Author: Feminist Majority Foundation Blog

The Military Leadership Diversity Commission released a report that recommended that the Pentagon change its policies to allow women in combat. The Commission reported that despite official military policy, women’s participation in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has increasingly included direct combat. The military’s failure to allow women to serve in these positions therefore limits women’s chance of promotion and would ultimately enable the military to increase the number of women in its ranks.

Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, stated, “The artificial, so-called exclusion of women from military combat has resulted in the military accepting less-qualified men in its ranks. This has not only limited opportunities for women but has injured the capabilities of the military.”

The report stated that “DoD and the Service must remove institutional barriers in order to open traditionally closed doors, especially those relating to assignments – both the initial career field assignment and subsequent assignments to key positions. An important step in this direction is that DoD and the Service eliminate combat exclusion policies, especially for women, including removing barriers and inconsistencies, to create a level playing field for all servicemembers who meet the qualifications.”

The Commission, established by Congress in 2009, is comprised of senior retired and active military officers. The United States currently restricts women from direct combat roles in infantry positions or in the Special Forces. A 1994 Department of Defense directive banned women from units that primarily engage in direct combat.

Cardinal Justin Rigali, the archbishop of Philadelphia, announced yesterday that he will suspend 21 priests accused of sexually abusing minors. The suspension follows the release of a grand jury report last month that alleged that the archdiocese was involved in an extensive cover-up of the sexual misconduct of as many as 37 priests. According to Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, “The mass suspension was the single-most sweeping in the history of the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States.”

Barbara Dorris, outreach director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, stated, “if some credibly accused predator priests are suspended, it will be a small step forward made terribly late and only due to massive pressure. It’s a very belated and begrudging beginning – nothing more. And we do an enormous disservice to many innocent kids and still-suffering adults if we even begin to feel complacent because of this one small step.”

The grand jury report also accused Monsignor William Lynn, former secretary to the clergy under Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, of two counts “endangering the welfare of a child.” This is the first time a high-ranking official in the Roman Catholic Church is facing sexual abuse charges in the US for the failure to protect children. Charges were also filed against three priests and a parochial schoolteacher for raping boys as young as ten-years-old over the course of several years.

In 2005, a grand jury report was filed against the Philadelphia Archdiocese and Monsignor Lynn, accusing Lynn of concealing the sexual crimes of the priests within his laity. However, the charges were dropped due to Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations since the incidents had occurred 11 years prior.

After postponing the vote from today, the Maryland House is expected to vote tomorrow on the Civil Marriage Protection Act, which would grant marriage rights to same-sex couples in Maryland. Seventy-one votes are needed for the bill to pass into law The Maryland House of Delegates Judiciary Committee passed the bill, by a vote of 12-10 late last week. House Majority Leader Kumar Barve (D-17) explained, “To me, this legislation is all about family, liberty and respect. I respect the civil liberties of same-sex couples who wish to solemnize their relations and families in the eyes of the law.”

Joe Solomonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, stated, “We applaud the Maryland House of Delegates Judiciary Committee for ending attempts to hold our families hostage to political maneuvering. Maryland is at the forefront in the fight for equality and will go down on the right side of history.”

The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act (SB 116) passed the state Senate on February 24 by a vote of 25 to 21. The bill awaits a vote in the Maryland House of Delegates. If the bill is passed by the state legislature, Governor Martin O’Malley (D-MD) has publicly declared that he would sign the bill into law.

Currently, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Washington DC allow marriage of same-sex couples. Six states, California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii allow same-sex couples to form civil unions or domestic partnerships, which carry some of the benefits of marriage.

The Supreme Court Justices ruled 8-1 this week that under the First Amendment, the Westboro Baptist Church does not have to pay damages to the father of a Marine for protesting his son’s funeral. While protesting, the group also carried signs stating, “God Hates Fags” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.” The Supreme Court’s ruling overturned an earlier ruling, which awarded money to Albert Synder, who sued the Westboro Baptist Church, for “the intentional infliction of emotional distress,” according to the New York Times.

Justice John Roberts clarified, “Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and – as it did here – inflict great pain…we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker.” Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. was the sole dissenting vote in the case, writing “Our profound national commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case.”

The Westboro Baptist Church, founded by Reverend Fred Phelps in Kansas, is known for its fierce anti-gay rhetoric, hate speech, and protests at the anti-gay protests at military funerals.

