way to go, chuck

Chuck Schumer, one of New York's two senators, announced today he supports the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which was signed into law by Bill Clinton in 96 and says the federal government recognizes marriage as only between one man and one woman.

This is from the article I'll be writing for Monday's edition of the Gazette:

****

Charles Schumer became the highest ranking member of the U.S. Senate to endorse marriage equality for same-sex couples last Monday.

According to the Empire State Pride Agenda, an organization that fights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights, Schumer, who is Vice Chair of the U.S. Senate’s Democratic Conference, called for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which says the federal government recognizes marriage as only between one man and one woman.

Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, thanked Schumer for his support. “Like a majority of New Yorkers, Sen. Schumer recognizes that only marriage equality provides same-sex couples the status, protections and rights afforded to all other Americans.” Capelle added that his organization looks forward to “working with him to win marriage equality in New York state and around the country.”

Schumer, according to the Pride Agenda, pledged his support of LGBT issues last night at a meeting with a group of New York LGBT elected officials and leaders of LGBT organizations. At the meeting, according to Capelle, Schumer also pledged to work on providing federal recognition and portability of benefits to legally married same-sex couples.

Same-sex marriages cannot be legally performed in New York, but a May 2008 directive by Gov. David A. Paterson called for all state agencies to recognize valid same-sex marriages performed in other states and countries, and a state Appellate Court ruling, stemming from a lawsuit filed in Rochester, upheld this directive in February.

Cathy Marino-Thomas, board president and communications director for Marriage Equality New York, a nonprofit group that advocates for full marriage rights for same-sex couples, expressed excitement at Schumer’s support and said “it’s about time.”

“We’ve contacted the senator many times in the past,” said Marino-Thomas, “and we’re happy to know he’s given [the issue] another look and decided to stand on the side of equality.”

At the meeting with Schumer, Capelle also said continued funding for HIV care was discussed, as well as the appointment of openly LGBT people to the federal branch. In addition, the passage of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, proposed federal legislation that would prohibit employees from being discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

***

This is good news for same-sex rights, ya'll. I mean, Kristen Gillibrand saying she supports same-sex rights is one thing, but Schumer's a bit of a big deal down in Washington. I do have to wonder, though, what prompted Schumer's "evolution" (as they're calling it in the media) on the issue--he voted FOR the DOMA in 96, and has previously said he thinks marriage should be between one man and one woman. Granted, it's been over ten years since then, and politicians are allowed to change their minds. But from what I've heard about Schumer, he tends to be an opportunitist, and I think this may be one of his moves. Nevertheless, it's a good one for the gay community

Also, check out the article I wrote on the Family Planning Advocates' teen conference that appeared in this week's Gazette. I was really impressed by the young people I got to talk to; they're doing a hell of a lot more than I did in high school.

Maybe this is just a rant, but...

Last night, I, along with my best friend Jessica who was home for the weekend, decided to go to meet some of our friends in the village for a night on the town. Although we encountered some subway mishaps (meaning we missed our stop because a group of awesome teenagers with one adorable four year-old boy with purple glasses were chanting and calling people out to dance on the subway. Jess and I both got down…so down, we almost ended up in Brooklyn), our friends were still late.

So, Jess and I head to the bar and pass by two guys who were standing in the way of ordering. That’s my favorite, when people have already been served but stand by the bar in a crowded place when everyone and their mother are trying to order drinks. We make our way past them and they place themselves right behind us. I hear one whisper something that gets the other one to look our way. Then they start talking generally about girls in bars (not verbatim):

Gross Guy: “Girls aren’t drunk enough until 12 or 1.”
Lesser of the Two Evils*: “What about these two.” (reference to me and my homegirl)
Gross Guy: “They aren’t drunk enough yet.”

*Assumed lesser of the two due to the distance of my ear from his mouth and the awesome music that was playing.

I informed Jessica of this conversation while she was ordering our drinks. In utter disgust, we ranted and I secretly wanted some opening for me to call him out. He didn’t say anything to us (obviously, we weren’t at the intoxication level that he finds suitable to put on his nice face and pretend to treat women with some interest) and maybe it was better to avoid a confrontation or maybe someone needs to verbally slap him with some intelligent, feminist banter.

