Help Community Radio Get Off The Ground!

Just a reminder that TODAY is the last day to donate to the Kickstarter campaign of the Chicago Independent Radio Project. As we mentioned before, there's lots of fantastic prizes to be had for donors, including a special women themed mix CD by yours truly! Head on over to the Kickstarter campaign page and pledge now - every dollar CHIRP raises today is a dollar they don't have to raise later on this year!

Help Kick Start the Chicago Independent Radio Project!

After many months of hard work, the Chicago Independent Radio Project is just about ready to launch an online radio station! The goal is to have a truly independent community radio station focused on independent and local music, arts and culture on the air by the end of the fall... sounds pretty great, right? We think so! In fact, we're all involved with CHIRP and hope to be some of those voices coming across your computer speakers later on this year!

But, we can't do it without your help. CHIRP is a 100% volunteer organization and receives no government or corporate funding - donations from individuals and a few small grants help to keep CHIRP's books in the black. Launching online means that CHIRP needs to pay for studio space rent, electricity, office materials, heating, telephones, and the streaming costs of putting a radio station online. Thus, the CHIRP Kickstarter.com campaign - chip in and you'll help CHIRP raise the $4800 needed for the first year of streaming costs for the radio station! Plus, you'll get to choose one of several fabulous prizes. (Including an exclusive mix tape featuring the best women in music from me!) Click on the widget above and donate today!

Happy Women's Equality Day!

Today we celebrate Women's Equality Day, an annual commemoration of the day, August 26, that the 19th Amendment was passed in Congress, granting women the right to vote. Women's Equality Day was the invention of New York Democrat Representative and feminist Bella Abzug, who introduced the idea for the first celebration in 1971.

It's interesting that as we celebrate how far women in this country have come today, we learn about the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy, the "Liberal Lion". While Kennedy had been often criticized for his dealings with women in his private life, there's no doubt that throughout his long political career he was one of the strongest supporters of women and feminist issues, particularly health care, education, college sports equality, racial equality and reproductive rights. Without his policies that became law throughout the years, the American woman's world would be a very different place, so we thank him.

The question that now arises on this day, who will be the "next" Ted Kennedy? It seems that since Bella Abzug left Congress in 1977, there hasn't been another powerful feminist Congresswoman since, and I think that's a shame. It's time for the next generation to take up the call of Women's Equality Day, and of the legacy of the Liberal Lion, and move American women forward into the next century! What will you do to help?

Dr. George Tiller, 8/8/1941-5/31/2009

Yet another doctor has been murdered for his choice to support and protect a woman's right to choose. This morning Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed as he attended Sunday morning church service. Dr. Tiller provided abortions, including late term abortions, in Kansas and had an attempt made on his life sixteen years ago. The identity of the shooter is unkown at this time, but incoming reports state that Kansas police may have a suspect in custody.

Dr. Tiller is the fourth provider to be killed in the United States since 1991. He was one of the few providers in the United States who provided late term abortions, predominantly for patients whose lives were in danger due to complications with pregnancy. He leaves behind a wife, four children, ten grandchildren. His death is a significant loss to women seeking safe abortions. I hope that soon we will live in a country where women, and doctors, can exercise freedom of choice without fearing harm and death.

For more information on how you can protect a woman's right to choose, please visit NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Day of Silence

Today marks the 13th annual Day of Silence, a day wherein students do not talk in order to raise awareness of anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools. The day began in 1996 on the University of Virginia campus, and has spread across the nation, with the support of GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. This year, the day falls on what would have been the 12th birthday of Carl Walker-Hoover, a Massachusetts boy who hanged himself last week after being subjected to anti-gay taunts by bullies at his school.

I've spoken publicly before about a college friend of mine who died when we were 19, but I'd like to tell his story again to say why I think the Day of Silence is so important. My friend was gay, and in 1996 things were rather different than they are today. There was no social networking site to connect him with other gay people, no Will and Grace, no Milk, no hope of equal protection laws against housing or job discrimination much less marriage, no place for him in any religion. His gay role models were virtually non-existent, or were negative ones. He was under enormous pressure from his parents, who were from a traditional culture. Even our supposedly open and progressive theatre department saw him more as a novelty than anything else. I once asked him what he wanted to do after college, and he said he didn't see a future. Plainly put, he literally could not envision a life for himself, and I believe that faced with this reality, he began a slow suicide, and not long after, died of a drug overdose.

