A Round of Applause for Courageous Female News Anchors

In case you hadn't noticed, this has been a big week for coverage of the tactics of anti-abortion extremists, and the ways in which they terrorize abortion providers and clinic staff.

The recent buzz began 2 weeks ago when Rachel Maddow announced that she would be airing a documentary on Mon Oct 26, "The Assassination of Dr. Tiller." In the same week she announced this, it came to light that a grand jury was questioning associates of Scott Roeder, who is serving life in prison for Tiller's murder. The grand jury is investigating whether or not Roeder acted as part of a conspiracy, a subject which has been explored previously in the Ms. Magazine piece from the Spring 2010 issue, "Not a Lone Wolf," by Amanda Robb.

Following the airing of Maddow's documentary this past Monday, Katie Couric pointed her focus towards the ongoing harassment of abortion providers during the CBS Evening News (video). Highlighted in both the Maddow and the Couric videos is the fact that WANTED posters have preceded the murder and violent attacks of dozens of clinics, including the 1993 shooting of Dr. Tiller.

Common in the early 1990's, posters have begun to resurface in Charlotte, NC, where earlier this year, Feminist Majority Foundation's National Clinic Access Project helped defend clinics from Operation Save America's annual clinic siege.

While we ultimately wish that women could receive care peacefully from doctors who did not fear for their safety on a daily basis, we are grateful for Maddow and Couric's national coverage of this issue, exposing what is happening every day at clinics across the country.

What you can do to keep clinics in your area safe and open:

• Adopt-a-Clinic! Contact us to see what clinics in your area are in need of volunteers, escorts, and defenders.
• Thank a provider! Send your local clinic a thank you card to remind them that there are people who appreciate their work and their bravery.
• Keep an eye out for warning signs of clinic violence. If you see WANTED posters and protests in your area, report this to your local law enforcement agencies and/or Feminist Majority Foundation. This kind of activity too often has preceded violent attacks of clinics.
  

National Week of Action: Don't get Tricked by CPCs!

It's our CPC week of action! "Don't Get Tricked, Get Treated" starts today! What are you doing for it?

Crisis Pregnancy Centers pose as comprehensive women’s health clinics and advertise under “abortion” and “family planning” services, but do not offer abortion services, contraception, or referrals. Instead, they have an anti-choice agenda and tell women misinformation about the affects of abortion in attempts to dissuade women away from all of their choices.

Here are some cool ideas of how your campus group can get the word out and take action this week:

1. Host a Screening of 12th and Delaware or of FMF's two videos on the deception of Crisis Pregnancy Centers, which can be found here, followed by a discussion.
2. Create education flyers and posters identifying comprehensive women's health clinics and warning people are fake clinics in your area. Here's a template from our action kit.
   
3. Talk to your Campus Health Center, and ask if they refer students to CPCs. Almost half of 4-year universities in the US do! If your Health Center on campus refers women to CPCs, make them stop, or in the very least have them put a disclaimer!
4. Hand out "Trick of Truth Treats" with candy and facts about CPCs. The truth is delicious!
   
5. Stage a protest at your nearest CPC, warning women about their deceptive practices. Or have a speak out/rally at your school!
   
6. Host a "haunted clinic" at your school. Instead of ghosts and ghouls, emulate what goes on inside a creepy CPC.
7. Photo campaign! Take pictures of people holding up signs with what they want to say about CPCs. Take photos and post them on campus, in a Facebook album, create a photo blog, or send it to your legislators!
8. Propose a "Truth in Advertising" disclaimer on campus if your campus health center refers to CPCs, or campus newspaper accepts ads from CPCs
9. Burma Shave Signs. These are consecutive signs posted one after another at a visible place on campus. Here is an example:

• You wouldn't want your dentist telling you that brushing your teeth will give you cavities.
• So why would you want (insert name of local CPC) saying that birth control is ineffective?
• or that abortion will give you breast cancer?
• or make you infertile?
• or make you more likely to commit suicide?
• Crisis Pregnancy Centers deceive women!

