Southern Baptists will vote on June 18th on whether or not to boycott Walt Disney Co. parks and stores. Some leaders of the 15.7 million member group have been angered by what they term Disney’s “gay-friendly” policies. They point to “gay day” at Disney parks, the company’s extension of health benefits for partners of lesbian […]
The Good: The U.S. Supreme Court has left intact a lower court ruling that declared a Utah law banning almost all forms of abortion for women over 20 weeks pregnant unconstitutional. In December of 1996, the 10 U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Utah lawmakers had placed, “an insurmountable obstacle in the path of […]
Women’s Web World, the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Online Web Site, has won the Caf_ Underground Award for Web Excellence. The award is presented to an elite group of select sites and web-designers who have displayed and outstanding balance of graphic style, practical applications and political awareness.
Former First Lt. Kelly Flinn, the first female B-52 pilot, has signed a deal with Random House to write a book about her life in the military, the controversy over her affair, and her subsequent general discharge from the army. Tentatively titled Proud to Be, Flinn’s Air Force Academy class’ motto, Harold Evans, the publisher […]
Recently the U.S. Federal Drug and Food Administration ruled that morning-after birth control pills, taken as emergency contraception, are safe and effective. However, some pharmacists are refusing to fill the prescriptions for women seeking the pills. Although the American Pharmaceutical Association, with 48,000 members, supports a pharmacist’s right of refusal, it also says that the […]
A law approved on June 13th in Germany makes marital rape a crime punishable by up to five years in jail. Female ministers and women’s rights activists have lobbied for over 25 years to get the law changed; previously rape was a crime only when the woman was not married to her attacker. Legislators were […]
Japan’s public health committee paved the way for the approval of the birth control by softening its negative stance on the pill’s use. The committee had earlier concluded that the pill’s use could help spread sexually transmitted diseases. A June 16th meeting, however, drew over 100 women supporters who criticized the committee for using the […]
The Army has announced that it will close the hotline it set up in November of 1996 to address the Aberdeen sex scandal. The hotline will close as of Friday, June 20th. The Army said it was closing the hotline because it had accomplished its job, and calls had dwindled in recent weeks. A sexual […]
MacDonald Communications Corporation announced at the 1997 Marketing to Women Congress that it will sponsor an award to companies that do an outstanding job reaching women through marketing. In the first year, the award will be given to companies in the financial, health care and automobile industries. The company will also sponsor an award to […]
The Directors Guild of America’s annual report shows that 91 percent of film directors hired in the United States in 1996 were men and 93 percent were white. The guild’s president, Jack Shea, commented on the findings, “Employment levels for DGA women and minorities are simply unacceptable. The producers must find more effective ways to […]
On June 13th, the Feminist Majority Foundation, joining other national women’s rights, religious, lesbian/gay/bisexual, and domestic violence organizations, condemned the hidden agenda of the all-male, religious right organization, the Promise Keepers. “Some reactionary male want-to-be-patriarchs — the so-called Promise Keepers — are preaching to football stadiums of men that men must resume their rightful place […]
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has appointed Irish President Mary Robinson to serve as the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. Robinson, who will end a seven-year term as Ireland’s head of state in December, will travel to New York in July to begin discussions on her post, which is based in Geneva. The […]
Planned Parenthood of Virginia, along with four other state Planned Parenthood affiliates, three health clinics and two physicians, has filed suit claiming that Virginia’s new parental consent law is unconstitutional. The parental consent law requires girls under the age of 18 to notify a parent at least 24 hours before obtaining an abortion. The law […]
For eight years Alex Kelly lived in Europe, off his wealthy parent’s money, avoiding a United States trial for raping two women. On June 12th, a Connecticut jury convicted him of raping a girl over a decade ago. Kelly turned himself in to authorities in Switzerland in 1995 when authorities closed in on his location […]
A federal judge has convicted Reverend Norman Weslin, the head of the so-called Lambs of Christ, and ten other of the group’s members of blocking entrances at a Planned Parenthood in Rochester, New York. Wesson and three others were sentenced to four months in jail from U.S. District Judge David G. Larimer. Four others were […]
U.S. Army Sgt. Paul Fuller of the Darmstadt Germany training center has been convicted by a military court of raping a subordinate, indecent assault, and three counts of forcible sodomy. Though Fuller could have faced life in prison for the rape charge alone, he was sentenced to only five years in prison and given a […]
Pioneer female pilots gathered at the Smithsonian National Air and Space museum in Washington, D.C. on June 10th for the opening of an exhibit dedicated to the history of women in flight. At the opening, Fay Gillis Well, 88, handed Doris Lockness, 87, Amelia Earhart’s blue flag. Both of the women flew with Earhart in […]
Wadad Shujaa, 18, Syria’s first female pilot, will shortly begin working as a co-pilot with Syrian Airways. Shujaa graduated from the Aviation Academy in Tulsa, Oklahoma after completing 190 hours of flying time. She took her first solo flight after only twelve hours of training.
On May 23rd, Myko Kona was flashed by a handyman who had stopped to ask her for directions. Jimmy Robert Jewell exposed himself and also began masturbating. Kona, however, had a disposable camera ready and quickly took pictures of him, his actions and the license plate on his van. Jewell tried to grab her through […]
A dispute between the European company which agreed to manufacture mifepristone (formerly known as RU-486) and the Population Council, the U.S. sponsor of the pill, could delay the pill’s introduction into the U.S. The Population Council commented, “What we want to say is that there’s a dispute [with the manufacturer] and we’re continuing to talk […]
