California Feminist Blogs

This week's news:

- Poly Styrene, singer for late-70's punk band X-Ray Spex, died 4/25 from advanced breast cancer. She was one of the first women in punk and a huge influence on the Riot Grrrl movement.

"I've always been an observer, not a suffering artist writing from tortured experiences. I was playing with words and ideas. Having a laugh about everything, sending it up."Poly Styrene

- Two teenagers attacked Chrissy Lee Polis, a transgender woman, at a Baltimore McDonald's while an employee taped the beating. Taken from NYDailyNews.com,

One of the women can be seen dragging Polis across the restaurant to the front door while the other kicks her several times, the video shows. An elderly woman also tries to intervene, but is shoved away by one of the women.

I will not repost the tape here but see the video below to hear from Chrissy.



- Connecticut mother, Tanya McDowell, faces 20 years for (being black and homeless and) sending her kid to the wrong school.


She maintained that she "absolutely" sent her son to a kindergarten in Norwalk on account of its standing as a better school district than nearby Bridgeport. Norwalk mayor Richard Moccia defended the arrest, using her "checkered past" against her:

"This is not a poor, picked-upon homeless person," Moccia said on Monday. "This is an ex con, and somehow the city of Norwalk is made into the ogre in this. She has a checkered past at best."

- Royal wedding protesters were arrested 4/29 in Soho Square. Protestor Olivia Knight, daughter of Chris Knight who was also arrested, spoke out about the arrest:

"My father was going to take part in a performance. It was going to be in the great British tradition and was going to be playful, peaceful and satirical to highlight the obscenity of the royal wedding and the grotesque nature of the taxpayer having to pay for the Windsor wedding at a time of such austerity."

- Douglass Boulevard Christian Church renounces rights to grant marriages until gay couples can marry.


Rev. Ryan Kemp-Pappan of the church defended the church's stance in an interview with WHAS 11 in Louisville,

[Heterosexual couples] may inherit property, adopt children together, visit one another in the hospital and save thousands each year in taxes by filing as a couple. Ministers, as agents of the state, have the power to confer these benefits–and the imprimatur of normalcy–on heterosexual couples, but we do not have the honor to bestow these benefits on gay and lesbian couples.

I have this image in my head of myself, what I look like, which doesn’t seem to change very quickly. At least, it hasn’t managed to keep up well with the advanced stages of pregnancy. I’ll walk past a mirror or reflective window and be stunned at what is looking back, all four chins and forty inches of midsection which haven’t yet been incorporated into my mental image. This lag in my brain feels understandable to me considering so little about my life (if not my body) has really changed. Last night, I came home after class, talked to friends, had dinner, checked my bank balance, watched some TV, and went to bed. This week, I met two huge deadlines, fought with my husband, filed papers for a client, gave relationship advice, turned in an assignment, felt betrayed by a friend, and had a heart-to-heart with my mother.

The majority of my obligations and my stressors have absolutely nothing to do with my being pregnant. However, I have been noticing lately that my interaction with others (and mirrors) has a lot to do with it. This may be because I’ve been winding down my responsibilities to prepare for the very large responsibility headed my way in early May – having less “roles” to play may mean that people see me primarily in the most obvious role. But I can’t help wondering if it’s more than that. For instance, someone told me the other day that she didn’t want to ask me for help because I was pregnant. I hesitate to think what level of my brain people believe has been shut down pending delivery. Further, she cut me slack because I was pregnant, not because I was busy or stressed or otherwise engaged. My assistance to her would have had zero connection to my pregnancy other than the dispensation I was unknowingly granted. And sometimes it feels like every dispensation these days, requested or otherwise, necessarily requires some nexus to my pregnancy.

I can’t stop thinking about Mrs T.* In 2009, she went before a judge as an undocumented immigrant HIV+ black woman convicted of falsifying documents and all he saw was “pregnant.” Ignoring sentencing guidelines, her date of release was scheduled to coincide with her due date to ensure compliance with anti-retroviral medication to prevent HIV transmission to the fetus. She was given an unnecessarily longer, more restrictive (and insulting) sentence by virtue of her gestational state. I don’t mean to imply any direct correlation to my situation is appropriate, especially when our only noticeably common traits are pregnancy and womanhood, but I do feel a lot more empathy considering our shared experience as the in(di)visible.

