if you happen to have spent the whole week in a box (or not in a box that is the internets) then here's the what. wendy davis rocked an insane filibuster in texas to shut down an anti-abortion rights bill that would close down all but 5 clinics in texas. she stood and talked for hours and hours giving testimony from women all over texas and the u.s. and discussing the medical implications for doctors and so on and so on. she didn't make it to the full 13 hour mark, but her supporters managed to slow proceedings and the rock-awesome touchdown was thrown down by a fellow senator leticia van de putte (who had hustled to the senate on the day of her father's funeral so as to not miss the vote) when the president refused to acknowledge her request for attention:
{"at what point must a female senator raise her hand or her voice to be recognized over her male colleagues in the room?"}
aaaannnnd mic drop. MAYHEM! mad cheering, totally thrilling. the clock rolled past midnight and blammo, no vote. (although the republican senators did try to claim they got the vote in... and there was a period of real shock and amazement realizing they were going to try to lie with oh so many people's eyes on them.) watching the whole thing go down on live-feed was unreal. who knew i could get that excited and terrified and amped watching senate politics happen? the feed of people watching on youtube read over 200,000. just nuts. and eventually:
so it was a pretty great week for feminism. woop!
of course, things turned for the worse again with governor rick perry calling another special session beginning july 1st so they can pass the bill then. and he also tried to shame our heroine wendy because she was a teen-mom and so she should know better. eeewwwwww. seriously, guy. gross. please please just go away?
so though they're basically stamping all over what she accomplished, it remains that wendy along with her supporters in the senate and the mad-wild-awesome pile of civilian supporters who were there that day, did something really spectacular. she has started something. she is a power house. i love her and i'm so glad she exist.
happy friday, sneakered warriors!
2 comments:
Hi Erin, I was happy to see that you enjoyed Laura Miller's Narnia book. I just finished your Xmas gift to me, Andrew Solomon's "Far from the Tree". A long tough slog, but well worth it. There is short passage from the book (on page 624) that made me laugh (given that my parents almost moved to Texas in 1952 just before I was born) and seems relevant to your post. This is part of an interview with a trans woman named Jenny:
"All kinds of things happen to families. Children get cancer. Parents have car accidents. Families have to move to Texas."
ha! that's a great quote. thank god the hoopers never did...
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