Author: Feminist Majority Foundation Blog

Students, parents, and faculty at Sullivan High School in Sullivan, Indiana, are rallying to create a “traditional” prom that would exclude gay students. The group met last Sunday at Sullivan First Christian Church to plan and created a Facebook invite-only group to discuss the event. The group has since been taken down, though screenshots of members’ comments have been circulating on the internet.

Sullivan High School special education teacher, Diana Medley, has been outspoken in support of the separate prom, though the event would have no affiliation with the school itself. When asked if she believed gay students had a purpose in life, Medley told NBC 2, “No I honestly don’t. Sorry, but I don’t. I don’t understand it. A gay person isn’t going to come up and make some change unless it’s to realize that it was a choice and they’re choosing God.”

Students have been speaking out on both sides. “If we can get a good prom then we can convince more people to come and follow what they believe,” one student, Kynon Johnson, told NBC in support of a separate prom. Another student wrote in the deleted Facebook group, “Sullivan High School is ACCEPTING the same-sex couples and the staff at SHS is for the same-sex couples going and so are the majority of student and people in the community.”

As part of Virginia’s 2013 Budget, Governor Bob McDonnell has limited the amount of hours an hourly employee of the state can work in a week in an attempt to avoid paying for healthcare as required by the Affordable Care Act.

The VA budget would limit hourly workers to a maximum of 29 hours per week. Under the Affordable Care Act, an employer (in this case, the state of Virginia) must provide healthcare to anyone working 30 hours or more a week. This limitation appears in both the state House and Senate versions of the budget passed last week. By limiting the number of hours hourly wage workers can work, the state could avoid spending $110 million a year in health benefits.

According to the Virginian Pilot, the sector that could face the hardest challenge under the new limitations is adjunct faculty and community colleges. Adjunct professors are often paid a one-time fee for each course taught, but are still considered hourly wage employees. With the new changes, adjunct faculty could lose a third of their current wages, despite having an almost full course load.

The Department of Defense released a memo today outlining a plan to extend benefits to same-sex partners of military members. Some benefits extended to same-sex partners include child care, youth programs, legal assistance, disability and death compensation, and the right to visit a loved one in the hospital. The announcement fails to extend full health care benefits because federal law still prohibits same-sex couples from receiving them.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called for a change in military procedure “to ensure fairness and equal treatment and to take care of all of our Service members and their families, to the extent allowable under law.”

In an interview with USA Today, Panetta said he does not expect resistance to the benefits extension once troops are fully educated on the issue. “When it comes to benefits, we’ve got to lay some of the same groundwork,” Panetta said in the interview. “You just have got to educate people. People who are serving in the military and putting their lives on the line deserve some of the benefits that go with that. We’ve just got to be able to tie those two together in a way that the military understands and accepts.”

The military now has a 60 day window to determine the extent at which these benefits will be extended. The new benefits are expected to go into full effect no later than August 31^st of this year.

OutServe-SLDN, an association of actively serving LGBT military personnel, has released a guide containing more information about what these changes mean for service members.

The North Dakota state Senate approved an initiative on a 26 to 21 vote Thursday that, if passed by North Dakota Voters in 2014, would amend the state constitution to state that life begins at conception. The initiative, SB 2303, states it “ensures that the protection that our criminal laws afford[ed] to victims of crimes extends to all human beings born and unborn.” If the Personhood Constitutional Amendment initiative also passes in the state House, it will appear on the ballot in the midterm 2014 elections.

The initiative’s sponsor, Margaret Sitte (R-Bismarck), told Reuters, “This amendment is intended to present a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade.” CEO of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota Sarah Stoesz, said in a statement, “Planned Parenthood will continue to fight these legislative attacks on women’s health in partnership with a broad coalition of doctors, patients, teachers, lawyers and other concerned North Dakotans who do not want to see politicians inserting themselves into the private medical decision-making of women and families in our state.”

Yesterday, the state Senate also passed Senate Bill 2305, which would require physicians at Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo, the only clinic in the state that provides abortion services, to also have admitting privileges at a local hospital.