Have more ideas? We'd like to know what you are planning! Contact us at campusteam@feminist.org or call 866-444-3652 Happy exposing!

SAVE THE DATE: National Young Feminist Leadership Conference

Mark your calendars now! The Feminist Majority Foundation is pleased to announce the 7th Annual National Young Feminist Leadership Conference will be held March 12-14, 2011 at The George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Save the Date!

Who: Young feminists, national leaders, and elected officials from across the country!

What: An opportunity to share in open dialogue and organize around the world's feminist issues, including:

* domestic and global reproductive rights
* civic engagement
* clinic violence
* the environment
* violence against women
* and much more!

When: March 12-14, 2011

Where: The George Washington University, Washington, DC

Following two days of skills building and leadership training attendees will deliver their message to Members of Congress on Capitol Hill for our Congressional Visit Day.

More information will be on the way soon - keep checking online for updates and registration information! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your Campus Organizers at 1-866-444-3652 (East Coast) and 1-866-471-3652 (West Coast). We hope to see you there!

Sesame Street: I Love My Hair

From the great folks at Sesame Street. An early morning pick up for the pre-schooler in all of us to enjoy.

Lots of Coverage, Very Little Plan for Action

The online news media has been in a frenzy this week after the fifth gay youth in three weeks took his own life. Everyone from the Huffington Post, the Advocate, to Washington Post bloggers have buzzed about Raymond Chase, the latest student to have committed suicide, often quoting the email that administrators sent to the Johnson & Wales University student body after Chase died.

In his email, JWU Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Ronald Martel mourned Chase's passing and offered condolences to the family. Unfortunately, his message stopped there. No mention of how to prevent such a thing from happening again, no mention of possible problems that needed to be tackled, no mention of anything.

But the school's vice president is not the only one - many major news sources have continued this trend, giving the issue lots of coverage with very little plan of action on how to help alleviate the environments causing these teens to turn to suicide. Even the statement issued by US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called for an end to harassment and a need to speak out against such forms of intolerance. But no actual solutions towards enacting the VERY change they all call for was ever mentioned.

This spree of suicides is proof that the current system is failing. It is time to ask the hard questions to get the core of these problems in order to implement real change and prevent even more loss of life. Students on Facebook formed a group encouraging activists across the country to wear purple on October 20th in light of the recent deaths. For more information, check out the group Wear Purple on October 20th, 2010. For a country that calls itself the land of the free, freedom from harassment and bullying is still not in the cards for everyone.

So....Step up and help! Contact your local campus officials and demand them to make school a safe and friendly place to be, ask them what resources are available and if there are none inform the larger public! Everyone has a right to a bully and harassment free life.

Contact and join your LGBT group on campus. No LGBT friendly group or groups on campus? Create one! Not enough people or members? Ally with like minded groups on campus and rally for change. October 20th could be a really great day to gain attention on individual campuses and spread the word. Need help with your plans of action? Campus Pride, a nonprofit organization aimed at making colleges more LGBT friendly, offers more information on helping making campuses more open and friendly.

Remember, bullying and harassment affects everyone. While your college campus is a great place to start please do not forget about your local community. Bullying and harassment can start at a young age, use your new found club or your group of friends to reach out to near by schools and volunteer for their antibullying or antiharassment programs. Make a positive change with a plan of action.

For Equality!

Meet the new campus organizers!

The Feminist Majority Foundation is excited to welcome two new campus organizers to our Campus Team. Myra Duran and Meghan Shalvoy are both former student leaders of the Bruin Feminist for Equality and the Stony Brook Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, respectively, and will undoubtedly prove to be amazing resources for the activists with whom they will be working!

