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KamaAina

(78,249 posts)
Mon Oct 26, 2015, 07:42 PM Oct 2015

Brave Portland Woman Breaks Up Planned Parenthood Protest by Chanting “Yeast Infections!”

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2015/10/26/yeast_infection_chant_breaks_up_planned_parenthood_protest_in_portland.html

During her shift at Portland, Oregon’s Purringtons Cat Lounge on Sunday, Mary Numair looked out the street-facing windows and saw a woman carrying a sign that read “Abortion Kills Children.” Numair had noticed a group of protesters about a block away, gathered outside one of Portland’s Planned Parenthood health care centers. “I thought [the woman] might be lost. I said, ‘Hey, you’re gonna feel real silly. The protest is down that way,’ ” Numair, 29, told me. “She said ‘No, I need to stand here.’ I said, ‘Fuck this shit,’ went back inside, and started making my sign.”

The sign, which Numair crafted out of masking tape and a piece of cardboard from the dumpster, praised Planned Parenthood for treating her chronic yeast infections when she was in her early 20s and uninsured. It also included a delightful cartoon of a vagina with a smiling clitoris and a stick figure with pigtails and prominent breasts (above).

Numair’s best friend and co-worker clocked in early so she could head out to the protest, where she planted herself between two families with children. “In my first 30 seconds of walking out there, I did get called a whore,” Numair said. “One woman was shaking her head. I knelt down to her kid and said, ‘Do you know about yeast infections?’ ”

Onlookers gave Numair the thumbs-up, and some passing cars honked in support, but she was the only counter-protester on the scene. Still, with a spontaneous chant, she managed to break up the protest in under a half-hour. “I don’t know why I started chanting ‘Yeast infections!’ but it just came out. I have this cold, so it was just this obnoxious squeak, cheerleader-like. And I started doing high kicks, which I don’t normally do, in my skinny jeans.” A religious leader was guiding a circle of protestors in prayers for Numair—but as her chants got louder and more grating, they stopped.





45 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Brave Portland Woman Breaks Up Planned Parenthood Protest by Chanting “Yeast Infections!” (Original Post) KamaAina Oct 2015 OP
Good for her. More need to do that. LiberalArkie Oct 2015 #1
K&R Solly Mack Oct 2015 #2
K & R !!! WillyT Oct 2015 #3
awesome gal Skittles Oct 2015 #4
Bravo Mary! smirkymonkey Oct 2015 #5
And more women with posters that say, "Thanks for a mammogram LuckyLib Oct 2015 #6
Wish I'd been there passiveporcupine Oct 2015 #7
Those religious kook protestors are the religious kooks the religious kooks of the GOP are courting. Fred Sanders Oct 2015 #8
Applause, applause. louis-t Oct 2015 #9
They should also sing this song. iandhr Oct 2015 #10
some friends and I used to counter-protest our local idiots--and singing that song while they were niyad Oct 2015 #23
Mic drop. blackspade Oct 2015 #11
May the Goddess smile on this woman! Hekate Oct 2015 #12
Healthcare for the uninsured is evil Victor_c3 Oct 2015 #13
Fabulous post! Thanks! Demeter Oct 2015 #14
An everyday hero - thanks Ms. Numair rurallib Oct 2015 #15
this is great! KT2000 Oct 2015 #16
K & R !!!! Thespian2 Oct 2015 #17
Absolutely priceless! Bravo for Mary and her cured yeast infections! nt Mnemosyne Oct 2015 #18
Damn, I LOVE this kind of stuff! Kickin' ass and takin' names for women's rights. BlueJazz Oct 2015 #19
Everything is AWESOME! ...well, maybe not yeast infections, but hey. DRoseDARs Oct 2015 #20
What a great idea. Bravo, Mary! valerief Oct 2015 #21
I LOVE IT!!! niyad Oct 2015 #22
All the women who aren't doing this need to remember it when PP is closed. jtuck004 Oct 2015 #24
K&R! TeamPooka Oct 2015 #25
Thom Hartmann caller asked for donations for his preg daughter at PP protest ErikJ Oct 2015 #26
Of COURSE! MrMickeysMom Oct 2015 #27
Life begins at conception and ends at birth. KamaAina Oct 2015 #28
Well put! MrMickeysMom Oct 2015 #29
Damn--well put! Orrex Oct 2015 #35
"Toot your whistle and honk your horn... mac56 Oct 2015 #30
Maybe this is the reason the don't toot when they go to war, either... MrMickeysMom Oct 2015 #36
My female patients all know where I stand with regard to Planned Parenthood. Aristus Oct 2015 #31
Kicked and recommended! Enthusiast Oct 2015 #32
K & R SunSeeker Oct 2015 #33
This is magnificent! Orrex Oct 2015 #34
Kick ass! Amimnoch Oct 2015 #37
Way to go!!! n/t Beausoir Oct 2015 #38
Nothing like guerrilla theater in action!! Eleanors38 Oct 2015 #39
K & R times 1000! mountain grammy Oct 2015 #40
kick Angry Dragon Oct 2015 #41
"What do we want? Yeast infections! When do we want them? Now!" Dont call me Shirley Oct 2015 #42
Great Idea- more ideas enclosed ca3799 Oct 2015 #43
Love this! BooScout Oct 2015 #44
bravo allan01 Oct 2015 #45

Fred Sanders

(23,946 posts)
8. Those religious kook protestors are the religious kooks the religious kooks of the GOP are courting.
Mon Oct 26, 2015, 08:17 PM
Oct 2015

The secular state is under attack, that is the larger war being waged which was all suppposed to have been settled and protected long ago from the kooks by that thing called the constitution the kooks say they love but clearly despise.

niyad

(113,284 posts)
23. some friends and I used to counter-protest our local idiots--and singing that song while they were
Mon Oct 26, 2015, 10:19 PM
Oct 2015

having their mass was part of our ritual every week.

