So only Roderic O’Gorman and Ruth Copperinger are pro choice that I could find out.
If you have any more info about candidates, leave a comment or catch me on twitter.
Category Archives: Activism and Agitation
If I can’t have My Reproductive Rights, then it’s not My Revolution.
Voting ProChoice in local election
Another Note On Diarmuid O’Flynn’s MEP election campaign
Voting Prochoice in your local Elections.
This is very hard to do it seems. Each county Council is meant to have a list online of candidates who are running and how to contact them. But from talking to friends, it’s spotty at best.
However as I have stated in my other blog it is easier for us to try and communicate with them and to pool resources with each other to ask the questions we think are important and that for me is who is ProChoice. If two candidates are weighing up for me equally this will be the decider, or may rule out someone who other wise I would vote for.
So here is a link to a list of all the candidates I could find who are running in the local elections and how to contact them.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1E386rHzLnsrlaejUzin63ImWBfOb8APm7xMCkcrUsfY/edit?usp=sharing
Also that really well funded lobby group had the time and resources to get a bunch of local election candidates to sign thier pledge, so here’s the list of who not to vote for https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B954SdlrGC2lc1dQVkN0cmtLN2s/edit?usp=sharing
I will be doing a round up of the EU Candidates tomorrow.
Why I am Voting Prochoice!
This week I will be voting in the Eu elections, local elections and a by election in Dublin West.
So why am I asking Candidates to the EU parliament, if they are pro choice?
Policies set in the EU parliament effect us here in Ireland and it is to the EU court of human rights Irish women have to go again and again to try and get access to the health care we need in our own country. Currently there is report, called the Estrela, which sought to make clear that reproductive rights are human rights and
the importance of making contraception widely available, comprehensive sex education and quality family planning services. It also says that women have the right to decide freely and responsibly the number, timing and spacing of their children and underlines the importance of safe abortions.
http://reproductiverights.org/en/press-room/EU-parliament-fails-to-back-women-rights
It was rejected by an anti-choice alliance, will the candidate you are voting for join that anti choice alliance or will they work in Europe on your behalf to ensure that Ireland moves to give women the health care we the need here?
So why am I asking Candidates in the local elections if they are pro choice?
The majority of candidates who are running the local elections to be members of the County Council are members of political parties. They get to have input to party policy and to the debates and discussion which happen before a party adopts a stance on any issue. Often those who get elected to the County Council go on to seek election to the Dáíl, so it’s good to know what their stance is.
Also over the last 12 months we have seen County Councils passing motions in support of a referendum on the issue of Marriage Equality, hopefully we will see County Councils passing motions in support of a referendum to Repeal the 8th Amendment.
So why am I asking Candidates in the by elections if they are pro choice?
The Dáil is one of our legislative bodies, we have seen the how important it is when we have has several bills come to be voted upon in the Dáil chamber that our elected representatives be willing to vote in accordance with the wishes of the people who elected them. We need to let them know we are pro choice, that we will not wait 20 more years for the next abortion legislation and we do not want them to wait either.
So why I am Voting Prochoice ?
Because I don’t ever want to give any preference to someone who thinks women like me who have had abortions are murders, who think that they can be the gate keeper to the abortion rights which the majority of people in Ireland agree we should have. I do not want any one who thinks it is ok for women to have to travel to get the health care they need to be voted in to a position of any significance via my vote.
Reproductive Rights Are Non-Negotiable
Confirmed candidates for the Longford-Westmeath and Dublin West by-elections
Voting and why I do it.
I have mentioned before that I read this book around the same time I became a teenager.
It is the story of the fight for women’s suffrage in the USA. It made me aware of the countless hours women of many generations worked so hard for to get the right to vote some suffered horribly in vile prisons and some even died.
Women in Ireland did not have the Vote until 1928.
Yep 1928 which means we have not had the right to Vote yet for a 100 years.
Suffragettes including our most famous ones Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington seemed to think once women had the Vote the world would be radically changed as we would be then equal with men and able to change laws and make the world and the country a fairer place.
While I think if those brave ladies were to travel forward in time there are many things they would be pleased with but I do not think that the level social change and ‘equality’ would be something they would be happy with.
Women having the Vote did give us a certain amount of power but as we all know well now it was not the Pancea for all ills the suffragette had hoped it would be. But that does not mean it won’t be as we move forward and with the internet making it easier for us to communicate and collate information, making an informed choice and being informed on whom to vote for has gotten easier.
