Migration Category: news-1-5000-national

The July 1999 fatal beating of Pfc. Barry Winchell by a fellow soldier has prompted an investigation of anti-gay harassment at various Army posts by top investigator Lt. Gen. Michael Ackerman. Winchell was beaten to death with a baseball bat at Kentucky’s Fort Campbell. His roommate Justin R. Fisher was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison last Saturday as part of a plea bargain in order to avoid charges of being an accomplice to murder and helping to cover it up.

The case highlights the 1993 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that allows gays and lesbians to serve in the military at the price of denying and hiding their sexual orientation. “Critics say that in practice the policy doesn’t work because suspected gays are threatened and harassed,” says the Associated Press. The wording of the policy was intended to allow gays to serve, and to impose discharge only in cases of proven homosexual conduct; but its language is vague and does not offer protection to servicemembers who are suspected of being gay.

A December 1999 press release from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force announced that 70% of Americans favored gays in the military, and noted that discharges on the basis of sexual orientation have increased 86% from 1993 to 1998.

The 1994 Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was a significant feminist victory, allowing women to sue for monetary damages in federal civil court, including medical expenses and lost wages. VAWA also includes provisions to fund battered-women’s shelters and domestic-abuse hot lines.

Tomorrow, January 11, the Supreme Court will hear Brzonkala v. Morrison, a case involving a Virginia Polytechnic Institute student who was allegedly raped in a dormitory by two football players who were students. This is a major case for women , as the Court will decide whether to uphold VAWA’s civil rights section. Both a District Court Judge and the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the civil rights section of VAWA permitting women to enter the court and sue for damages if she is a victim of gender-based violence represents an abuse of Congress’s power, leaving Brzonkala with no way to remedy her case. NOWLDEF is representing Brzonkala.

While opponents of the bill are focusing on the issue of states’ rights, the crux of the case is the right of women to seek damages in cases of gender-based violence. Advocates of VAWA point to evidence that state and local law enforcement to do adequately respond to domestic violence and rape, and that state laws on violence continue to reflect bias against women.

The National Organization for Women will hold a rally outside the Supreme Court in support of VAWA Tuesday, January 11, 9:30 am at First Street and Maryland Avenue N.E. Feminists are urged to attend.

President Clinton proposed a $35 million increase in family-planning spending in the United States. The funds would be shared among 4,600 clinics nationwide, and would provide for “the full range of reproductive health services.” The proposed increase, according to Administration officials, is intended to prevent unwanted pregnancies among teens, poor women, and women with limited access to health care. These funds can not be used for abortions.

Clinton will also seek $16 million for international family planning and councling services. This would be a 45% increase over FY 2000. The Clinton Administration will also urge Congress to lift the gag rule on abortion counseling in developing nations. As a part of an end of session deal, last year’s Congress released $926 million in UN dues and the administration accepted the abortion gag rule restrictions from international family planning groups. Under the deal the president can issue a waiver to these restrictions but the groups that use the waiver have to accept a 3% or $12.5 million cut in funds. Clinton will seek to remove these restrictions this year.

According to Commander Gwen Elliot, the Pittsburgh Police Force, one of the most diverse law enforcement teams in the United States, is changing as a result of a 1991 decision striking down an affirmative action program that took effect in 1976. Before the program took effect, no women in blue served Pittsburgh, but now one in four officers on the Force is female, compared to about one in ten nationwide. But without the court-ordered program, over 90 % of officers newly hired have been male.

Elliot serves on the advisory board of the National Center for Women & Policing (NCWP), a project of FMF working toward parity in the nation’s law enforcement agencies. Its second annual survey on the status of women in the largest agencies, Equality Denied: The Status of Women in Policing: 1998, reveals that only 13.8% of all sworn officers are female. One factor contributing to this inequality is the fact that many law enforcement offices, including Pittsburgh’s Force, award bonus points on entry tests to candidates with military experience. With women currently representing only 13.7% of active military personnel, and discrimination against women within the military, this means for fewer women veteran candidates.

