On August 18th 2006, while seven African American lesbians were walking down the street in the West Village, a male bystander assaulted them with sexist and homophobic comments. The women tried to defend themselves, and a fight broke out. Thus began the women’s nightmare for almost a year. Three of the women accepted plea offers.

On June 14th, 2007 Venice Brown (19), Terrain Dandridge (20), Patreese Johnson (20), and Renata Hill (24) received sentences ranging from 3.5 to 11 years in prison.

On Monday, June 23rd, 2008, Terrain Dandridge’s case was overturned, all her charges were dropped and her record has been cleared. Renata Hill is awaiting a new trial. Terrain Dandridge and her mother, Kimma Walker arrived in the Bay Area on Tuesday June 24th, 2008 to meet with Angela Davis and the queer community at the San Francisco Women’s Building. The public event took place Tuesday, June 24th, from 7-9 pm and was intended to unravel the experiences of violence that queer people of color face and how to prepare ourselves and our communities in the face of police harrassment, criminalization and mass incarceration.

Sponsors of the event included: Critical Resistance, LAGAI-queer insurrection, QUIT!-Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism, SF Women Against Rape, OLOC, Radical Women, and Gay Shame SF.

Read More | NY Indymedia: Lesbians sentenced for self-defense | All-white jury convicts Black women | Justice For The NJ4 | Black lesbian in NYC get 11 years for self-defense | BrownFemiPower.com

On June 6, a Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Leslie Nichols voided Jaim Nulman and Avelyn Welczer's demolition permit for the historic Juana Briones home. The judge wrote that the city needs to conduct an environmental impact review that considers "feasible alternatives" to demolition.

Juana Briones de Miranda was a Latina businesswoman, humanitarian, and landowner who built a rare earthen-walled house in the 1840s in what later became Palo Alto.

The group Friends of Juana Briones filed suit against Palo Alto in April of 2007 after working for years urging the city to make the home's owners preserve the house, as was required by the terms of their purchase contract. "This was the last possible way to save this home," the Friends' lawyer told the Palo Alto Daily News. "More often than not, a solution is found at this stage," she added.

Photos 1 | 2 | Save The House That Juana Built | Wikipedia: Juana Briones de Miranda

Saturday, March 8th is International Women's Day. The first IWD in the United States was observed in 1909, after a declaration by the Socialist Party of America. The day is observed in countries all over the world, with celebrations taking political, social, and cultural forms. In many cities around the world, people observe a Global Women's Strike. Some organizers focus on the situation of women in countries such as Iran.

The Women of Color Resource Center will present Speaking Fierce, an evening of art, spoken word, humor, and music, on Thursday night, March 6th, at 7:00pm at the First Congregational Church, at 2501 Harrison Street at 27th in Oakland. Speakers and performers will include presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney, the Service Women's Action Network, hip-hop duo Climbing PoeTree, and electro soul singer Jennifer Johns. On Friday evening, the BFUU will screen "Tillie Olsen- A Heart in Action", about the life of the writer and activist, on Friday evening at 7:00pm in Berkeley.

On Saturday, a day of celebration, networking, and sharing will take place in Richmond. There will be a performance of "My Name is Rachel Corrie" in Santa Cruz on March 8th and 9th. On Saturday afternoon, Revolution Books will host a discussion of the movie "Juno" On Saturday and Sunday afternoons, the United Nations Association of Santa Cruz County will celebrate International Women’s Day. The International Musuem of Women's 4th Annual Gala: Women, Power and Politics will take place on Saturday evening in San Francisco.

On Sunday morning, the Institute for the Critical Study of Society will host an event about the situation of women in Iran. On Friday, March 14th, Dance Brigade will present A Storm of Roses: Women Against War, a commemoration and protest against the 5th Anniversary of the War in Iraq, at 7:30pm at the Herbst Theater. On March 14th and 15th, UC Santa Cruz's Kresge Town Hall will host the 14th Annual Women of Color Film and Video Festival. The Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco will host Luna Negra: A Night of Women's Live Art on Wednesday, March 26th.

