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This is the first in a series of posts by LSRJ alum Heather Sager (’10, Indiana University Maurer School of Law), who recently took a position at the Human Rights Law Network in India. Heather will be bringing us along on her journey through the field of international reproductive rights work.

The spring of my 2L year, I was thrilled to receive the news that I had been selected as one of LSRJ’s International Interns. At the time, the program placed summer interns with an organization abroad. What an incredible service! I remember very clearly speaking on the phone with Cari Sietstra, “How do you feel about India?” I was, to say the least, ecstatic.

I knew that summer would be a big turning point for me, but I’m certain I couldn’t have been aware of just how big of a turn things would take. I spent my entire 2L summer working for an India-wide NGO based in New Delhi. Beginning my internship at the Human Rights Law Network was, from the moment I walked in, like jumping into a giant pool of hectic, all-encompassing work, with culture-shock to boot. The unit I worked in, Reproductive Rights, was headed at the time by a fabulous woman named Jameen Kaur. She allowed her interns a huge amount of autonomy, and I was able to spend my summer fact-finding, traveling, researching, and eventually drafting a sizeable writ petition on access to blood services and maternal mortality. The entire experience was exhilarating, exhausting, frustrating, and extremely fulfilling.

After those few months I returned to the U.S. to finish my degree, take the bar exam, and look for work back in my hometown, New York. It wasn’t long after moving back home, however, that I began to play with the idea of returning to India. And after a few months of looking, but not finding, work within the New York area, I got my opportunity.

Of all places, I found my new job on Facebook. I’d kept up my contacts at the NGO I’d worked for and, as luck would have it, someone posted a call for applications. The job seemed amazing, if not daunting, and would allow me the opportunity to continue to work in human rights internationally. And so, after several months of planning, deciding it couldn’t work, finding solutions to problems, and then more planning, I accepted a research and litigation strategy position and returned to the Human Rights Law Network in New Delhi.

Looking back, my internship through LSRJ taught me to see reproductive rights in a whole new light. I realized that having come from the U.S., even my definition of “reproductive rights” was severely limited. In a country battling crippling maternal mortality rates, dealing with alarmingly high numbers of police-rape, and struggling to educate the general population on basic sexual healthcare, it becomes clear just how broad the field of reproductive rights is.

And this is where I find myself now. For the last month and a half I’ve been part of a small team that plans and executes public hearings on the National and State Human Rights Commissions throughout India. We bring in victims, activists, lawyers and experts, hold a hearing in every state with a Human Rights Commission, publish analysis of our findings, and perform various legal and individual case follow-up within the Commissions and court system. While every case is heart-wrenching, my personal focus remains on those involving women’s and reproductive rights. There are still so many difficulties faced by women here, ranging from subtle discrimination to open, unabashed harassment and violence. As I continue my work, I hope to share some of the stories I encounter, both horrible and hopeful, of women’s experiences throughout India.

First of all, thank you NineteenPercent, for eloquently and hilariously voicing the issues that many of us popculturefreak feminists have with Beyonce's latest hit, "Run the World (Girls)"!



However, not all feminists share the sentiments put forth by NineteenPercent. BitchMedia brought up some good points in this article in defense of Beyonce's latest hit. This excerpt provides a nice lead-in to a point I've wanted to make about the song:

Lord knows I love to analyze song lyrics, but saying that because women don't actually hold power no one should sing about women holding power is kind of like saying that since we don't all live in a Rhythm Nation no one should sing about that either.

I already commented on the Bitch post but I wanted to reiterate here that I don't think that analogy is fair considering the implications of promoting a post-sexist society are considerably more negative than promoting a "rhythm nation." Most pop music serves to justify andor deny oppression, this song can easily fall into the latter category.

That being said, I grew up on Destiny's Child and Beyonce was instrumental in fostering my proto-feminist ideas. It's interesting, though, that my 14-year old socially adept, cheerleader sister (armed with a few hand-me-down young feminist handbooks of course) takes issue with "Run the World" ("yeah, but girls don't run the world..."). And you can bet I'm THRILLED. While I'm sure there are younger girls taking away the same proto-feminist ideas from Beyonce's new hit as I did from, say, "Survivor," I don't see why she can't be a little more explicit if she IS trying to communicate a "feminist" message.

For some reason I'm thinking of the opening lyrics to Christina Aguilera's "Can't Hold Us Down":

So what am I not supposed to have an opinion? Should I keep quiet just because I'm a woman? Call me a bitch cause I speak what's on my mind, guess it's easier for you to swallow if I sat and smiled.

I never thought I'd be yearning for that brand of girl power but I'd prefer it to "Who Run the World?" any day. At least Xtina was being honest with girls when she belted out "if you look back at history there's a common double standard in society." Conversely, "Run the World (Girls)" seems like an attempt to shield girls from the harsh sexist reality of the world they live in. And I don't appreciate the apologetic line "Boy, I'm just playing. Come here baby, hope you still like me (if you pay me)." ?!?

At the same time I often give anyone props for saying anything about girls running anything! So, as is the case with most feminist issues in the mainstream, I find myself saying "eh, (I guess) I'll take it..."

Thoughts?

Once again, I'm soOoO confused by Jezebel's selection of "feminist" music artists (that are supposed to teach me "valuable life lessons about ladyhood" nonetheless...).



This video/artist caught my eye for a few reasons. I guess the main one being that I'm a mixed race white Arab poet that likes hip hop but struggles with what that means or can mean for me. I've even thought about recording some queer sex positive feminist rhymes before but am not sure if it's my place, no matter how careful I am or how many caveats I preface the rhyme(s) with. Then out of nowhere comes someone like Kreayshawn, white female rapper "out of Oakland" (otherwise known as Natasha, a graduate of Alameda High School) rocking a diamond-encrusted Native American caricature pendant (which is a WTF in its own right) and a seriously idiotic N-word tweet and I'm reminded about my own issues with non-African Americans inserting themselves into hip hop culture period. Behold:
If I hear another non-black person claim that their usage of the word "nigga" is somehow less offensive than "nigger" and thus a word they have the right to appropriate I might implode. To me this implies that the entire African diaspora has agreed that the N-word is a word that, when "reclaimed," can have positive repercussions.

I've been thinking about the reclamation of movements and words a lot lately, due in part to several posts on the topic in reference to the SlutWalk phenom. Individuals reclaim words for themselves. Entire oppressed groups do not reclaim words, can you imagine even 10 women in a group agreeing that "bitch" is a word they'd use to describe themselves? Although I'm not sure I agree with all of the sentiments put forth by the author of this post on SlutWalk and white supremacy, I thought this paragraph illustrated the complexities involved in reclaiming a word for oneself, let alone ignorantly parroting a word that has been reclaimed by members of another oppressed group:

There is no indication that SlutWalk will even strip the word “slut” from its hateful meaning. The n-word, for example, is still used to dehumanize black folks, regardless of how many black folks use it among themselves. Just moments before BART officer James Mehserle shot Oscar Grant to death in Oakland in 2009, video footage captured officers calling Grant a “bitch ass nigger.” It didn’t matter how many people claimed the n-word as theirs – it still marked the last hateful words Grant heard before a white officer violently killed him.

Yes, reclaiming pejorative words can be empowering. But that power is dependent upon negative histories and implications. The flip side to keeping powerful pejorative words in circulation lies in the potential that those words will continue to be utilized by racist police officers and abusive partners, or commandeered and trivialized by insensitive outsiders.

What do you think?

Today is the International Day Against Homophobia, Bi-phobia and Transphobia (IDAHO). May 17 commemorates the removal of homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1990. IDAHO is meant to be a day of recognition of the violence committed against sexual/gender minorities as well as a day to organize local events and participate in activism regarding these issues. Some facts (and more here):

1. Homosexuality is illegal in 76 countries around the world.
2. In 5 of those countries, homosexuality is punishable by death.
3. In the U.S., the federal government accords 1,138 benefits and responsibilities based on marital status, not on civil union status.
4. The District of Columbia and 47 states have anti-hate crime laws, however only 24 states and the District of Columbia include sexual orientation in their legislation.
5. According to FBI hate crime statistics, there were 6,604 reported hate crimes in 2009. 18.5% of which were based on sexual orientation. Most were violent in nature.
6. Of the estimated 1.6 million homeless American youth, between 20% and 40% identify as LGBT.
7. While 19 states and the District of Columbia have laws barring discrimination based on sexual orientation, and many cities offer similar protections, federal law didn’t offer such a shield until November of 2007, though it did bar discrimination based on race, religion, ethnicity, sex, age, disability and pregnancy. The bill, the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, was the latest version of legislation that Democrats have pursued since 1974. To ensure passage of the bill, Democrats were forced to remove language that would have granted protections to transsexual and transgender individuals by barring discrimination based on sexual identity, a move that infuriated some gay-rights groups.

Hillary Clinton also issued this statement:

This is the third in a series of posts by our resident bloggers as they look back on the past school year and their involvement with LSRJ. Lucy Panza, graduating 3L at Georgetown University Law Center, will not be leaving the LSRJ family, as she was recently named one of our 2011-2012 Reproductive Justice Fellows. Learn more about this program and read bios of all eight Fellows at our RJFP Website.

Next weekend, I’ll be graduating from law school. Even as I write this post, I can hardly believe it!

Ever the LSRJ member, I couldn’t bid adieu to this chapter of my life without reflecting on how this time awakened my passion for reproductive justice. Unlike many LSRJ members, I came to law school with very little experience in the movement – although I had tons of passion to make up for it. I cared about abortion rights and gender equity in the workplace, and what I had read of Kimberlé Crenshaw’s work and seen in Hillary Clinton’s appearances touched me deeply. But I had no outlet for it yet, and I did not know whether or where I fit into a broader movement. LSRJ helped me find that fit.

I barely identified as Latina when I entered law school – much less as a Latina advocate for reproductive justice. But LSRJ sent me a persistent message: you have a contribution to make. Your identity is unique, and once you find it, you can use it to affect change. Even if you don’t feel oppressed, look around you – justice is underserved. That’s when I woke up to two major reproductive injustices: the contraception ban in the student insurance at Georgetown, and oppression confronting Latinas in the U.S. These are the two injustices that have defined by RJ legal education, and that I will never stop fighting against.

