"Social media is not just a place we 'go' anymore. It's a place we live, work, and play. That's why it's more crucial than ever to ensure that all people can safely access these spaces and freely express themselves without fear of retribution," Jenna Sherman, campaign director at UltraViolet
"Adriana Smith's family should have had a choice. Her mother was clear that she wanted to make the decision about whether her daughter's body should be kept on life support. But Georgia doctors and legislators failed Adriana and her family." said Arisha Hatch, interim executive director of UltraViolet
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.
Along with fears about the future of the country, Shaunna Thomas protested Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing for young girls like her daughter — and was ultimately detained by U.S. Capitol Police for four hours.
“I believe it’s possible to be successful, but only if we are willing to put our own bodies on the line, and that’s what I had to do yesterday — not just for myself, not just for UltraViolet members, but frankly for my daughter,” Thomas, executive director and co-founder of the women’s advocacy group UltraViolet, tells Bustle of protesters’ efforts to block Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
Shaunna Thomas, 37, was arrested for disorderly conduct around 30 minutes into the hearing, she said. “Senators, on behalf of millions of women whose rights would be stripped by a Kavanaugh court, I demand you reject this nomination,” she stood up and shouted over the committee chairman, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa.
Thomas is the co-founder and executive director of UltraViolet, a left-leaning organization that works to fight sexism. Her main concern, she said, is that Roe vs. Wade is at stake. She missed her three-year-old daughter’s first day of school to be in the hearing.
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.