Attention New Yorkers - CPC stories needed!

Have you visited a crisis pregnancy center in New York City, thinking it was a comprehensive women's health clinic? If so, you have an opportunity to prevent other women from being similarly deceived.

Feminist activists across the country have been working to expose fake clinics for years. Thanks to the work of New York City feminists and a report by NARAL Pro-Choice New York, the New York City Council is considering a bill that would force CPCs to post disclaimers on their doors and in their advertisements.

The City Council is holding a hearing on the bill on Tuesday, November 16 at 1 pm at 250 Broadway, 16th Floor in Manhattan. NARAL NY is looking for women who are comfortable testifying about their experience at a CPC to share their story at the hearing. If you have visited a CPC in the 5 boroughs and would like to share your story with the City Council, register to speak by contacting

Rachel Cordero
Counsel, Committee on Women's Issues
rcordero@council.nyc.gov
phone: (212) 788 9073
fax: (212) 788-9112

or

Adira Siman
Counsel, Committee on Health
asiman@council.nyc.gov
phone: (212) 788-9063
fax: (212) 788-9112

If you would not like to testify in person, but would like to share your story in writing, email Rachel or Adira.

We are also encouraging anyone who can do so to attend the hearing. Show the City Council that this bill has the support of the public!

Email Emily Kadar at ekadar@feminist.org if you have any questions!

Feminist Spotlight: Meghan Shalvoy, Stony Brook FMLA

Meghan Shalvoy, a recent graduate of Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, NY and the outgoing president of the Stony Brook Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, truly made the most of her final semester as a college activist. Meghan unrelentingly fought against anti-choice propaganda in the Stony Brook student newspaper and participated in FMF's Campaign to Expose Fake Clinics. She twice traveled to Washington, DC, lobbying members of Congress as part of the Coalition to Stop Stupak. In addition to serving as FMLA president, she is a member of the NOW-NYS Young Feminist Task Force. She graciously agreed to answer some of our questions in the first installment of our Feminist Spotlight series.

How did you come to consider yourself a feminist?

Although she never called it feminism, I was definitely raised to be a strong and independent woman by my mother. I came to call it feminism after a long discussion with my sister in my first year of college. My interest in women’s issues and feminist activism grew quickly and I changed my major to Women’s and Gender Studies the next year. At Stony Brook, this opened up the opportunity to intern with Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic in the fall of 2008. I began regularly attending FMLA meetings as a means to connect my internship with other feminist activities on campus.

What do you consider your achievements as the president of FMLA?

Elected at the end of the Spring 2009 semester, I was only president for a short period before graduating in December. In the fall semester though, we were able to organize another successful film series, this time focusing on representations of gender in horror films. In addition, SBU FMLA organized an informational campaign and petition against crisis pregnancy centers and other anti-choice advertising on campus.

What actions did you take to stop anti-choice propaganda on your campus, and what effect do you think those actions had?

In response to the circulation of the “icare” advertising pamphlet on our campus, we first created a fact sheet to counteract its harmful misinformation and lies. In addition we organized and circulated a petition to ask the campus newspaper to refuse such blatantly sensational and misleading advertising in the future. Using both paper copies and an online version of the petition, we spread the information and gathered signatures at various campus events, through e-mail listservs and Facebook, and received attention from at least three other campus newspapers. By the end of the semester, we had collected 165 signatures, and spread awareness and interest to hundreds more. As President of FMLA and organizer of the petition, I was targeted in a letter to a campus newspaper, The Stony Brook Press, written by the Long Island Coalition for Life. In response to the entire experience, I was asked to write a blog, which was published on RHRealityCheck.org.

How did your lobbying trips to Washington, DC affect your outlook on lawmaking and activism? What are your thoughts on the visit now that health care reform has passed the Senate and is headed into final negotiations?