A similar law in Mississippi is threatening to close the state’s only abortion clinic because both primary physicians at the clinic are board certified, but have been denied privileges by every local hospital. So-called “personhood” laws are often thinly veiled attempts to ultimately eliminate abortion rights. “Personhood” laws also could potentially threaten women’s ability to access birth control and emergency contraception, IUDs, in-vitro fertilization and even emergency health care that might put a fertilized egg in danger.

An amendment to the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) proposed by Senator Charles E. Grassley (R-IA) has failed yesterday on a 65 to 34 Senate vote. The proposed amendment would have removed protections for LGBT victims of domestic violence, allow for new restrictions on U visas given to immigrant victims of domestic violence, prevented tribal courts from prosecuting non-Native defendants who are accused of assaulting Native women on tribal lands, and would even eliminate the language “woman” from the largest grant program within VAWA.

“The proposed substitute bill would remove fundamental points of fairness that are at the core of this legislation. We need to cover everyone who experiences domestic and sexual violence in this country,” Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), sponsor of VAWA, said.

In late January, Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) reintroduced a bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The bipartisan-supported Senate VAWA includes expanded protections for Native American women, LGBTQ individuals, students, and immigrant women.

Tennessee state Senator Jim Tracy (R-Shelbyville) introduced a bill earlier this week that would force women to have a mandatory ultrasound no less than 24 hours before having an abortion.

Senate Bill 632 [PDF] would require women seeking an abortion to be shown a transabdominal ultrasound and listen to any detected heartbeat. If a woman refuses to see the ultrasound, an ultrasound technician must describe the image. Women will also be offered a printed copy of the ultrasound. After having the ultrasound, a woman must wait at least 24 hours before proceeding with an abortion.

Tennessee House Democrats issued a statement condemning Senator Tracy’s bill. Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) said “If Sen. Tracy is truly interested in preventing abortions, he should take the money that we will have to pay to defend this potentially unconstitutional law and put it toward preventative contraception, prenatal health care, and pre-K education… As a woman and a teacher, I wish my fellow legislators would focus less time on trying to play doctor, and more time on helping women gain access to quality health care, a good education, and higher-paying jobs.” Rep. Sherry Jones (D-Nashville) said, “Tennessee’s women should not have to suffer more intrusive laws that violate their right to privacy just so Sen. Tracy can polish his conservative credentials in his race against Congressman Scott DesJarlais [for U.S. Representative]… Republicans have spent the past three years complaining about how the government shouldn’t stand between a patient and their doctor, but with this legislation that is exactly what they are trying to do.”

Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee CEO Jeff Teague spoke with local news outlet WKRN about the proposed bill: “These are decisions, private medical decisions that women should be able to make without any interference or intrusion from the government… telling women information in cases when they don’t want to hear it, forcing women against their will to have the information is designed to shame them, to coerce them and with the intent for them to change their minds about decisions they’ve already made, is never a good idea.”

According to the Tennessean, mandatory waiting periods have been struck down in Tennessee before as a result of a privacy clause in the state’s Constitution. If Senate Bill 632 were to pass, the measure would likely see legal challenges.

Yesterday, President Obama announced his nomination of Sally Jewell as the Secretary of the Interior. Jewell is the first woman nominated for an open position on the Cabinet in President Obama’s second term.

Jewell is currently the chief executive officer for Recreational Equipment, Inc (REI) which is devoted to outdoor equipment and apparel. She worked with the Administration on the “America’s Great Outdoors Initiative” and assisted the National Park Service as a commissioner on the “National Parks Second Century Commission.” In 2009, she was the recipient of the Rachel Carson Award for Environment Conservation presented by the Audubon Society. Environmental rights organizations such as the Nature Conservancy and the Sierra Club have endorsed her nomination. Prior to her position at REI, Jewell was a banking executive and spent three years with Mobil Oil immediately after college.

If confirmed, Jewell would be the second woman to hold the position of Secretary of the Interior in the history of the United States. The Department of Interior is charged with protecting the nation’s public lands and managing natural resources on federal lands.