Some more information on these two talented women:

Myra Duran (left) graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a B.A. in Women's Studies with a concentration in women of color feminism and a minor in labor and workplace studies. As a student activist, she interned for Gabriela Network, U.S.A., the Dolores Huerta Foundation, the California Construction Academy, and the Feminist Majority Foundation. She spearheaded FMF's Campaign to Expose Fake Clinics at UCLA with Bruin Feminists for Equality. Myra also served on the Young Women’s Leadership Council for the Pro-choice Public Education Project. Myra says she is really excited to be a part of the CHOICES Campus Team, especially looks forward to fostering the love she has for activism, young students, the power of voice, and women's rights. Myra will be working out of our West Coast office in Los Angeles.

Meghan Shalvoy (right) is a recent graduate of Stony Brook University and the former President of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance at Stony Brook. Her decision to major in women’s and gender studies at SBU was largely fueled by her desire to advocate for women’s reproductive rights, and through the WGS program she interned for Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic and New York State Senator Brian X. Foley. Meghan is also the former co-chair of the National Organization for Women-New York State (NOW-NYS) Young Feminist Task Force, and has made multiple trips to Haiti this past year to volunteer at a free medical clinic run by Raising Haiti. Meghan will be working out of our East Coast office in Washington.

Welcome Myra and Meghan!

Clinic Defense & Campus Organizing - A Natural Partnership

Bonjour Campus Choices! Meghan here, and this is my first of many posts as the newest member of Choices Campus Leadership Program’s team of National Campus Organizers. Although new to this position, I am no stranger to the dangers of clinic harassment and violence, or FMF’s work to assist in defending clinics against it.

This July, I joined FMF as a volunteer to keep the clinics of Charlotte, NC safe from the harassment of Operation Save America’s (OSA) annual clinic siege. If you’ve ever seen your average weekend “sidewalk counselor” protests outside a clinic, take that image and quadruple it. Meditate for a moment for sanity’s sake, and then double it again, totally approximately 250 anti-choice harassers.

As a part the National Clinic Access Project, FMF brought in volunteers from miles and miles away to combat the extreme tactics of OSA, which included posting WANTED posters of the brave and committed abortion providers who staff the Charlotte clinics, holding up oversized posters which featured graphic and medically inaccurate images of dead babies, blocking driveways, and using an amplifier to preach hate to the patients, staff and pro-choice volunteers.

Although there were three clinics that were targeted by OSA, Family Reproductive Health requested a presence of pro-choice clinic defenders throughout the week and we spent the majority of our time there. I had never seen anything like what I saw in Charlotte, and it is hard to articulate how sad and infuriating it was to see the way these self-proclaimed intolerant people would attack women who were simply trying to receive basic reproductive health care.

I would, without a doubt, just as soon favor every woman in America have safe and free access to reproductive health services, but what surprised me most was how much I enjoyed my time in Charlotte. Banding together with dozens of passionate and committed pro-choice volunteers, FMF staff, students from UNCC Feminist Union, and Charlotte Pro-Choice Coalition members to keep FRH and the other Charlotte clinics safe and protected by our efforts – including clinic defense, counter-protesting, legal observation and close contact with law enforcement – was inspiring, to say the least.

On the last day of the clinic siege, we managed to rally over 75 clinic defenders in the wee hours of the morning so that when OSA arrived to set up their Harassment HQ, they promptly turned their vans around and drove away. According to the fantastic clinic staff, it was the first Saturday without harassment and protest in the 8 years the clinic had been open.

Luckily, it is not every Saturday that OSA brings hundreds of people from all over the country to target a clinic, but virtually every day of the year there is some form of harassment outside of hundreds of clinics across the US. Get involved to help keep these clinics safe by joining in our Adopt-a-Clinic Campaign. There are so many ways you can help keep your clinic safe and open. Vocal pro-choice support can keep patients safe when entering the clinic, help maintain law enforcements attention to this issue, and show clinics that their hard work is appreciated and important.

This blog post is part of the October eZine. To receive our monthly eZine, click here.

