Confrontational Activism—Is it Here to Stay?

Shaunna Thomas, the cofounder of UltraViolet, a women’s advocacy organization, vehemently disagrees [with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell]. “Until we came along,” she says, “the confirmation was a done deal.” Her six-year-old group has embraced bird-dogging as well as media-friendly gestures like flying a thank you christine banner over Christine Blasey Ford’s house in Palo Alto. UltraViolet’s activity surged during the Kavanaugh hearings, Thomas says. At Senator Susan Collins’s office in Portland, Maine, “hundreds of people started showing up. First weekly, then daily.”

Women marched, then ran: will they win in record numbers?

At its core, the #MeToo movement is a cultural movement, and cultural movements often far outpace national politics, said Shaunna Thomas, a co-founder of Ultraviolet, which advocates for women’s rights. She noted that November’s elections are the first “since women around the country started demanding that sexual abusers be held accountable.”

“An electoral outcome at this stage is a lot to expect of a movement that is about challenging patriarchy — it’s a huge goal,” offered Thomas. “It’s not just, we want fewer women to be sexually assaulted or raped or harassed. What we’re demanding is a world where women have control over their own bodies, their own minds. That’s a project that goes far beyond needing to build and exercise electoral power.”

How the Kavanaugh Protests Reached the National Stage

When the doors to the Hart Senate Office Building opened at 7:30 a.m. last Friday, a few protesters making a final show of opposition to the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh were waiting to be let in. As they waited, a woman named Maria Gallagher, with dark hair and glasses, introduced herself to me. She told me she lived in the area and had taken the morning off from work in response to a call to action from the progressive organizations MoveOn and UltraViolet. I asked if she was planning to get arrested—many of those visiting the building that day were prepared for civil disobedience. She said “no.” She had told her employer that she would be in by noon.

“Thank you Deborah”: Plane tows message of support for Brett Kavanaugh accuser over Boulder

Ramirez, 53, told The New Yorker that Kavanaugh exposed himself during a drunken dormitory party at Yale University in the early 1980s, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away.

The plane with the support message for Ramirez was commissioned by UltraViolet, a women’s advocacy group that supports sexual assault survivors. The group also paid for a similar message for Ford that flew over Palo Alto, Calif. last week.

Women’s group to project ‘Kavanaugh is a sexual predator’ on Supreme Court

The group, UltraViolet, is prepared to project “Kavanaugh is a sexual predator and well documented liar” on the Supreme Court building on Tuesday night, the group said in an announcement.

The projection will also read: “He lied every time he testified,” and “Kavanaugh must withdraw.”

Christine Ford Could Be Cross-Examined If She Testifies — But Experts Say That Would Be “Bonkers”

“You don’t bring your character reference in for the people you’re interviewing for a job in order to cross examine their experience with the candidate,” says UltraViolet executive director and co-founder Shaunna Thomas. “You take it for what it is, you access whether or not you think what they have to say about that candidate is disqualifying, and then you make your choice.”

Palo Alto moms link arms in front of Christine Ford’s home, chant ‘Protect Christine’

While the Palo Alto neighbors marched in front of Ford’s house, the advocacy group UltraViolet hired a plane to fly over the region with a banner reading, “Thank you Christine. We have your back.”

“Ford has demonstrated tremendous courage in coming forward and sharing her story of how Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her. She is a hero and we have her back,” explained Shaunna Thomas, a co-founder of the women’s advocacy group. “Violence against women should have no place in our society and it certainly should have no place on the highest court in the nation. Brett Kavanaugh should withdraw his nomination.”

CBS chief executive Les Moonves is departing amid probe into allegations of sexual misconduct

Activists have been equally vocal about the move. Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of the women’s rights group Ultraviolet, also decried any possible payment.

“CBS’ decision to fire Moonves for cause is clearly the right decision. If they reward Moonves’ decades of sexual harassment with a massive golden parachute, it will be shameful and compounds the damage of his decades of unchecked abuse,” she wrote in a message to The Post. “As the first Fortune 500 company executive to be held accountable, CBS is setting the new standard that should become the norm across corporate America: ‘if you abuse women, you lose your job and your golden parachute.’”

Time’s Up Asks CBS to Drop Leslie Moonves Without Golden Parachute

Ultraviolet, a women’s advocacy group, had also called on the network not to settle with the network chief. “If the CBS board gives Moonves any amount of severance in the event of his termination or resignation, you will compound the damage you’ve already inflicted on the progress towards stopping sexual violence with your decision to allow Moonves to continue working,” stated UltraViolet co-founder and executive director Shaunna Thomas in a letter to the CBS board dated Aug. 23.

Kavanaugh’s Kozinski Test

In July, the women’s rights group UltraViolet issued a call for an inquiry into what Kavanaugh might have seen as a law clerk to Kozinski from 1990–91. This was an entirely reasonable request, given that for many of us, it was hard to sit on a panel or go to a dinner with Judge Kozinski and his law clerks without seeing or hearing some form of hypersexualized grotty dinner theater. In response to this request, the White House issued a statement.

Women’s Group: DeVos’ New Rules on Campus Sexual Assault Encourage Schools to Be Complicit in Sexual Violence

Ahead of Midterms, Women’s Group Unveils ‘Feminist Future Agenda,’ Microsite  

STATEMENT: UltraViolet Reacts to Trump Administration Plans to Roll Back Recognition and Protections of Transgender People

STATEMENT: UltraViolet Reacts to Hillary Clinton’s CBS Interview on Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky

STATEMENT: Women’s Group Calls on MLB to Institute League-Wide Sexual Harassment Policy After Leaked Emails Show Former Dodgers Player Dismissed for Sexual Assault Was Allowed to Play for Minor Leagues

Women’s Group on the FBI Investigation Into Brett Kavanaugh

THURSDAY 9 AM: Women’s Group to Play ‘Access Hollywood’ Footage of Trump Bragging About Sexual Assault on Non-Stop Loop on Giant Screen in Front of the Capitol, Urging Senators to #StopKavanaugh

Women’s Group: We Believe Karen Monahan

UltraViolet: It Is Now Crystal Clear: Brett Kavanaugh Should Not Only Never Step Foot Inside The Supreme Court, He Should Be Removed from the Bench Entirely

Women’s Group: “Enough. Withdraw.”