Author: Feminist Newswire

The Feminist Newswire has provided a daily feminist perspective on national, global, and campus news stories since 1995. You can receive a weekly feminist news digest when you subscribe here.

U.S. Pledges to Include Afghan Women in Peace Talks

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After a week of marathon talks in Doha among Afghans, the U.S. Special Envoy for Reconciliation to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, reassured that the U.S. is not “running and cutting” from Afghanistan. Mr. Khalilzad was speaking to an audience at Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security at Georgetown University, via a video link from Qatar. Mr. Khalilzad mentioned that the U.S. wants to leave a “very positive legacy” in Afghanistan. He also assured the audience that “women will be at the table. They were present for the conference and we will make sure they have a seat or several seats at the negotiating table.” He emphasized that “any successful society needs to empower its women. There has to be equality before the law for all citizens. My commitment to them remains that they will have a place at the negotiating table.”

Mr. Khalilzad also stated that, “we (U.S.) look forward to a long term relationship of friendship and partnership with Afghanistan. We would like to leave a very positive legacy here. We are not cutting and running. We are not looking for a withdrawal agreement. We are looking for a peace agreement. And we are looking for a long term relationship of partnership with Afghanistan.”

Mr. Khalilzad has held eight rounds of peace talks with the Taliban as well as meetings with many of the regional players and NATO allies. The latest round of these talks, which were held July 7-9, was considered to be the “most productive.” In his video speech, he reiterated that in their talks with the Taliban, they have made “substantial progress” on four elements, including, “that Afghanistan will not be a threat to the international community, particularly to the United States and allies, but also to other countries. Second, is that the Taliban are interested in our military posture in Afghanistan. Third, is the need for Afghans to dialogue with each other and to negotiate a road map for their own future, and the fourth element is a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire to end the fighting.”

Earlier in the week, negotiations to end the Afghanistan war took a step forward as well. Around 60 Afghan delegates, 10 of them women, and 17 members of the Taliban participated in the first intra-Afghan peace talks in Doha. The 60 members were government officials, civil society representatives, human and women’s rights activists and former politicians, all participating in their personal capacity.

The Taliban continue to refuse to meet with the Afghan government officials in their official capacity. Although informal, this was the first major meeting of the Taliban members with Afghans from different backgrounds and generations, including those who staunchly defend the progress achieved in Afghanistan.

 

Media Resources: Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security 7/11/19

Acosta Resigns as Labor Secretary After Criticism Over Lenient Epstein Plea Deal

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Today, Alex Acosta formally resigned as labor secretary amid controversy stemming from a lenient plea deal he offered as US Attorney to billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who was indicted last week on charges of sex trafficking and abuse. During Acosta’s announcement, Trump emphasized to reporters that the resignation was solely Acosta’s decision.

Yesterday, House Democrats called for a briefing from the Justice Department on Acosta’s role in a 2008 case involving sex trafficking charges against Epstein. Democratic members of Congress and presidential candidates also called on Acosta to resign. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took to Twitter, writing that “@SecretaryAcosta must step down. As US Attorney, he engaged in an unconscionable agreement w/ Jeffrey Epstein kept secret from courageous, young victims preventing them from seeking justice.”

Epstein was arrested July 6 on a charge of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors and on one count of sex trafficking of minors. When federal agents searched Manhattan home, they discovered numerous lewd photographs of young women. Prosecutors noted that “thousands of sexually suggestive pictures of young women and girls seized in his Manhattan home demonstrate the predatory attitude that Mr. Epstein continues to have towards young women.”

Epstein’s July arrest has drawn attention to his past criminal history. In 2008, he was accused of sex trafficking young women in his Palm Beach home as well as in Manhattan and the Caribbean. Despite these horrendous accusations, Epstein plead guilty to two charges of soliciting prostitutes, for which he served 13 months in county jail and registered as a sex offender. His sex trafficking charges, which Epstein would have had to serve life imprisonment for, were dropped by Acosta, who at the time was the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. The plea deal that Acosta offered Epstein was incredibly lenient: the FBI investigation into the sex trafficking charges was called to an end and Epstein’s accomplices in the crimes were granted immunity. To ensure that the victims of Epstein’s crimes would not attempt to challenge the non-prosecution agreement, Acosta also helped conceal the deal from victims.