The next time you see a pregnant woman or girl, I strongly encourage you to embrace her wholeness. By this I mean realize she is everything at once – female, student, spouse, creditor, friend, attorney, taxpayer, editor, partner, swimmer, driver, homeowner, daughter, consumer, and everything else, as applicable. She is realistically subject to everything she normally has to deal with in addition to aches, fatigue, swelling, anxiety, shoe-tying, etc. Particularly in the later stages, when her womb has been effectively annexed by the fetus, the state, and by horribly unforgiving gravity, I implore you to remember that she is so much more than pregnant.

*Chapter Note: For more on Ms. T, and to share her story with your chapter, check out the RJ 101 Easy-Event-in-an-Envelope.

Sara Taylor

This is the first in a series of posts by our resident bloggers as they look back on the past school year and their involvement with LSRJ. Jess Wilkerson, 2L at Vermont Law School, is first up. She was not only a resident blogger for LSRJ this year, but she put on the amazing Northeast Regional Conference as Regional Coordinator and she will be serving VLS next year as the Student Bar Association President!

This year of leading Law Students for Reproductive Justice has been incredible. The Vermont Chapter has been lucky to put on a number of informative events that seemed to have a real impact on our small community. I feel like my tenure as a leader and blogger has made those around me more aware of the importance of reproductive justice issues and of that I am extremely proud. The last event of the year was especially important to me.

A week before the official International Take Back the Night events, Vermont Law School held its own healing fire ceremony. At 7:30 in the evening, we met in our Town Green and started a small fire in a tin. We lit candles and stood in a circle and told our stories as a community. During the week, people anonymously put slips of paper containing written accounts of their experiences into a box we had left out all week. We started by reading those stories and then those of us in the circle that wanted to, shared their experiences. There were many, many survivors in our midst and nearly every kind of sexual abuse was represented.

I was moved by the courage of those who came forward and brokenhearted that sexual abuse is so prevalent. Not one of the perpetrators of this violence was charged or prosecuted in the cases we heard about that evening. Many of the women (all of the people who shared that evening about personal experiences) had never talked about their experiences publically in any way. They said they felt relieved to recognize their experiences and shed some of the shame they felt. After people spoke, many of them wrote a bit of their stories onto pieces of paper and burned them in the fire, along with some healing herbs or incense.

The night was windy and we had trouble keeping the candles lit. However, a number of men’s rugby players came to show their support and they worked hard to keep their candles lit and to pass the flame around the circle. It was beautiful to watch these men work so hard to keep the flames alive. They expressed their concern and their solidarity by making sure that there was always a candle burning in our circle. Everyone there created an atmosphere of trust and healing and people left with a new awareness.

My life is richer because of Law Students for Reproductive Justice. Sometimes, I am busier than my fellow students because of my involvement but I am always learning and sharing and remembering my reason for being in law school. Too many people do not have voices and I have too much not to give back. I am so grateful for LSRJ.

*LSRJ brought a delegation of eleven members, alums, and staff to the annual Reproductive Freedom Day (RFD) in Sacramento. Catherine Groat, a 2L at Santa Clara Law School, decided to share her experience here.

Whenever I hear about lobbying, it’s always in this vague smoke and mirrors type of fashion. In my cartoon fantasy, picketers are swarming women and men dressed in red and blue suits as they make their way to their offices on top of a very high hill. I’ve learned, however, that lobbying in its basic form is actually just the purest form of democracy: a group of concerned citizens voicing their opinions to their government in hopes of making a difference.

As a law student, this form of advocacy is new and empowering. The ability to change laws by lobbying legislators instead of judges seems a foreign but fresh idea, and I felt at Reproductive Freedom Day that I had contributed a small piece to a larger scheme and mission that I cared about.

Representatives from various LSRJ chapters in California came together at the end of March to visit their legislators in Sacramento and lobby for the passage of Assembly Bill 499. This bill is an amendment to Family Code Section 6926 that would allow minors, 12 and older, to consent to medical care related to the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. Preventative treatments include the HPV vaccine, hepatitis B vaccines, and prophylactic post-exposure HIV medications. The existing statute allows minors, 12 and older, to consent to the diagnosis and treatment of STDs, but it was adopted into law before any of the new preventative treatments were available. Therefore, AB 499 seeks to primarily to update the law to reflect these medical advancements and allow youth much needed access to time-critical prevention services.

