Thank You!

THANK YOU:

• U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker for lifting the temporary stay on same-sex marriage and allowing same-sex couples to continue marrying on August 18th!


• Dolores Huerta for hosting the "Weaving Movements Together" Benefit Concert at the Greek Theatre yesterday!


• Kentucky Foundation for Women for awarding $100,000 in grants to feminist artist and social justice organizations


• California Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) for authoring SB 677 regarding property owned by human traffickers

Age-old bias for boys creates issues for China. Human trafficking is not the solution!!!

Women in China and neighboring east Asian countries are viewed as being of lesser value when compared to men. The Chinese traditionally prefer sons to daughters because of economical factors and I suppose this is somewhat understandable because residents in poorer regions rely on family resources to survive. However sayings among Chinese peasants like “The birth of a boy is welcomed with shouts of joy and firecrackers, but when a girl is born, the neighbors say nothing” upset me. I do not understand why a saying like this can be so common when in reality without women, all birth would be impossible!

We all know about China’s one-child population control policy which officially restricts the number of children an urban couple can have. And most are aware of China’s long tradition of son preference which is deeply rooted in the structure of the society. But the combination of tradition and policy has proved dangerous for women and young girls. There is currently a significant gender gap in several Asian countries because the birth rate of males in comparison to females is imbalanced. Such imbalance has created social issues and caused an increase in crime.

In many Asian countries human trafficking is on the rise due to a shortage of marriageable women. It is hard for men to find wives because their potential mates are often nonexistent due to the high percentage of families engaging in late term sex-selective abortion and infanticide. Now there is a demand for abducted women especially in poor rural areas where residents lack legal knowledge and are desperate to find work. Often women and children are tricked by unlicensed job and marriage agencies, lured through false promises of legitimate employment. Many are kidnapped and forced into marriages and prostitution. These victims suffer physically and psychologically and are often cut off from their families completely.
The Chinese government is working to reduce corruption and other economic crimes. Police are taking action and have made arrests within the human trafficking ring. I believe the issue can not simply be solved through these arrests however, it is also necessary for the Chinese to change their view of women. The chaos caused by the imbalanced sex ratio should be an indicator to the Chinese people that sustaining a female population is vital. It is quite simple, without women there are no babies, no female babies, no male babies! Yes, China is overpopulated but a country that is exclusively male just can’t work!
I’d like to see China’s perspective of women change for the better. Perhaps when women are valued, human trafficking, sex selective abortion and many of the other social issues will go away.

Forced Marriage can "Correct" Gay Men

The U.K.'s Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) reports that there was a 65% increase in the calls reporting cases of men in forced marriage in 2009. The unit received 134 calls and emails in 2008, but the following year, FMU received 220 calls and emails reporting male victims.

Last year, men in Britain made up a 14% of the 1,682 forced marriage cases total reported. However, under-reporting has led FMU to believe that there could be a total of 10,ooo British citizens in forced marriage. In addition, they estimate that 20% of these cases involve a male victim.

According to Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne, men find it harder than women to ask for help when faced with forced marriage. With few men coming forward, young men between the age of 15 and 24 years continue to face physical and sexual violence, confinement and at times, being sent to other countries for not complying with their families' wishes.

Why is this happening to men? Hasn't forced marriage usually been a problem for women?

While many think of forced marriage as a crime that occurs against women, men also experience this form of human trafficking. Unsurprisingly, men are subjected to forced marriage because they are gay or their families believe that they might be gay. Reinforcing the societal expectation of heterosexuality, families use forced marriage as a means to "correct" a man's sexual orientation.

I also just want to point out that homosexuality is one reason that some women have been subjected to forced marriage. There is no reason that anyone, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation (or any other reason!), should be forced into marriage.

Photo Credit: BBC News

She's Not a "Real Woman"

The UK's Guardian interviewed over 700 men about their experiences with prostitution. Some of the responses were pretty disturbing. The thoughts and views of some of the men exhibited how prominent misogyny is in our society.