I have always believed that if he had been able to hang on for a few more years, he could have seen, if not a future he wanted, a tiny glimmer of hope on the horizon. So today, if you're reading these words, and you think there's no hope for you, I want to say to you, there is. I think especially of teenagers, and my message is - it really can be better. It might really suck right now in your school or your family or your church or your small town, but the reality is that if you can hang on until you are 18, you can move to a bigger city, get a job, choose a liberal school, find a welcoming church, and create a family of friends who will love you no matter who you are. It's not easy, for sure, and GLBT people are still oppressed even in big cities, but if you can just hang on for a little while, I think you'll find that the good days will eventually outnumber the bad, and you can create the future you want. In the meantime, here are some resources that can help -

GLSEN - Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network

Scholarships for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Students - list

Directory of "welcoming churches", specifically open to and supportive of GLBT people

Housing services for homeless GLBT youth - list

Recommended Reading list for GLBT teens from the San Francisco Public Library

The Trevor Helpline - free 24/7 suicide prevention hotline and online forum specifically targeting GLBT youth

Howard Brown Health Center - health services for GLBT Chicagoans

Center on Halsted - variety of services, organizations, grouped in the GLBT community center in Chicago

Bookmark this page. Save it to your desktop. Email it to someone who needs it.

Happy Inaguration Day America!

Today, America celebrates the Inaguration of President Barack Obama. The historical significance of this moment, combined with the seemingly overwhelming challenges our nation faces, is both awesome and sobering. While we at WOW celebrate the election of what I suspect may be our first "feminist" president, and look forward to seeing President Obama's work on women's issues, we are also realistic about the very difficult moment that America finds itself in today. Rampant unemployment, a healthcare crisis, foreclosures in every neighborhood, disappearing savings - these issues of growing poverty affect us all, and won't be solved after President Obama takes the oath of office this morning.

There's a saying going around that I think bears repeating -

"Rosa sat, so King could walk. King walked so Obama could run. Obama ran so that we all could fly."'

It's up to all of us to take a cue from our grandparents, members of the post-WWII "greatest generation" who found themselves in a very similar place several decades ago, and undertake large scale committments, both personal and national, to creating the change we want to see in the world. I think that one of the smartest things that President Obama has done is to put the ball back into the court of the American people, and I encourage you to listen to his latest YouTube video below.

Today, make a commitment to yourself that you will undertake one single thing this year to make the change you want to see in the world. Whether it is as small as changing your lamps to environmentally friendly lightbulbs, or as grand as lobbying your Senator for universal health care, whether it is as personal as reaching out to a lonely relative or as communal as joining neighbors in collecting items for homeless people in your neighborhoodl, whether it is as local as tutoring at the community center down the block or as global as sending pencils to schoolchildren in Iraq, make one committment to yourself today that you will be a part of this historic moment. That when you look back in ten years at today, you can say, I was a part of that. That when your kids and grandkids ask you, what was it like to be alive in January of 2009, you can tell them how you didn't sit on the sidelines of history, you were a part of the living history that is the definition of America itself. Are you with me? Leave your commitment to change in the comments section!

Worst Place To Be A Woman: Congo

We're heard the stories of the atrocities of civil war, militias run rampant, rape, and murder in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for quite some time, but now Amnesty International has made it official - the Congo is the worst place in the world to be a woman. Women and girls in the Congo are nearly all survivors of calculated and systematic sexual assault, which has been used as a weapon in the ongoing civil war since 1996. In addition to the emotional and mental anguish experienced by the survivors as well as members of their local community (assaults are often carried out in public, aimed to undermine the strength families or local towns), physical injuries have been devastating in an area of the world where medical care is sorely lacking, and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, are quickly rising. One result is that survivors are expelled from their families and communities, cut off not only from a support network but also from economic opportunity. To make things even worse, few aid organizations are able to work in the Congo, due to the civil strife that is ongoing.