On Wednesday, approximately 1,500 demonstrators gathered at City Hall in Providence, RI to protest the dismissal of Providence’s entire teaching force. Due to a Rhode Island law, which requires that teachers receive notification about potential layoffs or terminations by March 1, the school board sent termination notices to all of Providence’s 1,926, though many will be rehired. Mayor Angel Taveras (D) told the New York Times, “Given that we don’t know the schools yet that we’re going to target,” he said in an interview, the most appropriate thing is to require notices to all the teachers.”

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teacher stated, “I thought the only insanity was in Wisconsin, not in Rhode Island…Why destroy a school system and undo years of reform and dehumanize every teacher in the school system?”

The teachers union filed a complaint with the state labor relations board for “unfair labor practices.” The Providence school district is the largest in Rhode Island and serves over 23,000 students, approximately 80 percent of whom are Hispanic and black.

Yesterday the New York City Council voted 39 to 9, with one abstention, to pass a bill that would require crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) to disclose whether they provide emergency contraception and abortion services and whether they have a licensed medical practitioner on site. Evelyn Erskine, a spokeswoman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg (D) stated that she expected the major to sign the bill in the next few weeks. The new law will impact approximately 12 CPCs in New York.

Sabrina Shulman, political director of NARAL Pro-Choice New York, asserted, “It has been neither coincidence nor by accident that CPCs have been deceiving women about their true nature. Until now, deception has been their business model. This needs to stop. Today it will.”

Currently, there are an estimated 3,500 CPCs nationwide, most of which are affiliated with one or more national umbrella organizations. CPCs often pose as comprehensive health centers and offer “free” pregnancy tests. Some CPCs coerce and intimidate women out of considering abortion as an option, and prevent women from receiving neutral and comprehensive medical advice. These clinics are typically run by anti-abortion zealots who are not licensed medical professionals.

According to a White House report, women surpass men in college enrollment but make less money on average and are more likely to live in poverty. Valeria Jarrett, a senior advisor to President Obama, and Tina Tchen, chief of staff to Michelle Obama, clarified “Women have not only caught up with men in college attendance but younger women are now more likely than younger men to have a college or a master’s degree. Yet, these gains in education and labor force involvement have not yet translated to wage and income equity.”

Although the report found that men had a greater unemployment rate than women, it attributes women’s greater incidence of poverty in part to the fact that single-mother households are more common than those with single fathers. The report is based on data from a half-dozen US government agencies and is described by White House officials as the most comprehensive report on the status of women to be compiled in 50 years.

Congresswoman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) stated, “This report shows what we already know – women are largely outpacing men in education, yet still make just 77 cents to the dollar men make. Women make this country run. We deserve equal pay for equal work.” Women leaders and women’s rights groups have been working on the passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which strengthens the Equal Pay Act and will help women fight wage discrimination, for over a dozen years.

Yesterday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), as well as 32 other organizations including the Feminist Majority Foundation, filed an amicus brief in the US Supreme Court in support of a class action suit against Wal-Mart for discriminating against its women employees in stores nationwide. Ten years ago, the women filed an initial suit against Wal-Mart for allegedly paying the women lower wages and giving them fewer promotions than less senior male employees.

Lenora Lapidus, Director of the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, stated, “Denying women equal pay and equal opportunities at work violates our fundamental values of fairness and equality. All employees should have the right to challenge unequal treatment in the workplace. A class action lawsuit is the best mechanism to allow the employees of Wal-Mart, one of the largest employers in the country, to address their claims of discrimination.”

The brief states that the class action lawsuit is necessary since many of the women in the class lack the resources to file the lawsuit individually. The Supreme Court is currently determining whether the class action suit can proceed.

For the fourteenth day in a row, demonstrators in Madison, Wisconsin have been protesting Republican Governor Scott Walker’s extreme anti-union bill that proposes to reduce state workers’ salaries and take away the right of unions to collectively bargain for salary benefits, hours, and working conditions.

Yesterday the Republican-controlled House voted 335 to 91 to approve a two-week budget to avoid a government shutdown. The budget measure cuts $4 billion in federal spending. The vote was along party lines, with 229 Republicans and 104 Democrats voting in favor of the budget measure and 6 Republicans and 85 Democrats voting against it.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) stated, “So what is before us today is a short term, let’s just keep the government open two weeks, so we use that time to do the right thing. Use that time to have a reality check. A reality check on how we got these deficits in the first place and how tax cuts at the highest end, they do not create jobs but increase the deficit and are not the appropriate path to deficit reduction.”