The main issue is that men are able to distinguish prostitutes from "real women". Because these women are willing to do things other women would not, they must be lesser humans because they must have something wrong with them. These women are doing them a favor by performing sexual acts that others would not, but instead of being thankful, men lose respect for them.

Men see sex as something they're taking from women so they should be left with less than they started with. "I don't want them to get any pleasure. I am paying for it and it is her job to give me pleasure. If she enjoys it I would feel cheated." Just because you're paying her doesn't mean she can't enjoy it at the same time. That's like saying people shouldn't get paid if they enjoy their job.

Lastly, men see prostitution as an alternative to rape. They make it seem as if it's one or the other so we should be thankful they chose to have sex with someone who's "willing". You can hardly say that these women are "willing", especially when most of them have been sold either into sex trafficking or exploited by their pimp. Many of the men interviewed admitted that they knew that the prostitute was not there on her own will, but didn't think they should do anything about it and still had sex with the women/girls.

Hey guys, do us a favor. Save your money and make the effort to find somebody who actually wants to have sex with you. Oh, and by the way, before treating these women like scum remember each and every one of them is someone's daughter.

More at Jezebel

Photo by Adam Crowe via Flickr

A step forward in education and liberation!

Hello my fellow feminists,

For many of the California State University students on the quarter system, it is back to the books and the start of recruiting for various organizations. The Cal State Los Angeles FMLA chapter has been out there working hard spreading the word about feminism and getting students involved with feminist issues. My colleagues have been out in their classes talking with instructors and students, gaining support from the educational community at CSULA.

Here is a link to our flyer and calendar of events for the winter quarter.

We were able to see the benefits of our recruitment efforts with a large turnout for our first meeting and workshop. All of our members were excited to see the new faces and hear the exchange of ideas from our fellow students/activists. We did have some new officer positions that became available and I was able to take the position of recruitment officer. We also had an awesome workshop on human trafficking done by our colleague Paula Potter. She brought some good points about the human trafficking industry and the corruption that surrounds the issue in the political aspect.

For more information on human trafficking click here.

So from the turn out that we had at our first meeting, the responses and dialogue that followed the presentation, we felt that our first meeting went very well. I look forward to doing more with our organization and the events that we have planned for the up coming weeks. I'll keep you posted on the activism going on at the CSULA campus. Stay involved and keep up the fight for equality!

Frank Perez

Choices Campus Leadership Program Intern

photos complements of myself and Flickr via Chris Delk

Survivors have their voices heard at the UN

Equally worthy news sources Time Magazine and FMF blogger Kat have been getting buzz going: the recession has brought with it an increase in human trafficking, particularly in cases of child sex trafficking.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 12.3 million people are being trafficked at any given time, with that number mostly being compiled of women and girls.

In response to this dangerous snowballing threat to safety, the UN responded with a series of recently-held hearings specifically on the issue. Truth be told, this is not the first time human trafficking has been brought up in the halls of the UN; its an issue they've been grappling with for quite some time. It is, however, the first time the UN has approached the topic by putting the specialists to the side and the spotlight on survivors. The results were fascinating.


Heart-wrenching stories were shared from all walks of life from Rachel Lloyd (who founded the non-profit GEMS after escaping her own forced sexual exploitation horror story) to Charlotte Awino of Uganda (who was imprisoned 8 years by Ugandan rebels at the age of 14,) Buddhi Gurung of Nepal (who, unlike many, survived being duped by a false work ad, having his passport confiscated and forced to work in a war-zone) and Kikka Cerpa of Venezuela (who was taken to NYC by her boyfriend, under the guise of being a nanny, only to get sold into his family's brothel.)

While the stories came from different corners of the globe, they oozed of the same plea: these people are victims and the official world needs to start seeing them as victims.