So here I go. It may not be intelligent, feminist banter but it’ll be banter by an intelligent feminist who is annoyed by such people (women as well) and their mating techniques.

I understand people are sexual. I understand when people drink, that sexuality is intensified. I don’t hate. You do you; your bedroom is not my problem.

I do, however, think it is utterly disgusting that those men last night, as well as many men in bars, as well as some women, need someone to be so intoxicated so they can just use them for what they like.

So to Gross Guy…what happens around 12 or 1? Do these "girls", not women, get drunk enough so they would actually go for a pig like you? Are you so insecure that you need to wait for a girl to have significant beer goggles and beer ear-muffs (that’s right, ear-muffs) so she can slur everything you say into sincerity.

It’s not about your want for pleasure. It’s about what you said and how you said it…not with insecurity but with conviction that you want a wasted girl so you could get whatever you want. Who cares about the her? She only has a mouth for drinking and a body for sex.

Can’t us women go out and enjoy ourselves without having people like you watch our drink count just so you can feel we are privileged enough for you to slither your way on up to us!

Get with it, child. That comment does not put you on the right path with women. Maybe some, but I hope those women are in the right mindset to handle their own and are safe and smart with their bodies and feelings when it comes to someone, and doing something, like that. Trying to get a girl with that tone is like honking from a car or passing a woman on the street and saying “DAMN, NICEEEEEEEEEEEE”(which also happened last night). I heard you. And like the car and street-call, I ignored you.

And, I’m hoping, you will continue to be ignored.

And I know I’ll see you out next week, Gross Guy. Around 12 or 1...you are always sleazing yourself in someone’s way.

Violence = not stylish

Why is it that all articles pertaining to women's issues--even ones about physical abuse--are relegated to the style section of most newspapers? This article, though it provides an in-depth look at teen girls' attitudes surrounding Rihanna's abuse (a lot of them blame HER for Chris Brown's actions, something that's deeply disturbing), it's in the New York Time's Fashion and Style section.

Even if they're celebrities, what's stylish about abuse?

It'd be nice to see a new section to house these types of articles. Something pertaining to sociology perhaps?

In KT news, it's Friday! After copy-editing finishes up here at the Gazette, I'm off to an appointment at the career resource center at New Paltz. I kind of don't know what to expect. I could definitely use tips on where to find/how to get jobs. (That goes for all ya'll, too.)

Sierra DeMulder

Here is a video of an amazing spoken word artist and feminist. She has been on the scene for a few years and recently competed at the previously mentioned CUPSI 09 with the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (a ridiculous group of people) where she was crowned "Best Female Poet". I am lucky enough to call her my group-mate (she is also in the Intangibles Collective) and my friend. So here is Sierra DeMulder at CUPSI 09, with a poem (and not many poems do this for me) that brought the tears out, entitled "Paperdolls".

trimming your hedges in the garden state

So, though it's apparently been illegal in dirty Jerz for some time, the state Board of Cosmetology and Hairstyling is enforcing the illegality of brazilian waxes in the state after two women complained of getting infections.

(Note: Jeff Lamm, the spokesman for New Jersey’s Division of Consumer Affairs quoted in the article, wants everyone to know "The genital area is not part of the abdomen or legs as some might assume." Because a lot of people assume that. I know I did.)

Anyway, while I personally never experienced the pleasure of having all of my pubic hair ripped off my body with hot wax, I have several friends who have and, after living to tell the tale, love the results. So while I understand the concerns of the state board (infections, unsanitary conditions), there are other ways to fix the problems before eradicating a service that some women utilize. How about enforcing stricter health measures in the places that do brazilians? IE: NO double dipping your stick, please and thank you.

According to my beloved housemate and one of my best friends, Thea, "there gonna be some angy* Jersey girls."

Either that, or we're gonna be seeing some beautiful bushes down at the shore of the garden state this summer.


*intentional removal of the R. say it outloud. ANGY.

The Beginning of the Beginning pt.2

So, here I am! Katie has successfully built up suspense for my post so I hope I can deliver. In the spirit of Katie’s opening blog, I guess I will explain a little bit about myself so you know where the other half of Feminews is coming from.

