Wendy Davis

Dear Friend,

If you were awake last night around 11-2am PST, you might have been in on the chaos that involved the Texas senate, a woman named Wendy Davis, a livestream, over 370,000 people, and a pair of pink Mizuno sneakers.

What Happened:

Normally, the two of us aren't ones to get excited over parliamentary processes, but yesterday was pretty big. (Please don't just skip over this post because you think it'll be boring.) Tuesday, June 25th, the Texas senate was set to vote on "sb5". If voted yes, 69 of the 74 abortion clinics in Texas would close, and a woman would not be allowed to legally get an abortion after the first 20 weeks since fertilization (which Wendy points out is ludicrous since there really is no way of knowing the exact day of fertilization).

To have her voice heard, senate woman Wendy Davis attempted a 13 hours filibuster. If you don't know what a filibuster is, essentially a member of the senate can talk for 13 hours straight (previously 24) about the topic (in this case, abortion in Texas). She was allowed no breaks including but not limited to: drinking, eating, bathroom beaks, sitting, or leaning against the podium. If this isn't inhumane, we don't know what is. Anyways, after 11 hours, someone else in the senate claimed that she broke the rules, because she went off topic to talk about a previous bill (use your own discretion to decide if that is truly off topic or not). The senate follows the three strikes and you're out rule. Her second strike had been receiving the aid of a back brace. Again...really?

Not to mention that during the 11 hours, 19 male senators were trying to get her off topic, yelling, and trying to rip her apart. Rose Parks wouldn't stand up, Wendy Davis wouldn't sit down. Earlier, Davis had reached out to girls and women in Texas via social media to send her stories of how abortions had really saved their lives. Many of the 11 hours were spent hearing these stories from strong females like herself.

So, at the 11 hour mark, she was cut short. This is when chaos really broke out. By this point, a livestream of the inside of the Texas Senate was posted with over 200,000 viewers (including one of us). Over 170,000 Texas citizens had come to the capital and were essentially rioting against the passing of sb5. Twitter and tumblr were exploding, and everyone watching was so rilled up. The energy was contagious. But through this all, major news sites such as CNN, NBC, and Fox had yet to post anything regarding the events.

In fact, CNN was tweeting about muffins.

So with only a while left to go, some senator started making a big deal about her back brace, and the filibuster was halted. At this point, things started to get really bad, and basically all the men were just yelling at each other (don't forget that 200,000 people are watching all of this online). Someone started to make a commotion about how she had gone off topic earlier as well to talk about another bill. Let's not forget that filibusters in the past have featured men literally reading phonebooks.

Now, the crowd started to chant "Let her speak! Let her speak!" and everyone was pretty much in revolution mode. Senator Wallace talked for a good half hour about how Davis' points were completely valid and on topic (go Wallace!). Then, with 15 minutes to go, the men were yelling at each other again and it was getting bad. Not to mention the crowd's chanting, cheering, yelling, and singing. At this point, a woman named Senator Van de Putte got real mad and tried to call a motion to adjourn the meeting, which, by their rules, should be heard above everything else, but because of the patriarchal society we live in, was overlooked. Finally, after having to literally raise her hand, she said "At what point must a female senator raise her hand and her voice to be recognized over her male colleagues in the room?

At this point, everyone watcing did a collective "OH, SNAP!" This was the tipping point. The crowd was so passionate and rilled up that they cheered and made so much noise for 15 minutes straight that they couldn't take the vote. Watch the 30 second video HERE.

At 12:02 on Wednesday, a vote was taken.

But here's the thing. It was taken on Wednesday. If you were paying attention earlier, a vote taken on any date other than TUESDAY was illegitimate. So does it end there?

No. Because some moron decided to change the timestamp on the law, effectively throwing those 370,000 people into even more of a tailspin.

And CNN was still tweeting about muffins.

Let's also not forget that 170,000 people are filling the capital to shout for their rights, while 19 senators are literally voting for the exact opposite...democracy, anyone? Also, 200,000 people had watched the whole thing happen online, and you BET that video was timestamped.

Note: if you're going to go against your own law and commit a federal crime, don't do it infront of 370,000 passionate people fighting for what they believe in, and try to convince them that you can literally warp the time dimension  and don't prentend like a camera of a livestream that you voluntarily set up isn't timestamped.

So the republicans had now voted, and both sides were claiming victory; democrats claiming (correctly) that the vote was unlawful since it had taken place after midnight, and their votes had not been counted. Around 3am in Texas, the bill was finally pronounced dead.

This isn't a blog post about abortion. This isn't a blog post about feminism. This is a blog post about basic human rights, and the people. When you start to lose faith in humanity, because people do stupid things like illegally changing a timestamp on a vote to make it swing their way, try to focus your energy on the good people. Focus on the ones who show up in pink mizuno's, because they know they will have to stand for 13 hours straight to be heard. Focus on the ones that wait to have their hand called on like they're in kindergarten, only to throw a curveball back at the men in the room, after coming from your father's funeral. Focus on the 170,000 people who showed up to stand with Wendy. Focus on the thousands of people across social media joining together in solidarity. Focus on the people.

"It's 2am but I have so much energy I could freaking dismantle a horse who wants to go to ihop with me and talk about Wendy and feminism and stage a freaking revolution this isn't just for women this is for the PEOPLE" -Tumblr

Yours truly,
Kylie and Catherine