Category Archives: Civic Issues Blog

Civic Issues Blog

Gender/Sexuality/Rights – Third suspect arrested in alleged Panama City gang rape

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In mid-March, among the height of Spring Break season in Panama City Beach, Florida, a woman was sexually assaulted by four men while passed out on the beach. The assault was caught on videotape which aired on the news, and the victim, who has no memory of the attack, recognized her tattoos in the blurred footage and contacted authorities.

At 11 p.m. on Tuesday, a third suspect who had been identified in the video of the gang rape was arrested. He had been tracked down visiting family in Georgia, although he is originally from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and is enrolled at Middle Tennessee State University. Two other men had already been arrested and charged with sexual battery by multiple perpetrators.

According to Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen, the video of the rape shows suspects pushing the victim’s hand aside and holding her legs down. Even more disturbing, the beach was crowded by fellow spring-breakers, many standing just two feet away. “There’s hundreds, hundreds of people standing there — watching, looking, seeing, hearing what’s going on,” Sheriff McKeithen said. “And yet our culture and our society and our young people have got to the point where obviously this is acceptable somewhere. I will tell you it is not acceptable in Bay County.” Authorities have three sworn statements from witnesses stating that the assault happened.

As if the story couldn’t be more horrific, Sheriff McKeithen has also stated that it is just one of several videos of incoherent, often drugged, young girls being assaulted on the beaches of Panama City with countless witnesses standing around. This spring break season, the beach community has also seen criminal arrests for various crimes almost triple. McKeithen disgustedly added, “This is not the first video we’ve recovered. It’s not the second video. It’s not the third video. There’s a number of videos we’ve recovered with things similar to this, and I can only imagine how many things we haven’t recovered.”

Civic Issues Blog

Deliberation Reflection

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On Friday, February 27th, I attended another deliberation called “The Problem: Dealing with Heroin in PA”. Since this was the day before our class’s deliberations, I specifically was looking to take notes on what to do and what not to do while hosting a deliberation to maximize everyone’s experience. I saw that they had both a pre-survey and a questionnaire. They also used the whiteboard to take notes which helped a lot during the summary portion. I noticed that there was some confusion in the beginning about which group was which and finding seating for everyone. I thought that it was often hard to hear people speaking, even the hosts. I also observed that it was the same few people speaking and contributing their ideas.

For our deliberation, I made sure I told our group all of the above. We added more to our questionnaire. We focused on seating even before most of our guests arrived. We spoke up and were also able to hear everyone else who spoke. I think that almost everyone who attended contributed to the deliberation. When it came time for me to summarize, I used the whiteboard notes to refresh and as a visual for the attendees to follow along. I’m really glad that I attended another deliberation before ours.

Civic Issues Blog

Gender/Sexuality/Rights 3 – Wellesley College to accept transgender women

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Wellesley College, a women’s liberal arts college west of Boston, will for the first time ever admit transgender students who identify as women, or more specifically, any applicant who “lives as a woman and consistently identifies as a woman.” However, women who identify as men are not eligible for admission. The school did state that if a student during her time at Wellesley no longer identifies as a woman, the student will still be allowed to graduate if they continue to meet academic standards.

The policy will take effect in the next admission cycle, for the potential class of 2020. The new policy is believed to be a result comes of a committee President H. Kim Bottomly formed last fall to study “educational, social, legal and medical considerations about gender identity” according to the college. Bottomly said in a phone interview that a lot of thought was put into this move as a part of the college’s “mission-driven thinking”.

Wellesley is now the third local women’s college to create a more inclusive admissions policy by deciding to admit transgender students. Mount Holyoke College, in South Hadley, and Simmons College go one step above Wellesley and also accept women who identify as men. Each college says that they are responding to societal changes that are redefining how individuals, particularly young people, identify themselves. Bottomly stated that the new policy specifically at Wellesley is designed to reaffirm the college’s commitment to education women, as he believes that the need for a women’s college is “as valid today as it has been at any time in the past”.