As Katie previously mentioned, I graduated a semester early from SUNY New Paltz after majoring in Journalism and double minor(ing?) in Women’s Studies and Black Studies and I am currently one of the many floating in the dead sea of unemployment. Especially with the current economic climate and my lack of a sufficient plan, I often get the question, “Why would you ever think of leaving college EARLY?!” Well, before I even had college apps underway, I knew I wanted to Study Abroad. So, since my freshman year (when I was first introduced to the concept of Feminism), I worked to graduate early in hopes of balancing the costs of such an adventure. That, along with spending my senior year of high school under the rule of Advanced Placement courses, allowed me to head to Melbourne, Australia where I met Katie and we united under our feminist views, vulgar language and fear of insanely large spiders. All of those things led to this very post and the creation on Feminews.

The first time I knew I was having an intellectual discussion about women’s rights was in my freshman year, in a class called Women Images and Realities. It is a required course for those New Paltz students who venture into the feminist field and it is an eye-opener even for the students who are just in that class to fill a general education course. I don’t think I had ever consciously realized what women face or have been facing nationally and globally. And that was the thing, I had never consciously realized. I…had…never…consciously…realized.

I mean, don’t get me wrong…there was always a feminist brooding inside. I remember in my third grade class, we were reading Sarah Plain and Tall where the main character wore overalls and this boy, Alex, said girls don’t wear overalls. What kind of crap was that, I don’t know but what I do know is that the next day, I made sure most of the girls in the class sported overalls; a proud moment in my little life to say the least.

Even with such memories, I do not remember learning a damn thing about feminism nor about black studies. Maybe this proves I have terrible memory but I think it proves something different because I remember somewhere in my elementary school education I was told that Rosa Parks was an old-ass-woman who was just tired instead of the middle-age, fed-up, organizer she was. I know that my pre-college education had the occasional women and people of color who “contributed” (there is something about that word, “contributed”, it’s like adding to something that was already there instead of showing that those groups, as well as others, were creating it from the get-go. IE: Imhotep, that dude was crazy) but it was by no means a fair portrayal. And this is not an attack on the teachers, who work their asses off and HAVE to stick to a strict curriculum. It’s more of a comment to the makers of the curriculum, who leave out portions of history…but, anyway…

When I first discovered feminism as well as black studies, I couldn’t believe all of the information I never knew. Things about my own life as well as others started to fall into place. Some may call a bit of it…if not most of it…conspiracy while I just took it for honesty.

I am like most recent grads, trying to get some type of employment (preferably in something I’m interested in) without having to worry about rent. I am lucky enough to have parents who won’t kick my ass out. And I figure, with my premature leave from college, it buys me a bit more time to construct a better plan.

Like Katie said, I do write. I actually compete in spoken word competitions and perform poetry around the nation. I just got back from the college level national competition, College Unions Slam Poetry Invitational (CUPSI), in Philadelphia where I went with my teammates on the SUNY New Paltz Slam team and we ranked top ten in the nation. I also am a member of the Intangibles Collective, a group of artists (including spoken word poets, hip-hop artists, photographers, writers), who are coming together to perform and build the community with different, positive programs geared toward a number of age groups. It launches in a week and we will be traveling NY state in our upcoming tour, “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire”. There are some other teams (The Meta-Four at the Soundbites Poetry Festival in NYC) as well as adult solo competitions, I am involved that have allowed me to explore feminism on a creative level. The people I work with as well, as the artists I am privileged to see, speak loudly about women’s issues…from everything from sexual violence, politics, body image. I hope, with Feminews, to bring you feminist art and spoken word from all over the country.

I agree with my co-author, we hope to bring you all the issues through our eyes. We want to discuss women’s rights intellectually and personally with conviction and a damn sense of humor. So what does the F-word stand for? Funny! Ok, ok, and feminism, I guess it stands for that too.

interwoven

While we're waiting for a whattup post from Tracy, I thought I'd write on something that's been on my mind (and a lot of other people's, from what I gather) lately: whether or not I really want to take advantage of all the social networking sites the internet has to off or completely wash my hands of it. Or do something in between.

My friend John had a great post about basically his same predicament in his blog.

In it, he said, "I oscillate between wanting to be completely submerged in today's culture and wanting to get away from it." John points out the pro side: "instant communication and microblogology or whatever the terms are ... are INCREDIBLE and we know so much more now than anybody our age did ten years ago." But he also highlights "the flip side": "what do we learn by shifting our eyes and shifting our weight in our beds, not having any real, physical, experiences?"

