Justice for Sandra Bland!

Please join me in signing this!

Paying It Forward on Chelsea Manning's Birthday

The other weekend Hugh Taft-Morales, Leader of the Ethical Humanist Society of Philadelphia, kindly lent me $15 so I could attend the program portion of their celebration, with the Freethought Society, of the tenth anniversary of the Kitzmiller v. Dover decision upholding evidence-based science education. He told me I should pay it forward by giving to a worthy cause when I could afford to. Today is payday, and an email yesterday informed me that whistle-blower Pvt. Chelsea Manning's birthday is today, mentioning a contribution to her defense fund as a present she would like. So, I just donated $15 to it through www.chelseamanning.org. Happy birthday, Chelsea!

An Event in Philadelphia for International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers

Calling Out Gender Bias in the Philadelphia Public Record

I sent the message copied below yesterday in response to this column on page 11 of last week's issue: 

 

Dear editor,

I'm dismayed by this statement in Denise Clay's latest column:

"[R]epresentatives of Women Organized Against Rape and Women Against Abuse were on hand to make folks aware of how these twin evils are impacting Philadelphia's women."

Perhaps WOAR and WAA did give the false impression that these things only affect women, but I'm disappointed that Ms. Clay seemingly doesn't know better. In fact they affect men and women in similar numbers, as documented here
Men Are Raped Almost as Often as Women in America. We Need to Talk About This.

				Men Are Raped Almost as Often as Women in America. W... Last year the National Crime Victimization Survey turned up a remarkable statistic. In asking 40,000 households about rape and sexual violence, the survey
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and here Domestic Violence Research Group

				Domestic Vilolence Research Group 12 Page Finding at a Glance PDF Version   Partner Abuse State of Knowledge Project Facts and Statistics on Domestic Violence at-a-Glance
				View on www.domesticviolen...	Preview by Yahoo

and as illustrated in the attached chart.

I hope Ms. Clay will endeavor to report on these issues in a more balanced way in the future.

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Katie Scrivner should prepare to run for Attorney General.

This morning I put a letter in the mail to Katie Scrivner, in care of her law offices, encouraging her to consider running for Pennsylvania Attorney General in the event the current AG, Kathleen Kane, who is working under a legal and ethical cloud with a suspended law license, is removed from office or resigns.

Scrivner practices family law, and previously was an assistant DA specializing in prosecuting crimes against children. In 2013 she ran for local judicial office, and I heard her address the Liberty City LGBT Democratic Club. I was first of all impressed by her sincerity: she seemed to be speaking from the heart, not giving a canned speech like the other candidates. Then, during Q&A, someone asked what assurances she might give that, as a former prosecutor, she wouldn't be biased against defendants. She responded by relating how, when she was an ADA, she'd been assigned to a statutory rape case involving an adult male and a minor female. After investigating it, she became convinced that the relationship had been consensual, and urged her superiors to drop the case. This impressed me with her fair-mindedness. I was subsequently disappointed to learn she'd dropped out of the race, as I'd been eager to volunteer for her.

Although Kane is still in office, in my letter I urged Scrivner to start exploring a possible candidacy now, so that she'll be prepared when the time comes to launch it.

Rosemary's Baby

This morning I did my fourth volunteer shift as a patient escort at Planned Parenthood downtown. Like last time, no protesters showed up, so we volunteers hung out in the little courtyard between the gate and the door. But since today had been billed as a National Solidarity Day in response to the recent shootings, a group showed up with a sign of support and homemade cookies for the volunteers. The chocolate chip cookies tasted unusual and I was told they were made with rosemary.

This group had come on a few previous occasions, women dressed up like '50s housewives and calling themselves the Baby Parts Bake Sale. One of them had been seen giving cupcakes shaped like baby parts to one of the protest leaders.