Every time I get a polling card with my name on it I think of the women who dedicated themselves in the fight to get women the right to Vote and didn’t live to get to Vote themselves. 86 years of having the Vote, I don’t think women have done enough with it. The old boy’s club is still very much the way things are in our houses of parliament. We deserve better.
I am refusing personally to vote for any candidate who is not pro choice to some extent. I will never give a preference to any candidate who considered women like me to have committed murder. I will never give a preference to a any candidate who does not see the need for a separation of church and state esp in our schools and health care system. I will never give a preference to any candidate who does not see the need for a comprehensive universal sex and sexuality education program in our schools.
I have had people ask me why bother, well that just means things stay the way they are. Often less then 55% of the people who are on the electoral roll turn out to vote and we have people who are eligible to vote who are not even registered to do so. If there is a low turn out in an area, which politicians can tell, due to the numbers being low then they don’t feel the need to work so hard on the issues being raised in those areas. You want to make a difference, get active, get informed and vote.
It is a lot easier to do so now, then it was when women first got the vote in 1928, it’s easier now then it was 50 years go even 20 years ago.
I Vote because I believe I have an honour and a duty to do so. I have never failed to do so in the last 21 years and I hope I never do.
Ladies who lunch? Part 2
So I found myself wondering who is it I would like to hang out with and have a long leisurely lunch.
The type of ladies with whom, I could talk life, the universe, sex and sexuality and not have them bat an eye lid at anything I might say. Laugh their heads of yes, but not be made uncomfortable.
As ever when one starts along such a train of thought, it is wishful thinking, so why not pick anyone.
So I guess Amanda Palmer, Margaret Cho, Joan Jett, Betty Dobson. Laurie Penny.
Each of which are amazing women, who have broken new ground in their professions spending a couple of hours in their collective company would be so invigorating.
But thinking about it I am lucky to have such women in my life who are just as kick ass and I think I am going to have to organize a get together.
Lora O’Brien is a writer, manager of Rathcroghan Heritage center in Roscommon, how she manages to get so much done in a week still baffles me.
Coral Mallow whom I meet when she was over doing a series of workshop, she had a boundless sense of fun and what makes people tick. She also makes amazing jewelry and will be returning to Ireland to continue her work with 4elements theater company.
Bon who is also know as deannawol and under that name has write some wonderful RPG games, which I have been lucky enough to play at conventions, and her work ethic when it comes to her writing is something I am frankly jealous of.
Ailish Farragher who’s tribal belly dance workshops are a delight to take part in and who runs a Tantra salon in Dublin and is one of the Organizers of the Bliss festivals and circles/
Tara also know as @MsFrugalone who had organised so many wonderful meet ups, is caring compassionate, has such a wry sense of humor and always ready to burst out laughing and even when she’s admonishing me I know it coming from the best of places.
But a handful of wonderful women there are more the ladies I have meet at pro choice events and so I guess it’s not that I don’t fit in with women, it’s finding women I fit in with.
Ladies who lunch? Part 1
So over the last 10 weeks my daughter has been in a Mindfullness program aimed at teens, to help them figure out their emotions, triggers and find ways to deal with a range of things, from negative thought patterns, panic attack, temper outburts. While the teens have been attending the 90min sessions some of us parents would go for coffee or lunch and chat.
The parents I did this with all turned out to be mothers, rather then fathers as it’s still expected or easier for them to get time off work to do bring their children or else they are a stay at home parent due to the extra care their child needs.
It was nice to spend some time with them and to exchange war stories, to know my kids ‘weridness’ is actually pretty normal for kids on the autism spectrum. Over the 10 weeks we laughed, cried, shared and reached a certain comfort level. Our last ladies who lunch session was this week. The topic of teenage sex and sex education and the pressures on teens to become sexually active was trashed out over lattes, tea and sparking waters.
The point was made that it’s not really that different from when we were teenagers and they started disclosing how old they were when they lost their virginity. This was the end of my feeling included and the same as them. I don’t even define virginity in the same way, or even sex it seems. I had to decide would I be the only one who didn’t share, should I share but only speak to part of my sexual history which was similar to them perpetuating bisexual erasure or would I flat out say my first sexual partner was a teenage girl like I was.
So I took a deep breath, while no one said anything mean or biphobic, some were startled, and there were a moment or two of silence. No one asked questions, but then the topic was swiftly changed to if anyone was going anyway over the summer holidays and how difficult doing that is with children who don’t cope well with a change in routine.
It was a few moments discord in what had been 10 weeks of all just getting along, but it still happened. It’s been said that we never stop coming out, but I can see why people stop, as it can make life easier. Maybe I just need to go to lunch with a different type of Ladies.