Love Your Body Day - angry feminist style

Campus feminists across the country are organizing Love Your Body Day programs on October 20. There are junk food and pajama parties, prohibitions on body snarking, and poster campaigns. There are discussions on eating disorders, poor body image, and sexist advertising.

As you raise awareness on these issues on campus, take your activism to the next level. Use your votes and wallets to hurt sexist organizations and bring feminism into the mainstream. Some ideas:

Organize a letter/phone/fax bomb for companies that objectify women's bodies and profit from our insecurities. Ms. Magazine's No Comment section highlights a series of offenders in each issue, with contact info for each corporation.

Tired of the 'beauty' industry? Bring back the Freedom Trash Can to your campus, and hold a demonstration where your group discards your scuzzy old makeup, impractical shoes, uncomfortable underwear, magnified mirrors, hair dye, diet pills, hair removal implements, and other detritus cluttering your bathroom and bureau. Pledge to make economic decisions that will empower you, and not just line the pockets of cosmetics corporations and fashion magazines.

Collaborate with your campus arts department and local feminist artists to create and showcase real images of men, women, and everyone in between. Feeling racy? Include close-ups of real genitalia versus the vajazzled, dyed, waxed, surgically-altered genitalia prevalent in mainstream pornography.

Publicly boycott products, shows, and movies with misogynist themes, and support women filmmakers and writers whose films pass the Bechdel test. Host a good old-fashioned picket if necessary.

Get involved with/infiltrate campus and local media, and maintain your own feminist media sources. Petition your campus and local independent book stores to expand the feminist media they carry.

Learn about the Healthy Media for Youth Act that was introduced in the US Senate in September.

There are all kinds of ways to get political and reshape/reject the gendered images we see each day. Let us know the creative and subversive ways you are smashing patriarchy!

This blog post is part of the October eZine. To receive our monthly eZine, click here.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month - Take Action on YOUR Campus!

The month of October is overflowing with activities that student groups across the country are taking action on. For many of us, October signifies the beginning of Domestic Violence Awareness month and gearing up to put on events that really highlight the impact it has in our communities. The first step in fighting this vicious violence is being informed and getting educated on the issue. According to YWCA, "one in three women has been the victim of domestic violence." Not only is this statistic saddening but also learning that "twenty-five percent of college women have been raped" is an issue we cannot blindly stand by!

Domestic violence can happen to anyone of any race, age, sexual orientation, religion or gender. It can happen to couples who are married, living together or who are dating. Domestic violence affects people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and education levels. It is everyone’s problem and has consequences for more than just the people involved.


To take action for Domestic Violence Awareness month, many activists partner with local organizations and shelters that support survivors through fundraisers, host clothing and cell phone drives, hold workshops about consent and the Violence Against Women Act, chalk the campus with statistics about domestic violence, and volunteer endless hours. It can also be as simple as holding a screening that talks about the issue with a thought-provoking discussion afterward because as cliche as it sounds, knowledge really is power. Wherever you are, speak up against violence in your community by becoming a hotline volunteer, attend a local rally, or inform yourself and the rest of your school about your campus sexual assault policy.

Use this month to make a difference in your campus community because it takes just one person to send the message that violence is not acceptable. It’s time to take back our community and end this cycle of violence once and for all.

For more information about domestic violence and available resources, please visit the National Domestic Violence Hotline (www.thehotline.org) and YWCA.

photo courtesy of flickr.com/zappowbang


This blog post is part of the October eZine. To receive our monthly eZine, click here.

Don't Get Tricked, Get Treated!