NCWP’s report does demonstrate areas of progress: affirmative action programs work to integrate law enforcement agencies. Equality Denied shows that eight of the ten municipal agencies with the highest percentage increase in sworn women officers have some court-ordered affirmative action program in place.

The Center for Disease Control’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report today revealed a 3.0% decrease from 1996 in the number of legal induced abortions, the lowest in 20 years. MMWR also shows that 20% of women obtaining abortions in 1997 were under age 19, and 13% were between the ages of 20 and 24. Most were white and unmarried. 88% of legal abortions in 1997 were performed during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Pro-choice and anti-choice leaders have offered varying explanations for the trend. The CDC cited reduced access to abortion services, a reduction in the number of unwanted pregnancies, and an increased willingness to use contraception as factors for the decline, and suggested that a shift in moral attitudes toward abortion might also have contributed. Kathy Spillar, National Coordinator for the Feminist Majority Foundation, discussed the widespread use and increasing availability of contraceptives as a likely factor, as well as a shift in the percentages of women of reproductive age.

Kate Michelman, president of NARAL, attributes the low abortion rate to continued “terrorism and harassment at clinics,” but added that the lower rates are positive if indicative of improved access to contraception, according to the Kaiser Daily Health Report.

A recent study of women and children leaving welfare rolls reveals that obtaining a job can mean losing health insurance. According to the study, about one-third of women formerly on welfare who are now employed have no insurance coverage. The study, to be published Monday in Health Affairs, is sponsored by the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute and the Henry J. Kaiser Family, among others.

A 1999 study by Families USA “estimated that 675,000 people lost Medicaid coverage and had no other health insurance in 1997 due to strict new welfare rules.” Additional research demonstrates that former welfare recipients obtain low-wage jobs that do not offer insurance, or offer insurance, but do not provide sufficient wages for them to afford the premium.

The Health Care Financing Adminstration, which runs Medicaid, has reported alarming abuses in the system in recent years. Auditors claimed that poor families leaving welfare were misinformed about their eligibility, automatically deleted from computerized Medicaid files upon leaving welfare, or even harassed by caseworkers when applying for coverage.

In the wake of much protest, Circuit Court Judge Durke G. Thompson removed himself today from further involvement in a recent sex-offender case. The case involved Vladimir Chacon-Bonilla, who was convicted on Tuesday of molesting an 11-year-old MD girl, who reported to police that she met him in an Internet chat room and had sex with him two times. While Chacon-Bonilla could have been sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, Thompson imposed a lenient sentence of 18 months in prison and three years’ probation, including a ruling not to require the perpetrator to register as a sex offender.

Most troubling in the case was Thompson’s calling it a case of “it takes two to tango,” inciting protests from children’s advocates and lawmakers. Thompson called Chacon-Bonilla’s actions “unacceptable,” but insisted that the 11-year-old held some responsibility, since she invited him into her home.

Also troubling, defense attorney Rebecca A. Nitkin introduced such “evidence” as the girl’s “extremely well developed” body and heavily applied makeup and short “split-skirt” as “proof” of her responsibility in the case.

The overwhelming trend in American public opinion reveals that we have more allies than foes in our struggle for basic equal rights, says Urvashi Vaid, Policy Institute Director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF). NGLTF’s recent report, entitled From Wrongs to Rights 1973-1999: Public Opinion on Gay and Lesbian Americans Moves Toward Equality, shows that, while “moral” opposition to homosexuality remains prevalent, Americans are increasingly supportive of equal rights for GLBT citizens.

Written by Columbia University political scientist Alan Yang, the report is the culmination of 26 years of through tracking of public opinion data, and details change in public opinion on individual issues. Yang writes, “trends in public opinion toward lesbian and gay equality have liberalized on nearly every major issue over time.” For example, support for equal opportunity and treatment in jobs and housing has increased from a plurality in the late 1970s to a strong majority (of 75-85%) in 1999. Yang and NGTLF suggest that the huge increase in the number of respondents who know a gay or lesbian person has undoubtedly contributed to the positive changes in public opinion.

