Few among us would think that access to sanitary napkins is a problem. Yet to the less fortunate among us, it is. Now, New York City made history recently by enacting legislation enabling women in schools, correctional facilities and shelters to have access to tampons and pads during their periods. The lack of access has had sad and objectionable effects that usually went unmentioned because the whole idea of menstruation and menstrual products have been taboo. NYC is in the lead as far as the US is concerned. Canada abolished its goods and services tax on menstrual products last summer. The European Union allows the Value Added Tax to be 0 and even Kenya Continue reading “Tampons and Pads and a New Law”
Category: Civil Rights
Professional Licenses For Undocumented
It takes courage to be an illegal immigrant, not only to brave the journey but then to live with whatever one has to do to avoid discovery, not to speak of the accompanying fear. When I read that those in the US illegally could apply for a driver’s license in California, I wondered if I’d have the courage if I were an undocumented immigrant. It’s hard enough to be an immigrant, being undocumented would make it daunting. According to a recent L A Times feature some 300 people Continue reading “Professional Licenses For Undocumented”
Where Labor Rights and Sexual Harassment Meet
The idea that the lives of models are not all glamour that there is an ugly underside is not new. We’re familiar with the push to have models that are so thin as to invite anorexia. Countries like France and Israel have passed laws against this. In the US no such action has been taken. But as far as I understand the problem is more involved than that, it includes wage theft and sexual harassment. The sexual harassment is not confined to minor infractions but according to former models is constant and even calls for sleeping with agency directors and men the agency Continue reading “Where Labor Rights and Sexual Harassment Meet”
Felon Voting Rights
Our search for civil rights is far from over, there are still groups for whom such rights are elusive. One, which is a group we don’t often think about, is former felons. In most states they can’t vote after they are released, a phenomenon called felony voter disenfranchisement. Several groups are now involved in working towards reinstating felon’s voting rights, groups such as The Sentencing Project, Campaign to End The New Jim Crow, or the American Friends Service Committee. While there is far from universal agreement about reinstating those rights, there is at present no Continue reading “Felon Voting Rights”