As we get our costumes ready for Halloween, don't forget about what's really deceptive: Crisis Pregnancy Centers! Crisis Pregnancy Centers pose as comprehensive women’s health clinics and advertise under “abortion” and “family planning” services, but do not offer abortion services, contraception, or referrals. Instead, they have an anti-choice agenda and tell women misinformation about the affects of abortion in attempts to dissuade women away from all of their choices. We wanted to make sure that our campus groups plan ahead to participate in our National Week of Action, called "Don't Get Tricked, Get Treated," taking place the week leading up to Halloween, starting October 25th. Here are some cool ideas of how your campus group can get the word out and take action this Halloween:

1. Host a Screening of 12th and Delaware or of FMF's two videos on the deception of Crisis Pregnancy Centers, which can be found here, followed by a discussion.
2. Create education flyers and posters identifying comprehensive women's health clinics and warning people are fake clinics in your area. Here's a template from our action kit.
   
3. Talk to your Campus Health Center, and ask if they refer students to CPCs. Almost half of 4-year universities in the US do! If your Health Center on campus refers women to CPCs, make them stop, or in the very least have them put a disclaimer!
4. Hand out "Trick of Truth Treats" with candy and facts about CPCs. The truth is delicious!
   
5. Stage a protest at your nearest CPC, warning women about their deceptive practices. Or have a speak out/rally at your school!
   
6. Host a "haunted clinic" at your school. Instead of ghosts and ghouls, emulate what goes on inside a creepy CPC.
7. Photo campaign! Take pictures of people holding up signs with what they want to say about CPCs. Take photos and post them on campus, in a Facebook album, create a photo blog, or send it to your legislators!
8. Propose a "Truth in Advertising" disclaimer on campus if your campus health center refers to CPCs, or campus newspaper accepts ads from CPCs
9. Burma Shave Signs. These are consecutive signs posted one after another at a visible place on campus. Here is an example:

You wouldn't want your dentist telling you that brushing your teeth will give you cavities.
So why would you want (insert name of local CPC) saying that birth control is ineffective?
or that abortion will give you breast cancer?
or make you infertile?
or make you more likely to commit suicide?
Crisis Pregnancy Centers deceive women!

Have more ideas? We'd like to know what you are planning! Contact us at campusteam@feminist.org or call 866-444-3652 Happy exposing!

This blog post is part of the October eZine. To receive our monthly eZine, click here.

Get Out HER Vote: On the Road

FMF National Campus Organizers are currently traveling across the country to discuss the issues at stake in the upcoming election. We've prepared talking points about reproductive rights, marriage equality, the environment and pay equity. What we didn't expect was the biggest issue of all: no one knows when Election Day is! Clearly there is work to be done.

In last month's eZine, I discussed the many ways to Get Out HER Vote on your campus by utilizing the Feminist Majority Foundation's GOHV toolkit. With voter registration deadlines beginning this week in many states, the time to register to vote is now! After that critical paperwork is complete, the real work begins. With just four weeks until election day (which is November 2, 2010 by the way) now is the time to engage your campus around the issues we can impact with our votes this Fall!

Despite being a little uncertain on the exact date (again, that's TUESDAY, November 2) the issues that student activists care about are endless. We've heard from students who are frustrated by the lack of reproductive health care services on campus, pay day lending in their neighborhoods and crisis pregnancy centers that are located across the street from their campus. With your vote this November, ALL of these issues can be addressed.

By utilizing our GOHV toolkit, host a panel discussion to educate your campus on the issues that matter to you. Table in high traffic areas on campus to inform your peers about their rights when they go to the polls. Flyer your campus with posters of the nearest polling location and record public service announcements on your campus radio about the importance of youth participation in civic engagement. At the University of Tennessee there is a polling location on campus and at Millsaps College students can vote directly across the street. Organize a march to the polls on Election Day (that would be November 2, 2010) and let your voice be heard!

Contact your National Campus Organizer for more ideas on how to Get Out HER Vote on your campus today. We can send you brochures, buttons and stickers to help you spread the word that on this Election Day, November 2, 2010, we each must VOTE AS IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT. Why? Because it does. Don't trust me? Listen to them and VOTE.

This blog post is part of the October eZine. To receive our monthly eZine, click here.