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Jesus Christ.

An earthquake in China has killed almost 9,000 people, as of an hour ago. That number is obviously likely to climb.

This of course follows on the heels of the the cyclone in Myanmar that has officially killed 32,000 people, with total death toll estimates in the range of 60,000 to 100,000. And then there’s the far, far (far) less extreme but closer to home and still tragic case of deadly tornadoes in Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia.

I’m willing to place some money on opportunist “religious” folk using these unimaginable events as some kind of vehicle to condemn abortion and gay rights (but already too nauseous to verify if it has happened). But even my rational atheist self is pretty damn freaked out by this happening all at once. And perhaps rightly so. I’m no scientist and don’t pretend to be, but I don’t quite believe that global warming had no hand in any of these natural disasters.

Quite honestly, I don’t know what to say. I don’t know if there is anything to say in the face of so many lives lost. There perhaps will be as there are further developments. This will not go away overnight, and there are likely to be ramifications for many years. In many areas, there will be poverty, hunger, homelessness and violence. In Myanmar, all of this has begun or is strongly anticipated. And in addition to caring for the simple reason of our shared humanity, as feminists we know that when natural disasters strike, women suffer the most, in addition to children and those who are the most economically disadvantaged

The American Red Cross has been helping in Myanmar, and I can only assume that aid is on the way to China. You can make a donation to the International Response Fund through their website. If you would like to specify where you would like the funds to go — for instance, if you want your donation to go specifically to the Myanmar crisis — you will have to make your donation to Red Cross over the telephone at 1-800-HELP-NOW.

If you know of other/better charities or ways to help, please let me know and I will add them to the post.

[Photo of earthquake wreckage in China via National Geographic.]

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My apologies that I didn’t get to this sooner, but I’ve been alternately busy and dealing with various personal shit. I can’t say that it has been the best week. But even though my memory is slightly less clear than it was when I should have written the post, I did still want to write about Equality and Justice Day.

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Yesterday was the day to blog about the Congo rape epidemic. As Sunday is my day off from blogging, I missed it — but as I always say when I come in late to these things (a specialty of mine), it’s better late than never, and it’s not too late for you to participate either.

I was unfortunately not able to watch the documentary The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo, since I don’t have HBO, and I hope that it will be soon available through another outlets for those of us who don’t have access. But I’m happy that it has been made and that it has inspired bloggers to engage on this difficult topic.

It’s human nature to want to ask “who is responsible?” And the obvious answer is “the rapists.” This is absolutely true; of course they are responsible. But this type of epidemic does not materialize from nothingness. When rape is allowed to exist this rampantly and for so long, when weapons and funding do not appear out of thin air, when the world’s richest and most powerful nations turn away or ask simply and disinterestedly “what can we do?”, we must hold others accountable. And as Anxious Black Woman notes, among them are the Corporate Rapists, those who benefit financially from the conflict through their pillaging of the land’s natural resources. She prints a partial list of those corporations that absolutely must be disseminated as far and wide as we can manage:

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I mentioned before that the theme of this year’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month is sexual violence in the workplace. So, let’s talk about it.

Another woman has come forward to tell her story about working for KBR in Iraq. She was drugged and brutally gang raped by at least one American soldier and one KBR coworker. As the only medical personnel in the area, she was required to treat herself, never received a rape kit, was forced to medically treat her rapists during the course of her job before she was allowed to go home two and a half weeks later, had her allegations ignored by her supervisor who may have actually been one of the rapists, and then faced multiple aggressive attempts at cover up once she reported the attack.

The Nation has the full story. I’m issuing a strong trigger warning for the article as the descriptions of rape are graphic and the recounting of what happened next is very emotionally painful and difficult. But if you can do so safely, I adamantly urge you to read it.

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Last week, I wrote about a Bush official who had written to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) about their new guidelines, which state that ethical practice requires doctors to refer patients to another doctor for any services (birth control, abortion, etc.) that they themselves will not perform due to conscientious objection. The Bush official, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, wanted this section removed. In other words, the Bush Administration sees no ethical obligation for doctors to refer their patients to medical services that they personally don’t like.