On Tuesday, a Mississippi state Senate committee approved a bill that could threaten the use of medical abortion in the state. It now goes before the full state Senate for debate and a possible vote.

Senate Bill 2795, also known as the “Women’s Health Defense Act,” [PDF] seeks to force abortion providers to follow outdated FDA guidelines for the prescription of mifepristone and misoprostol, abortion-inducing medications, and requires a physician to administer all doses. This would require women to go to four doctor appointments to complete a medical abortion, which would only be available within the first seven weeks after a woman’s last normal menstrual period. The Senate bill also requires that doctors report every prescription of mifepristone to the Mississippi Department of Health.

This bill is the just the latest attempt to eliminate abortion in the state of Mississippi. Though a “Personhood” Amendment was overwhelmingly defeated in 2011, in April 2012 Mississippi’s governor, Phil Bryant, signed House Bill 1390 into law. Under House Bill 1390, doctors who perform abortions must have admitting privileges at a local hospital and they must be board certified OB-GYNs. Currently both primary physicians at the state’s only abortion clinic are board certified, but have been denied privileges by every local hospital. As a result, the clinic is currently facing the threat of closure.

On Tuesday, the United Kingdom House of Commons approved a bill which grants same-sex couples the right to marry on a 400 to 175 vote. Since 2004, citizens of England and Wales have only been granted civil partnerships. If the “Marriage Bill” passes in the House of Lords and becomes law, LGBTQ unions will be recognized as marriages nationwide in civil and religious ceremonies. Existing civil partnerships will be able to be converted into a recognized marriage. The bill will also allow transgender individuals to be legally recognized as their preferred gender without jeopardizing their unions.

MPs who oppose the bill take issue with the concept of a gay partnership being blessed. Sir Roger Gale suggested giving civil unions more power instead of granting gay men and women the right to marry. He believes the priority must be to “strengthen the concept that marriage is a union between one man and one woman.” However, the bill allows individual religious institutions to decide whether or not they will perform same-sex marriage ceremonies.

Others view the bill’s passage as a sign of great nation human rights progress. “This is a proud day and an important step forward in the fight for equality in Britain,” said UK Labour leader Ed Miliband. The British Prime Minister David Cameron said of the passage “Last night’s vote will be seen not just as making sure there is a proper element of equality, but also helping us to build a stronger and fairer society.”

A proposed bill that would have made it illegal to receive or perform an abortion in the state of Colorado has died in a state House committee.

House Bill 13-1033 would have completely outlawed elective abortions in the state and would have made it a class 3 felony for doctors to perform them. The motion to postpone the bill indefinitely passed on a 6 to 5 vote. The bill would have granted exemptions to cases where the mother’s life was at risk and when an unborn child unexpectedly died in the womb. No exemptions were outlined in terms of rape or incest.

This bill is one of many anti-abortion bills expected to be introduced in the Colorado state House this session. RH Reality Check reports that other bills include a ban on “sex-selective” abortions and a ban on taxpayer funding for abortions.

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which grants job-protected sick leave to those who are recovering or taking care of someone recovering from an illness or those who have had a new child.

The FMLA was signed into law on February 5, 1993 by President Bill Clinton and is still the only piece of legislation designed to help workers manage the balance between work and family life. Under the FMLA, workers can receive up to 12 weeks of unpaid sick leave in order to raise a new child within one year of birth or adoption; care for a spouse, child or family member with serious injury or illness; recover from a serious injury or illness; or receive up to twenty-six work weeks within a year when caring for a family member with a serious illness in the military (“military caregiver leave”). In 2010, the FMLA was expanded to include LGBTQ parents as well as relatives who act as primary caregivers. And in 2012, the Department of Labor changed the FMLA to include up to 12 weeks of exigency leave to assist a relative in the armed forces who is deployed on short notice in order to handle financial, legal, or childcare resulting from the deployment.

Despite the multiple gains of the FMLA, nearly half of all families who qualify for medical leave do not take it because they cannot afford [PDF] to take unpaid leave. In fact, according to Bureau of Labor statistics for 2011, 36% of all Americans age 25 -34 and 71% of Americans 15 – 24 did not have any paid sick leave.