Amnesty International hopes that by naming the Congo the worst place in the world to be a woman, they can urge other women to join in the call for an end to violence. They've prepared a petition on their website calling on President-elect Barack Obama to protect women of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. You can sign that here, and we hope you do.

Day Without A Gay

Today marks the first work boycott launched by the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in the United States. The mission of Day Without a Gay is to get LGBT employees to call in "gay" to work and spend the day volunteering at an organization working to further queer civil rights.
Not only will this put more hands on deck at organizations that need all the free labor they can get, it will draw attention to gay employees' worth as, you know, people and workers. Hopefully employers and co-workers will note their absence and connect the dots: "Hey, things aren't as fun/productive/smooth without Bob or Sue at work today. Wow, they are standing up for civil rights that they have been denied but I've been granted for arbitrary reasons. Gays: they really are just like the rest of us. Huh."

In an ideal situation, Day Without a Gay will create a noticable impact on straight allies and potentially change the minds of those who support hate-filled amendments such as those recently passed in California, Colorado, Florida and Arkansas. It will, at the very least, show that the community is done sitting down and accepting "tolerance" in the place of full civil rights. In other words: not being beat up (as much) and being given domestic partnerships or civil unions in a handful of states isn't enough, and we're taking action.

The Time Is Now

Today cities around the country hosted protests against California's Proposition 8, a ballot initiative to ban gay marriage in California (where it had been legalized just months ago)that passed on November 4. Also passed on Election Day were similar propositions in Arizona and Florida as well as a law in Arkansas that outlaws adoption by unmarried persons (cough...gays...cough).

Arguments for gay marriage have been articulated in newspapers, blogs, and t.v.: every citizen should have equal rights, denying some citizens equal marriage rights is unfair because they pay full taxes, it is matter of basic civil rights - the list goes on and on.

This movement isn't just about marriage rights, though. Not everyone wants to get married. Not everyone will get married, even if they have the legal right to. It is about no longer placing those in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in the "other" category. And when people are placed in that category, it is so much easier for people to see them as diffrent - as less than. Which leads to violence. It is easy to hurt someone who you don't see as human as yourself. Or to hurt yourself when you're tired of being treated like a second class citizen.

We can't allow another Matthew Shepard to happen. Another Brandon Teena. We can't continue standing by while the gay teen suicide rate rises. The time for civil rights for EVERYONE is now.

So what can you do about it? Don't be complacent. Even if you aren't queer, even if you don't want to get married, this is something you should be concerned about. Tell your friends and family why this issue matters. Write letters to legislators. Donate funds to legal advocacy groups that are doing some of the heavy lifting around this issue, like Lambda Legal andNational Center for Lesbian Rights. Tell friends who are getting married that instead of a gift, you're going to donate to marriage equality in their name.

Boycott businesses that either donated funds directly to Yes on 8 or are in bed with groups who donated to Yes on 8:
McDonalds Corporation
Home Depot
Bonneville Radio Stations (In Chicago, they have 101.9, 100.3, 97.1, and 96.9 F.M.)
Lowes
And I'm getting really local here: Century 21 theater in Evanston.

This is a call to action - the kind we can't do on air. I'm talking to you, person who sits on their couch and thinks "Wow, this is all really messed up" and does NOTHING. Get up. Do something. We don't have time to waste.

Video Friday: Janis Ian's Married In London

The lack of civil rights of GLBT folks is no laughing matter, but Janis Ian brings humor to a horrible situation with her song "Married In London". Check out the video below. If you want to join the movement for marriage equality, join Chicago Against Proposition 8 this Saturday November 15 at 12:30 at the Federal Plaza (Dearborn and Adams). Raise your voice, raise your fist.

What Veterans' Day Means For Female Veterans

Veterans' Day is often overlooked by our generation, or taken over by flag-waving conservatives, so I think it's important to remind ourselves of the great sacrifice that veterans have made, and continue to make, on behalf of our country. While I personally work towards a day where our nation will be focused on preemptive peacemaking rather than war, even a war protester like myself acknowledges that we will always need a military for our defense, and I am humbled by the sacrifice of those who choose that path.

Today, let's remember especially the female veterans of war, a population often overlooked. We've heard before about how female soldiers experience sexual assault at disproportionately high rates, but new disturbing reports now indicate female veterans are getting the short end of the stick when it comes to homeless housing services as well. Female nurses from World War II, the Cadet Nurse Corps, are still unrecognized as official veterans by our government, largely because of their sex.