In all cases, there was an opportunity for action that was not taken. Awino explained when found by authorities, people in her situation are often mistaken as compliant terrorists, and treated as such. Cerpa reported the multiple times the police raided her brothel, either to demand sex or to arrest the workers. Each time, she was denied the aid she needed because it was never assumed that she was there against her will. Gurung is currently suing the US government (specifically the federal contractors KRB) for human trafficking and is still shocked that in his many encounters with officials, it was always assumed he was a voluntary immigrant worker, even though his papers did not match.

UN Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons Joy Ngozi Ezeilo emphasized penalizing the guilty, not the victims, pushing for stronger law enforcement in each country and financial compensation for the victims.

Reminding those in the hearing of shared humanity, Ezeilo closed by saying "it will be irresponsible if we fail to act. We are humans and we should not support inhuman action...The slave trade has been abolished and we can't accept that in our world today.""

photo credit: mvcorks on flickr.com

Mujeres de Juarez

Since 1993, the women of Juarez have been victims of unexplained violence and brutal deaths. According to Amnesty International, about 370 women in Juarez have been murdered in the last 15 years.

In recent years, there has been a shift in the women targeted as victims. The common victims were women working in maquiladoras. Maquiladoras were created as a result of the NAFTA treaty agreement. Maquiladoras are factories that would import materials from an originating country, produce a product, and then export the product back to the US.

Due to the process of globalization and the role of women within the much of Mexican culture created the view that women are obedient and flexible with hours and shifts. This theory accounted for why women comprised the assembly line workers of these maquiladoras. The women commonly employed by these maquiladoras in Ciudad Juarez were poor and generally came from other parts of Mexico.

These workers were the common victims in the approximate 370 murders in Juarez. Their bodies were often found with signs of sexual abuse and torture, abandoned in ditches and empty lots.

In the last year and a half, an additional two dozen women and girls have gone missing; however, the victims' profiles have changed. The young women and girls are no longer maquiladora employees. They are university students and women looking for better jobs. The current victims are local residents, who come from working and middle class homes. And all of the young women bear a striking resemblance to each other: slender, conventionally attractive and dark-haired.

Another key element is missing this time around. There are no bodies of the victims. These women are simply missing. The victims' families have also received mysterious phone calls from unknown numbers. With the recent rise of trafficking, some believe that the young women and even girls as young as 13, have been forced into prostitution rings, perhaps in the US.

The recent increase in drug trafficking and drug cartel violence that is overshadowing the country and usurping law enforcement efforts, combined with the corrupt police of Juarez, has led to very little action or investigation into these disappearances. The women of Juarez can no longer be ignored. For 15 years we saw practically zero investigation into the murders of the maquiladora women, to the point where law enforcement was suspected of being a key player in these murders. These disappearances can no longer be brushed aside - we are talking about women's lives!

Photo courtesy of www.flickr.com

Exploiting Dreams and Destroying Lives

Human trafficking is probably one of the most serious and inhumane problems affecting women and children today. The more you hear about it, the most upset and angry you get. This monstrous business is almost unbelievable.

Global Post has a piece about the increasing rates of young women in Mongolia being tricked into entering the sex trade. These women are told that they are starting a new job or college, and are flown to a different country and are suddenly in an incomprehensible nightmare. They are forced into prostitution and are often beaten.

Many are trapped, unable to get away and return to their homes. And, as this article points out, even if they are able to escape, their lives are still completely destroyed. They may be out of the sex trade, but they often face depression, poverty, and the risk of re-entering the trade either as a prostitute or as a trafficker.

You have to wonder what kind of person becomes a trafficker. How can they do that to another person? I don't think that we can only blame the individuals themselves because in many parts of the world, it is almost impossible to earn a living. It is devastating that in order to survive in the world, some people have to lie, kidnap and force women into the sex trade.

