CODEPINK Activists confronted GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty on his anti-gay and anti-reproductive rights stance at the annual America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) conference in San Francisco on June 16th. Showering the GOP presidential candidate with pink glitter and confetti, they shouted, "Where's your courage to stand up for gay and reproductive rights? Welcome to San Francisco, home of gay hero Harvey Milk!"

Meanwhile outside the Moscone Center where the convention was held, demonstrators rallied in favor of a single payer healthcare system and the removal of the health insurance industry. Satirical Billionaires for Wealthcare, "welcomed" conventioneers as they entered the building saying, "Keep the money flowing! We shareholders love those profits!" They carried a sign with a large photo of Pawlenty that read: Invest in America, buy a Congressman — or a Governor. Pawlenty is former governor of the state of Minnesota.

Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Video: 1 | 2 | 3

Single Payer Now | CODEPINK | Billionaires for Wealthcare

After more than a decade of legal battles, a decision by a final court ruled against the group Friends of Juana Briones House. The oldest house in Palo Alto, named for its famous resident who was a latina pioneer, is being dismantled, piece by piece.

Juana Briones healed the sick and cared for the poor. An elementary school and park in Palo Alto both bear her name. Her house, parts of which were built in 1844, is being destroyed by the current property owner who has fought off historic preservationists, latino/latina activists, and descendants of Briones for years. Feminists joined in the struggle for the home's preservation as well. Jeanne McDonnell, biographer of Juana Briones, stated that historic buildings associated with women are more likely to be demolished than those associated with men.

Read more | Photo

Past Indybay Coverage 2008: Activists Work to Save Former Home of Juana Briones | 2009: Action Revived to Save Juana Briones House | 2010: Juana Briones Birthday Celebration

To mark the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, the Global Women’s Strike held the 2nd Annual Mother's March on March 8th in San Francisco. The Mother's March also takes place in other parts of the state, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, as well as in Haiti, Guyana, India, Peru and the UK.

In their call-out for the march, organizers wrote: "The GWS march is for communities of color, those in urban and rural areas, and other impoverished communities suffering from loss of jobs, lower wages, cuts in education, welfare, healthcare and childcare, those facing homelessness, foreclosures, and criminalization. Mothers produce/care for the world's people. Most women do caring work: grandmothers, mothers, daughters, partners. Unrecognized, unpaid or low-paid, women care for children, elders, people with disabilities, and each other. In Haiti and Palestine, wherever there is occupation, women do survival work without which resistance would be impossible. Budget cuts increase hunger and threaten those of us on lowest incomes, starting with communities of color."

Photos | Video

Global Women's Strike | Just Cause | Wikipedia: International Women's Day

Previous Indybay feature: International Women's Day 2009

On February 26th, more than a hundred people united energetically in Santa Cruz, along with cities across the nation, to demonstrate their disgust with systemic violence against women. At noon, people converged at the Clock Tower before marching down Pacific Avenue to Laurel St. People chanted "Not the Church, Not the State; Women must decide their fate" as they continued up Laurel St. and onto Mission St./Highway 1 where there was a brief occupation of the Mission and Bay intersection.

Demonstrations nationwide were organized in response to HR-3, the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act." In large measure, H-3 would render permanent the restrictions on federal funding of abortion in the United States laid out in the Hyde Amendment.

The Hyde Amendment currently bans all federal money from going to abortions, except in cases of incest or rape. The GOP's HR-3 will change this language to "incest or forcible rape." This would mean that a woman would have to somehow prove that rape was "forced" in order to get access to abortion. Protesters say this language reinforces the notion that some kinds of rape are not as serious as others. Read more and view photos

San Francisco women's rights activists turned out some of their best street theater for an anti-abortion crowd of thousands that marched through the city on Saturday. Following an opening rally, which at least one anti-choice visitor tried to interrupt, women's rights demonstrators walked along the Embarcadero, shadowing the "Walk for Life" march. Protesters for women's health chanted loudly; a couple performed racy dances at various spots alongside the anti-choice march, shocking their opponents. Prochoice activists said that what is more shocking, however, is "the extremes to which the right wing will go to deny women health care."'

Most of the anti-abortion crowd were bused in from outside the Bay Area. They carried large banners with religious icons; some hoisted graphic photos and drawings of what they claimed to be the "products of abortion". Costumes on the anti-choice side included Uncle Sam and angel get-ups. This was the seventh annual march and counter-march in the city of San Francisco held to mark the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the ruling that came down in favor of women's rights in 1973.

Videos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | Audio: 1

BACORR (Bay Area Coalition for our Reproductive Rights)

Previous years of SF "Walk For Life" counter-protests: 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005

The Bay Area is commemorating the 90th anniversary of women's suffrage this week with speakers, films, costumes, and concerns. Members of the national organization Radical Women put out a call on the occasion of Women's Equality Day this year saying, "It's time to reclaim and re-energize a fighting, militant feminist movement!"

