GAINESVILLE NOVVLETTER MAY/JUNE 2002

Qginesyille Area NOW Board 1 rest ent: on mney ice-President: Laurie Reisman Secretary: Stephanie Seguin reasurer: Jessica Mills egislative Director: Pennie Foster undraising: Lynn Max ORGANIZATION niversal health Care Committee Chair: Candi Churchill FCRWCMEN ay/June 2002 NOWJetter Editors: icole Hardin, Candi Churchill, & Jennifer Jo UPCOMING I= VENTS - • • I Just health care office party hosted by Sat. May 18 Holistic Therapeutics Physical Therapy. - 4:00-5:30 at 5200 ~W_~'!vvberry Suite D-7 (see article) Sat. May 25 12:00 p.m. Campus NOW board meeting Call 371-6499 for directions. Wed. May 29 6:00-9:00 Gainesville Area NOW Board Meeting

3:00-4:30 Gainesville Area NOW General Meeting Sat. June 8 Guest Speaker on Safety Tactics for Women Downtown library- ca11377-2301 for more information. 6:00-8:45 Gainesville Area NOW Board Meeting Thurs. June 13 Call for 335-5034 directions. National NOW Conference in St. Paul, MN June 21-23 Register on-line before June 1 at www.now.org 12:00 Campus NOW board meeting Sat. June 29 Call 3 71-6499 for directions. 12:00 Campus NOW board meeting Sat. July 13 Call 3 71-6499 for directions. Don't miss our summer CR Series! Topics include: Conciousness-Raising (CR) is a tool we use • Abortion as women to gain a clearer understanding of • Having Kids our lives. by sharing personal expe~ences, • Social Wage • Living with partners examm1ng our common oppressiOn, vs. marriage and taking political action when necessary. Thursdays at 6:00 p.m. For women to get what we want, Dates: 5/23, 6/6, 6/20, 7/11 we need to get together. Call 377-2301 for more information. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ :: · MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION !: 1: :1 :: 1 wish to join NOW and commit myself to take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American ·i 1! society now, exercising full rights and responsibilities in equal partnership with men. 1: 1: Name Phone ______1: 1: Address E-mail address: ------:1 :1 City State Zip :1 I' :1 1! National, State and Local Dues: :1 1: $35. Regular Dues ', I 1: $15-34. Reduced Dues Amount Enclosed$ :1 I' :1 1:, a :! Checks can be made out to Campus or Gainesville Area NOW and mailed to PO Box 2235 Gainesville, FL 32602 :1 I 'I ~~------' UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE HOUSE PARTIES: Gainesville Area NOW & COMMITTEE REPORT members Lynn Max Candi Churchill hosted a JUST HEALTH CARE* house party to present BY CANOl CHURCHILL universal health care as a solution to our health care worries. Thank you to all 50 friends who came, brought food and/or contributed your own experience -- especially those who shelled out your nickels, dimes and b_ig bill_s! Holistic Therapeutics (owned by Gainesville Area NOW member Sandie Schoenborn) 1s hostmg an office party for their physical therapy patients and medical colleagues-- May 18th 4- 5:30pm at 5~00 W Newberry Rd, Suite D-7. Jape Taylor with Physicians for a National Health Plan, San?1e and Candi will be speaking. We are also working on hosting a house party by the pool w1th new member Linda Piotrowski Lavery in June.

STATEWIDE CAMPAIGN: The Alachua County Labor Party has proposed a statewide constitutional amendment campaign for health care for all Floridians by 2004. We have joined them and are already working our way around the state organizing feminists into the fight for health care for everyone -- in April, Gainesville Area NOW got Florida NOW to sign up as a member of the Just Health Care Alliance. Tallahassee and Tampa-area NOW chapters want us to come to their towns this summer. Miami-Dade unionists are considering running a nonbinding referendum this November similar to our Alachua County campaign that won 64.5% YES and we Candi Churchill gets signatures for Just ~ealth C.are petition at a Service Employee~ International :Umon plan to reach out to NOW members in that area. rally in St. Pete 4/20/02. Rtght ts Mtlton Hewttl, SEIU, New Orleans. Photo by Jenny Brown. WHERE DO I FIT IN?: We want to continue investigating national health insurance as a . feminist demand, and also expand our struggle to the larger demand for more of a "soci~l. wage" in_this country. ~edstockmgs of the Women's Liberation Movement* defines the social wage as something that: "goes to all c1t1zens and mcludes such. thmgs as health_ care, · · · · " n 1v u leverage-m our narental leavr.. chtld r.are. and elder care ra _ _ ...... aay-to-day struggles agamst male supremacy m the home and at our JOOS. Thts w11I be one of the consctousness ra1smg toptcs th1s summer and we'll read ' new book-- please join us and pitch in your own experiences. We've got some organized, rich enemies-- we need your time and financial support!

*To get involved contact: Candi 377-9935, [email protected]. To learn more about Just Health Care- the Labor Party's proposal , for national health insurance visit: www.justhealthcare.org. To order Redstockings' organizing packet "Women's Liberation & National Health Care: Confronting the Myth of America" go to www .redstockings.org.

CAMPUS NOW REPORT Campus NOW Elections Campus NOW elections took place Tuesday, April 23rd. Congratulations to our new board: Co-Presidents: Jennifer Cook Joy and Stefanie Lauria Treasurer: Jessica Powell Secretary: Aimee DuPerre Historian: Kristin Hoyer Membership Director: Camille West

Women's History Month Campus NOW celebrated Women' s History Month with three events at Santa Fe Community College: a film, an exhibit and a speech by former CNOW president, co-editor of the Gainesville Iguana, and co-chair of the Alachua County Labor Party Jenny Brown about women's liberation and national health care. In spite ofSFCC administrators' concerns that her speech might be too controversial, Jenny was very well received by both students and faculty. Jenny is a contributing author of the new book, "Women's Liberation and National Health Care: Confronting the Myth of Amer­ ica," available now from Redstockings.

Emergency Campaign for Women's Lives See-pages 3-4 for updates on Campus NOW's contributions to the struggle- for abortion rights.

Campus NOW Orientation Campus NOW ended Women's History Month with an all-day orientation featuring a panel of former Campus NOW leaders. Participants discussed past campaigns and actions, the importance of being part of a national political group, taking on leadership roles within Campus NOW, and the reasons for our protocols and structure. We also attended the Community Coalition Against War and Ter­ rorism workshop "Civil Liberties and Civil Rights After September II." All attendees received a 150 page plus packet of documents from the Campus NOW archives chronicling past actions and events. Campus NOW has a few extra packets available to members for $8 .00; interested members should contact Natalie at 371-6499.

Orbit Ad Encourages Date Rape tlu: foiiowing iener was sent to Michael P. Strange, manager of Orbit, in response to a sexist ad that encouraged date rape.

Mr. Strange: 14 April2002 I am writing to you on behalf of the University of Florida/Santa Fe Community College chapter of the National Organization for Women. As an organization that fights and in order to advance women's liberation, we were appalled by the en­ closed Valentine's Day "hook up" advertisement for Orbit Lounge which was distributed on the University of Florida campus and in the Gainesville community in February 2002. It is apparent to us that the problem is not this single sexist flyer used to promote a club, but rather the much larger issue that the vast majority of advertisements promoting clubs objectify and degrade women. The problem is mag­ nified by the fact that we live in a sexist society in which the objectification of women in advertisement is commonplace and acceptable to many people. We are writing to let you know that this form of advertisement offends us and is completely unacceptable. It speaks very poorly of your establishment that you resort to such a base form of advertisement. We demand that you change your advertising tactics and stop promoting sexism that works to hold women down in our society. We refuse to patronize your establishment until this demand has been met.

For women's liberation, The members ofUF/SFCC Campus NOW Emereen~:y tampail!n lor women's lives heats up with two more a~:tions By: Nicole Hardin Abortion & Committee Chair Gainesville Area NOW

On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Gainesville Area and the UF/SFCC Campus NOW chapters held a speak-out to support NOW's National Day of Speak-outs. Standing on the "free speech stone" in front of the courthouse. Women testified about their experiences with birth control, abortion, and parenting. One woman Outgomg Brittney testified about having to scrape to­ spoke about the difficulty of finding an abortion provtder gether enough money for abortion by and receiving honest information about the option. Co-president Stefanie Lauria unfurls a 20 ft. banner · · · · borrowing money and paying rent late, adding that not many people can come up with $500 in a couple of weeks. Another woman spoke about being in France and how the government had people riding around on bikes distrib­ uting the morning after pill. It was inspiring and certainly gave us proof that in other countries women have won some of these freedoms we are fighting for.

Women testified about how far we have to travel (86% of counties have no abortion provider), how hard it is to obtain accurate information about the realities of abortion, the difficulties of get­ ting men to take their fair share of responsibilities with abortion and birth control, and how re­ lieved we were after having an abortion. Women testified about the cost of an abortion, and hear­ ing how all these restrictions affect our lives, we saw how important the demand for abortion law repeal is and why we need it. Repeal of abortion laws means no restrictions on abortion at all! We even rolled out a very long scroll that listed all the restrictions that have been placed on abor­ tion since Roe v. Wade.

