Women and Queers in Progress
Amazon News Service

According to a memorandum dated May 31, 2011 by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, Vanessa Adams (a.k. Nicholas Adams) has advanced the rights of inmates to transgender health care in federal prisons.
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Colorado was the first state to convict someone of a hatecrime in the murder of a trans person. Allen Andrade was found guilty of the brutal murder of 18 year old Angie Zapata.
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Victoria Kolakowski and Phyllis Frye became the first openly trans-women to become judges, in California and Texas respectively.
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The Women's Law Project is working to stop the shackling of pregnant inmates. For more information, log on to their website at: www.womenslawproject.org.
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The Women's Prison Association helps formerly incarcerated women rebuild their lives. For more infromation, log on their website at: www.wpaonline.org.
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The Ms. Magazine Prison and Domestic Violence Shelter Program donates free subscriptions women in prisons and shelters. Please support this program by also donating. http://store.feminist.org/donateamsmembership.aspx.
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Since their 2000 beginning in Olympia, Washington, there have been over 100 Ladyfests worldwide - volunteer organized celebrations of female and Queer creativity, talent, and D.I.Y. activism, usually including music, art exhibits, film screenings, spoken word, and other types of performance; and a programme of workshop s on topics ranging from radical activism to hobbying. Many of the original organizers of the first Ladyfest were also prominent in the preceding "riotgrrrl" movement, which combined DIY feminist ethics with punk music.
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Blogger Lina Ben Mhenni was first to alert the worls of Tunisian protests in December 2010. despite misogynist threats and censorship, she courageously persists posting her blogs at: www.atunisiangirl.blogspot.com
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Sources: Ms. Winter 2011; Ms.Spring 2011; Ladyfests, Race and the Politics of Coalition Building" (teresecrossingborders@googlemail.com).
-Jennifer Gann

Heaven has no rage,
like Love to Hatred turn'd,
Nor Hell a Fury,
like a Woman scorn'd.

-William Congreve
"The Morning Bride", 1697