Today, take a few minutes to send a few emails to your representatives. First, write in support of the Cadent Nurse Corps Equity Act. Next, visit the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America website, where you can ask President Bush to sign the GI Bill, which would provide additional services and assistance for our generation of veterans. Finally, if you have a veteran in your life, give them a call today!

Vote, Women!

Today is Election Day in the United States of America.

The Women On Women Music Program would like to remind you that it is especially important that all women get out the vote. If you'll permit me a little family history - I say this as the granddaughter of someone who could not legally vote when she was born, simply because of her sex. My grandmother Helena, born in 1913, was seven years old when women finally got the right to vote. Her mother, my great-grandmother, cast her first vote in 1920. Even then, the struggle wasn't over - likely a Democrat (as most Irish Catholic Iowa farmers were), my great-grandmother had to wait twelve more years, until 1932, to see one of her chosen candidates actually win! Coincidentally, 1932 was the year my eighteen year old grandmother would have cast her first ballot, for Franklin D Roosevelt. No doubt mother and daughter were thrilled to see some hope and change in the form of this exciting new candidate who promised a "New Deal" with Americans suffering under the economic crisis of Great Depression and threats of global war.

Sound familiar? Here's hoping that when my mother, sister and I walk through the gates of Grant Park this evening, we'll have just as much reason to celebrate as those two Iowa women did seventy-six years ago.

Some things to remember:

• Polls open at 6:00am and close at 7:00pm. If you are in line at 6:59pm, you are legally permitted to cast your ballot, no matter how long you may have to wait in line after the polls close.
• To find your polling place in the city of Chicago, visit ChicagoElections.com.
• You will need to verify your name and address and sign your signature to receive a ballot. You do not need to show ID, but it is a good idea to bring some, just in case there are any problems.
• You are not permitted to "electioneer" within 100 feet of the polling place. Some people have interpreted this to mean that you are not allowed to wear pins, shirts or hats in support of a candidate. This is under dispute, but to avoid problems just take off your hat or pin, or wear a sweater over your shirt, while you are in line and voting.
• If you have any problems at the polls, call 311, 911 (emergencies only) or the Chicago Election Day hotline at (312) 269-7870.
  

After you vote, don't forget to tune into tonight at 8pm to WLUW on 88.7fm in Chicago and wluw.org online. Emily will be playing a special election celebration set in honor of the occasion!

Blog Action Day 2008: Fight Global Poverty

In my internet travels today, I came across several blogs discussion global poverty and discovered that today is Blog Action Day 2008, a day when bloggers across the globe have agreed to discuss global poverty issues. It's only fitting that we at the Women On Women Music Program take part in this discussion, since throughout history and culture, women are consistently more affected by poverty issues than men. Sexism, violence against women, workplace discrimination, access to healthcare and access to child care are some of the largest issues contributing to the economic disparity between poor women and men, and not just in third world nations, but here in our own backyard. Want to help fight global poverty? Here are some suggestions -

Make the United States government accountable to you - pledge to vote today at the National Women's Law Center's Vote 2008 campaign.

Ask your Senator to support the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, which would allow women to sue their employeers for wage discrimination.

Start your own business, and once it grows, hire other women. Sound hard? Check out the Small Buisness Administration website for more information.

Owning your own business is the most effective way for women in third world nations to gain economic independence as well as political power in their local community. To help them be successful, consider using your purchasing power to support women-owned small buisnesses when you do your holiday shopping this year. Ten Thousand Villages and UNICEF's online store support the work of women around the globe.

Invest in women's businesses through Kiva. Kiva, one of the most successful micro-lending organizations, exemplifies the economic theory of giving women the means to create their own businesses, pay back lenders, and then invest in their communities. This theory, championed by Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, won them the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

Sign up for action email lists from the ONE Campaign, which has been working on global poverty issues for nearly a decade.

Test your vocabulary skills with FreeRice.com, which donates food through the UN World Food Program for every correct answer.

Have more suggestions? Put them in the comments!