Certainly there are some just plain bad people who do it, but I think that there is more to this issue than just that. It makes me incredibly angry and it tears me up inside that there are so many women and children who are forced into doing something that is not only degrading, but also extremely dangerous. These are people who have their own dreams and lives, they are not objects that can be traded and sold.

Photo courtesy of www.flickr/mvcorks

“Oppression Disguised as Liberation”

Prostitution is often called “the oldest profession in the world” and in Amsterdam, this profession is still going strong.

Today, countless numbers of men and women are embarking on planes, not just to see the house where Anne Frank lived or to visit the Picasso Museum, but to take a stroll through the red light district.

For those women who choose to become prostitutes and feel content and empowered by their line of work, I respect their decision. However, this blog is not about them.

For the thousands of women who are forced into prostitution due to economic, social and physical pressures, their occupation should be considered more as evidence of poverty and desperation than as an actual choice. Therefore, it’s important to ask why this profession, especially in Amsterdam, is so readily accepted and supported (financially and socially) by both men and women.

It gets personal for me. During my study abroad in Senegal, I became friends with a female bartender at a local bar. She called me Jennaba, wore bright clothing and shared “blue lagoons” with me after work. It wasn’t until three months later that I discovered she was a prostitute. A French soldier told me that in exchange for sex, he paid for her rent, food and clothes. He bragged that he was “helping” my friend, failing to mention why the exchange of sex was fundamental to aid a woman in poverty. I never asked my friend why she did this. I already knew her answer; in a country where women are prevented (and often stigmatized) for escaping abusive marriages, going to school, obtaining good-paying jobs and living independently, prostitution is necessary for survival.

Many might counter that, “This is Africa, not the developed world.” Yet, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs found in 2000, that over two thirds of the 30,000 prostitutes in Amsterdam come from Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, regions which fail to reflect the false sense of development and economic freedom Amsterdam provides. According to the National Center against Human Trafficking,

human trafficking in the Netherlands is on the rise (estimates range from 1000 to 7000 on a yearly basis).

So, I guess I’m confused as to how the red light district of Amsterdam has become the “new normal.” While prostitutes who qualify for legal protection in Amsterdam might be better off, for those women who are not protected, and there are many, this legality creates a dangerous atmosphere of acceptance. Dutch authorities distinguish prostitution from sexual exploitation as "full consent to exploitation of the self," but I question how much of that consent is based on free-will. Isn’t Amsterdam just a bigger example of how the acceptance that providing money to prostitutes makes an oftentimes (economically, physically and socially) forced sexual relationship appropriate?

The majority of prostitutes in Amsterdam are either trafficked illegally or make the difficult choice to leave their impoverished countries in order to make a living. How can choice exist if there is only one option? One of my favorite quotes, from The West Wing, observes that, “Oppression isn’t ok just because it’s been institutionalized.” Instead of accepting legalized prostitution in Amsterdam as a matter of protection, choice and free will, let’s explore why many of these women are prostitutes in the first place and acknowledge that legality does not always mean justice.

Invisible Children Comes to D.C.!

Last week, I posted on the 2009 Human Trafficking Report issued by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and mentioned the non profit organization, Invisible Children.

"IC" is an organization fighting to shed light and stop the human trafficking of child soldiers in Africa. The current war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is Africa's longest running war, going on for over 20 years; yet most Americans are completely oblivious to it. Right now, 3,000 child soldiers are being kept hostage by Joseph Kony and fighting in his Lord's Resistance Army in the DRC.

According to I.C., their goals are, "To deliver justice to Kony, minimize innocent casualties and bring the abducted children home." Thus far, I.C. has sent $17.5 million in US funds through United States Agency for International Development to help war-affected regions in the DRC.

Leaders, advocates, and supporters of I.C. have come to D.C. for a two-day (yesterday and today) national lobbying event to raise global awareness and take action to stop Joseph Kony's war. Invisible Children presented their case with full-on Senate and House meetings earlier today, including a live feed of the events. From 5 - 8 pm this evening, there will be a closing rally at the Ellipse between the National Mall and the White House. This is something worth attending, especially as the rally will close with acoustic performances by Anthony Green from Circa Survive, Nada Surf, Aaron Gillespie from Underoath, and Bryce Avery!