Through countless LSRJ events, internships, and conversations with enthusiastic advocates, I found my Latina RJ identity and a movement that welcomed me. Our movement is not perfect – it is often plagued by pettiness and even institutionalized sexism – but that is a reason to join it, not to shy away from it, because our generation is its lifeblood.

In August, I will be embarking upon my legal career as a Reproductive Justice Fellow at the Center for American Progress. I can’t wait! I cannot know what the future holds, but with such a great start, it will be hard to go wrong. I thank LSRJ for the guidance it’s provided me in the past, and the support it will provide for years to come. The intersectionality of reproductive freedom and self-determination in a broader sense is clear to me now, thanks to LSRJ.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first Freedom Ride to test the U.S. Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia.


The Boynton ruling "outlawed racial segregation in restaurants and waiting rooms in terminals serving buses that crossed state lines." Most of the rides were sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), of which prominent Freedom Rider Stokely Carmichael was a leader.


The Freedom Riders were beaten and arrested several times for violating Jim Crow travel laws in the South. Despite Southern states' blatant disregard for the Boynton ruling, the Kennedys condemned the rides as unpatriotic.



Today is also the 41st anniversary of the Kent State shootings.


On May 4, 1970 the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed students protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. The four students pictured were killed and nine others were injured. The iconic photograph below shows Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over the body of Jeffrey Miller minutes after he was shot and killed.


The shootings gave way to the Student Strike of 1970. our days after the shootings, 100,000 protesters gathered in Washington D.C. and 150,000 in San Francisco. 30 ROTC buildings nationwide were set fire or bombed and National Guard units were mobilized on 21 campuses.

This is the second in a series of posts by our resident bloggers as they look back on the past school year and their involvement with LSRJ. Lara Shkordoff, 2L at Northeastern University Law School (NULS), recently helped to coordinate one of her chapter’s most successful, city-wide events.

“We’ve got some real enemies and some problematic allies. We need to recognize the difference between the two.” -Loretta Ross, SisterSong

That was one of my favorite quotes from Loretta Ross, who spoke on an AMAZING panel that Northeastern LSRJ hosted recently titled Race, Rhetoric, and Reproductive Justice: How Current and Proposed Legislation will Affect Communities of Color.

The panel featured Loretta Ross, Reverend Madison Shockley of the Pilgrim United Church of Christ and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Tiloma Jayasinghe of Sakhi for South Asian Women, Elizabeth Barajas–Roman of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, and Priscilla Huang of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum.

It was cosponsored by an incredible cross-section of student organizations from several law schools, including Northeastern LSRJ, Harvard LSRJ, BU LSRJ, NUSL Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA), South Asian Law Students Association (SALSA), Latina American Law Students Association (LALSA), Black Law Students Association (BLSA), Women’s Law Caucus, Human Right’s Caucus, Northeastern Feminist Student Organization, and the Women and Gender Studies Department.

I mention the speakers and the co-sponsors because I think they represent how LSRJ principles and ideals were embedded in this event. The event was directed and organized by the NUSL affinity groups and LSRJ. Together we decided on the panel speakers, theme, and topics. The panel focused on issues that affect communities of color, and it focused on various types of RJ issues (religion, violence against women, and immigration).

The panel touched on everything from systemic violence and racism, to the language barriers that prevent women from accessing reproductive health services, to HR3, to religious text that supports a women’s right to chose to have an abortion, to the racist billboard campaigns and the incredible organizing that black women and women of color communities have done in response to it.

The panel also discussed the divisions that exist within the reproductive justice community. On this point Loretta Ross discussed how people within the RJ movement have to stop being afraid of sharing power. Ms. Ross then spoke about how we need to recognize the difference between enemies and confused allies: “we have some real enemies and some problematic allies.”

Judging by the feedback, the panel was amazing! I had many students tell me and other LSRJers that it was the best panel they had ever been to. It also generated huge interest in LSRJ!

The panel also topped off an amazing year at NUSL for LSRJ. This year, NUSL LSRJ hosted a Reproductive Justice 101 event; co-hosted an “Embedded Bodies” conference with Harvard LSRJ; screened the documentary Made In India; co-sponsored an event on sex workers and the United Nations; started a reading group with med and law students in the Boston community, and co-sponsored several other LALSA, BLSA, and SALSA organized events! As Co-Chair I was honored to have a role in these events. What made our chapter and year so successful, however, was our strong & close relationships with the Northeastern affinity groups. LALSA, BLSA, SALSA, and APALSA members drove the direction of NUSL LSRJ and were integral in the planning and organizing of all our events. I am so excited for next year and can’t wait to see what the 2011-2012 NUSL LSRJ E-Board accomplish!

I want to give a shout out to Evelyn (at HLS), Adrian and Celeste (at BU), and my NUSL crew Tiffany, Janaya, Priya, Heather, Natalie, and Laura for making this panel and year so successful.