That's the kicker. By writing and reading blogs and twittering and facebooking I'm no doubt connecting myself with contemporary issues and communities. And the information stream is fucking endless. But by trying so hard to stay connected--and you really do have to try, or else you'll be out of the loop--am I disconnecting myself from the actual living, breathing, physical world? And do I even need to know half the shit I read online or is it just filling places in my brain where intelligent thought could go?

I've deleted facebook a couple times before out of sheer annoyance or frustration. Don't get me wrong; I totally love making fun of your pictures of your trip to Madame Tussaud's or your new boob job or how you lack any sense of grammar in your captions, but sometimes I have to ask myself, why live in a superficial reality? And, besides all the staying connected bullshit (though sometimes it really does fulfill that purpose), that's really all facebook is.

((Note: my FB account is currently active, and I recently unprivatized (not a word, but it's the internet! I can make them up! Don't believe me? Proof: This is a blog. What the fuck was a blog a few years ago) my pictures again, so you can take everything I just said how you will. I'm no better than the people I criticize, I guess. And I'm sure people I graduated with have either A: made fun of the pictures of my afro from a recent studio 54 party (even though my fro is BANGIN) or B: said "oh my god you wanna see who turned gay?!" and gone to my profile or C: completely forgotten who I am and say, "who the fuck is that" when I come up on their friends feed.

Blogs, however, are another story. I'm an avid reader of several blogs, and the more I analyze them, I increasingly think they're a pathway for emerging writers to take that's a little less brambled and prickly than going the traditional route and getting say, a book deal or a magazine column or what have you. They're making more room for different voices and ideas in a society that usually listens to the heterosexual, white male. They're sites of activism, political and personal discourse and ideas. They're thought-provoking. They're refreshing. They're subjective, personal and interactive. And, whether it's a blessing or a curse, they're limitless.

So while I would love to join John on his fantasy year-long island vacation from the internet and all things media (that's assuming he would pick me to be one of his ten (if you wouldn't, John, well, I wouldn't pick you either, asshole. And if you would, let's make sure we get Malibu-it's weak but I like to drink it on the beach)), I think even a time period as short as a year away from the internet would put me at a huge disadvantage; I'd probably be swamped with new networking sites upon return, lost about how to use them, and estranged from what I guess is really becoming reality for our generation.

This isn't to say I'd turn it down if it were actually offered to me--travel (even though this is pretend travel) is one of the best natural educators humans will ever know to employ, and I'm almost as envious of the people who get to do it often as I am of the people who know what it means to be truly connected to the world in a way that isn't behind a computer screen. Because despite the case I made (which to be concise is that I guess from now on I'll be dipping more than just a toe into the bottomless pool of the internet by blogging and trying to be more on the up and up of the interwebz), there's still something almost more valid and truthful in connecting with the physical world. And if truth isn't all that humans, when you cut them down to their core, are after in this life, then I don't know what is.

(I just realized I made it sound like I'm an alien or a mermaid in my last sentence. I'll leave that up for discussion.)

the beginning of the beginning

A new chapter in one area of life should elicit new beginnings elsewhere. That’s fancy talk for “I’m graduating, hence this blog.”

In two months (almost to the day ) I’ll be walking down the quad in a graduation cap and gown at cozy little SUNY New Paltz, a liberal arts college in the Catskills. I’ll be graduating with a bachelor’s in journalism with a minor in women’s studies. And I’ll probably be more scared than excited, a result of graduating in an economy that’s literally passing out and wheezing at people’s feet, with a degree in a field that’s similarly puffing out of steam.

So in order to offset that, here I am. My little brother (even though he’s not so little at 6 foot 2 and 20 years old) told me recently that if I want to make it as a writer, I need to have a blog. And the more I thought about it, the more it seemed just plain dumb and irresponsible not to. Everyone and their mother (except mine) has a blog, and I frequent feminist blogs as regularly as the New York Times.

Right now, I’m working full time as an intern at the Legislative Gazette, the paper that covers New York state government. I ended up here after putting studying abroad ahead of snagging an internship necessary to fulfill my degree and because I was offered a scholarship that paid a full semester’s tuition. I couldn’t say no.

