This story actually made me cry.

5 year old Adriel Arocha is being blocked from attending school in a Houston-area school district.

The reason?

As an Apache, he has long hair that he has been growing in his Native cultural tradition that “violates” this school’s dress code rules.

The kicker though is that the school board is willing to make exceptions on religious or other “proven” moral grounds, but doesn’t think that being Native American cuts it.

Even after Adriel’s father Kenny submitted a DNA sample of his blood and explained the long history of why many of us do not cut our hair until a family member dies, he received this response from superintendent Curtis Rhodes:

“To make exceptions, you have to be provided evidence of something, and to this point, I don’t feel I’ve been provided evidence to make an exception.”

Oh really now? Well what would they have us do so this child can attend school, show them a biblical text that says God told Native people to have long hair? Growing out your hair is a tradition in many Indigenous cultures that has been going on for centuries, long before our education was institutionalized. Long hair carries our life experiences and reminds us about the teachings we’ve received along the way.

So even when you take away our land, ignore our human rights, and try to destroy our cultre, it’s still not good enough to go to your schools?

And people wonder why it’s so hard for us to keep our identity strong.

Kudos to this strong female in Chile for taking a stand against patriarchy and conservatism.

Monserrat Morilles who is a 26 year old professional pole dancer took her protest to the subways of Santiago where for one week, she would get on at one station, find a subway car with no children on it, and strip in time to exit at the next station. She refused to take tips to make a point, and was arrested during one of her performances.

Chile has a long history of widespread sexual repression, not to mention the fact that abortion is still illegal and supposed public awareness campaigns remain overtly moralisitc.

But it’s not like Chile stands alone on these issues.

This is pretty inspiring. Last weekend was tribal elections in Oneida, Wisconsin, which is basically the governing body for the sovereign nation (although we still have to legally answer to the federal governments - sovereignty sure is an interesting reality).

My partner’s amazing, incredible, strong sister Melinda was re-elected as councilwoman, along with six other women, making more than 60% of elected officials for the Oneida tribe of Wisconsin female! She’s 31 and this would be her second term as councilwoman, meaning she got started in the biz of running things at 28.

It’s actually a normal occurence for this place; previous years have seen women holding the chair’s seat and other righteous Indigenous women taking on significant leadership roles.

Now if only the governments running these North American countries could get it right…

My car all tagged up to support Melinda running for council!

Three in five support Morgentaler honour.

From the Toronto Star:

The exclusive Angus Reid Strategies online poll done yesterday and Monday – a week after the Canada Day announcement – showed that, of the 1,016 Canadian adults surveyed, 60 per cent supported Morgentaler getting the honour while 29 per cent opposed it. Another 12 per cent weren’t sure.

Asked whether Morgentaler was a hero to millions of Canadian women, 66 per cent said they agreed, 26 per cent disagreed and 9 per cent weren’t sure.

It may be silent, but it’s a majority, so shut up already. I don’t really think Paul Schaffer should have gotten the honour, but you don’t hear me complaining.

In the week that followed our posting the news that Morgentaler was named to the Order of Canada, the Shameless blog has seen its share of commentary from anti-choice camps (comments we put in moderation while we discussed whether or not Shameless was the right place to be having these kinds of discussions,) and we’ve also seen a fair amount of anti-choice activity aiming to strip Morgentaler of the honor. We’ve seen letters to the editor printed in major newspapers, like this (“…they’re aborting purely for convenience…these women are callously using abortion as birth control.”) and this (“…the smug, self-serving, “progressive” political, legal, academic, and media elites, including the prime example at Rideau Hall — belong to some other world than the one from which they suck taxes…”)

Do a Google News search of Morgentaler’s name and post after post is letters to the editor of every major Canadian newspaper, each one a platform for anti-choice rhetoric and ranting about sin and murder. I am all for free speech and believe the abortion debate is an important one to have openly in our major publications, but where are the pro-choice sentiments and the fundamental belief in a woman’s right to control her own body?

I am now convinced that it is not that the anti-choice side of the debate is larger in number, it is that they are simply louder and more active in their criticism. Paul Russell at the National Post has written a small piece today regarding who was doing the largest share of letter-writing and commenting when the news hit:

The next day a handful of readers pointed out that all but one of the writers in the anti-Morgentaler camp were males, compared to six of the seven Morgentaler supporters being females.

Incidentally, I was among the handful of readers who sent Paul an email:

I’m very curious to understand why all of your commentary coverage of Morgentaler receiving the Order of Canada is skewed towards those who either believe he doesn’t deserve it, or that he mostly doesn’t deserve it, or that he sort-of doesn’t deserve it. I find it infuriating that you’ve refused to post the opinion of someone who believes this to be a most-deserved honor, and that you haven’t even managed to post the opinion of an individual in a position to ever need an abortion, i.e. a woman of child-bearing age.