Considering the political climate surrounding reproductive rights and federal funding, lobbying for bills such as 499 and making visits to our state and national capitols are a great way to continue to assert our presence to lawmakers and assure them that we care about how reproductive issues are treated. Reproductive Freedom Day, hosted by the California Coalition for Reproductive Freedom, is an annual day-long event designed to unite parties interested in maintaining and expanding reproductive rights in California. Against this backdrop, California LSRJ representatives were coached in the art of the legislative visit.

Amidst the buzz and warmth of a conference room filled with committed individuals, there were both seasoned professionals and beginners. Each person was grouped with 4-5 others from different organizations ranging from non-profit physician groups to womens’ immigration shelters to Planned Parenthood. The diversity of our groups helped emphasize the collective community interest in seeing this bill passed. Each group was scheduled to meet with two representatives, which was calculated to reach out to over 60 representatives from districts all over California – all before lunch! It was powerful.

We discussed how to organize the visit so that each person would have a chance to contribute and how to best convey the importance and reasons for supporting AB 499. We then walked over to the Capitol Building where, to my shock and surprise, we went straight to our assigned legislator’s offices. I was unprepared for how easy it was to reach out. I thought that I would at least have to jump through a hoop, maybe two, but really the metal detector and finding the correct room number were the only obstacles. While some groups were able to meet directly with their scheduled representatives, other groups met with staff who attentively listened to the reason for coming to visit, took notes on the bill, and promised to relay the information. We were prepared for questions and kickback, but since we were visiting with similar minded parties, there was a general agreement that it was a smart and necessary bill.

In talking to the director of the ACLU for Northern California later that week, an expert in organizing campaigns for causes, he said that all of the efforts, even the small ones, like a concerned group of citizens visiting their representatives, are effective in getting a message to legislators about what issues their districts care about most.

Catherine Groat, 2L, Santa Clara Law School

I want to talk a little bit, from my cisgendered perspective, about parenting and gender, an idea that was inspired by the recent Jenna Lyons/J.Crew controversy. If you're not familiar with the issue, Jenna Lyons, J.Crew's Creative Director, is under attack for her recent jcrew.com feature.

That little boy is Jenna's son, of whom she writes: "Lucky for me, I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink. Toenail painting is way more fun in neon."

This is the part where you say, "wai-wai-wait, sooo...

1. There is a photograph of a little boy wearing pink toenail polish in the J.Crew catalogue AND

2. His famous mother is publicly celebrating his cross-gender expression?"

Wow! I'm pleasantly surprised with J.Crew, a company I've criticized in the past for solely presenting images of the traditional nuclear family in their advertisements and catalogues. Unfortunately Keith Ablow, Fox News Contributor/incoherent rambler, did not share my enthusiasm (if you can believe it).

Yeah, well, it may be fun and games now, Jenna, but at least put some money aside for psychotherapy for the kid—and maybe a little for others who’ll be affected by your “innocent” pleasure. This is a dramatic example of the way that our culture is being encouraged to abandon all trappings of gender identity—homogenizing males and females when the outcome of such “psychological sterilization” [my word choice] is not known.

The horror! If boys stop thinking girl toys are icky, how will the two ever come to develop the volatile love/hate relationship necessary to sustain a traditional heterosexual marriage? I suppose that's where the therapist comes in. To undo the, uh, "psychological sterilization" *makes wtf face*. Jenna's response?

Lots of kids, say seven and under, might ask their parents for something that would seem to be cross gender, and I think most parents, especially in the privacy of their own home might think, what’s the big deal?

Gwen Stefani and Jennifer Lopez are such parents, having come under fire themselves for painting their own sons' nails. These high-profile celebrities have consistently defended their and their children's actions. Soo Hollywood moms FTW? I'll take it! I'll even sign this petition to thank Jenna Lyons and J.Crew.

But who can ignore that these parents and children are celebrities? Real-world parents/children aren't afforded the same allowance to symbolically break select social norms. Well, some real-world parents are trying to change all that.

