California NOW

Governor Brown Attempts to Change Penal Code for Domestic Violence

 The California Chapter of the National Organization for Women (California NOW) announced today that they will be waging a very public campaign to call on Governor Brown to remove the provision in the budget bill that eliminates domestic violence enforcement mandates from police officers and departments.

Current law requires mandatory response to domestic abuse calls, mandatory recording of those calls to emergency personnel, mandatory maintenance records of protection orders and mandatory incident reports. Governor Brown obviously believes domestic violence isn’t important enough to warrant mandates to ensure enforcement of those laws. That’s why, in the middle of night, he changed all of those acts from mandatory to optional, by changing the word in the penal code from “shall” to “may.”

California NOW President, Patricia Bellasalma stated, “California NOW has been fighting the governor’s office for more than two years and it’s getting old. We’ve been told repeatedly that he doesn’t like waiting, that democratic processes which are open and transparent are a waste of time and that he admires the autocratic Chinese government because they “get shit done.” Well what the Governor seems incapable of understanding is when there is no process, “shit” is exactly what gets done.”

Bellasalma continued, “This isn’t the first time we’ve had issues with the governor trying to change laws impacting women in this state through the use of rushed legislation. During the last budget cycle, a trailer bill sought to eliminate sex/gender from outcome measures tied to health inequities. That’s right - he didn’t care about unequal health outcomes for women, but we fought back and won.”

This latest attempt to destroy police mandates demonstrates a fundamental lack of a moral compass that no amount of philosophical reading can cure.  California NOW has been calling for transparency and accountability in state government for exactly this reason.  Governor Brown cannot be trusted to protect women’s health and safety.  The Legislature and Governor Brown must do more than just restore the Domestic Violence statutes; they must prove they deserve women’s trust by - at a minimum - enacting a three day delay before a vote statute that includes the budget.”

As Sacramento County District Attorney, Jan Scully, made clear in her statement yesterday regarding this issue, “These amendments undermining domestic violence laws and victims’ rights have been buried in this collection of mismatched laws because these changes would not survive if exposed to the light of public debate.”

California NOW will be calling on women across the state to contact Governor Brown’s office to demand that he veto AB 76 so that he isn’t responsible for taking California back more than two decades in the fight to break the cycle of domestic violence.

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International Women's Day!

Today is International Women's Day.  In commemoration, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet spoke today at the United Nations.

Here is a portion of what she said....

"We cannot move backwards, we must keep moving forward. It is what we owe to millions of women fighting for their rights around the world.

We find ourselves at a tipping point in history. Never before have we witnessed such global momentum and mobilization by men and women, girls and boys, demanding an end to violence against women and girls.

Never before have we witnessed such open, widespread public outrage and calls for change and action.

Never before have we had the instant and global outreach that new technologies afford—to record in mere seconds, and communicate in real time, the atrocities and horrors of violence committed against women and girls.

Violence against women is pervasive and knows no borders. It does not discriminate according to nationality, ethnicity, social class, culture or religion.

This is why women, men and young people have raised their voices in every region to say one thing: enough is enough.

People demand an immediate end to impunity. They insist on the protection of the rights of women and girls to live in dignity, free of violence and discrimination.

And let me say this: There can be no peace, no progress, no equality without women’s full and equal rights and participation. And there can be no gender equality without women’s realization. Women’s realization of their full reproductive rights, their right to sexual and reproductive health, are essential to the empowerment of women and to gender equality.

As social transformations in attitudes, beliefs, and values are happening, we must keep pace with the aspirations of people everywhere in the world. Their hope, our hope is to see gender equality become reality in this, our 21st century."

Click here to read Michelle Bachelet's full remarks.

 

 

Outrageous Rape "Facts" Come to California!

Remember when Senate Missouri candidate, Todd Akin (who served on the Science Committee in Congress for years) made that ridiculous statement about women not becoming pregnant as a result of rape if it was a "legitimate rape"? And remember when Indiana senate candidate, Richard Mourdock, followed up by saying that pregnancies resulting from rape were part of God's plan?

After the 2012 election, you'd think GOP leaders would realize that those sorts of outrageous statements are neither true nor a winning strategy in politics.

Guess the GOP has not quite learned their lesson because last Friday - here in California - Celeste Greig, head of the California Republican Assembly (California's oldest and largest GOP volunteer group), told the media that pregnancies by rape are rare "because it's an act of violence, because the body is traumatized."

If you are as disgusted by scientifically challenged Republican leaders like Greig attempting to defend rape related anti-choice policies, click here. Politicians and leaders in political parties who attempt to minimize the horrific consequences of rape in order to pursue a political agenda that degrades women must go!

Rapes cause pregnancy. Celeste Greig (and other politicians who just make their own "facts" up) need to resign from their high profile positions so that policies can be created based on science, not ideology. Click here to sign the petition demanding Celeste Greig resign.

For Equality & In Solidarity,

Patty Bellasalma
President, California NOW

Why California NOW is Rising!

By Linda Long, Action Vice President of California NOW

Eve Ensler asked “What are you over?” And California NOW answers, “We are over rape!”

We are over rape culture, slut shaming and blaming.

We are over rape jokes and men and boys thinking they are funny. 

We are over politicians who won’t vote to put rapists in jail because it is too expensive.  We say - let our brown brothers and sisters whose only crime is being poor - let them go and put the rapists in jail!

We are over courts who think that some rapes are more “legitimate” than others. What?  Uninvited penentration is rape. PERIOD.

We are over dominance. PERIOD.

We are over bullying. PERIOD.

We are over gendered violence hurting my queer brothers and sisters!

We are over the silence!

We are over a culture which incubates rape in its silence against dominating assholes. Dominating figures in politics, in business, in schools, on TV, on computers. We are so over them!

We are over the men in our lives who say they care and then are silent!

We are over the men in our lives who hit, belittle and use violence to make us less than. 

We are over being polite! Rape, violence isn’t polite! 

We are over hoping that men will make laws to protect us. We won’t beg anymore. 

Women - we must take our government for ourselves!

California NOW is co-hosting the Sacramento One Billion Rising event because we are over it!  We hope you are too. We are done asking for help. It is time to Strike – To Rise – To Dance!

Flash Mob Scheduled in San Francisco!

If you'll be around the Bay area on Saturday, January 26th be sure to join San Francisco NOW in participating in the One Billion Rising Flash Mob commemorating the 40th anniversary of Roe v Wade.

Rain or shine, hundreds of men and women from all generations and walks of life will come together at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Roe v Wade with a choreographed dance.

This event will mark the beginning of the One Billion Rising, a worldwide dance action event that will take place on Valentine's Day, demanding an end to violence and sexual oppression against women and girls.

Rehearsals are taking place around the city leading up to the January 26th performance. To find our more, visit www.herrising.org