Voter Registration Deadline TODAY

We've been warning you on the air and in this blog for months - today is the FINAL DAY to register to vote in Illinois. (If you're reading this from another state, your deadline is likely this week too.) If you've moved or this is your first time registering, quick, go to ChicagoElections.com and print out a voter registration form - make sure you get it postmarked and mailed in today. You can also pick up forms at your local library or post office. And, the Chicago Board of Elections office will be open until midnight tonight, so hurry!!!

If you don't make tonight's deadline, there is still one last chance for you to vote in this election. You can participate in the Grace Period Registration/Voting program at the headquarters downtown. This program takes place from October 8 through October 21. You must go in person to the Election Board office, located at 69 W Washington, 6th Floor, and register and immediately cast your ballot. If you decide on this option, make sure you have already decided who you will vote for, as you will need to make your choice immediately after you register.

Remember, its only been eight-eight years since women were given the right to vote - let's not squander what our grandmothers and great-grandmothers fought so hard for!

Fighting For A Fighting Chance: The Gardasil Controversy

Imagine your mom, your sister, or your best friend sitting you down this weekend at lunch. "I have something to tell you," she says. "I have cervical cancer." Your mind races through emotions - sadness, fear, anger - and you mentally calculate how long before you can get on the Internet and start googling all about cervical cancer. When you do hit up the information superhighway, the news isn't great. Although five year relative survival rates are up, now to about 72% overall, the disease is still quite devastating. Survivors can expect treatment to include a combination of surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, all of which can come with serious side effects, including reduced or eliminated fertility. You do the math on survival statistics, have a margarita, accompany your mom/sister/friend to the hospital, light some candles and hope for the best.

What if, though, 70% to 80% of those conversations could be avoided? It's possible that science has finally produced a way to nearly eliminate cervical cancer. Presently, it's estimated that 70 - 80% of cervical cancer cases are caused by HPV, or the human papilloma virus. The most common sexually transmitted infection, HPV is present in about 80% of American women by the age of 50. Gardasil, a new vaccine, prevents four strains of HPV, which account for about 70% of all cancers. Widespread vaccination efforts of pre-teen girls could potentially eliminate or at least drastically reduce cervical cancer within a generation.

So what's the hold up? Gardasil was approved in June of 2006, and has been on the market since then for girls and women between the ages of 9 and 26. Merck, the makers of the vaccine, were seeking to expand approval for women ages 26 to 45, as well as boys and men, but the FDA denied that request last week, citing concerns that could not be resolved in the approval time frame. Merck plans to respond to the FDA by the end of July and try again.

In the meantime, the vaccine has run into other problems. Some religious conservatives have opposed vaccinations because they believe it will encourage promiscuity in teen girls, and one group has used reports of side effects to bolster its claim of the vaccine's danger. We did a little digging and went to a country that's been using Gardasil for much longer than the U.S. to find out - was Gardasil unsafe? Kate Benson and Ian Munro of Australia's Sydney Morning Herald report that there have been very few complaints in Australia. Indeed, they uncover that the conservative groups opposing vaccination may be manipulating the data to imply causality that does not exist.

So if you can't get Gardasil, what can you do? Make sure you get your yearly pap test to detect HPV and cervical cancer. If you are uninsured and living in Illinois, you may be eligible for free cancer screenings from the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program. Don't delay - every day a cancer is undected is a a day wasted!

Girls Rock! Chicago Seeks Volunteers

Our good friends at Girls Rock! Chicago are seeking volunteers and workshop leaders for 2008's summer camp program. A week long camp for girls age 9 to 16, Girls Rock! Chicago provides instrument instruction, music composition coaching, recording workshops, song-writing workshops, hands-on activities, technical equipment workshops, guest speakers, team-building activities and band performances. The girls form bands the first day, and by the end of the week they get the live concert experience from onstage when they perform! The organizers are looking for volunteers in a variety of full and part time capacities, as well as workshop instructors for a variety of topics.

If you're unable to volunteer, you can still help Girls Rock! Chicago by donating online or contacting them about gear and instrument donations.

WOW's fave way to donate? For the month of June, Bleeding Heart Bakery will make a donation to Girls Rock! Chicago for every "charity cupcake" sold during the month of June. Talk about a tasty treat!