Women are more supportive of GLBT rights than men, and blacks are more supportive than whites. While democrats have become more tolerant and inclusive of gays and lesbians over time, Republican condemnation and homosexuality and gay rights has continued almost unchanged.

Catalyst, which works to advance women in business, recently released its annual Census of Women Board Directors of the Fortune 1000. For the first time, this census covered the entire Fortune 1000, and revealed a significant gap between the two tiers of these powerful companies in the number of women represented on their Boards of Directors. For example, a surprising 84% of Fortune 500 companies have at least one woman director, compared with only 62% of Fortune 501-1000 companies. More women are directors for companies in the Midwest and Northeast, as well as in the publishing and printing industry.

The survey’s results show slow progress for women across the board. The report shows that “the percentage of board seats held by women in the Fortune 500 has gone up by only one-tenth of one percent, from 11.1 percent in 1998 to 11.2 percent in 1999.” Hopeful, however, is Catalyst’s finding that the number of companies with multiple women board members has been consistently on the rise.

After the NAACP threatened to boycott NBC for its lack of representation of black and other minority characters on this season’s line-up, Bob Wright, the network’s president, announced an agreement yesterday that will generate more jobs for minorities both on screen and behind the camera.

The agreement will establish internships and scholarship programs for minority students, and pledges to increase NBC’s purchases from minority-owned businesses over the next 18 months. Perhaps most dramatically, NBC will add a minority writer to the staff of every new show that earns a second year in the line-up.

When asked by a reporter, Wright admitted that his network “had most likely passed up minority talent in the past,” and emphasized NBC’s new intention to integrate diversity both on the air and off.

Two recent studies from the Journal of the American Medical Association suggest that an existing test for human papillomavirus (HPV) could replace the Pap smear as a cancer screen in women over the age of 35.

The authors of a study conducted in South Africa noted that over half of the U.S.’s cervical cancer patients had not been screened within the last 3 years, and indicate that access to Pap smear cancer screening in developing nations is extremely limited. The HPV test is done on self-administered swabs from the cervix, while the Pap smear is conducted on cells scraped from the cervix by a health care provider.

While researchers noted that the HPV test can produce more false positives than the Pap smear, they stressed the ease and wider accessibility of the HPV test. The use of the HPV test as a cancer screen could dramatically lower the death rates from cervical cancer in regions where pelvic examinations along with the Pap smear are unavailable.

With hospital mergers on the rise, women will suffer the loss of services from abortion to tubal ligation to birth control. Today’s Kaiser Daily Health Report discusses the issue in conjunction with the recent purchase of the former South Valley Hospital in Gilroy CA by Catholic Healthcare West, which now operates 46 hospitals in the state. The merger put an end to reproductive services in the facility.

Practitioners at the hospital submitted a letter to the editor of a local newspaper, opposing the limitations on services. The Santa Clara County Medical Association backed their effort, writing to San Jose’s bishop to argue that the move may drive women to “make unhealthy choices.” As another opponent to the move stated, poor women will be disproportionately affected by the limitations and will likely have to travel long distances to obtain reproductive health care.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Capital Gains and Losses: A State By State Review of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and HIV/AIDS Related Legislation in 1999 suggests a positive shift in attitudes in state legislatures toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights. NGLTF Executive Director Kerry Lobel celebrates this change as an indication of future victories for civil rights, but notes that such advances increase the risk of a powerful backlash.

Favorable bills outnumbered unfavorable ones by a margin of almost three-to-one. Additionally, many states passed pro-GBLT legislation, including New Hampshire, which abolished its 11-year ban on gay and lesbian adoptions. California established a ban on discrimination against GBLT students.

The report also highlighted likely targets from the religious right in the new year, including anti-gay-adoption measures, repeal of nondiscrimination ordinances, and so-called religious protection laws that hinder the enforcement of civil rights legislation.

The January 3 murder of Charles County, MD, resident Janice Lancaster leaves questions as to how well the law serves victims of domestic violence. Lancaster’s husband shot her in front of her two children, after months of harassment, beatings, and death threats, despite the fact that a warrant for his arrest had been signed by District Court Judge Gary S. Gasparovic on December 29.

