Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

5 Things to Know for 2017 Anti-Street Harassment Week

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In three weeks, from April 2-8, Stop Street Harassment is organizing the seventh annual International Anti-Street Harassment Week. Already groups and organizations in more than 25 countries have pledged to participate. The Week is a chance for us to join together in solidarity and amplify each other’s voices so that the world listens, as well as to raise awareness in our local communities.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
    1. Tell Us What You’re Doing!
      If you are participating, we want to know what you’re doing! Please either complete this form, or e-mail me, Holly, with info at hollykearl@yahoo.com. Thank you for your help.
    2. Ideas for Action
      Do you still need ideas for what you can do? Here are several. Also gain ideas from the 2016 wrap-up report and the 2015 wrap-up report.We especially hope to see offline discussions involving diverse community members of all genders and backgrounds. It will take EVERYONE to truly create safer communities.

      But at minimum, any individual can participate through simple acts like telling their street harassment story, writing chalk messages, and sharing information online.

    3. Tools
      We have a selection of shareable images and downloadable fliers on our website and will be adding even more in the next two weeks. If you have ideas or want to offer translation help, please email hollykearl@yahoo.com.
    4. Write a Blog Post
      Afghanistan, India and USA are among the countries represented this year!

      If you’d like to write a blog post for Stop Street Harassment (or have an entry cross-posted from your blog) that would be great! It can be for the week itself, or you can advertise what you’ll be doing for the week and why. Just reach out to Holly, HollyKearl@yahoo.com, with a short pitch about what the blog would cover and the preferred date or time range you’d like it published.

    5. Tweet Chats
      April 4 will be our global tweetathon. Tweet about street harassment using #Endsh throughout the day (from whatever time zone you’re in, using whatever language/s you want). We are in the midst of scheduling the daily tweet chats — If you are planning to host one but haven’t been in touch yet, please reach out and I will add it to the official list.

Feel free to reach out anytime with questions, suggestions, or information!

-Holly

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At Stop Street Harassment, We #StandWithGavin

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We believe that transgender rights are civil rights. Stop Street Harassment works to document and end gender-based public harassment worldwide, and we recognize that this includes the harassment of women and LGBTQ individuals across every race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, age, and socio-economic status.

Gavin Grimm’s case is the case of thousands of transgender people across the country.  “It’s not just about bathrooms,” Gavin said earlier this week. “It’s about the right for trans people to exist in public spaces.” While Gavin’s case focuses on his access to restrooms in the school context under Title IX, it has much broader implications about who belongs in public spaces in the first place.

Our organization has documented thousands of stories from people of all genders around the world who have experienced verbal harassment, and sometimes physical violence, in public spaces simply for existing: Simply for being a woman. Simply for being LGBTQ. Or simply because, no matter who they are or what they are wearing, public harassment is at its core about power. We reject the idea that – across identity categories – women have less of a right to be in public than men, that gay and lesbian individuals have less of a right to be in public than their straight peers, or that transgender people have less of a right to be in public than cisgender people.

We also believe that an attack on any marginalized community is an attack on all of us. We’ll continue to stand with transgender students like Gavin, and all transgender people, who feel like they are not welcome in public spaces simply because of who they are. We’ll continue to fight with and for them, and will never give up on our global efforts to combat gender-based harassment.

Gavin’s fight has been delayed, but it’s far from over. We look forward to the day when all people feel welcome to exist and worthy of existing in public spaces – no matter who they are, what they look like, where they live, or who they love.

Signed,
The Stop Street Harassment Board of Directors

(Special thanks to board member Patrick Ryne McNeil for drafting this statement.)

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300 Organizations Sign Letter to D. Trump

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Women in the United States are alarmed by a Trump administration agenda that has already done grave harm to families across the country and undermined essentials rights and protections. That’s why today, Stop Street Harassment joined more than 300 organizations across the nation that advocate for women’s rights, equality, justice and inclusion in sending a letter to the president urging him to build a more fair, just and equal nation.

The letter outlines six domestic policy areas that are critical to women and all families, and upon which the community will evaluate the Trump administration’s success.

Going forward, we hope this list of priorities will be a resource for the administration and members of Congress as they make policy decisions, as well as the media, advocates and anyone who cares about how women fare during the president’s tenure. As we note in the letter, when the country’s 157 million women have an equal opportunity to succeed, our entire society and economy benefit.

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Social Media, Graphics, and Translation Volunteers Needed!!

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International Anti-Street Harassment Week is coming up and we are looking for volunteers to help us with social media, graphic design and translations! This is a very busy time a year when lots of eyes are on our accounts and we need all the help we can get.

Social Media Volunteers:

We are looking for at least FIVE volunteers (can be from anywhere in the world, bilingual with English and another language/s slightly preferred). The plan is you will be in charge of one weekday per week (e.g. Tuesday would be “your” day) to manage our SSH Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr pages as well as the Anti-Street Harassment Week Facebook page. You’ll also have access to Pinterest and YouTube if you want to post anything there. You will receive a document with guidelines and suggested content. It’s anticipated you will spend 30-60 minutes across “your” day.

  • During Anti-SH Week, if there is a Tweet chat scheduled on “your” day, you are encouraged to join it and possibly represent SSH for it, too.
  • If you want to guest blog for SSH, you will be welcome as well.

Timeframe is: starting ASAP and going through April 10 (if you want to continue past that date, that would be fine).

Please contact: HKearl@stopstreetharassment.org with brief info about you, your social media experience and availability.

Graphic Design Volunteer:

We are looking for volunteers who can create some shareable graphics for social media to be used by participating groups and people of International Anti-Street Harassment Week. They will be posted here: http://www.meetusonthestreet.org/tools/ and here: http://www.meetusonthestreet.org/images/

Timeframe is: starting ASAP, to have them completed by March 19.

Please contact: HKearl@stopstreetharassment.org with brief info about you and samples of your graphic design work.

Translation Volunteers:

We are looking for volunteers who can help translate some text for graphics and flyers into a few languages, namely, Spanish, French, Arabic (and any others welcome). They will be posted here: http://www.meetusonthestreet.org/tools/ and here: http://www.meetusonthestreet.org/images/

Timeframe is: starting ASAP, to have them all completed by March 19.

Please contact: HKearl@stopstreetharassment.org with brief info about you and the language/s you can translate.

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Join International Anti-Street Harassment Week!

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Will you join us for the 8th annual International Anti-Street Harassment Week and demand safe public spaces for all?

Last year groups from 36 different countries joined in (here’s the wrap-up report).

Get involved:

  1. Advertise the week to your networks and encourage them to take action, whether that is sharing a story, putting info on social media, or organizing/attending offline action like a march, workshop or rally.
  2. Participate! And tell us what you plan to do.
  3. Join the 24 hour tweetathon on April 4! #EndSH

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