Victor_c3

(3,557 posts)
13. Healthcare for the uninsured is evil
Mon Oct 26, 2015, 09:09 PM
Oct 2015

Why should someone who is uninsured be given free healthcare by the government? If you don't have a job that gives you health insurance then you obviously are lazy, not smart enough, and a loser.

In America anyone who is willing to work hard enough can be a millionaire. So if we aren't millionaires it's obviously due to our own personal laziness and shortcomings.

Well at least that's what the republicans tell us...

rurallib

(62,411 posts)
15. An everyday hero - thanks Ms. Numair
Mon Oct 26, 2015, 09:42 PM
Oct 2015

and thanks for posting this story.

Always wonder on stories like this if I would have the gut and brains to join her or would I walk on by?

 

DRoseDARs

(6,810 posts)
20. Everything is AWESOME! ...well, maybe not yeast infections, but hey.
Mon Oct 26, 2015, 10:14 PM
Oct 2015

At least she nailed the high-kicks.

 

jtuck004

(15,882 posts)
24. All the women who aren't doing this need to remember it when PP is closed.
Mon Oct 26, 2015, 10:21 PM
Oct 2015

Their enemies will NEVER stop, and not nearly is being done in support.

Their enemies can win through sheer persistence, just like the right has moved things toward their camp since about 1915.

 

ErikJ

(6,335 posts)
26. Thom Hartmann caller asked for donations for his preg daughter at PP protest
Mon Oct 26, 2015, 11:00 PM
Oct 2015

He went to a PP protest and asked them for donations while loudly shaking a can of coins to support his daughter and her baby instead of her getting an abortion. Nobody donated.

Aristus

(66,328 posts)
31. My female patients all know where I stand with regard to Planned Parenthood.
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 12:40 AM
Oct 2015

Every So often, I'll have a new patient come in who hasn't had a primary care provider for a number of years. A subject like contraception or PAP smears will come up, something that they had recently, and I'll ask where they received their care.

When they say "Planned Parenthood", I reply: "Great organization. I support them 100%."

That always earns me an approving smile.

Orrex

(63,208 posts)
34. This is magnificent!
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 08:23 AM
Oct 2015

Brave indeed, and a terrific way to highlight the idiocy of the anti-Planned Parenthood crowd.

Well done, Ms. Numair! Well done!

 

Eleanors38

(18,318 posts)
39. Nothing like guerrilla theater in action!!
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 01:47 PM
Oct 2015

With the demo in Dakota, maybe we're seeing a little resurgence in activism!

Let's watch the trend, folks, and pick up on it.

ca3799

(71 posts)
43. Great Idea- more ideas enclosed
Wed Oct 28, 2015, 07:52 AM
Oct 2015

I did something similar in Houston.

I was the only counter protester. When I heard there was going to be a protest near me, I jumped on my bicycle, stopped by the grocery store and bought a marker and a poster board, and then rode over to the protest. the people protesting were happy to see me. At first; because my sign wasn't filled out yet.

I wrote "Keep abortion safe and legal" and "A private decision between a woman and her doctor" and started walking counter to the protesters. They hissed at me and made rude comments.

One said "You're not even form around here" (like that matters). I said "You don't know that."

One said "Abortion is murder." I said "Obviously, not everyone feels that way."

One lady with two teenagers said "How old are you? You're too young to know your own mind." I said "How old are your daughters? Are they old enought o know their own minds?"

One said "I'll pray for you" but in that way that really means 'I pray you go to Hell today.' I ignored the mean spiritedness of the comment and said "Thank you."

But Numair is on to something here. Antiabortion protesters don't just hate abortion. They also dislike sex, women having sex (for fun!) and pretty much any discussion about sex. This should be exploited.

Signs could read "Ask me about my vaginal yeast infection" ("vaginal" being the key word here). Perhaps using words like "bacterial vaginosis", "pap smear", "cervical exam", "gonorrhea" "breast exam", etc., will help run these people off.

Asking a protester what the best treatment for a Bartholin's cyst would be would likely cause them to run away screaming. I'm pretty sure none of the male protesters have any clue about Bartholin's cysts.

allan01

(1,950 posts)
45. bravo
Wed Oct 28, 2015, 09:15 PM
Oct 2015

we occaisonaly have some of "those " on on of our major east - west . north south streets in sonora ca. when " they" are there , a friend drives by with a coat hanger in hand . that sets " them " off. my late mom witnessed many a back alley abortion in the coathanger style .

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