It seems I was wrong in criticizing the National Post (I know, can you believe it?) Although I am not naive in assuming their coverage would be balanced, it seems that anti-choice opinions are higher in number and yes, mostly male. Russell neatly breaks down the numbers:

As of 4 p.m. last Friday, 163 e-mails and faxes have been received on the Morgentaler decision. Thirty-nine voice support for the Morgentaler’s Order of Canada, with the other 124 voicing various degrees of disgust with the honour… Interestingly, this dissenting group comprises 92 men and just 32 women. Conversely, of the 39 pro-Morgentaler letters, the 26 female contributors exactly double the 13 men.

I realize that this is a small sampling, but in a country that overwhelmingly favours a woman’s right to choose (49% believe abortion should be legal under ANY circumstances, while only 5% would outlaw abortion altogether, meaning everyone else falls in a “somewhere inbetween” that believes it should be legal - only 19% would would subject abortion to greater restrictions than now), it seems strange that the loudest voices are those in that small 5%.

On that note, I’d be remiss in not posting this message that’s been making the rounds. I feel it’s important that we let everyone know how we feel about Morgentaler’s honour, especially the very person who publicly honoured him:

The Governor General is getting a flood of mail and calls from anti-choice forces. Please tell her how much you appreciate the courageous decision by her and the Advisory Council of the Order of Canada to award Dr. Henry Morgentaler the Order of Canada. Here is the contact information:

E-mail: info@gg.ca
Phone: 613-993-8200
Toll-free: 1-800-465-6890
Fax: 613-998-8760

Mail: Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean
Governor General of Canada
Rideau Hall
1 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A1

Thank you very much!

Good Morning Shameless readers! Thanks to our reader Nikita for alerting us all to the fact that Morgentaler has been among those named to Order of Canada. Good morning indeed!

Now 85, Morgentaler, a Polish Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Montreal after the war, opened his first abortion clinic in 1969 and performed thousands of procedures, which were illegal at the time.

Morgentaler, a trained family physician, argued that access to abortion was a basic human right and women should not have to risk death at the hands of an untrained professional in order to end their pregnancies.

Morgentaler’s clinics were constantly raided, and one in Toronto was firebombed. Morgentaler was arrested several times and spent months in jail as he fought his case at all court levels in Canada.

His victory came on Jan. 28, 1988, when the Supreme Court of Canada struck down Canada’s abortion law. That law, which required a woman who wanted an abortion to appeal to a three-doctor hospital abortion committee, was declared unconstitutional.

This is a huge victory, one that Shameless has believed in for a long time, and such a wonderful piece of Canada Day good news.

Feminist and author Judy Rebick told the Globe and Mail on Monday that it is about time Morgentaler is honoured for his long battle.

“Dr. Morgentaler is a hero to millions of women in the country,” she said. “He risked his life to struggle for women’s rights … He’s a huge figure in Canadian history and the fact that he hasn’t got [the Order of Canada] until now is a scandal.”

Agreed. Now go read this Feministing community blog piece, “Juno Lied,” written by a teenage girl in the US about trying to find out how to get an abortion for her best friend. It really does emphasize how important it is to honour people like Morgentaler in this country.

Photos by SMN.

Quick link: A Time story on access to birth control, babies for unconditional love, “fierce” Catholicism, economic depression, and over a dozen (no older than) 16 year-old girls who made a pact to get pregnant at the same time: Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High

From the Associated Press:

Gay couples in Norway will be granted the same rights as heterosexuals to marry, adopt and undergo artificial insemination under a new equality law passed Tuesday.

Norway’s upper house of parliament voted 23-17 in favor of the gender-neutral marriage law on the same day that gay couples were marrying in California.

Today’s the day that Stephen Harper is scheduled to apologize for the horrors of the residential schools where Aboriginal peoples in Canada were imprisoned for decades, creating generations of abuse and also of survival.

The apology is scheduled for 3pm today in the House of Commons and you can watch it online livestream on the CBC here.

For me, the government’s apology comes too late to be meaningful. It isn’t happening in concert with acknowledging the multiple thefts of land and culture that are still ongoing in land claim disputes, cultural appropriation, and lack of basic resources like clean water, culturally-relevant and sustaining education.

If I can find any hope today, I want this apology to galvanize and influence white settler folks. Sadly, I think that white folks are more likely to respond and react to white people talking about racism and cultural genocide than the survivors themselves. Will hearing Stephen Harper apologize start the unlearning?

For many, it will do nothing. For others, it will mean something. What does it mean to you?