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Friday, four people who work for the Ministry of Interior in Ukraine visited TAASA as part of a four-city journey to learn about combating child exploitation and trafficking in the United States. They visited as part of the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program. The group already visited Washington, D.C. and San Diego, and after they leave Austin they are heading to Louisville before returning home. Before coming to TAASA, the delegation met with representatives from the Office of the Attorney General, Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, the child abuse division of the Austin Police Department and the Texas Department of State Health Services.

The goals of the project include identifying potential partners and NGOs that have interest in collaborating to prevent future occurrences of child exploitation. We talked with them about various topics, including our interactions with law enforcement and our challenges in doing so, our public awareness campaign materials, the topics we offer training on, our relationship with government entities and how we collaborate with universities.

written by Tim Love and Morgan J Curtis

TAASA has recommitted itself to social justice work, thus moving our anti-oppression work to the forefront of our efforts. As we have taken our anti-oppression approach to sexual violence prevention out into the communities and rape crisis centers across the state, we’ve discovered many programs and communities struggling with both oppression in their community and ways to get their organizations to support social justice work in concrete ways. Inspired by the TAASA membership resolution process, we decided to create a personal resolution to address two interrelated forms of oppression that are closely linked to sexual violence – heterosexism and homophobia. We hope you will find the resolution a useful tool as you work to address homophobia in your life, within the organizations you work with and in your community as a whole.

The following resolution highlights some key problems with homophobia and heterosexism, including its impact on all people, regardless of sexual orientation. There are a variety of ways this resolution could be used. Hanging it up in your office could spark conversations with co-workers and community partners. Sharing it with people during your anti-oppression and prevention trainings gives them an opportunity to take action in a meaningful way, something that people often seek after attending such trainings.

How else can you envision using this resolution? Are there any key points that you think were not included in the resolution?

Stay tuned for a follow-up post on additional ways the resolution can be used as well as tips for how to carry out your commitment to ending homophobia and heterosexism. Please indicate in the comments section if you post this commitment and where you post it.

You can download a pdf of the resolution here.

My Commitment

Whereas homophobia is a contributing factor to sexual violence, and

Whereas homophobia contributes to the strict gender norm socialization that leads to violence in many forms, including sexual violence, and

Whereas the oppression of any group of people contributes to the oppression of all people, and

Whereas homophobia hinders the full expression of all peoples’ humanity, and

Whereas homophobia impedes the formation of healthy bonds between people of all genders, and

Whereas homophobia and heterosexism stifle the formation and expression of healthy sexuality for all people, and

Whereas fighting homophobia is consistent with my commitment to actively confront and respond to all forms of oppression as they relate to sexual violence,

Therefore, be it resolved that I will actively support the rights of all people, regardless of sexual orientation and actively oppose homophobia and heterosexism in all its forms.

The “Washington Post” reports that new research published in Pedriatrics has found that young people exposed to violent websites are more likely to commit serious violent crimes themselves. Dr. Michele L. Ybarra of Internet Solutions for Kids in Santa Ana, Calif., said “Our findings add to the growing evidence that violence in the media is related to aggressive behavior, including seriously violent behavior among youths… Reduction in youths’ exposure to violent media should be viewed as an important aspect of violence prevention.”

More research is still necessary, however, to establish causality. The study only shows that violent websites and violent acts are linked, not that one causes the other, as the article points out.

But the current study doesn’t answer the question of whether violent media is turning kids violent, whether violence-prone youth are more likely to seek out violence on the Internet, or “more probably,” whether a bit of both is going on, the researchers say.

Via SAFER’s blog, I read about this appalling CNN headline:

It doesn’t get much more de-humanizing than that.

Normally, when we think of the word “power,” or people who are powerful, we think of political leaders, public figures or athletes.  Usually, we think of men.  For many of us, we’ve learned to look beyond public figures, athletes and men to the women in our lives: partners, mothers, grandparents, teachers, etc. for examples of power.  As I think about the women in my life who have been or seemed powerful, or who have taught me about power, the list gets unmanageably long, and it is filled with people who fit into all of the categories listed above.  There’s my partner who’s shown me the power of overcoming anything and anyone who stands in her way.  There’s my mother who has shown me the power of intellect and education.  My grandmothers taught me the power of family and love and the will to go on when their great loves were gone.  Then there’s my ninth grade English teacher who taught me the power of words and someone believing in you.  The list goes on and on.  However, as I looked carefully at the definition of power, two young women come to my mind as two of the most powerful women in my life. 

There are several aspects of the definition of power in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.  The first part of the definition is the “ability to act or produce an effect.”  The two young, powerful women who come to mind can produce an effect in anyone around them effortlessly.  They have a contagious energy that inspires, if not requires, immediate action.  Everything they do has meaning and purpose, and that meaning and purpose comes from within, whether or not it makes sense to the people around them.  Though they are small in stature and soft in voice (most of the time), they command attention in any room they enter, and they speak in straightforward truths and with the beauty of unspoiled idealism, with a touch of fantasy.  They are always dreaming of, and speaking into existence, a new, better world, and those around them can’t help but start to believe too.  Read more

Hear that? It’s the sound of something awesome. I love Amy Poehler – she’s hilarious and it’s fabulous that she’s enjoying so much success (along with pal Tina Fey) in a heavily male-dominated field like comedy. I just learned about her new project, “Smart Girls at the Party,” and am now even more starstruck than before! Amy created and hosts the show, and each episode she will interview “regular” girls about their talents, views, opinions and interests. According to the press release, the purpose of the show is for “Girls [to] offer witty truths and show that you don’t have to be famous to be interesting or to make a difference in the world.” Hooray for entertainment that teaches girls all they have to offer! (Be sure to check out the trailer.)