 

Media Resources: Twitter 7/8/19, Feminist Newswire 7/10/19, New York Times 7/11/19, BuzzFeed News 7/12/19, New York Times 7/12/19

ICE Raids Plan to Arrest and Deport Thousands of Immigrant Families

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement is scheduled to begin raids in major cities this Sunday to deport thousands of undocumented migrants, according to former and current officials of the Department of Homeland Security.

This order is known as “collateral” deportations, which targets families, and includes the deportation of over 2,000 migrants. The New York Times states that “the authorities might detain immigrants who happened to be on the scene, even though they were not targets of the raids.”

This operation is expected to take place in 10 major cities including Miami, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Agency officials have yet to expose specific details about the raids, supporting several officials’ statements that the Trump Administration’s goal is to deter families from migrating.

This order comes after the Committee of Oversight and Reform hearing on Kids in Cages: The Humanitarian Crisis at the Border. During the committee hearing, Yazmin Juarez, a migrant mother, testified on the death of her child due to the inhumane conditions at the detention facilities. Two-year-old, Mariee’s death is one of 7 deaths now reported from the border.

 

Media Resources: The New York Times 7/11/19, Huffpost 7/11/19, Feminist Newswire 7/31/18

Judge Blocks Ohio’s Fetal Heartbeat Law

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Last Wednesday, U.S District Judge Michael Barrett temporarily blocked an Ohio law that would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, allowing clinics to continue to provide abortions. The law was slated to take effect this month, but Judge Barrett issued a preliminary injunction, blocking the law from taking effect while it is being challenged in court.

Using the 1992 Supreme Court decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Barrett argued that the Ohio law would place an “undue burden” on a women’s right to access abortion. Barrett further  wrote that should the Ohio law go into effect “one could characterize the obstacle Ohio women will face as not merely ‘substantial’ but, rather, ‘insurmountable.”

Freda Levenson, the legal director for the ACLU of Ohio, stated that “the court has upheld the clear law: women in Ohio…have the constitutional right to make this deeply personal decision about their own bodies without interference from the state.”

Earlier this April, Gov. Mike DeWine signed the Ohio law that officially banned abortions after 5-6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant. The law has an exception to save a woman’s life; however, there are no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. The law also penalizes doctors who perform abortion after a heartbeat is detected with a fifth-degree felony, up to a year in jail, and possible fines.

This decision is a sign of hope for abortion rights advocates who have challenged recent laws restricting access to abortion in several states. Elizabeth Watson, a staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, argued that “this victory for Ohio women [will] stand as a reminder that these attacks on abortion access are illegal.”

Just two weeks ago, the ACLU and Planned Parenthood sued Arkansas and Georgia, while the American Medical Association sued North Dakota last Tuesday. Watson further stated that, “we will continue to work within the courts to hold anti-abortion state legislators accountable as long as they abuse their power to push abortion out of reach.”

 

Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 4/12/19, CNN 7/3/19, CBS News 7/3/19, The Hill 7/3/19

Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein Indicted on Charges of Sex Trafficking

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This week, federal prosecutors charged Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire financier, on sex crimes, including allegation that he ran a sex-trafficking ring that involved underage girls as young as 14.

Multiple women have come forward accusing Epstein of sexual assault and abuse. Prosecutors say that “thousands of sexually suggestive pictures of young women and girls seized in his Manhattan home demonstrate the predatory attitude that Mr. Epstein continues to have towards young women.”

Recent accusations of sexual assault have revived the decade old case of sex trafficking against him that was settled in 2008 after a plea deal was struck. Epstein was accused of assembling a massive cult-like network of underage girls with the help of female recruiters that coerced young women into sexual acts almost three times a day. The extraordinary plea deal struck between Epstein’s lawyers and the defense in 2007 registered him as a sex offender, gave him only 13 months in jail, and concealed the deal from the victims. This rendered the abuse inflicted on the victims invisible, ensuring that Epstein’s future would be protected.

Epstein’s victims are still fighting for justice to this day. About 80 women came forward to say that they were molested or sexually abused by Epstein from 2001 to 2006. Courtney Wild, who was 14 when she met Epstein, explains how “Jeffrey preyed on girls who were in a bad way, girls who were basically homeless. He went after girls who he thought no one would listen to and he was right.” Not only did he abuse young girls but he also forced them to go out and recruit other young girls.