A few days later, I received an email from Steve at Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, and he shared some disturbing news. Extremist conservative doctors within ACOG have used Leavitt’s letter as an opportunity to challenge the organization — and have succeeded in getting ACOG in holding a special meeting to reevaluate the guidelines!

These doctors are fighting for the right to prevent women from receiving medical care due to their own personal beliefs — not just from themselves, but from any doctor. As I think all of us here have agreed, patients have a right to know all of their options and receive prompt, quality medical care. Withholding information from patients is absolutely unacceptable. Also keep in mind that this section of the guidelines is in no way binding; it just really hurts the poor anti-choice doctors’ feelings to be be referred to as unethical. And who can blame them? Getting called out on your own shit isn’t fun.

Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health have been working with ACOG in an attempt to ensure that they don’t back down from their extremely commonsense position. They’ve also started writing letters to the ACOG leadership; we can’t let the wingnuts who are in a definite minority succeed in making their voices louder.

Click here to send a letter and pass the information on. I honestly have not seen this issue discussed elsewhere. Anti-choicers are great at giant publicity stunts, but they’re even better at stealth operations. And their stealth is usually what hands them a victory. This is some publicity they’re not going to want. I think we owe it to ourselves to make sure they get it.

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I just wanted to drop a quick note to acknowledge that today kicked off Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Click the link for more ways to get involved. Here’s one suggestion: if you haven’t noticed the badge in the sidebar, April 3rd is Blog Against Sexual Violence day, scheduled to coincide with A Day to End Sexual Violence. The theme this year for both the awareness month and the blogswarm is sexual violence in the workplace.

I, of course, will be participating. I urge you to get involved, too, particularly if you write for a blog that doesn’t generally deal with sexual violence issues. I can keep hammering away about rape until I get carpal tunnel, but at the end of the day I still write for a feminist blog. And the people it is most important to reach are the kind who wouldn’t be caught dead with the URL of a feminist blog in their browser history.

You don’t have to blog about the theme topic — any subject matter regarding sexual violence will do. I don’t think that my post will be on sexual violence in the workplace, though I haven’t yet picked a topic (suggestions are welcome!). Though I blog about sexual assault rather regularly, I will make a special effort this month to cover those issues even more, as much as the rest of the crazy misogynist news will allow. I’d particularly like to highlight activist groups that are working to combat sexual violence, and I’m especially interested in community-based work and innovative approaches. If you know something that fits that bill, please do let me know!

For a real post highlighting the importance of this month, check out Marcella. And then, while you’re there, sign up to blog against sexual violence on the 3rd and grab yourself a blog badge.

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This is important.

Do you remember the Dunbar Village rape case? I’m not sure how you could forget; this is the case where a woman was gang raped by 10 men in her own home for over three hours, forced to have sex with her own 12-year-old son and survived an attempt to light both of them on fire. In an update that is a couple of weeks old but I’m just hearing from now via Document the Silence, Al Sharpton and the NAACP are taking to the streets to defend the four arrested rapists. This is despite conclusive DNA evidence and apparent photographic evidence that the rapists took on their cell phones during the attack.

Please, please, please read the call to action from Rev. Dr. Renita J. Weems, which is pasted in full after the jump. Please take time to undertake the requested actions and to pass this story along.

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I will be gone all day tomorrow for the Family Planned Advocates of NYS Conference. So I’m going to post this a little early.

National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers is on March 10th. It’s a day that I’ve always felt deserved more attention. It seems to me that it’s rarely recognized, anymore, and that’s a shame. Because abortion providers do deserve our thanks.

Why? Because all of this — activism, donating, voting, etc. — would be absolutely worthless without the providers who actually do provide abortions. Because providing abortions is risky, in that it subjects you to threats, insults, stalking, secrecy, harassment, lawsuits, politicians controlling your practice, and if you’re really unlucky, the occasional gunshot wound. Because it’s much, much easier to just not provide abortions, and they do it anyway. Because without them, there would be no “choice.” Abortion can be as legal as legal gets; if doctors will not perform them, women are still going to end up with perforated uteruses or children they can’t care for or don’t want. (And the antis know this — hence the stalking, harassing, shooting, etc.)