Here's a list of online resources by and for parents that have made commitments to supporting their gender non-conforming children:

Sarah Hoffman's blog was inspired by her son, Sam, a "pink boy. Like a tomboy, only different." In "Out of the Mouth of My Babe," she shares some of Sam's insights:

I wish there were just kids. Sure, boys and girls are important, when you get older, for making babies. But for kids, who cares? A lot of my friends are girls. And that’s just hard for kids like me. The world would be a better place if there were only kids and not divided into “boy” or “girl.”

Pink Is For Boys is "a place to wonder about the boxes we put kids in, how they get built, what they accomplish, and what happens to kids who don't care to live in boxes," featuring such titles as "Is beating up the bully ever ok . . . even if it's with your pink Cinderella lunch box?" The mama who maintains this blog writes:

Rather than dealing with the world as it is, we often find ourselves dealing with preset ideas about the world. We’re pushed to “choose” between a few — usually two — positions: liberal or conservative? pro-life or pro-choice? Christian or not? boy or girl? I’m for richly describing our robust realities and then pondering their meanings, rather than starting with a list of meanings into which we try to stuff our lives.

Accepting Dad writes his blog out of "the love for my son, and my love now for all sons, all daughters born as sons, all gender-nonconforming youth who have lost their families for being who they had no choice but to be." His allegiance to his son's cause (in sarcastic-dad-like fashion) is heartbreaking. Take this quote from "An End to Fear" for example:

My younger son’s friend recently opined loudly that pink was not an acceptable favorite color for boys. I asked him if he knew what my favorite color was. He said no, he didn’t. What was my favorite color?

“Not being an asshole,” I said. I went on to say people liked what they liked.

Raising My Rainbow chronicles one mom's "adventures in raising a slightly effeminate, possibly gay, totally fabulous son," who is at the same time a slightly masculine, possibly heterosexual, totally rambunctious son." I enjoyed reading about C.J.'s Strawberry Shortcake playdate with another gender non-conforming boy:

I can’t tell what is transpiring between the two Strawberry Shortcakes, but I can tell that my son is in heaven, even though he is acting like a diva. I am pretty much inside the pearly gates too, because it is the first time ever that my son has played with little boy just like him.

Labels are for Jars is a blog written by a queer mother committed to empowering her gender-bending son, Q. In one post titled "Identity" she relays some of Q's thoughts on the subject:

It’s interesting to notice how ensconced he is in his staunch view that choices he makes are because he LIKES things. And that clothes should be for KIDS, not for boys or girls. And on and on down that line of reasoning.

The first time I saw Ma Vie en Rose, I found myself helplessly wishing that the stork carrying a neocon extremist's transgender baby would accidentally drop ze off at my doorstep instead. In other words, I wanted to have a direct, positive influence on a child after witnessing the hardships the fictional Ludovic faced in a place ze was supposed to feel most comfortable. Thus reading about child gender rebels from the P.O.V.s of their supportive parents definitely gave rise to a tear or two. It's obvious how much these parents have already learned about love, happiness, and acceptance (not to mention LGTBQ theories and identity politics) from their children. Please make use of the links and, as always, I'd love to hear your feedback.

As a government shutdown looms, House Republicans are still refusing to budge on their demands to defund Planned Parenthood. Yes, I said the government will SHUT DOWN in 9 hours unless we throw women under the bus. ...apparently the 300+ pieces of anti-choice legislation that Republicans have introduced at the state level aren't strict enough to keep women from obliterating humanity, one abortion at a time.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that House Republicans have taken it this far - those hit the hardest by a shutdown would (and probably will) be women and other oppressed groups.

Today Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) higlighted the ridiculousness of shutting down the government "over contraceptive pills."

Congressional Democrats have met Republicans more than halfway on the GOP budget proposal (as a matter of fact they've agreed to 78% of Republican-proposed budget cuts); the only thing Boehner and his boys are communicating with their refusal to compromise is that they believe in threats and bullying as valid governing tactics in a Democratic country. Um, hello? Aren't those traits commonly associated with DICTATORS?

Women haven't come this far in the last forty years to be bullied into submission. In these last few hours, it can't hurt to urge your members of Congress to support Title X and Planned Parenthood. And while you're at it, call John Boehner at his DC office number, (202) 225-6205 (additional contact info here), and give him a piece of your mind!

Someone buy me one of the following Female Force comics, pretty please?