Human trafficking is considered a form of modern-day slavery. It is ranked as the third greatest revenue source of organized crime after narcotics and arms, according to the UN. The people who are trafficked tend to be those who are already victims of war, poverty, discrimination and/or violence.

 

Media Resources: Feminist NewsWire 06/31/2014, Miami Herald 10/28/2018, 06/08/2019 NYT, 06/09/2019 NYT

U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Wins World Cup Title

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The U.S. women’s national soccer team defeated the Netherlands on Sunday in an impressive and exciting match, securing its fourth Women’s World Cup title. Star players Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle both scored a goal in the second-half, giving the U.S. a comfortable lead that it successfully sustained for the remainder of the match.

At the end of the game, fans in the Lyon, France stadium were shouting “Equal Pay,” a clear reference to the team’s involvement in international debates on gender discrimination and disparities in soccer. Rapinoe, who was labeled most valuable player at this year’s Cup, has been particularly vocal on this front. She has spoken out about FIFA’s mistreatment of female players, pointing to pay and prize money gaps between men’s and women’s teams as well as the unfair scheduling of the Women’s World Cup final on the same day as the Copa America and Golden Cup finals.

In a press conference just before the final, Rapinoe told reporters “I don’t think that we feel the same level of respect certainly that FIFA has for the men and just in general,” adding, “If you really care, are you letting the gap grow, are you scheduling three finals on the same day? No, you’re not.”

In March, the team filed a federal gender discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF). The plaintiffs–28 members of the women’s team–allege that the USSF pays them significantly less than players on the men’s national team, even though the women’s team plays more matches and wins more games. The players also argue that the USSF has subjected them to unequal treatment and working conditions, forcing the women to play on inferior fields, failing to advertise them as much as their male counterparts, and refusing to offer them amenities, like chartered flights, that the men’s team enjoys.

Many of the issues with the USSF identified in the brief echo those in a federal 2016 complaint filed by five women’s national team players. The five players–Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Becky Sauerbrunn, and Hope Solo–filed the complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of their entire team. They charged that even with the women’s team success, including being the reigning World Cup and Olympic champions, they have been paid almost four times less than the men’s team. According to the fillings, despite bringing in nearly $20 million more in revenue than their male counterparts, the women were paid nearly four times less.

 

Media Resources: New York Times 3/8/19, Feminist Newswire 3/31/19, Time 7/6/19, USA Today 7/7/19, New York Times 7/7/19

Virginia Governor Calls Special Session on Guns

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Tuesday, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam called a special session on guns in response to the May 31 Virginia Beach shooting; however, Republicans adjourned the legislature until November after 90 minutes in session.

The Governor hoped to pass bills on gun control to prevent further mass shootings in a state with some of the weakest gun laws in the country. When guns are bought and sold between Virginians, there is no permit, background check, or registration requirement. The session was supported by gun control activists such as the major group “Giffords” that praised the Governor for declaring that “we must never accept gun violence as normal.”

Throughout Virginia’s 2019 legislative session, Democratic legislators in support of common-sense gun reform repeatedly attempted to pass laws addressing gun violence, introducing over a dozen bills to the legislature. Speaker of the House Republican Kirk Cox sent each of these bills to a subcommittee dominated by pro-gun delegates that voted them down in committee votes that were split down party lines.

Polling has clearly demonstrated that Virginians overwhelmingly support some form of gun control legislation. 84% of people polled supported mandatory background checks for all sales of guns, including over 75% of Republicans. In addition, 65% of voters supported a ban on assault-style weapons. These results are a clear indication of the state’s desire to implement stricter gun laws to some degree.

Gun legislation is only one of many divisive issues that consume Virginian politics, especially now under a Democratic governor and a 51-49 Republican majority in the House of Delegates. There has also been a clear partisan divide on women’s rights. Since 1972, when the Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification, the Virginia House has never been able to vote on its ratification. The Virginia Senate has passed the ERA six times but the House has repeatedly shut it down including this January when it lost by one vote in a starkly partisan result.

 

Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 1/17/19; U.S. Concealed Carry 5/24/19; Washington Post 6/4/19; The Virginian Pilot 7/3/19; Washington Post 7/8/19;

Black Teenager Murdered for Playing Rap Music

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The hashtag “#JusticeforElijah” has been trending across social media platforms following the murder of the 17 year old black teenager Elijah Al-Amin by 27 year old Michael Adams, a white man, at a Circle K in Peoria, Arizona. Adams remains in jail for pre-meditated murder and is being held on a $1 million bond, but as of right now, the case is not being treated as a hate crime.

At 1:42 am on July 4th, Adams—who had been released from prison just two days prior—stabbed the Al-Amin and slit his throat after he was playing rap music in his car. As reported by the Arizona central, Adams claims that he murdered Elijah Al-Amin because rap music makes him feel “unsafe” and that people who listen to rap are a threat to him and the community.

Adams’ attorney has argued that this was not an act of violent racism, but rather, the attack was a result of inadequate access to mental healthcare following Adam’s release from state prison.

Elijah Al-Amin is not the first black teenager to be murdered for playing rap music. In 2012, Jordan Davis was murdered in a gas station parking lot in Jacksonville, Florida by Michael Dunn for playing rap music in his car.

 

Sources: Feminist Newswire 8/19/14, Arizona Central 7/5/19, Vox 7/8/19, NBC News 7/9/19

First Black Miss Tennessee Crowned last Weekend

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History was made last weekend when Brianna Mason was crowned Miss Tennessee, becoming the first African-American woman to win the title in the pageant’s eight-decade history. By winning Miss Tennessee she will now get the chance to compete in the Miss America pageant later this year.

This win is part of a larger trend of African American women making history in the Pageant system. The reigning Miss America, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA are all black women, a notable achievement because in the pageant system’s almost 100 year history, there have only been a few winners who were African-American. However, this year all three winners were African-American American, challenging conventional beauty standards and racial discrimination in the pageant system.

Most beauty pageants used to ban women of color from participating in the event. Later organizations would start to change their rules to accept women of all races, yet there was still a lingering opposition. Expanding true access to the beauty pageant system has been a long fight and this win shows that women are still paving the way for different types of people to be allowed to compete fairly in the pageant system. It was only a couple of years ago that the Miss Universe Pageant changed its rules to allow transgender women to compete. The fight to expand access still continues.

 

Media sources: CNN 07/01/2019; Feminist Newswire 04/11/2012

Hawaii Establishes Third Non-Binary Gender Classification for State IDs

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Governor Ige of Hawaii signed HB1165 into law, establishing a non-binary gender option on applications for state-issued IDs and driver’s licenses. The law, which will go into effect on July 1, 2020, allows applicants to select “F,” “M,” or “X” as their gender on government ID applications and does not require applicants to provide documentation affirming their desired gender designation.

A non-binary gender designation option on IDs is necessary because binary gender classifications exclude a number of groups, including but not limited to, transgender, intersex, and gender nonconforming individuals. By not requiring applicants to produce documentation confirming their gender identity, HB1165 also eliminates many of the bureaucratic obstacles transgender individuals face when applying for IDs, since many struggle to obtain federal documentation reflecting their true gender identity. HB1165 is particularly relevant in the state of Hawaii, as it has the largest percentage of transgender individuals in the country, according to the Williams Institute of UCLA Law School.

In an Instagram post celebrating the bill’s passage, Khara Jabola-Carolus, the executive director of the Hawai’i State Commission on the Status of Women, commented that “this wasn’t just about simple recognition of transgender folks by the mainstream. It was about decolonization of the status of gender minorities and women, and taking a step to honor the inclusive society of Native Hawaiians.”

Governor Ige signed two other pieces of landmark legislation on Wednesday. One outlaws the use of the “panic defense,” commonly used in violence cases, in which the defendant attempts to explain their behavior by arguing that they experienced emotional distress after discovering a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The other law makes conversion therapy for minors illegal.

Hawaii is the latest state to pass legislation introducing a non-binary gender option for IDs; however, it is not the only state to have done so. Oregon, New Jersey, New Mexico, Maine, Colorado, as well as 12 other jurisdictions, have passed similar legislation as well.

 

Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 10/3/16, Hawaii State Legislation 6/26/19, Instagram 6/27/19, Huffington Post 6/27/19, The Hill 6/27/19

Taliban Car Bomb Shakes Kabul as “Peace” Talks with U.S. Continue

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Today, after a relatively peaceful period in Afghanistan, the Taliban detonated a car bomb during morning rush hour in Kabul. The car bomb is said to have rocked the entire city, killing at least 16 people and injuring 105 people, including 51 children and five women. The United Nations, NGOs working in Afghanistan, and the Afghan government have all denounced the Taliban for causing civilian casualties. This attack came just two days after the Taliban began a seventh round of “peace” talks with the U.S in Qatar.

Taliban insurgents also shot a 25-year old woman along with her three-year old son on the charge of cheating on her husband in a remote village in Faryab province, in the north of country. The husband filed a complaint to the Taliban, and members of the group snatched the woman from her parents’ house. The provincial branch of the Human Rights Commission reported that violence against women has increased by 20% over the last two years in this province due to combat between government forces and Taliban fighters in Faryab.

As “peace” talks continue, women’s groups have warned that a Taliban return to power could pose a large threat to women’s rights. Robina Hamdard of the Afghan Women’s Network believes that “we are now not the same women of 20 years ago. We know our rights and will fight not to lose them.” Wherever the Taliban controls to this day in Afghanistan, women and girls access to education and health services, for example, are either limited or completely taken away.

 

Media resources: Washington Post 3/13/19, Tolo News 6/26/19, BBC News 7/1/19, Afghanistan Times 7/1/19

Suit has been Filed against Georgia’s Six-Week Abortion ban

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Last Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, and the Center for Reproductive Rights filed suit against Georgia’s restrictive six-week abortion ban in the U.S District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. The legal challenge states that the Georgia law is “an attack on low-income Georgians, Georgians of color, and rural Georgians, who are least able to access medical care and least able to overcome the cruelties of this law.”

The lawsuit also argues that the new Georgia law violates the right to privacy and liberty guaranteed in the 14th Amendment, stating that new definitions of “person” and “human being” are too vague to be enforced.

If the law is not blocked, clinics and physicians will be forced to turn away patients seeking critical medical care, in a state that already faces a shortage of reproductive health care providers. The bill would result in worse health outcomes, particularly for black women, who are three times as likely to die from a pregnancy related cause.

Earlier in May, Governor Kemp signed the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, which outlaws all abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, typically around 6 weeks into pregnancy—before many women even know they are pregnant. It is set to go into effect in January of 2020.

Georgia’s law is part of a wave of abortion restrictions and bans passed by states such as Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana and Ohio. However, Nancy Northup, CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, maintained that “none of these laws are in effect, and we are fighting to keep it that way. For nearly half a century, the Supreme Court has protected the right to abortion, and we know the majority of Americans continue to support abortion access.”

 

Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 5/7/19, LA Times 6/28/19, NBC News 6/28/19, CNN 6/28/19, NPR 6/28/19

Study Proves that Global Gag Rule Increases Unplanned Pregnancies

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The medical journal The Lancet released a study on Thursday examining the impact of the global gag rule, officially known as the Mexico City Policy, on the rate of abortions in sub-Saharan Africa. Researchers discovered that rather than decrease the amount of abortions as anti-choice advocates advertised, the policy increased abortion rates by approximately forty percent when the gag rule was in place.

The study compared the periods when the global gag rule was not in place under Presidents Clinton and Obama to the period when the rule was in place under President Bush. It discovered that providers of family planning services would often not be able to comply with the United States’ standards and thus, would lose their funding. This would cause them to be unable to provide other necessary services such as contraception. Contraception use decreased by 14 percent and the amount of pregnancies increased by 12 percent. Due to the increased number of unplanned pregnancies, many individuals had to get abortions, leading to the 40 percent increase.

As a response to the increased attempts to enforce the anti-choice agenda, the House passed a spending bill this June that included a repeal of both the domestic gag rule and the global gag rule. This is a part of a widespread effort by the pro-choice movement to expand access to reproductive services domestically and worldwide.

The Trump administration has implemented the global gag rule as a method to further their control over people’s bodies through banning international aid for any services that provide abortion care or any information about abortion services. This administration has expanded the scope of the rule: the funding ban will now not just apply to international non-governmental organizations (NGO) that provide or refer patients to abortion; it will also ban U.S. global health funding to any NGO that uses non-U.S. assistance to support any foreign partners who separately engage in abortion-related work with their own funding.

 

Media resources: Feminist Newswire 3/27/19; Refinery 29 6/19/19; NPR 6/27/19; The Lancet 6/27/19

Supreme Court Rules against Citizenship Question on 2020 Census for now

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This Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected the stated reasoning behind the citizenship question that the Trump Administration wanted to add to the 2020 Census, setting the efforts of the Trump administration further back. In the 5-4 ruling, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote that the reason behind the citizenship question which was provided by the White House “appears to have been contrived.”

The Supreme Court sent the case back to a lower court insinuating that there is a possibility for the administration to provide an adequate justification for adding the question. President Trump responded to the decision by announcing on twitter that he will be working with the lawyers to delay the 2020 Census. The administration has argued that the citizenship question is essential to their efforts to strengthen the voting rights of minority residents.

In April, evidence compiled from the computer files of Republican strategist, Thomas Hofeller, suggested that the Trump administration wanted to collect citizenship information so that states could draw voting district based only on eligible voters rather than all residents. Mr. Hofeller wrote that this “would be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.”

The citizenship questioned hasn’t been on the census since the 1950s. Various civil rights groups are claiming that this is an attack on people of color especially migrants fleeing to find refuge in the states. In the atmosphere of heightened ICE raids, the Trump administration’s zero tolerance approach to immigration and jarring conditions of detention facilities, the fear attached with the citizenship question is valid.

 

Media Resources: BBC 6/27/2019, NYT 6/27/2019, NYT 6/27/2019

Supreme Court Declines to Rule Partisan Gerrymandering Unconstitutional

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Today, the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision declaring that partisan gerrymandering, the redrawing of legislative districts to favor one political party over another, presents a political question that federal courts cannot review.

In his opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts, joined by four conservative members of the Court, concluded that “partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts.” Roberts added that “excessive partisanship in districting leads to results that reasonably seem unjust. But the fact that such gerrymandering is ‘incompatible with democratic principles’…does not mean the solution lies with the federal judiciary.”

In her passionate dissent, Justice Kagan criticized the majority, stating that “of all the times to abandon the Court’s duty to declare the law, this was not one.” “If left unchecked, gerrymanders like the ones here may irreparably damage our system of government,” she wrote. Her dissent emphasizes that partisan gerrymandering threatens every American’s right to participate in free and fair elections, as it allows powerful legislators of both parties to draw districts in their favor.

The case reached the Supreme Court in March this year on appeal from the District Courts of North Carolina and Maryland. The District Courts ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, declaring that partisan gerrymandering was justiciable. The North Carolina case involved plaintiffs who alleged that North Carolina’s 2016 congressional districts were drawn to disadvantage Democrats, and the Maryland plaintiffs argued that their 2011 congressional districts discriminated against Republicans. The plaintiffs believed that partisan gerrymandering clearly violated the First Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause, and the Elections Clause.

Just last year, the Supreme Court heard a similar case arising in Wisconsin on the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering. The Court, however, avoided the question by declaring that the plaintiffs did not have legal standing to sue.

 

Media Resources: Supreme Court 6/27/19, The New York Times 6/27/19, Feminist Newswire 6/26/18

400 Complaints Of Sexual Assault Against Student Health Center Gynecologist

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On Wednesday Dr. George Tyndall, gynecologist at the student health center of University of Southern California, was finally arrested amidst countless claims of sexual assault after an 18 month investigation. CBS Los Angeles asserts that over 400 female patients have accused Dr. Tyndall of molestation through his occupation. Tyndall was seized at his apartment adjacent to the University of Southern California while he was armed with a loaded .38-caliber revolver. In the process of his arrest he claimed ‘chest pains’ and is now being held in the hospital.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney said Tyndall is charged with “18 counts of sexual penetration and 11 counts of sexual battery by fraud, in cases involving 16 young women.” Dr. Tyndall has denied all the allegations and his lawyers will attempt exonerate him. In December, LAPD found naked photographs and videos in Tyndall’s personal storage unit some of which appear to have been made at the health center of USC.

The LA police chief states that they have had 12 full-time detectives working this case over the last year, in which they have traveled across the country to conduct interviews of 350 plus women. USC only reported the sexual assault to the public after an article was published by The Los Angeles Times in May 2018. They uncovered complaints against Tyndall dating back to the 1990s, “co-workers alleged that he was improperly photographing students’ genitals during medical exams. Over the years, patients and nursing staff repeatedly accused him of “creepy” behavior, including touching women inappropriately during pelvic exams and making sexually suggestive remarks about their bodies.”

This investigation demonstrates the larger culture of abuse of power in the medical profession on unknowing patients. The American Medical Association states that any sexual contact between a patient and their physician constitutes sexual misconduct, yet many medical boards have permitted a large number of doctors to continue practicing after being found guilty of sexual abuse. David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, tells The Atlantic Journal-Constitution “We are so reliant on [doctors], we are so helpless and vulnerable and literally in pain often times [when] we go in there… We just do not want to believe, first of all, that a doctor is capable of this, and secondly that their colleagues and supervisors will not address this immediately and effectively when we report it.”

Senate and House Introduction of the Gender Equity Education Act of 2019

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In celebration of the 47th anniversary of Title IX, Senator Mazie Hirono and Representative Doris Matsui have introduced the Patsy T. Mink and Louise M. Slaughter Gender Equity in Education Act of 2019, S. 1964 and H.R. 3513.

This 2019 version of the initial 2016 Gender Equity Education Act, (GEEA) honors former Congresswoman Patsy T. Mink (D-HI) who was a key author of the 1972 Title IX that prohibits sex discrimination in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance. Patsy Mink also authored the former Women’s Educational Equity Act of 1974 (WEEA) that provided US Department of Education funding for innovative education programs to help implement Title IX from 1976 to 2006.  Along with Senator Hirono, Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY) co-sponsored the 2016, and 2017 versions of GEEA before she died.

While both WEEA and GEEA were designed to facilitate the implementation of Title IX to prohibit sex discrimination in all education levels and topics, GEEA addresses needed infrastructure support from the US Department of Education and other agencies on the important roles of Title IX Coordinators in state education agencies, school districts, pre-K-12 schools, postsecondary and other institutions that receive federal support for education programs and activities.

The GEEA of 2019 has many important purposes and features to fully implement Title IX and promote gender equity in education. In highlighting the need to increase general awareness about the rights and obligations of individuals and entities covered by Title IX, GEEA attends to ending sex discrimination based on multiple characteristics in addition to sex or gender such as race, ethnicity, national origin, disability status, religion, age, or actual or perceived sex (including sexual orientation or gender identity).

A major way that GEEA focuses on improving the U.S. gender equity infrastructure is to provide for the identification, coordination, training, technical assistance, and support of  over 100,000 Title IX Coordinators at all levels of education from State Education Agencies to pre K-12 local schools and postsecondary institutions who cover all topic areas from athletics and academics to ending sex-based harassment and violence.

GEEA features include the establishment of an Office for Gender Equity in the U.S. Department of Education which will coordinate with other relevant Federal offices and agencies. The Office Director will report directly to the Secretary of Education and support research, development, and dissemination activities focusing on best practices to implement Title IX.  For example, this GEEA office is to establish a Gender Equity Resource Center Website and related dissemination activities. GEEA also calls for the revival of previous Title IX provisions for Title IX Compliance Self-Evaluations to guide Title IX training and the use of best practices to identify and prevent implicit and explicit sex discrimination in all areas of education. GEEA also calls for a report to Congress every two years on the success in accomplishing the purposes of the Gender Equity Education Act.

However, the most well-funded part of the Office for Gender Equity is to be its Gender Equity Competitive Grants Program for eligible entities ranging from state education agencies to schools and national organizations with relevant gender equity expertise. There are also extensive annual evaluation requirements for the grants which in total are to receive no less than $70,000,000 each year of the $80,000,000 total annual GEEA authorization, each federal year year from 2020 to 2025.

 

Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 7/18/2016; Senator Hirono 6/25/19

Man Shoots 10-month-old Baby after Mother Rejects him

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

In Fresno, California, a 10-month-old baby is recovering in the hospital after being shot in the head by a man after her mother rejected his unwanted sexual advances. The mother, Deziree Menagh, 18, was at a social gathering with her daughter when she met Marcos Echartea, 23, and he started to make advances towards her. Uncomfortable with the advances, Menagh left the party with a friend to drive around hoping that Echartea would be gone. When they headed back to the party and were parking, Menagh and her friend noticed Echertea headed towards their car. When he arrived, he fired three rounds into the driver’s window, one hitting Menagh’s daughter in the head.

