It may come as a surprise to you, but March is known as Women's History month. Normally it is a month to commemorate, celebrate and contemplate the achievements of the female gender. These, however, are not normal times.

Just three months into the year, and we have witnessed attacks on women and our rights almost unsurpassed in my lifetime. I am 44 years old. I grew up knowing that contraception was available and not controversial. Abortion has always been controversial in my lifetime, and is something I have long fought to protect as a legal and safe procedure. I believe in having the choice to reproduce or not. I believe that women should be considered equal to men and should be protected as such by our Constitution. I want to see the ERA passed. Remember the Equal Rights Amendment?


"The Equal Rights Amendment, first proposed in 1923 to affirm that women and men have equal rights under the law, is still not part of the U.S. Constitution. It has been ratified by 35 of the 38 states needed. Next Thursday my wonderful partner and I will be attending this press conference. There are a lot of people out there that think this fight for the 28th amendment is over. It isn't. Additionally, a lot of people believe the ERA is no longer needed, that it is a time that has come and gone. There is a complacent belief that women have already achieved equality. Take a look why this is still important:
The events of the past few months from some conservative circles should be a reminder of why the ERA is just as important as it ever was. Women have been used as political fodder for everything from access to contraception to abortion, and now - domestic violence prevention is up for debate. You read that correctly, domestic violence is now too partisan for conservatives. From the New York Times: We have presidential candidates in 2012 that want to end Planned Parenthood, reduce accessibility to pre-natal care, prevent sex education for our youth, and believe that rape victims should carry a child to term. We have conservative radio talk show personalities calling women sluts and prostitutes. We have been asked to produce sex tapes. We have been forced to endure trans-vaginal ultrasounds. They want to declare a zygote a person. Some states are saying that an employer should be allowed to ask a woman about her health history in order to get a medical prescription. It may seem like years ago, but women were attacked for coming forth with sexual harassment stories about Herman Cain. "A few months ago, after Sharon Bialek charged that Herman Cain had sexually harassed her, Limbaugh pronounced her name “Buy-a-lick,” and called her thirteen-year-old son a Nazi “brownshirt,” for having encouraged her to come forth." Remember that? It's understandable if you don't -- the attacks are almost daily these days. A year ago, the NYT wrote this editorial: They were right. It's gotten worse in just the first few months of this year alone...

None of the legislation proposed to curb women's rights are directed toward men. There are a few amendments and proposals out there to make points of this, but generally -- this is all about taking away rights from women. One could debate that men are side-effected, but this legislation and these statements are directed straight at women. We are being told to be quiet and be happy with what we are given. This should not be legal, not in the United states of America in the year 2012. If women were constitutionally considered equal to men, none of this legislation would be happening. Women are empowered, but until we get equal protection clarified -- we will still be dealing with the idea that we are not equal to our male counter parts. Electing women to public office is always important, (it's critical to be quite honest -- we are a majority in this nation, our elections should represent that, but I digress) but clearly, it is not enough. It's not enough when domestic violence victims are political fodder. It's not enough when men think they can probe into our bodies and health records. It's not enough when some people think they can shame us for our choices.

Until we have a clear cut judicial standard for equality in deciding cases of sex discrimination, being a woman is not enough. We deserve better than the treatment we are getting from the Republican party. We are actually witnessing a rollback of our rights in this nation. We should be "promoting laws and court decisions that fairly take into account women’s as well as men’s experiences". I think it is clear right now that is not happening. It's time for Americans to amend our Constitution to say that as a member of this planet earth, our nation has ZERO tolerance for any form of sex discrimination. Let me allow this wonderful woman to say it far better than I ever could: It's one thing to say it is unfair -- it is entirely different to finally declare it unconstitutional to treat more than half the population different because they were born with a vagina instead of a penis.

It's time to stop letting the regressive portion of our nation define how they think women should be. It's time to stop letting them define what our history should be.

"We shall not be safe until the principle of equal rights is written into the framework of our government." -- Alice Paul, 1923

Indeed.

and
Raine