Lancaster sought every route she could to protect herself from her husband; counseling, a court protective order, and a call to the police were among the avenues she took. Officials state that it normally takes only “a day or two” to process a bench warrant similar to the one issued against Steven Lancaster, but that the New Year’s holiday delayed the case.

Advocates for domestic violence victims, including the House of Ruth, a Baltimore advocacy group, are decrying the handling of this case, questioning how much protection our current system can offer women.

Yesterday, several abortion clinics around the US received letters threatening to contain anthrax, a potentially fatal infectious disease that can affect people. One of the targeted clinics was the New Woman All Women Health Care Clinic in Birmingham, AL, the same clinic that was bombed in January, 1998. Suspected bomber Eric Rudolph has been charged with the bombing, but has not yet been captured.

Clinics across the US were notified about the letters and instructed to be on heightened alert by the quick group effort of law enforcement, clinic personnel, Feminist Majority Foundation, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and The National Abortion Federation. As a result, the New Woman All Women Health Care Clinic in Birmingham received the alert before the anthrax threat letter and did not open it.

All of the clinics took the proper precautionary steps and cooperated with local law enforcement to ensure that clinic staff and patients were safe. Federal investigators are currently examining the contents of the envelopes to see if the substance found in the letters is indeed anthrax, but authorities believe at this time there are no traces of the bacteria in any of the letters.

Clinics in Rhode Island, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky and Connecticut also received the threat letters.

The Gun Owners Action League (GOAL) began a campaign of radio ads aimed at women to promote their cause to loosen gun regulations. GOAL is targeting women as well as legislators responsible for the toughest gun control measures in the country.

GOAL executive director Michael Yacino said gun control measures are especially harmful to women, minorities, the handicapped and the elderly.

Massachusetts State Senator Cheryl A. Jacques of Needham, a leader behind the 1998 gun law, said, “I think GOAL is particularly frightened by women. I think this is going to flop.”

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) 1998-1999 survey, over 2.6 million girls participated in high school athletics compared with 3.8 million boys. The NFHS began keeping records in 1971, when fewer than 300,000 girls participated in high school athletics and 3.6 million boys competed.

The NFHS surveys reveal an increase of nearly 2.3 million in girls’ high school sports participation in the last 30 years. This dramatic increase is due largely to Title IX, which was passed in 1972 and prohibits discrimination against girls and women in federally-funded education, including in athletics programs.

John Gillis, NFHS administrator said that girls’ participation ought to continue increasing in the 21st Century because their opportunities will continue to rise.

A federal judge in Texas has blocked the 1999 amendments to the Abortion Facility Reporting and Licensing Act, which required doctors to become licensed by the state as abortion clinics if they performed more than 300 abortions per year in their office.

The law went into effect on September 1, 1999 and would have increased the criminal liability of doctors performing abortions.

The Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) issued a New Year’s message commemorating the sixth anniversary of their armed rebellion against the Mexican government. The battle in 1994 lasted 10 days and nearly 150 people were killed, but Zapatistas gained worldwide attention for their pro-democracy cause.

The Zapatista movement continues to struggle to enhance the representation and rights of indigenous and poor people in Mexico. Women have held leadership positions and played key roles in this movement to eliminate the growing economic and social disparity between the rich and poor.

A study released today in Nature magazine found that women are infected by the HIV virus differently than men. Most women in the study were infected by multiple variants of the HIV virus while every man in the study was infected by just one variant.

Based on the study’s findings, Dr. Julie Overbaugh, who headed the research, said “It may be that a vaccine might work better in men than in women.” Overbaugh added that this study raises questions for women’s health that researchers must now investigate such as whether HIV infects women in a different manner than men, if HIV infects different cells in women than men, and if HIV replicates differently in women.

The study, led by the Fred Hutchsinson Cancer Research Center of Seattle, tracked heterosexual men and women in Kenya for over four years.