transgender student’s civil rights under Title IX when they barred him from using the boys’ bathroom. The judge stated, “A policy that requires an individual to use a bathroom that does not conform with his or her gender identity punishes that individual for his or her gender non-conformance, which in turn violates Title IX.”

The decision not to protect transgender students from discrimination in education comes as Jeff Sessions and the Department of Justice argue that Title VII does not protect LGBT people from employment discrimination. However, a growing number of courts and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have determined that Title VII can protect LGBT individuals from discrimination due to the notion that firing an employee as a result of their nontraditional physical appearance or sexual preference amounts to prejudice.

In January, the Trump administration announced the creation of a new division at the Department of Health and Human Services that seeks to defend healthcare workers who choose to discriminate against LGBT patients on moral or religious grounds. Under these protections, health workers will be able to refuse to provide care for transgender patients, gay or lesbian patients, or women who have had abortions.

Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 2/23/17, 6/7/17, 7/31/17, 1/23/18; BuzzFeed News 2/12/18;  Huffington Post 2/12/18

House Passes Unanimous, Bipartisan Bill to Address Sexual Harassment on Capitol Hill

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

The House of Representatives passed a bipartisan bill last week that reforms the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995, which provides the current guidelines for how sexual harassment, discrimination and other related claims are handled on Capitol Hill. The new reform bill awaits a vote in the Senate.

This bill, produced in light of the Me Too movement, overhauls the current federal law that dictates how sexual harassment complaints are handled in Congressional offices. It streamlines the process of filing a complaint by eliminating the mandatory 30 day counseling and mediation period, provides staffers with an advocate and legal advice, and keeps lawmakers from using public funds to pay settlements, which was previously allowed. According to the House Administration Committee, about $200,000 has been allocated from a special Treasury Department fund to cover sexual harassment related settlements over the last two decades. This bill hopes to make the currently arduous and secretive process simpler for survivors, and it is meant to expose lawmakers who have already paid settlements using public funds.

Government transparency advocates are concerned because the bill bars the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent supervisory entity, from reviewing the workplace complaints filed through the Office of Compliance. However, under this bill, the Office of Compliance would be required to publish reports every six months detailing settlements and the offices involved in the settlements. Critics also worry that the bill could make it harder for the public to learn about cases of misconduct and make it more difficult to sue members of Congress.

The new legislation is the result of an internal review initiated by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan in reaction to the Me Too movement. California Democrat Jackie Speier, one of the lead voices on the bill, referenced Me Too when talking about it: “Thanks to the ‘Me Too’ movement, the American public has made it clear that they have had enough. They expect Congress to lead and for once, we are.”

Said to be in support of victims’ rights, this bill is a bipartisan effort to address the slowly changing tides in U.S. culture in regards to sexual harassment. It came as a direct response to the series of allegations and resignations that recently occurred on Capitol Hill and beyond. It moved quickly through the House after being introduced only three weeks ago.

Last year, both chambers adopted a bipartisan resolution that requires members, their staff and interns to participate in anti-harassment and anti-discrimination training. These actions are not going to solve all sexual harassment problems in Congress, but their development signifies a step in the right direction, especially due to their support on both sides of the aisle. Speier described the House bill and this moment as a “rare and crucial moment of bipartisanship.”

In addition to this bill, the House also changed their rules regarding sexual conduct, which does not require the Senate’s input. The most drastic change is that House members are now banned from having sexual relationships with their employees. They also established a new office of employee advocacy that represents those who file complaints. Previously, only lawmakers had this resource. In addition to this, it requires that Congressional offices certify they haven’t used any public funds to cover the costs of settlements from harassment claims.

 

 

Sources: CNN 2/6/18; The Hill 2/5/18; NBC News 1/18/18, 2/6/18; NPR 2/6/18;

 

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