I have participated in I.C.'s "Displace Me" event and a few other protests and they have always been educational. If anything can be said about this organization, its that they certainly know how to get the attention of young activists!

Human Trafficking Report Issued, and For Good Reason!

Today Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued the ninth annual Department of State Trafficking Persons Report. The document is over 300 pages of action initiatives and narratives from 175 countries worldwide. This document gives the reader a true sense of what people experience who are thrown into human trafficking. Full of personal and heart breaking experiences, the report is over 300 pages long!

The sex trade is a multi billion dollar industry, full of coercion, torture, rape and violence against women and children. President Bill Clinton issued the first US government policy concerning human trafficking in 1998. In the late 1990's to 2002 The Penguin Atlas was able to better understand the documented flows of sex trafficking through research and survivors stories. At that time, main originating countries of sex trafficking included China, Indonesia, Brazil, Peru, Algeria, Niger, and Ethiopia. From the 2009 Report, a personal story from a Nigerian woman named Anita who was trafficked through Ghana into Italy was almost unrealistic. She was carted between Milan, Rome, and Turin and raped nearly 25 times a day. Anita survived to tell her story but few do. The horror stories that come from around the world seem to be distant to those of us who live in the US, in actuality, it is just hidden. The clues of human trafficking can be found all around the US.

In fact, the US and Canada were considered main destinations and transit countries in 2002. An estimated 50,000 women are trafficked into the US every year, yet go undetected. It is important to understand that these women are being held against their will. They are often coerced and tricked into slavery, believing they are entering some sort of workforce. Or in some cases, tricked and sold by their own friends and family. They are constantly beaten, threatened, raped, and scared for their lives. According to UNICEF, as many as two million children are subjected to prostitution in the global commercial sex trade. While sex trafficking is definitely one of the larger forms there is also involuntary domestic servitude, child labor, bonded labor, and child soldiers.

Child soldiers is a relatively untouched and uneducated issue for youth of America. That is until 3 Southern Californian filmmakers created a documentary and then the non profit organization Invisible Children. The film brought light to the war in Northern Uganda, and how children are kidnapped turned into child soldiers and used as weapons. Since 2003, Invisible Children has worked to bring light about this war and these children to mainstream America and to help in the change and process toward peace in Africa.

For North Korean female refugees in China the "life of an animal"

The recent sentencing of U.S. journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, to 12 years of reform through hard labor in a North Korean labor camp for "grave crimes" against the country has been met with strong reaction from journalists, politicians, and activists alike. Lee and Ling were captured while filming a documentary for Current TV about North Korean exiles who flee to neighboring China.

While their unjust arrest and sentencing has been covered greatly, few have discussed the reason for their visit and subject of their documentary. The Washington Post today did just that with a revealing article about the women who escape North Korea, sometimes on their own but often by human traffickers, only to be met with a grim reality and few resources to help them.

"North Korea regards them as criminals for leaving. China refuses to recognize them as refugees, sending many back to face interrogation, hard labor and sometimes torture. Others stay on in stateless limbo, sold by brokers to Chinese men in need of fertile women and live-in labor. Forced marriage, abiding threats of deportation and a life without citizenship have become the norm for most female defectors now living in China."

In a recent report by the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea an estimated 300,000 North Koreans currently live in China illegally. Eight out of 10 defectors are working-class women who have fled due to poverty and hunger.

Bang Mi Sun is one woman who has experienced first hand the "life of an animal" as a North Korean refugee in China.

"If I had a chance to meet with President Obama, I would first like to tell him how North Korean women are being sold like livestock in China and, second, to know that North Korean labor camps are hell on earth."

Her story is below: