Inhofe and Coburn Vote AGAINST the Franken Amendment

The Senate passed an amendment (68-30) to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill which would keep the government from signing defense contracts with companies that prevent employees from taking "workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court." Instead these companies force employees to settle the dispute in arbitration where a supposedly neutral third party rules. The Franken amendment was inspired by the workplace experiences of Jamie Leigh Jones. Think Progress explains:

In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad. She was detained in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a bed, and “warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she’d be out of a job.” (Jones was not an isolated case.) Jones was prevented from bringing charges in court against KBR because her employment contract stipulated that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private arbitration.

Arbitration might be an adequate solution in some cases, such as money disputes, but when the "dispute" is rape, it's a problem. Franken argued that "The constitution gives everybody the right to due process of law … And today, defense contractors are using fine print in their contracts to deny women like Jamie Leigh Jones their day in court." This brings up scary questions. Rape is a felony and punishable with fines and jail time. What happens to a rapist in the arbitration process? I'm assuming the company pays a fine to the victim, but is there jail time for the attacker? Is the employee accused and found guilty of rape fired? I tried to find statistics relevent to these questions, but it was difficult. Most arbitration cases are confidential. The details and outcomes are never publicized, so it's hard to know how many sexual assault charges are actually disputed in arbitration and what happens to the accused.

I did find an NPR story from June 2009 about Jamie Leigh Jones' case. It's been four years since her ordeal and the Justice Department has declined to investigate. She also claims that her attackers continue to work for KBR. She never entered into arbitration with KBR (she is suing in civil court for the right to sue in criminal court - gotta love the American legal system), so we can't know if these men would've been fired once the arbitrator ruled. But even if she had entered into arbitration, we STILL wouldn't know what would have happened to her attackers because of the secrecy of the process.

Opponents of Franken's bill claimed that the legislation "overreached into the private sector and suggested that it violated the due process clause of the Constitution." Franken replied quoting the Constitution. "Article 1 Section 8 of our Constitution gives Congress the right to spend money for the welfare of our citizens. Because of this, Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote, 'Congress may attach conditions on the receipt of federal funds and has repeatedly employed that power to further broad policy objectives,'" Franken said. "That is why Congress could pass laws cutting off highway funds to states that didn't raise their drinking age to 21. That's why this whole bill [the Defense Appropriations bill] is full of limitations on contractors -- what bonuses they can give and what kind of health care they can offer. The spending power is a broad power and my amendment is well within it."

Senator Franken and those supporting the amendment took a stand for rape survivors today, and BOTH our senators sided with corporations. This is obviously ridiculous. Tell Senators Coburn and Inhofe to take rape seriously!

OK LAWMAKERS AND WOMEN ARE NOT BFFS

Props to the founding fathers for designing our government. No, it's not because we have the right to teabag in public spaces; it's because today the balance of power between the three branches prevented Oklahoma lawmakers from enforcing a silly, paternalistic law. A judge ruled this afternoon that a law requiring doctors to give women seeking abortions an ultrasound was unconstitutional. The law also required doctors to explain to the pregnant woman what she was seeing on the ultrasound because, you know, pregnant women don't already know they've got a human being inside them. The judge didn't really address abortion and ultrasound laws but struck down the law because legislators violated a rule when making it. Thanks to Reproductive Services in Tulsa and the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights for challenging the law.

SALLY KERN IS STILL AWESOME

Last week openly gay pastor Dr. Scott Jones wrote in the Oklahoma Gazette that he and his boyfriend GOT MARRIED IN THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA. How did this happen?!?! Didn't Oklahoma protect marriage from the gays in 2004? Although the state constitution defines marriage as between a man and a woman, Dr. Jones found a loophole. He basically said, "Screw what the state thinks, I'll just get married in the eyes of God." I've paraphrased of course, but he makes an interesting distinction between marriage as religious sacrament and marriage as civil contract.

In the counterpoint article everyone's favorite homophobe Sally Kern argues that because the Bible defines marriage as between a man and a woman, the government should too. She also attempts to use non-religious arguments to support her point, but they are over-used and easily refuted. Marriage is for procreation only?!?! If that's the case, why are infertile couples and post-menopausal women allowed to marry?

It's clear that her opposition to gay marriage comes from religious convictions. Ms. Kern believes that the Bible says homosexuality is a sin; therefore, it is wrong for the state to legitimize this sin, which would be fine IF WE LIVED IN A THEOCRACY. It would also be fine if marriage were only a religious sacrament performed by churches, but it's not. When the state is involved, marriage becomes a civil contract and cannot be considered a religious sacrament because of a long history of separation of church and state.

If I ever get married, it's not going to be in front of an altar and pastor, but my marriage will probably be considered just as 'holy' as someone who, much like Scott Jones, got married by a pastor. If Ms. Kern is so concerned with keeping marriage 'holy,' her time might be better spent pushing for the state to get out of the marriage business because as soon as the state is involved, it cannot be treated as a religious sacrament.

Also Sally Kern signed her morality proclamation today (see post below) amidst protesters at the state capital, but this article says that there were many more supporters than protesters. Sadness.

SALLY KERNS IS AWESOME

IF YOU LOVE BEING ANGRY! (click link to see video and read her "morality proclamation" for the state of Oklahoma). 

ANYWAY, Oklahoma City Gay Pride was a BLAST, with thousands upon thousands of participants and spectators for the parade. It was truly amazing to see the huge crowds cheering as we crested the hill and looked down at the intersection of 39th and Penn in the City. 

BIKE BRIGADE! We are in this shot somewhere.

After the parade, we proceeded to party hearty with every type of person imaginable. We agreed that one thing a person can really take from Pride events is that the diversity of the LGBTQ community is mind-blowing - it really defies all stereotypes. We would love for that to be the descriptor of the word "feminists" - a designation for a group of people who defy all stereotyping. 

In Manifesta, by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, the authors point out that the word "women" includes not just middle-class white females but also rich black lesbians, Jewish mothers on welfare, etc. - the list is infinite. And doesn't everyone want equal rights and equal treatment? Shouldn't we really ALL identify as feminists? Well, would you call Sally Kerns a feminist, or even NOT anti-woman? Probably not. Same goes for Ann Coulter and a hundred thousand other anti-woman women out there. DEPRESSING!

But there's no use in just sitting around and stewing about it, like me. Go do something about it! Call Sally Kerns and tell her what's up! Work on campaigns for pro-choice, pro-women, pro-gay rights candidates! Let's do this, America!