I wish that I had time to write more. But since I have to leave at 4:30a.m., I really ought to go to bed.

I strongly encourage you to look up the address to your nearest Planned Parenthood or other abortion provider and write them a letter of gratitude. I’m sure that they won’t mind it arriving a few days late.  Also, encourage others to do the same.

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A group of sexual assault survivor advocates has begun a campaign called Report IT Now! The idea behind it is to empower sexual assault survivors to break their silence while raising awareness about the huge number of sexual assault cases that occur in this country and go unreported. It’s also about something I’ve brought up a lot, lately — the way that the legal system routinely revictimizes those survivors who do come forward.

If you have been sexually assaulted, please consider filling out this form. You may also fill it out for another person if they are unable to do so themselves (i.e. the survivor is disabled, a child, or no longer living). This is not a police report. But if you’d like to make a legal report, the campaign will forward your report to law enforcement officials. Any sexual assault can be reported, regardless of type, severity, or how long ago the assault occurred. Survivors of every gender may report. Though the campaign is very clearly geared towards Americans, there is absolutely nothing on the form that prevents a person of any other nationality from using it to report. Though they will ask for your name, you can choose to not provide it. Regardless of whether or not you choose to provide your name, your report will be used for survey purposes only and your personal information will be kept confidential.

On April 29th, the statistical information gathered from the reports will be used as a part of the protests outside of courthouses around the country for Angela Shelton Day.

I strongly encourage any survivors out there to report. I did so myself, yesterday, and I can’t say that it was fun. In fact, it was pretty difficult. But it was also therapeutic. And I’m glad that I did it.

The campaign has been put together as a collaboration between PAVE and Angela Shelton. If you’ve never heard of Angela Shelton, check out this page about her book and film. (At first I was puzzled, thinking that she was just the most self-absorbed activist in the world who decided to name a day after herself. I assure you that it’s is far more interesting than that.) Thanks to Holly at Menstrual Poetry for the head’s up.

Report IT and spread the word!

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Happy International Women’s Day, everyone. I hope that you have a good one.

Personally, my day is shit. We’re having the worst snowfall of the entire winter today, and that means I can no longer volunteer at/attend Rochester V-Day tonight. Planned Parenthood of the Rochester/Syracuse Region is sponsoring a performance of The Vagina Monologues. I was really looking forward to it, and I’ve never seen the play live before. But I live 45 minutes away, and decided that since we’ll have about zero visibility tonight, icy roads, and I would have to drive on the thruway that gets most treacherous in bad weather, I would rather live. But if you live closer and can make it, go! Tickets are still available at the door. The volunteers have all worked really hard, the cast is great (I saw part of the group last week performing A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer), and the money raised is going to our amazing Rape Crisis Services.

So yeah, I’m kind of mopey. But feel free to cheer me up with some good feminist happenings.

Here’s something that made me smile. Yesterday, Eve Ensler was in New Orleans to promote the 10th anniversary celebration of V-Day in the city next month (partial funds from all V-Days are going to support the women of New Orleans). She met with Mayor Ray Nagin, and he had this supportive if slightly bumbling message about his feelings on V-Day:

Mayor Nagin began his comments at the news conference by saying, “How am I gonna stand up and say, I’m a ‘vagina-friendly’ Mayor to these cameras after ‘Chocolate City’ and some of the other stuff that I’ve done. But you know what? I’m in.”

“She (Ensler) started describing the event, and you know what, I’m a guy and I’ve heard about the Vagina Monologues but I don’t know what was going on. I didn’t know anything about it and she started to describe this event - look, you know I’ve got a script and I’m not following it - and I was absolutely blown away at how awesome this work is. I mean, she is doing God’s work. So, I stand before you, a vagina-friendly Mayor. I am in! And you know what? It is so appropriate right now. New Orleans, Louisiana is the birthplace of jazz, you know, but it is the birthplace of so many tremendous women.”

