!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.! ! ! ! Catt's Claws ... A Feminist Newsletter #54 ... July 28, 1995 ! ! ! !.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.! Received a letter the other day with the new Marilyn Monroe stamp on it. The sender, the new president of Oklahoma NOW, had drawn in red a balloon from it in which she printed "The sexual exploitation of women led to my death." The local post office personnel think I get the most interesting mail. One of the guys taking his turn on the stamp desk let a remark drop a few days ago that makes me suspect that my mail might be looked at a bit closer than some. But I have ABSOLUTELY no grounds for complaints. My mail is NOT tampered with in any way. I get my mail and am treated courteously, so it's probably that my mail is SO different than others that it has become noticeable. After all, wouldn't you want some break from reading zip codes? Lucia Perri is the new Oklahoma coordinator and may be reached at OklaNOW@aol.com. She helped defend the medical facility I was in of charge protecting during the 1994 invasion of Little Rock by the anti-freedom-for-women forces of Operation Rescue. She was there when the good religious people turned on the fire alarm - 10th floor of a medical facility - - ten floors of doctors and sick people and the good religists turn on the fire alarm! Earlier their pickets had prevented a woman on a stretcher from being wheeled into the building. The police were so taken aback that the anti-freedom people would actually try to blockade a ten-story medical facility that they were a little slow in acting, but when they did - WOW! If only the police in other parts of the country, namely Pensacola, would take their oaths of office to protect people as seriously. ....................... * ........................ Governor Lawton Chiles has named Linda Shelley as his chief of staff, the first woman to hold that job. ....................... * ........................ If you're coming on 40+, you'd best join the National Women's Health Network and read their *Taking Hormones and Women's Health.* The Network points out that medical claims about Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) making women look younger, etc., were based on very flawed and prejudicial studies. Another claim that older women can't have comfortable sex after menopause without HRT is also debunked along with other claims such as estrogen therapy doesn't cause breast cancer - which HRT has been shown to do when used ten or more years. Of course the Women's Health Network reports and lobbies on a multiplicity of women's health issues. Hey, it's your life and a lot of health care professionals are still treating women as if they were defective men. Even the Republican/religious supremacist Congress is trying to get in on that act and dictate what training doctors should have and leaving out essential abortion training. Contributions are $35 or more and for $25 each you can add the medical professionals of your choice to the mailing list. National Women's Health Network, 514 10th St. NW STE 400, Washington, DC 20077-1480. ....................... * ........................ I love these family values' guys. Rush Limbaugh has been married three times we know of. Now it turns out Jim Harnsberger, who leads that dirty spot on the San Diego horizon as head of a family values group, has been married five times and owes more than $18,000 in back child support according to the *San Diego Union-Tribune.* He's also accused of threatening his ex wives and his girl friend. May we gather by the river and view what the term "family values" actually means to the religious supremacists? ....................... * ........................ Hey, I was amazed at San Diego's weather! I had the picture in my mind of hot, hot ... and in fact, that wind off the Pacific makes it cold, cold. Few use air conditioning except during the real height of the summer and jackets are necessary at night. What a beautiful place ... but it's not the place for a liberal. After all, it produced California governor Pete Wilson. ....................... * ........................ A New York City judge has ruled that a lesbian activist who was raped can only sue the newspaper columnist who claims the rape was a hoax as a public figure, which makes it almost impossible for her to win the case. Judge Charles Ramos of the state Supreme Court in Manhattan made it obvious in his ruling that he believed the woman was not raped even though lab reports confirm the rape. Police rumors were cited by columnist Mike McAlary in a series of articles in which he violently condemned the lesbian. What has a number of civil libertarians confused and angry is that the woman's name was never made public in the news reports, yet she has been judged a public figure for her civil rights and lesbian activism. John Miller, the main police department spokesman at the time, had told reporters - off the record -- that the rape was false. But the next day police said a laboratory test had turned up evidence that the woman had indeed been raped. And the next day the police commissioner, William Bratton, made a public apology to the woman. When dealing with public figures, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that even erroneous stories about public figures were protected speech unless the journalist knew the information was false. Anyone knowing anything about any remarks made against lesbians (or gays) by Mike McAlary or Judge Charles Ramos should contact the Gay and Lesbian Task Force. What this ruling means is that any columnist can write anything he wants about you or me and claim immunity behind the public figure guise if any of us have been active in clinic defense, civil rights, or marched for the ERA, even campus rallies against violence. ....................... * ........................ The media has been playing hot and cold with the World's Conference on Women to be held in Beijing, China. Yes, boys, it is important. The following are the OFFICIAL numbers of registered participants to the Forum and does not include thousands of others who will also be there: Africa: 3,245; Europe and North America: 14,833; Latin America and the Caribbean: 2,020; Asia Pacific: 12,336; Western Asia: 819. ....................... * ........................ Isn't it remarkable the way the boy-controlled media played and plays on every statement of Newt Gingrich and company including his absurd proposal for state orphanages while absolutely ignoring or playing down to nothing the horrendous recitation of the rapes in the Branch Davidian compound by David Koresh of a 10-year-old girl. The media used the verbiage of "sex stories, sex tales" ... Gentlemen, it was RAPE ! In the name of all decency, it was a ten-year-old child! Also how come the media let Rep. Steven Schiff,R-N.M., off the hook when he complained, "So details about underage sex are going to get more attention than a faulty search warrant." Underage sex with a 10-year-old? That is RAPE and Schiff should be properly reprimanded from every church pulpit in this nation as he is by every liberal voice. Or is rape of a ten-year-old child part of the family values' system of the Religious Supremacists and Republican Congress? To Catt's Claws readers: How about writing your congressional representative about this insult to human decency and demand that Schiff be reprimanded? ....................... * ........................ Can you believe another squeaky-clean jock who abused his wife is getting away with it? The Viking quarterback Warren Moon publically apologized for choking his wife during an argument. The apology was during a well-staged TV interview exhibiting his wife and crying children that would have made Geraldo proud. Let's hope Moon's violence doesn't accelerate the way it does in almost every other domestic violence situation where the participants, especially the violent one, doesn't get extensive counseling. Let's hope that we don't get a re-run of the OJ trial in Minnesota sometimes in the future. Obviously, an apology isn't always enough. ....................... * ........................ In the May 18, 1995, edition of Catt's Claws I raised the question about who would succeed Sen. Packwood if he is removed as chair of the Senate Finance Committee and I voiced my suspicions of the Senate Ethics Committee's doing anything unless that successor was "their" man. Well, it turns out that I-of-the-jaundiced-eye-towards-Republican- motives wasn't cynical enough. Chair Packwood caved in beautifully regarding the Republican/religious supremacists' ambition to balance the budget on the backs of poor women. Now the ethics committee is ignoring the charges against Packwood and the media is ignoring the obvious and playing the tune that the good old boy network remains inviolate regarding sexual harassment instead of revealing the blackmail that was obviously used. And they call themselves reporters in Washington. Shame! Catt's Claws gives THREE ROARING MEOWS to Senator Barbara Boxer for having the courage to go up against the Senate leadership and DEMAND public hearings on the Packwood misbehavior, which includes tampering with subpoenaed documents as well as sexual harassment. Did you notice how born-again-religious-conservative Bob Dole backed the Ethics chair's efforts to ignore Packwood's wrongdoings? Don't you EVER make a mistake about the aims of the religious supremacists. They are after women's rights. Once they silence women, they will have won the U.S. of A and made it into a religious robotorium. PLEASE WRITE SENATOR BOXER YOUR SUPPORT OF WHAT SHE IS DOING FOR THE WOMEN OF AMERICA - and the dignity and reputation of the U.S. Senate. ....................... * ........................ On June 23, 1972, President Richard Nixon signed into law Title IX of the High Education Act which bans sex discrimination in athletics and other activities in institutions that receive federal money. Twenty seven years later the Republican\religious supremacist coalition in Congress is attempting to gut, if not destroy, the equality requirement - although (SURPRISE!) they are not going to ask women to lower their tax payments to make up for the federal tax dollars being detoured to misogynistic programs at the cost of women's athletics. Time to write your congressional represenative and your U.S. Senators. And maybe it's time women had their own tea party, this time the rallying cry should be "No taxes without benefits" .... ....................... * ........................ The latest figures show that wives bring home about 40% of the household's income and almost 10 million wives earn more than their husbands. ....................... * ........................ Women's rights are young and tender and we must protect them from the plagues of holy hypocrisy and newts. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >>> Send your ideas, comments, and news to irenestuber@delphi.com for inclusion in the Catt's Claws feminist newsletter which will be emailed three times a week: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. This is NOT an interactive discussion net but an exchange of information and is NOT sponsored by any organization. We are accepting *limited* donations (only what can be spared) to help offset the online costs of posting Catt's Claws. Irene Stuber. PO Box 6185, Hot Springs, AR 71902.<<<<