According to the Washington Post, the budget proposal eliminates dozens of earmarks and a handful of programs. The proposal, which will expire March 18, will allow Congress to continue negotiations for the government budget. The Senate is scheduled to vote this morning.

An NBC/CBS survey revealed that the majority of Americans are against the weakening of public workers’ collective bargaining rights and the reduction of their pay or benefits. The survey showed that 60 percent of Americans opposed the weakening of bargaining rights, and 56 percent were against cutting public employees pay or benefits. The majority of Americans polled also indicated that they thought that the salaries and benefits of public workers were either “about right” or “too low,” contrary to many Republican governors’ assertions that these workers were over paid with overly generous benefits.

The results of the survey were divided along partisan lines, with a slight majority of Republicans in favor of getting rid of at least some collective bargaining rights and a large majority of Democrats and Independents in support of preserving those rights. The nation wide survey was conducted between February 24 and 27 over the telephone and included 984 adults.

For almost two weeks, demonstrators in Madison, Wisconsin have been protesting Republican Governor Scott Walker’s extreme anti-union bill that proposes to reduce state workers’ salaries and take away the right of unions to collectively bargain for salary benefits, hours, and working conditions.

In a settlement with the US Labor Department, Intercall, a federal contractor, has agreed to pay $700,000 in back wages, interest, and benefits to the 151 minority job applicants who faced discrimination by the company. Following its investigation, the US Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) determined that 103 black, 28 Asian, and 20 Hispanic applicants were systematically rejected for jobs for which they had applied in the company’s Chicago offices in 2006 and 2007.

Sandra Zeigler, Midwest Regional Director of OFCCP, stated, “Companies that do business with our government have a responsibility to ensure that their workplaces are safe, fair, and diverse. Going forward, we expect that to be true at InterCall.”

OFCCP found that InterCall’s hiring practices violated Executive Order 11246, which “prohibits federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of race and national origin” in their hiring practices.

On Saturday, thousands of women’s rights supporters, including activists from the Feminist Majority Foundation, the National Organization for Women (NOW), and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) gathered in Foley Square in Lower Manhattan to protest the defunding of PPFA and the elimination of Title X funding.

Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, stated, “There’s no question the new Republican leadership has just shown they have no concern for women’s health care and are willing to score political points with their base at the expense of women by passing the Pence amendment to de-fund Planned Parenthood.”

Meghan Shalvoy, a National Campus Organizer at the Feminist Majority Foundation who attended the event, stated, “The gathering of activists this weekend in New York City and all across the country demanding access to comprehensive, affordable reproductive health care demonstrated a strong commitment to women’s health.”

Late last week, House Republicans, led by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), voted to prohibit any federal funds from going to Planned Parenthood, even in reimbursement for services rendered. In spite of statements that the Pence amendment would prohibit taxpayer funding of abortions, such spending is already prohibited. Even payments that are akin to insurance reimbursements will be prohibited, including reimbursement to Planned Parenthood for services provided through Medicaid for low-income women’s health care, gynecological exams, HIV testing, contraceptives, and other critical services. Planned Parenthood health centers across the country conduct over one million cervical cancer screenings and 830,000 breast exams yearly. Its clinics also provide contraception to approximately 2.5 million women per year.

The Continuing Resolution would also eliminate all of Title X funding, the only federal family planning program dedicated solely to reproductive health. Title X has provided reproductive health services to millions of women yearly.

Police officers announced Sunday that they would not arrest or forcibly remove protestors who have been camped inside the Madison, Wisconsin Statehouse. The demonstrators have been protesting Republican Governor Scott Walker’s extreme anti-union bill that proposes to reduce state workers’ salaries and take away the right of unions to collectively bargain for salary benefits, hours, and working conditions for almost two weeks. The bill would cut public workers’ wages between six and eight percent.

A day prior, the state agency in charge of the Capitol police had announced that the overnight protestors would be removed. Although police are now encouraging the protestors to leave so that the Capitol could be cleaned, they stated that no one would be detained or forcibly removed from the premises.

The number of protestors reached 70,000 on Sunday. Governor Walker is encouraging the fourteen Democratic Wisconsin Senators, who secretly fled from the state and blocked the vote on the bill in a strategy to make the Governor negotiate with them.