Revolution Newspaper: Let Us Celebrate Our Fighting Unity on International Women’s Day | Revolution Newspaper: The Horrors for Women in the “Modern” World of Global Capitalism | Indybay's past coverage of IWD | International Women's Day .com | Global Women's Strike

On January 22nd, the United States will observe the 35th Anniversary of the Roe v. Wade court decision in favor of a woman's right to choose whether or not to have an abortion. For the first time in years, pro-choice organizers were granted a permit for a rally in San Francisco's Justin Herman Plaza (at Market and Embarcadero) at 11am on Saturday, January 19th. Bikes for Choice gathered at 10:30am. Following the rally, pro-choicers protested the "Walk for Life" on the Embarcardero.
Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Video

The Walk for Life - West Coast brings some 10,000 anti-choice marchers, mostly from outside of San Francisco, to town for its annual march through Fisherman's Wharf to the Marina (2008 WFLWC flyer). The January 19th Coalition, which organized the pro-choice rally, said that it intended to show "that the SF Bay Area/West Coast stands for reproductive rights and that Roe v Wade must be defended and expanded." BACORR (Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights) called for people to bring signs and be creative while defending a woman's right to choose.

1/10: Radical Women Meeting About January 19th | Analysis | ActivistNation interviews Nancy Reiko Cato on the fight for women's reproduction rights | 1/13: Abortion Without Apology - Or Women Have No Rights

Indybay's Past coverage of Roe v. Wade anniversary marches | Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights

On Friday January 18th, anti-choicers gathered for the first-ever "Standing Up For Life" conference/march in Oakland. This march placed its influence on the African American community of the East Bay. Dr. Alveda C. King and Dr. Clenard Childress, founder of Blackgenocide.org, an anti-choice website comparing abortion to the next holocaust, were the event's scheduled headliners. Comparisons with genocide are being used with misleading statistics to accuse abortion providers of racist practices. Photos: 1 | 2 | 3

Standing Up for Life had planned to march past the Women's Choice Clinic, which is an avid supporter of all people of color, religions, genders, sizes and abilities. WCC focuses on community health empowerment, and it plans fight these accusations and stand up "against the patriarchal, RACIST, police state that 'would rather see us die than live healthy, free lives.'"

Those who support Oakland as a pro-choice community confronted the anti-choice tables that had been set up in Frank Ogawa Plaza at 14th and Broadway (near 12th St./City Center Bart). Participants brought their own pro-choice signs and confronted the content of the anti-choice messaging.

December 17th marks the 5th Annual International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. The day calls attention to hate crimes committed against sex workers. The Sex Workers Outreach Project conceived of the event as a memorial and vigil for the victims of the Green River murders in Seattle, Washington. This day empowers sex workers and their supporters to come together to organize against discrimination and to remember victims of violence. On Monday, December 17th, 2007 the Erotic Service Providers Union will be joining other sex worker rights organizations across the world for actions and vigils to call attention to hate crimes against sex workers, namely prostitutes.

Events on and around December 17th will call attention to trial proceedings against a Vancouver B.C. farmer who is charged with the murders of twenty-six street-based prostitutes who were killed on their jobs. They will also call attention to a recent ruling in by a female Philadelphia judge who dismissed charges of rape of a prostitute at gun point because she didn't believe that a sex worker could be raped.
The Sex Workers Outreach Project will hold a press conference on Monday on the steps of San Francisco City Hall (Polk side) at 11:30am. They will announce that the 5th Annual International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers will take place in Civic Center Plaza at 6pm. Names of those who have been victims of violence will be read, as they and their stories will be remembered with a candlelight vigil. A vigil in San Francisco was held on Thursday, December 13th to call attention to the unethical practice by a USF Ethics professor who videotaped massage parlor workers without their permission to promote his idea of forced labor, with no regard that he violated their privacy rights under the guise of rescuing workers.

List of events | ESPU announcement about 12/13 event | International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers | 5th International Day on myspace | Chez Stella

Anti-choice "protesters" have reportedly been harassing, intimidating, threatening, and blocking patients, friends, family, and staff of reproductive health clinics in Oakland for years. The City of Oakland and East Bay clinics are uniting to support an ordinance protecting safe and unrestricted access to clinics. The city council will consider an Oakland Buffer Ordinance, which would define penalties for those who try to interfere with access to clinics, on Tuesday, December 4th at 6pm. Those who support safe access to reproductive health services will gather outside of Oakland City Hall for a 5pm rally.

More about the rally and city council hearing | Online Speaker Card for those who cannot attend

The National Women's History Project says, "At the behest of Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), in 1971 the U.S. Congress designated August 26th as 'Women’s Equality Day.' The date was selected to commemorate the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. This was the culmination of a massive, peaceful civil rights movement by women that had its formal beginnings in 1848 at the world’s first women’s rights convention, in Seneca Falls, New York."

