Vigil and Memorial for Deoni Jones

Posted on February 7, 2012 by admin

UPDATE: Three CASS Board members, Carolyn, Alicia, and Holly attended the vigil. Although acoustics were bad, Holly memorialized the remembrance of Deoni and other DC victims of LGBTQ street harassment.

The entire Collective Action for Safe Spaces team is deeply saddened by the death of Deoni Jones who was murdered on February 02, 2012 while awaiting a bus at a bus stop near the intersection of East Capitol Street and Sycamore Street NE.

Yesterday, the DC Trans Coalition issued an invitation to a candlelight vigil in memory of Deoni Jones.

Please join community members, family, and friends at the bus stop at East Capitol and Sycamore Streets NE at 5:30pm Tuesday, February 7, for a candlelight vigil in memory of Deoni Jones, who was killed there last Thursday. Her funeral will be held on Saturday, February 11, at King Memorial Baptist Church, 2324 Ontario Road NW, with viewing from 9:00-11:00am, and the service beginning at 11:00am.

For more information, contact Earline Budd or Brian Watson at Transgender Health Empowerment, 202.636.1646.

“do somthing”

Posted on February 6, 2012 by admin

I was sitting on the metro and a man came onto the train car that I was on and walked up to me so he was standing directly in front of my face and started doing pelvic thrusts into my face and asking me to “do something.” I didn’t say anything and continued to stare out of the window the whole time until he stopped – about 30 seconds later he moved on and walked to the other end of the train where he continued to harrass other women who started yelling and him and then he started acting like he was a boxer and “fake punching” the women. The other metro riders did nothing, so I went and hit the emergency call button to the driver. The metro was stopped and off loaded at Braddock. I never had a chance to point out the offender by the time the metro driver found me to talk. All the women moved into a different train car, then the metro resumed. They thanked me for doing something.

Several weeks later, the same man recognized me on the metro as I was getting off the metro at King Street, he was getting on the metro, and as we passed each other as I was exiting he grabbed my by the arm and said “hey.” I hardly had time to put two and two together but the entire series of events was absolutely rattling to my sense of safety. He remembered me.

Submitted by Angela on 2/2

Location: On the metro between Reagan and Braddock

Time of harassment: Day Time (9:30A-3:30P)

Do you have a personal experience with gender-based public sexual harassment or assault you would like to submit? Just click here and fill out the online submission form. All submissions are posted anonymously unless you specify.

Tell WMATA Public Sexual Harassment is a Problem!

Posted on February 2, 2012 by admin

Sexual comments, leering, groping and public masturbation: sexual harassment happens a lot on public transportation in Washington, DC. Collective Action for Safe Spaces/Holla Back DC! has been tracking and speaking out on this issue for three years. Now we’re doing something more – testifying. And we need your help.

We need people to testify with us about the issue of sexual harassment on public transportation during the late afternoon of Wednesday, Feb. 22, for a public performance oversight hearing of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) held by the Council of the District of Columbia.

If we have enough people testifying, possible outcomes could be:

Council Member Muriel Bowser (who is overseeing the hearing and is from Ward 4) will be aware of the issue and could even propose legislation to help prevent sexual harassment on Metro.
Council Member Bowser could question the Director of Metro to find out why our concerns have not been addressed.
The Director of Metro could be more likely to address our concerns and take actions we recommend such as providing training for employees.

We are looking for people:

1) Willing to share a story or stories about sexual harassment on metro trains and buses,

2) Who can talk about sexual harassment they’ve witnessed,

3) Who can be part of the audience to help fill the room.

Testimonies are only 3 minutes long (about a page and a half). If you want to learn more about writing and presenting compelling testimony or want feedback on a draft, we will hold an optional training on Saturday, Feb. 18, 1-3 p.m. at the Southeast Library (across the from Eastern Market metro station). Susie Cambria will lead the training.

If you’re interested in providing testimony or helping to fill the room, please contact shannon@collectiveactiondc.org by February 17, and please share this announcement, especially with people in Ward 4 as that’s Council Member Bowser’s Ward and she’s up for re-election.

Info Session!

Posted on January 25, 2012 by admin

Have you been wanting get involved with Collective Action for Safe Spaces?
Then attend our first info session meetup on February 4th!

Where: Bread Brew (bonus: Bread and Brew is donating 10% of the proceeds to CASS!)
When: 3pm-4:30pm
What: Find out how you can get involved with us to make DC a safer place for all!

If you plan to attend, please RSVP to info@collectiveactiondc.org.

We look forward to meeting you!

PSAs

Posted on January 20, 2012 by admin

Through online activism, public advocacy and education, and community building, we work hard to make the streets of DC safe for everyone.

Tomorrow night, January 21st, local bands Miyazaki, Ra Ra Rasputin, and supergroup Volta Bureau will help us raise awareness and funds for some of our programming at an all-ages benefit concert at St. Stephens run by Positive Force. The bands have spoken out in a series of PSA videos for TVD, and we hope you join them in solidarity tomorrow night!

Volta Bureau

Ra Ra Rasputin

Miyazaki

Find out more about these incredible local bands on The Vinyl District!