The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act (SB 116), which would grant marriage rights to same-sex couples in Maryland, passed the state Senate yesterday by a vote of 25 to 21. The bill awaits a vote in the Maryland House of Delegates. If the bill is passed by the state legislature, Governor Martin O’Malley (D-MD) has publicly declared that he would sign the bill into law.

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign stated, “Today the state Senate recognized the simple truth that recognizing the love and commitment of same-sex couples under state law will strengthen families and communities. This is a matter of fairness and equality and will put Maryland on the leading edge of giving loving same-sex couples the rights, responsibilities, benefits, and dignity that marriage entails.”

Currently, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Washington DC allow marriage of same-sex couples. Six states, California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii allow same-sex couples to form civil unions or domestic partnerships, which carry many of the benefits of marriage. Yesterday Governor Neil Abercrombie signed the Hawaii civil union legislation into law.

The Virginia Senate voted yesterday to pass a bill (SB 924) requiring that clinics that perform first trimester abortions meet the Board of Health regulations on hospitals, which are far more stringent than the regulations on physician’s offices. The 20-20 tie was broken in the Democratic state Senate by an unusual vote from Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling (R). The House voted in favor of the bill on Monday. Republican Governor Bob McDonnell announced that he will sign the bill.

These regulations will significantly and unnecessarily increase the cost of early abortions and will make it difficult to get an abortion in Virginia. The costs of implementing the required changes could cause as many as 17 of the state’s 21 abortion clinics to shut down.

Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, stated,”[The bill] represents a shameful level of political interference in the doctor-patient relationship. The politicians behind this plan falsely claim they are protecting women’s health, yet their ultimate goal is to make it even more difficult for women to access abortion care in Virginia.”

Reproductive rights groups, including the Feminist Majority, the National Organization for Women, and the American Civil Liberties Union oppose the bill, which would impose unnecessary and onerous regulations on abortion providers and restrict women’s access to reproductive health services.

Wisconsin: After three days of debate, Republicans in the Wisconsin General Assembly passed an anti-union bill that proposes to reduce state workers’ wages between six and eight percent and take away the right of unions to collectively bargain for benefits, hours, and working conditions. The vote occurred at 1:00 am this morning and was closed within seconds, before 25 of the 38 Democrats could vote. The fourteen Democratic Wisconsin Senators who secretly fled the state last week, have vowed to remain outside the state until Republican Governor Scott Walker agrees to negotiate with them.Union supporters continue to camp out in the Capitol rotunda and tens of thousand are gathering daily.

Ohio: Republican lawmakers have agreed to modify the bill prohibiting collective bargaining to allow public workers to negotiate on their wages.

Michigan: Republican Governor Rick Snyder has agreed to negotiate with state employees regarding their collective bargaining rights.

Indiana: Republican Governor Mitch Daniels and Indiana Republicans have agreed to abandon the “right to work” bill, which would have made it against the law for employers to require their employees to join or remain a member of a union.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced yesterday the Obama administration will no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court on the grounds that it considers the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. Attorney General Holder stated in a letter to Congress, “the President and I have concluded that classifications based on sexual orientation warrant heightened scrutiny and that, as applied to same-sex couples legally married under state law, Section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional.” DOMA defines marriage as between one man and one woman and denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages, as well as the legal benefits attached to marriage, including Social Security survivors’ benefits, family and medical leave, and immigration rights.

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, stated, “This is a monumental decision for the thousands of same-sex couples and their families who want nothing more than the same rights and dignity afforded to other married couples. As the President has stated previously, DOMA unfairly discriminates against Americans and we applaud him for fulfilling his oath to defend critical constitutional principles.”

The federal law banning same-sex marriage nevertheless remains in place, Currently, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Washington DC allow marriage of same-sex couples. Six states, California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii allow same-sex couples to form civil unions or domestic partnerships, which carry many of the benefits of marriage. Governor Neil Abercrombie just signed the Hawaii civil union legislation into law.

DOMA was passed in 1996. In July 2009, Massachusetts became the first state to challenge the constitutionality of DOMA in a lawsuit filed by state Attorney General Martha Coakley. A second suit, Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, was filed in July 2009 on behalf of seven gay and lesbian married couples and three widowers by the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders. In that case, Federal Judge Joseph Tauro agreed that DOMA violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.