The 2nd Annual California Women's Equality Day Parade & Rally took place on Saturday, August 25th, beginning at Sacramento's Southside Park at 9:30 in the morning. Participants then rallied on the West Steps of the Capitol at 11am.

On Thursday, August 30th, Radical Women hosted an event to celebrate the anniversary of U.S. women's right to vote, at 7pm at the new New Valencia Hall, which is located at 625 Larkin Street, Suite 202 , San Francisco.

NWHP's Women's Equality Day Site | Women's Equality Parade | Radical Women

In late May, Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr announced that her office would not be filing any charges in the De Anza gang-rape case, in which an underage, unconscious young woman was assaulted by a group of De Anza College baseball players. At a press conference on Thursday, May 31st, community members gathered outside the DA's office in San Jose to demand justice for the survivor of this attack, who still wants to press charges against the offenders. Within a week's time, Carr said that community response and protest prompted her decision to submit the case to the state Attorney General's office for review. No timeline has been given for the review process, and several possibilities are left open: including that Jerry Brown's office will agree with Carr and leave the case closed with no charges.

Organizations such as California National Organization for Women (CA NOW), Stop Family Violence, and the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes organized the protest and press conference in response to the apparent closure of the case, in which a 17-year-old girl was gang raped at a party thrown by members of the De Anza College baseball team.

Katherine Redmond, founder and president of the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes, spoke about the local and the national outrage at the failure to investigate and prosecute this case. Redmond demands transparency in the investigation: since the DA's reasoning in refusing to bring charges is the lack of evidence, she wonders why the eyewitnesses to the crime (who were sober at the party) were not called to the grand jury to give their testimony. Redmond also discussed the public response to this kind of case and the rape culture that refuses to deal with the truth about rape. She said, "Rape is about the violent and degrading theft of a person's bodily integrity and personal autonomy."

Photos and Audio | Stop Family Violence | California National Organization for Women | National Coalition Against Violent Athletes | Santa Clara County District Attorney's website

Santa Cruz City Hall Courtyard hosted a jean art exhibit on April 25th as part of Denim Day in Santa Cruz. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and wearing denim, "Wear Your Jeans", is part of an international protest of an Italian High Court decision to overturn a rape conviction because the victim was wearing jeans.

Denim Day is about challenging myth-based injustice. The Italian High Court decision (1999) to rule against the woman because she was wearing jeans (and therefore would have to have helped) was a hugely unpopular verdict that sparked a worldwide outcry and has now become an international symbol of myth-based injustice for sexual assault victims. Read More and View Photos

On Thursday, April 19th, at 5:00 p.m., a rally was held at Civic Center in San Francisco to oppose the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. On April 18th, the Court voted to erode the protections of Roe v. Wade, and thusly, to endanger women's health. In a 5-4 decision, the justices upheld the Federal Abortion Ban that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush in 2003. The ban is now federal law that will come into effect within a few weeks. It will trump California's strong pro-choice laws and ban certain abortions, without an exception to preserve the health of the woman. Video & Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Any doctor who violates this ban would face criminal penalties of up to 2 years in prison, even if he/she was acting to protect the woman's health. NARAL Pro-Choice California says, "Our legislators need to know that California will not stand for anti-choice politicians interfering in women's private medical decisions." At the rally, pro-choice speakers will discuss the ban's implications for California and the country as a whole.

NARAL Pro-Choice America states, "By upholding the Federal Abortion Ban in its entirety, the Supreme Court has not only supported an abortion ban with no exception for a woman's health, it has given the green light to the anti-choice movement's plan to outlaw abortion entirely." The ban does not make an exception for the health of the woman who wishes to terminate her pregnancy. In her dissenting opinion, pro-choice Justice Ginsberg, who called the majority opinion "alarming", writes "...[T]he Act and the Court's defense of it cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this Court."

The Freedom of Choice Act is legislation that would codify Roe v. Wade into law, and guarantee the right to choose for generations to come. Pro-choice advocates are vowing that in the 2008 election, they will help to elect a president will help to defend Roe v. Wade. Read more

Decision in Gonzales v. Carhart et al | Indybay's Past Coverage: 6/2/2004: 9th Circuit Says Partial Birth Abortions Legal | Right to abortion in US a controversial theme in 2003 | NARAL Pro-Choice America | National Women's Law Center | National Organization for Women