The college will also be open to assisting students who would like to transfer due to their no longer identifying women. Bottomly made Wellesley’s position clear, saying, “We will support all the students who are at Wellesley and all of their kinds of finding themselves in all of the ways that we can”.

Civic Issues Blog

Gender/Sexuality/Rights 2 – Abortion – “Tennessee AG weighs in on how far abortion restrictions can go”

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On November 1st, Amendment 1 passed in Tennessee. This amendment paved the way for more abortion-related restrictions that any lawmaker has been able to enact in nearly 15 years. Voters even approved the addition of new language to the state constitution that would explicitly eliminate the right to an abortion.

Since November, legislators have not hesitated to introduce a plethora of bills furthering the regulation of abortions. But how far can those legislators go without betraying the U.S. Constitution? Tenessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III has written a 5-page legal analysis detailing just that. Already, Republican State Representative Rick Womick said Tuesday that he is working on a bill that require abortion providers to perform ultrasounds, describe to a woman what is shown in the ultrasounds and turn up the volume so she can listen to the fetal heartbeat if one exists. However, his newer version will require abortion providers to offer the choice to a woman on whether she would opt to do so or not, an effort he hopes will survive a legal challenge. State Senator Mae Beavers, another Republican, has proposed a measure to reinstate a required medical counseling law previously struck down by the state’s Supreme Court. Senator Mark Green, also Republican, introduced a bill that would require medical and surgical abortion care to be performed in a “licensed ambulatory surgical treatment center.” Other representatives have voiced support behind a bill to require a 48-hour mandatory waiting period before any abortionary procedure.

But getting all of these new bills and proposals through congress will still not be easy. Even with the Tennessee Constitution more flexible than ever, Slatery has reminded the state that any new law has to meet standards established by the U.S. Supreme Court that it does not impose an “undue burden” on a woman seeking an abortion. Under this “undue burden” rule, proposals to impose physician-required counseling of women, two-day waiting periods, and many other requirements have been found unconstitutional. In addition, Slatery noted that different courts have reached different decisions using that analysis.

Those who support abortion rights in Tennessee find Slatery’s opinions “heartening”. Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee said, “The attorney general is saying ‘don’t rush to pass laws’ that duplicate what was on the books prior to the 2000 Tennessee Supreme Court decision”. That decision concluded that there was a fundamental right to abortion for women in the Tennessee Constitution, a right that Amendment 1 has since removed.

 

Civic Issues Blog

Gender/Sexuality/Rights 1 – Gay Marriage – “No appeal on marriages ‘an early Valentine’s Day gift'”

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On March 22, 2014, more than 300 same-sex couples got married in Michigan. This was due to the March 21st striking down of a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages by U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman. However, on March 23rd, the decision Friedman had made was frozen by a U.S. appeals court.

The state of Michigan had initially refused to recognize the hundreds of marriages. The American Civil Liberties Union then challenged this refusal on behalf of eight of the couples. For almost a year, the ACLU tried to make clear the argument that the legality of the 323 marriages should not be affected as the state’s prohibition was not in effect on the day the weddings took place.

Finally, on January 15th, U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith ordered the state to recognize the 323 same-sex marriages that took place during the one-day window and gave the state until tomorrow, Friday, February 6th, to decide whether it would appeal. Governor Rick Snyder announced that the judge has determined that same-sex couples were legally married on that day, and that he and the state will follow the law and extend state marriage benefits to those couples.

However many are unhappy about this new development. They accuse Governor Snyder of neglecting his elected responsibility to the law and to the people of his state.  They claim that it is his job to defend the Michigan Marriage Amendment, which was decided on by 2.7 million Michigan voters in 2004. But officials predict that Governor Snyder will not appeal because it would be an unnecessarily divisive move.

Either way, the once-again legalized couples are in full celebration. The law had been upheld and state marriage benefits re-extended. Frank Colasonti Jr., 62, said that now his partner and him no longer have to worry about their marriage “sticking” or have to live “under a dark cloud of confusion and uncertainty”. He said that with both his and other couples’ vows and love being acknowledged and recognized, the governor has truly given them “an early Valentine’s Day gift”.