Greetings from D.C., where we await decisions on voting rights and marriage equality with our hearts in our throats. Like a strong majority of Americans, I believe we are all equal under the law -- now I hope the Supreme Court agrees: any day now we will learn the fates...

Mad Men mores ran rampant at today's military sexual assault hearing. From the commanders still defending the commanders on whose watch service members were raped to draft deferred noncombatant Saxby Chambliss (elected by attacking war hero Max Cleland) claiming that military rape was due to the hormone level

I'm happily married -- and even if I wasn't, I sure wouldn't be looking for a boyfriend in the president of the United States. Yet media meme after media meme suggests otherwise. This politics of personal attraction sexualizes voting and trivializes civics.

The "President Boyfriend" meme was cute when it...

This Memorial Day as we kick off the summer with BBQs, baseball and beer, let us remember those who gave some of the best summers of their lives to protect and defend our freedoms. On May 27, we continue the tradition begun after the Civil War to unite us in...

On this Mother's Day we remember our moms and say a special prayer to those moms who have lost their children. After morning cuddles with my Isabella, I went to San Francisco City Hall this morning to join the Healing Circle to connect with moms who have lost children to...

Fault lines run along color lines in American public life, and the women's movement is no exception. Over the years, feminism has become more inclusive but there is still hard work to be done to include LGBT women and communities of color.

Nothing will test the political will of...

As the nation marks Equal Pay Day -- the average date into 2013 women must work to make what men earned in 2012 -- we must recommit ourselves to closing the wage gap. As President Barack Obama said in his stirring Second Inaugural Address on January 20,...

It's MLB Opening Day for San Francisco at Los Angeles -- a new chapter in a storied Giants-Dodgers baseball rivalry and a perfect time for renewal, hope, and plans for victory next fall.

I've had the great opportunity to travel around the country following my two passions: baseball and politics....

Poll after poll reveals an emerging consensus among young people for voting rights, civil rights, LGBT rights, women's rights and worker's rights. This is no accident but the outcome of years of coalition building, grassroots blossoming into an equality generation.

We saw the seeds planted over the past generation, as...

Remember 2012 when America was awash in "legitimate rape" stories? Seems some of the networks forgot that rape is rape and that all survivors deserve justice. When Candy Crowley and her colleagues discuss the impact of a rape conviction on the rapists and not on the survivor, it perpetuates the...

There he goes again -- NRA chief Wayne LaPierre served up fear mongering rhetoric designed to divide Americans into keeping the status quo rather than building bridges to reduce gun violence in our communities.

Today the NRA mouthpiece served up lines like "a 'violent rapist deserves to...

As we celebrate Women's History Month and lift up the sheroes of liberation, we must free our sisters from sexual slavery. Human sex trafficking is a danger to our communities and a scourge on our souls; it must be stopped.

To their credit, female and feminist leaders in Congress...

Twenty years ago, I graduated from law school and told a Latina friend I planned to work on helping women break the glass ceiling. "That's fine for you, but it doesn't motivate my community," she responded. "While your people are breaking ceilings, it's my people of color who are caring...

Life is ever changing but art is constant in its moment -- a snapshot in time where we see ourselves looking at ourselves. When we look at the military rape documentary The Invisible War, what do we see? We see a military where defenders are defenseless against their...

This morning my funny Valentine awoke at dawn. We made chocolate chip cupcakes for her daddy and grandparents before she set off to preschool with a bright pink bow. To my Isabella, as with most three-year-olds, Valentine's Day is innocence and chocolate, balloons and unconditional love, peace and harmony.

But...

100 Days. Presidents have a 100 days honeymoon to act on their strongest priorities.

Presidential historians know it. As White House correspondent and presidential author Kenneth T. Walsh wrote in 2009,

The underlying truth is that presidents tend to be most effective when they first take office,...

Since House Republicans let the Violence Against Women Act expire, thousands of women and girls have been assaulted in America -- some without recourse. It is time for America to act and for the media to do their part.

According to Sen. Patty Murray, "every single minute, 24...

Most Americans believe that with freedom comes responsibility -- and that one measure of responsible gun ownership is a background check. There must be an app for that. This idea came to me the way creative thoughts often do -- in a discussion with someone from a different experience than...

According to the agency that aspiring Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel wishes to lead, 19,000 of his future employees are raped by thousands of his other future employees every year. Forced to combat what they call an Invisible War, women (and some men) in the military find themselves at...

Newtown is an awakening that Americans are in the fight of our lives against gun violence. Contrary to the NRA whose policy director claimed November 15, 2012 that "Gun Owners Are in the Fight of Our Lives," it is Americans fighting for our children's safety who are in...