Aside from what I learned from traveling to DC this winter, it was a tremendously inspirational experience for me as a woman, as a feminist, and as an activist. The feedback that we received from members of the House and Senate made me realize the value of activism, of showing up and making your voice heard. I learned so much from taking part in the process of lawmaking–which lobbying truly is—and also from interacting with veteran activists and leaders like Ellie Smeal and Cecile Richards. While we managed to pull the curtain back on Stupak and expose it for what it was—an attack on women and families—I am personally disappointed by some of the missed opportunities that could have made this health care reform bill truly great, such as taking out the public option and inclusion of the Nelson compromise in the Senate bill.

What are your plans for the future?

Right now I’m taking at least one semester off from school, although I hope to begin work on my Master’s in either Public Health or Midwifery in 2010 or 2011. I’m also hoping to find a job in the non-profit field organizing and advocating for reproductive justice and health issues.

This article was featured in our January 2010 monthly Choices eZine. Sign up for our alerts to stay up-to-date with the latest feminist news and to receive the monthly eZine. If you would like to nominate a fabulous activist to be featured in our Feminist Spotlight series, please email campusteam@feminist.org.

NYC Health Reform Event

Fixing Health Reform: A Progressive Guide to Key Issues

Thursday, January 7, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. (Doors open at 6 pm with light refreshments)
Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South

What can progressive advocates do to fix the problems in pending health reform legislation as the process moves into a House-Senate conference committee this month? Join us to find out and get involved!

A call to action for health justice -- Rev. Donna Schaper, Judson Memorial Church
Understanding the conference committee process -- Tim Foley, NYC for Change
Fighting the abortion restrictions -- Lois Uttley, Raising Women's Voices for the Health Care We Need
Improving affordability of health coverage for low and moderate-income families -- Elisabeth Benjamin, Community Service Society
Fighting for the public option and possible alternatives -- Mark Hannay, Metro NY Health Care for All
Action steps and opportunities to get involved -- Nina Agrawal, NYC for Change, and Eesha Pandit, Raising Women's Voices for the Health Care We Need

Please rsvp to info@raisingwomensvoices.net

Co-sponsored by NYC for Change, Metro NY Health Care for All, National Physicians Alliance, Raising Women's Voices for the Health Care We Need, Public Health Association of NYC, Brooklyn for Barack

Coming soon (we hope!): Same Sex Marriage in New York

Hey, remember that time the sh*t hit the fan and the New York State Senate went crazy? Well they now have a chance to redeem themselves!

The State Senate is convening at noon today for a special session to vote on a long-awaited marriage equality bill. The outcome of the vote is uncertain, with activists on both sides proclaiming confidence that their side will prevail.

New Yorkers, this is where you come in--let your State Senator know that all people deserve the right to marry.

UN internship in NYC!

From UNIFEM's Facebook note:

UNIFEM is looking for an intern working on Social Media for the campaign "Say NO to Violence against Women"

Starting October 1st 2009; 3-6 months (New York Headquarters)

Background

Say NO – UNiTE to Violence against Women is a public awareness and advocacy initiative presented by UNIFEM as part of the UN Secretary-General’s campaign, UNiTE to End Violence against Women. Launched as a signature campaign in 2007, Say NO submitted 5,066,549 signatures to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on November 25, 2008, representing a global call to make ending violence against women a top priority for governments everywhere.

Scheduled to launch in fall 2009, Say NO Phase II will trigger and showcase actions by individuals, governments, civil society and corporate partners to prevent and address violence against women and girls worldwide. Actions can range from advocating for legislation, reaching out to students at schools, volunteering at shelters, to signing a petition and donating money towards programmes that protect the rights and dignity of women and girls. The initial target is to record 1 million actions by March 2010, which will be counted and reported on the campaign’s web site.

Working through traditional as well as online networks, the campaign will engage strategic audiences such as men, youth and faith-based communities towards changing perspectives and preventing violence against women and girls; and mobilize new online constituencies through social media.