Hehe. Okay, so maybe he should have stuck to that script. He probably could have done better than saying “I am in!” after declaring his vagina-friendliness. But since “vagina” is still such a taboo word, I imagine that a politician using it would be prone to such Freudian slips. (And this is about a million times better than Bush proclaiming his support for the right of OB/GYNs to “celebrate their love with women.”) I think that he meant no offense, and I take none. In fact, I’m rather happy to see such enthusiastic support from a prominent male public official for a subject so ridiculously unmentionable, for the event and for women. Good for you, Mayor Nagin. Though, just between you and me, I recommend that you start rehearsing speeches before you give them.

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A defense attorney has yet again made a highly offensive argument about how a victim was advertising her desire to be raped by her choice of clothing. But this time, instead of just saying “oh well,” or “tsk tsk” or “everyone deserves a defense no matter how misleading and unethical,” a government official is actually doing something about it (emphasis and brackets mine).

An MSP is demanding action from the legal profession after a lawyer used the way a teenage sex assault victim was dressed as a defence for a client.

Iain Smith also brought up the 15-year-old’s sexual history and said she was not vulnerable.

His client, Rikki Tainsch, was given three years probation for plying the girl with drink then attacking her.

SNP MSP [Scottish National Party Member of Scottish Parliament] Roseanna Cunningham has lodged a parliamentary motion calling for such comments to be banned from the courts.

Tainsch, who had never met the 15-year-old before the day he attacked her, took her to his home in Tibbermore, Perthshire, in August last year.

He then gave her enough vodka and Irn Bru to make her violently sick.

She went to bed feeling unwell but woke to find the 24-year-old assaulting her.

During the trial at Perth Sheriff Court, Mr Smith said the teenager had been “scantily clad”, wearing shorts, black boots and a white top.

He also stated: “There was a suggestion the girl had been sexually active before.

“I don’t think it is fair to say this was a very vulnerable person.”

Damn straight these kinds of comments should be banned from court. I’ve made this argument more times than I can count (you’ll find many examples under the slut-shaming and courts gone crazy categories). Thank you, thank you, thank you Ms. Cunningham. If it hasn’t been made clear yet, she really is a bad ass:

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Last week I wrote about the extreme violence that is being committed against Kenyan women, particularly sexual violence. Women and children make up about 85% of the displaced, a very large portion of those who have been victims of the violence and an extremely small portion of the perpetrators.

And yet, the mediation talks being lead by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan have been excluding the voices of women:

The chairperson of the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK), Ms Isabella Karanja, said Kenya had ignored the United Nations Security Council resolution that supports women’s participation in mediation.

In 2000, the UN adopted resolution 1325, which stressed the importance of women’s involvement as active agents of peace and security.

“We are over 50 per cent of the population, but we have been marginalised and now we are requesting for an audience,” Karanja said.

Addressing journalists at a city hotel, Karanja said they were holding talks with the national steering committee on how they could be represented in the talks.

Former chairlady of the Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organisation, Mrs Zipporah Kittony, said women have been undervalued and under utilised in the ongoing mediation talks.

Kittony appealed to women in both ODM and PNU to set aside their differences and jointly call for cessation of violence.

A coalition of women’s organizations in Kenya has sent a memorandum with their concerns and requests to the mediation team. Other women have taken to wearing sacks as a protest, apparently as a symbol for humility what they see as the need for penance on the part of Kenyans.

Though Annan claims to be dedicated to women’s inclusion in the mediation, little action seems to have been taken to make this a reality. It’s arguable that Annan is taking a route that he believes will produce the fastest peaceful resolution and avert what has already nearly become a civil war. But when it comes specifically to the violence against women, peace made without the input and participation of women is a fragile peace at best, and an absolute sham at worst. The violence has reached a point where I have to feel that there is little guarantee that a political resolution would necessarily stop the sexual violence, even if it did stop the widespread killings (though I certainly hope that I am wrong). Rape seems to have momentum in this way, particularly when committed on a scale so large that it becomes expected and normalized. Women’s involvement in these talks to end the violence is absolutely not a negotiable point. It must happen for any genuine chance at peace.

OneWorld has put together a long list of ways that you can help, get involved and stay informed.  Do give it a look.

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