On Monday, the Virginia state Senate rejected a bill that would have required screening and possible testing for illicit drug use in order to qualify for state assistance.

In a party line vote of 20-19, the state Senate rejected the bill proposed by Senator Bill Carrico (R-Grayson) that would require those applying for public assistance to undergo a preliminary screening for drug use. Recipients suspected of drug use would then be required to take a drug test. If an individual tested positive, they would lose state benefits for a year unless they attended a rehabilitation program. Senator Larry Blevins (R) did not vote.

While supporters of the bill argued that the intent was to prevent taxpayer money from being used to sustain drug habits, opponents argued that it was an attack on low-income families based on stereotypes. Senator Mamie Locke (D-Hampton) said “Drug tests for welfare recipients are demeaning…Why are poor people singled out for testing? Why not legislators?…Why is it assumed the poor and only the poor are using drugs?” In a press release, Senator Barbara Favola (D-Arlington) said “These are unfair and punitive measures that single out struggling Virginians simply because they are poor. In fact, studies show that welfare recipients have a lower percentage of illegal drug use than the general population. As a taxpayer, I believe money should not be spent on a problem that does not exist.”

Yesterday, the Arkansas state House approved a bill that would outlaw abortions after twenty weeks of pregnancy without any exception for rape or incest on a vote of 75 to 20. The bill will now move to the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee for a final decision. The state House also approved a measure prohibiting insurers in the state exchange program created by the Affordable Care Act from providing abortion coverage exception in case of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.

The sponsor of the 20 week ban, state Rep. Andy Mayberry (R-Hensley), told the Associated Press that a commitment to the preservation of potential new life is essential in a lawmaker: “If our constituents cannot trust us, their elected representatives, to defend the most basic and essential of human rights, that of life, how can they possibly trust us to have the wisdom and discernment to make appropriate decisions regarding all of the other daily issues that face us?”

A Democratic representative of the House, state Rep. Greg Leding (D-Fayetteville), argues that the bill’s failure to address victims of rape and incest is a serious oversight: “What if [a] woman is a 12-year-old girl and she’s raped by a family member or friend and she’s too afraid to speak or at that young age is simply unaware that she’s pregnant?” Rep. Leding opines that the twenty-week deadline is not reasonable in more disturbing cases of accidental pregnancies and that the bill has little concern for the health and safety of women.

According to Reuters, seven states have outlawed abortion after the twenty-week mark. The law is being challenged in Arizona and Georgia on the grounds that it is unconstitutional.

The second measure restricting insurance coverage for abortion under a state exchange program could limit abortion access for many women, especially women of lower-income, who would be forced to pay for the procedure out of pocket. The author of the bill, state Rep. Butch Wilkins (D-Bono), says the bill would prevent taxpayers who are morally opposed to abortion from supporting the procedure financially. Opponents say that the Hyde amendment already prevents taxpayer money from funding abortion care, thus making the bill redundant.

The decision to pass the two bills happens against the backdrop of other anti-choice legislation in Arkansas. Earlier in the month, the Arkansas state Senate passed the Human Heartbeat Protection Act in a 28 to 6 decision. This act would require women who are seeking to terminate their pregnancies to undergo a vaginal ultrasound. If the probe is able to detect a fetal heartbeat, the woman would not be allowed to undergo an abortion on the grounds that a fetus with a heartbeat is a human being.

Female Students of Queen of Peace High School in North Arlington, New Jersey took a pledge last week not to swear for the month of February. In addition to the pledge, female students of the Catholic high school were given pins that pictured lips with a slash through the image to wear. The male students were not asked to participate in the pledge.

“I do solemnly promise not to use profanities of any kind within the walls and properties of Queen of Peace High School,” begins the pledge. “In other words, I swear not to swear. So help me God.”

The teacher who launched the civility campaign, Lori Flynn, told the Record that the motivation for the no cursing pledge was simple: “We want ladies to act like ladies.” While the boys of Queen of Peace were not asked to participate in the month-long pledge, they were asked not to swear when in front of their female peers.