To this end, the Communications Unit of UNIFEM’s OBDT (Outreach Business and Development Team) is looking for an intern to help with social media outreach for a period of three to six months.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the Head of Communications, and the direct supervision of the UNIFEM focal point for social media, the intern will help maintain the Say NO social media platforms and actively engage in social media outreach for the campaign.

Specifically, s/he will be responsible for the following:
• Recruit new followers/ friends, reply to friends requests etc. on the different social media platforms;
• Post news items from the Say NO campaign website to the different social media platforms;
• Screen incoming content from users of the campaign website, select appropriate content, and post on social media platforms;
• Monitor postings and interactions on social media platforms;
• Moderate discussions on social media platforms; reply/ react to content;
• Monitor blogs and online media for interesting stories on the Say NO campaign to be edited and highlighted on both the campaign page and social media platforms;
• Other tasks as assigned by the supervisor.

Qualifications

• Graduate student, enrolled in a Masters Degree Programme in Communications, Journalism, International Affairs or related field
• Experience in social media and/or blogging
• Excellent writing skills in English; Arabic or writing skills in any other language an asset
• Knowledge of gender issues in general; knowledge of the thematic area of violence against women an asset
• Interest in the mission and values of the United Nations

If interested, please send your CV to beatrice.frey@unifem.org, indicating your availabilities.

NYC feminist internship!

Our friends at the Pro-Choice Public Education Project in New York City are seeking interns! Here's their Idealist posting. If you apply, tell 'em we sent you!

Newsday Tuesday, April 21st Edition

Here at FeministCampus we want to make sure that all our readers are staying in-the-know on recent feminist news, so we're going to kick off a weekly sampling of feminist news tidbits, the Cliff's Notes version, if you will! Here goes:

Good News!
We'll start off on a happy note - the Washington state legislature passed a bill expanding domestic partner rights. Although passage in the NY Senate is iffy, at the very least the New York governor announced a same sex marriage bill. I love it when public leaders take a stand! Along the same lines, let's hear it for the leaders in Sierra Leone who signed a female genital mutilation agreement. Finally, the Oregon House tips its hat to women's health by Oregon House passing an HPV vaccine bill requiring state-regulated insurance companies to cover the vaccine.

Bad News!
And the not-so-great news includes the ongoing tale of the brave Afghan Women that we wrote about last week - hundreds pelted the women in the clash between protestors and counter-protesters of a highly restrictive new Shia family law. On the home front, unfortunately the Indiana State House amended an anti-choice bill to include a fetal pain provision.

That's all for now - those of you who want a daily dose of feminist news should be sure to check out the Feminist Daily NewsWire, and @feministnews on Twitter!

Feminist Friday Wrap-up: Love

Hello feminists! It's finally spring in Washington, and you know what that means. Love is in the air! Which is to say, we always love feminism!

Anyway, today's word is love. We applaud New York Gov. Patterson, who introduced a bill Thursday legalizing same-sex marriage in the state.

The Washington state legislature passed a bill Wednesday broadening the rights and benefits to which same-sex couples are entitled. The Washington governor has said she will sign the bill. Equality for same-sex couples is slowly becoming a reality, but much work remains to ensure we don't lose ground.

We hope a Colorado jury will deliver a just ruling in the murder trial of a young trans woman. The state is prosecuting her killer under a hate-crime statute, and it is the first case in which a state will argue trans violence is covered under its hate-crime law. Colorado is one of 11 states and the District of Columbia with hate crime laws that include gender identity.

We condemn the Taliban execution of a young Afghan couple that attempted to elope. The young woman's parents attempted to force her into an arranged marriage, but she fled to a neighboring village with her partner prior to the marriage. The couple's parents found them and reported them to the Taliban.

Love gets ugly when local and federal governments dispense benefits and punishment based on a narrow-minded view of love and marriage. Americans cherish the idea of equal opportunity, and we can hold our government accountable to this ideal.

Keep working with your public servants and campus community to create a safe, equitable, peaceful society. Have a good weekend, lovers!

<3,
FMF campus team