While horrifying, the story of a man turning violent after a rejection is nothing new. Every day there are cases in which rejection turns into violence.

Last year, Elizabeth May, an activist, took to Twitter to ask women to share their experiences of rejecting unwanted sexual advances, and thousands of women replied sharing terrifying experiences of violence and threats from men who felt they were owed something.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime released a report in 2018 that found that more than half of all female homicides were caused by intimate partners or relatives, depicting the home as one of the most dangerous places for women.

Sexual violence also harms trans women, who face higher rates of intimate partner violence than cisgender women. According to the Human Rights Campaign, fatal violence disproportionately affects transgender women of color, and that the intersections of racism, sexism, homophobia, biphobia and transphobia conspire to deprive trans women of employment, housing, healthcare and other necessities.

Media Resources: NBC News 06/25/19; iNews UK 05/22/18; Feminist News Wire 11/30/18.

Candidates Announce their Bids to Unseat Senator Susan Collins

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

Democrat Sara Gideon, Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, has announced that she is officially running to unseat Republican Senator Susan Collins in 2020. Gideon has declared her bid amid a wave of several other Democratic, Republican, and Independent candidates announcing their campaigns. There are two other Democrats who have also launched their campaigns for the seat: Betsy Sweet, who recently ran to be the Governor of Maine, and attorney Bre Kidman, the first openly non-binary candidate for the United States Senate. Danielle VanHelsing and Tiffany Bond are currently running as independent candidates. As of right now, the only person to challenge Collins from the Republican party is Derek Levasseur.

Senator Collins, who has not yet formally announced her plans to run again, faces opposition from the left of the aisle due to her controversial vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court despite sexual assault allegations and fears that he would harm Roe v. Wade. President of the Feminist Majority Foundation, Eleanor Smeal, released a statement prior to Collins’ vote and claimed, “Looking at his record, Brett Kavanaugh should not be given the benefit of the doubt: too much is at stake for women with this confirmation. Women’s lives depend on Senator Collins voting no on Brett Kavanaugh.”

Following her nomination of Kavanaugh, a crowdpac was created to raise money for the campaign of the future Democratic challenger of Collins. It has currently accumulated a total of $4,082,183 in donations.

 

Sources: Washington Post 6/24/19, The Cut 6/24/19, Feminist Newswire 8/21/18, ActBlue

Pakistan will create more than 1,000 Courts Dedicated to Tackling Violence Against Women

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

On Friday June 21st, Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa announced that Pakistan will set up more than 1,000 courts dedicated to tackling violence against women in the country. Each court will deal specifically with cases of violence against women in the country to cultivate an environment where women can speak up without fear of repercussions.

The decision to create these courts comes after multiple high profile cases of violence against women in Pakistan and recent laws to combat violence against women. One of these laws is a mandated minimum sentence of 25 years in prison for those convicted of honor killings. This law closed a dangerous legal loophole that previously allowed killers to go free if they were forgiven by the family of the victim. Honor killings are largely carried out by family members of the victim, so murderers were often guaranteed a pardon for their crimes, leaving women and girls vulnerable to abusive patriarchal family structures.

One of the highest profiled case of violence against women was the honor killing of a Pakistani celebrity, Qandeel Baloch, who was violently strangled to death by her brother. Baloch considered herself a feminist, and had nearly 750,000 followers on Facebook and 46,000 on Twitter. She used her social media fame to speak out against societal and political discrimination against women and was often seen on Pakistani television debating religious leaders about politics.

Although the new courts will operate in existing courthouses, domestic violence cases will be heard separately so that victims can testify in confidence. Shaista Bukhari, executive director of Pakistan’s Women’s Rights Association hopes that “if we initiate 1,000 courts to address and handle the affairs specifically related to violence on women, women will get the confidence and strength to speak up against exploitation and they will also be able to stand against it.”

 

Media sources: CNN 06/21/2019; Feminist Newswire 10/06/2016; Feminist Newswire 07/18/2016

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