Our Speak-out also included the demand for the reproductive right to have children. Our de­ mands for universal health care and childcare are part of winning this right. Women spoke about how hard it is to raise children without help from society and men. Our vice president, Laurie Reisman, testified about being a stay-at-home mom and the need for women to get together and demand changes: "I must say that mothering is extremely hard, all- encompassing work. In addi­ tion to providing unconditional love, child care, early childhood education and fulfilling the role of nurse, counselor, activities director and motivator, I am expected to perform the unpaid job of homemaker- cooking, cleaning, laundress and many more household tasks just because the job

is primarily at home. And by the way, these jobs rarely decrease when a women works a job out­ " . side the home. I am continually told that the only com­ pensation for my job should be the love and nurturing that I receive and that I am selfish to want otherwise. I'm here to tell you that I do one of the most important and difficult jobs for the continuation and functioning of a healthy society and I will not buy into that line of .....bull. .. I'm here to tell you that it doesn't have to be like Gt,this. As women we need to get together and demand that men do their equal share of parenting, housework and emotional work. If women unite and uphold this standard for all men, then they will have to change. Aside from the fact that we need men to do more of their share in the household, it is a really big job for two people to do by themselves. We need help and support from society in the form of less time at work and more Gainesville Area NOW treasurer time for family or other things, higher wages, national Jessica Mills testified about raising a child child care, paid parental leave and universal health and the need for public childcare. care." (continued on next page) (continuing from previous page) Continuing the campaign, our two chapters also joined with Tallahassee NOW for the National Day of Sit-Ins/ 1 Mock Filibusters. On March 8 h, International Women's Day, members of Gainesville Area NOW and Campus NOW traveled to our state capital to demand senators up hold the rights of their constituents and pledge to fili­ buster any court nominee who is anti-choice and anti­ woman. This is the statement we read to our senators: Today is International Women's Day. We are standing on the shoulders of the women who left the factories and their kitchens to demand better working conditions and the right to vote on the first International

Women's Day in 1908. We are also here as part of the Outgoing Campus NOW president Natalie Maxwell next step in the National Organization for Women's starts the event by reading NOW's statement and emerging Campaign to Advance and Protect Roe v talking about her own experience with abortion. Wade.

We are here as women, citizens, mothers, students, voters, and workers of Florida. We want real repro­ ductive freedom--that means the freedom to have or not to have children. As women we have to struggle constantly for the right to decide if and when we have children. We have to fight with men to wear con­ doms, and we have to fight with our government ~;oi'ld s~~-uWmes men to bave....an abortion. Withoutihe right to control our bodies and t rmine th"" cou },e of {..Ur lives, we cannot be on equal footing with men at school, in the workplace, or in -·our relationships. When we do have kids we still have to fight. We have to fight for our work as moms to be valued and recognized. We have to fight for reliable, affordable, and convenient childcare so that we can finish school, go to work or have free time.

US politicians and presidents say they care about families--but when other countries say it--they mean it! As US citizens, we want the same things that other industrialized nations have. In Sweden parents have one year of paid parental leave where they receive usually 80% of their pay and a return to work guaran­ tee. And nearly all other industrialized countries provide maternity, paternity, or paid parental leave during the first year of childhood.

In Gainesville, in Florida, and all across this country, women are mad. We're mad about all the under­ handed attempts to push through legislation that further restricts our abortion rights like parental consent/ notification laws and unnecessary regulations on clinics. We're also mad that only doctors can perform abortions, yet midwives can deliver babies, Medicaid doesn't cover abortions, yet they cover sterilization, and women in the armed forces can't get their abortions covered by military insurance. WE are the ex­ perts on what's good for our bodies and what happens in our lives. Lori Tinney, Stephanie Seguin, and Laurie Reisman also contributed to this report.

ongratulations to Emily Brown for receiving a recent Women of Distinction award! 802 W. Vmly A..r:to • 6 · miHc, fi 32601 It! (352) l75-74T/ • fill (352) 375.]719 c· ~il : 11'[email protected]

GAINESVILLE AREA NOWLETTER us P.O. Box 2235 ,. PERMIT#3 ~. GAINESVILLE, FL 32602-2235 GAINESVIf (352)377-2301 [email protected] CAMPUS_ [email protected] ~E: The 5-18 Gainesville Area NOW Office Party h ..._postponed until July. as

Inside this Issue: • Action Reports • SummerCR Series •Campus NOW Elections • Upcoming Events FL NOW Pres, Clarice Polluck • Speakout Pictures 1965 South Ocean Drive, #17S Hallandale, FL 33009-5925 • Universal Health Care Committee Report

SPECIAL THANKS FOR THE DONATIONS RAISED BY THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES TO HELP STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN.

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