In San Mateo, US Congresswomen Jackie Speier and Anna Eshoo warned that women's reproductive rights continue to be threatened. They held a reception attended by guests in voting-theme costumes in the San Mateo County History Museum. Speaking to celebrants in the museum's historic Rotunda Hall, Rep. Eshoo said that the fight for women's equality must continue, and encouraged women to consider what real equality means today, 90 years after women's suffrage.

The local chapter of Radical Women will gather to commemorate the anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment on Saturday, August 28th. The theme of their program will be "A Women's Rights Day Tribute to Immigrant Women in the Battle for a Better World" and will include a special film screening.

Read more | Women's Equality Day in San Mateo Features Costumed Speakers, Guests

They redefine the meaning of media with art, hip hop, graffiti, spoken word, poetry and talk-story. They are dedicated to providing extreme access to media, education and arts for youth, adults and elders struggling with poverty, racism, disability and border fascism locally and globally. They are a family of poverty scholars based in San Francisco and together they are POOR magazine.

In this interview with Angola 3 News, Tiny Garcia, co-founder of POOR Magazine, tells how she got a welfare-to-work grant to teach "poor mamas like myself" to be journalists, writers, and media producers. Three years later they lost their funding when the government saw that "we were teaching people how to write about the very systems that were oppressing all of us… and when the government dollars left, so did all of the philanthro-pimped private donations." But that only led Tiny to fight harder.

Read the Interview | POOR Magazine

After thousands of emails from women and men who believe in women's choice, CBS still refuses to withdraw the anti-abortion ad they plan to air on February 7th.

In the past, CBS had a stated policy to reject all ads it deems controversial. "Controversial" organizations included MoveOn.org, and even the United Church of Christ. The liberal Christian church's sin was to suggest that their church would model tolerance. Their objectionable slogan? "Jesus Didn't Turn People Away. Neither Do We".

The Feminist Majority Foundation said that after protests of the anti-abortion ad, CBS announced they had loosened their policy. But, the foundation reports, the network then quickly rejected an advertisement because it featured two men watching football and engaging in a kiss.

Activist group the South Florida Raging Grannies answered a call issued by the Women's Media Center to respond to the network's plan to run the anti-choice ad. The Grannies created a video with new lyrics to the tune "Three Blind Mice" that criticizes what the Grannies say is the network's hypocrisy. Members of groups including the San Francisco Bay Area Raging Grannies, CodePink, World Can't Wait, Revolution Books, Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights and others sang the Florida Grannies' composition in front of KPIX-TV in a protest on February 4th.

Read More 1 | 2 | 3 Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

San Francisco Protest Announcement | The Women's Media Center | Feminist Majority Foundation | Raging Grannies International

Demonstrators staged a die-in at the feet of busy shoppers in front of one of San Francisco's busiest markets on December 5th. Posed by their side, members of satirist group "Billionaires for Wealthcare" dramatized the disparate treatment of rich and poor in America's healthcare system.

Activists for a single payer healthcare system that would provide medical care to people at all income levels said that the Stupak amendment to the US Congress' health care reform plan is an attack on women's rights, but especially on poor women's access to reproductive care. Their protest started when they fell as if dying in front of San Francisco's Ferry Building, then continued as demonstrators rose to solemnly march through the crowded farmer's market. They carried the mock coffin of a victim of poor healthcare.

Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Audio: 1 | 2

G. Melesaine writes: "When I saw the trailer for the new film 'Precious' I cried. This film made me think a lot about an old life I was too familiar with. It made me think about a lot of women that I am close to. It made me think about my sister in her Tenderloin days, about that loud funny girl in class that smacked her gum too loud, about that girl in West Point who had AIDS and everyone stayed away from her, about that girl walking up and down Folsom pretending she has somewhere to go, about that teacher I use to have a crush on in middle school, about women. 'Precious' women. This was their story.

"I couldn't be objective watching this film, it gave me a sort of PTSD watching it and I even cried on my BART ride home. There has been quite the controversy of the film because some believe it perpetuates the stigma of life for African-American women. But to me it brings light and advocates a new hero to the Hollywood industry.

"The film is based off of Sapphire's novel, "Push.” The film to me has arrived at a pivotal moment. It comes at a time where a 15-year-old girl in Richmond is gang raped, at a time where a lot of people call a famous pop star beating a woman a "small mishap" to his career, at a time where young women, especially of color or queer in the inner-city, are barely visible in the conversation of anything and ignored."

Read More | Armond White: Precious is the Most damaging Film to the Black Image Since ‘Birth of a Nation’