That doesn’t mean I was looking forward to it. Public policy, government reporting, statistics…it all seemed so dry and foreign to me. My focus in previous semesters had been on literary journalism or creative nonfiction pieces. I wrote about my family, my friends, my girlfriend. People I saw on the street. It was detail oriented, and extremely subjective. Government reporting, I thought, would not be. And so I packed up my life (for the sixth time since starting college) and trudged up to Albany in the long, dark days of early January to begin a 6 month hell.

For the first month and half, I bitched and I moaned. I whined. I complained. I hated Albany, and I hated the writing style. Hard news leads, official quotes, objectivity, objectivity, objectivity. Every other weekend saw me in New Paltz, pretending I was a “regular” college senior enjoying her last semester. Sunday nights, for the first time since 12 th grade, became the bain of my existence and the source of waves of anxiety.

But Monday mornings saw me in the office, putting my best writer’s foot forward despite my bad attitude, and it wasn’t long before I developed a beat: reproductive health and same-sex rights. My editor handed me a press release about LGBTQ groups praising a newly-elected official who was down with gay rights, and after writing it and finding it interesting, I asked him to lay more of those types of articles on me.

Now, three months in, I’ve written on the 36th anniversary of Roe. V. Wade, where I interviewed Sarah Weddington, the lawyer who won the legendary court case; several events held by Family Planning Advocates of New York, where I got to interview Shelby Knox, a 22 year-old activist and as far as the third wave of feminism goes, pretty famous feminist; marriage equality rallies, same-sex immigration sponsorship, female genital mutilation, etc.

While if asked, I think I’ll always refer to government reporting as dry and sometimes boring (I spent two full days research the state department of transportation’s snow budget once), my eyes have been opened to just how important public policy is for feminist issues. In my women’s studies classes, the liberal vs radical activist argument used to come up a lot; while the liberals see it as necessity to work towards effecting public policy change, the radicals view that as falling prey to a system that will always subject women and other minorities. I used to go back and forth—both sides of the argument have their valid points. But after working at the Gazette and writing on the public policy work organizations like FPA, the Empire State Pride Agenda, LAMBDA Legal, Marriage Equality New York and Planned Parenthood do, I guess I have to self-identify as a liberal. When it comes down to it, government ultimately does affect our day to day lives, even if we like to think otherwise, and it’s vital we work to fix the system to include the rights of people who can’t always speak for themselves. I like to look at liberal feminism not as becoming a pawn of the system, but infiltrating it, shaking it up, changing it.

Basically, I’ve been working to turn this experience at the Gazette into a springboard for a career where I can employ the insight I’ve gained into government workings, where I can live and breathe feminism and where I can write. I need to be writing, always. It gives me a unique sense of self worth that I can’t really get from anywhere else. And if I can make change doing it, that’s an added bonus.

SO. Now that I’ve very wordily explained how it is I came to be writing here, a little bit needs to be said about my hopes for this blog.

It’s going to be a collaborative effort between myself and my good buddy Tracy, a fellow New Paltz grad of the journalism department. Tracy upped the ante and graduated a semester early with not only a minor in women’s studies but in black studies as well. We met through the study abroad program when we both went to Melbourne, Australia our junior year, and fell instantly in friend-love.

I’m speaking for myself here, but in this blog, we want to bring you all the feminews that’s fit to print. And since we all know the personal is political, this will not only encompass news that’s occurring in the state Capitol or in Queens, but stuff that’s happening to us as well. It will chronicle the experience of two young aspiring feminist writers in a pretty rough time to be looking for a job. It will speak to Tracy’s experience living in Queens with her family after graduation, and my experience of (probably) moving back home to live with my now and then conservative parents on Long Island after having lived four glorious years of freedom during which I first fell in lady-love. It will give you a little insight into the world of two young ladies who, like it or not, can get a little raunchy and inappropriate every now and then. You’ll meet our friends, other writers and artists we like and be introduced to people WE don’t even know but that have surfaced somewhere on the intawebz and are doing cool stuff.

Hopefully, it’ll be funny. But don’t judge my humor on this first post—it’s almost 3:30 on a workday. (Translation: I am burnt out on writing right now.)