Index: Activism in Texas

Standing With Wendy by Ana Mardoll

Like many people who became absorbed in the events that occurred in the Texas summer of 2013, I did not become actively involved until I heard about Wendy Davis' planned filibuster of Senate Bill 5. In the days leading up to the filibuster, while gathering and disseminating relevant news for my blog readers, I joked with other activists that Wendy Davis should spend her filibuster reading from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale--a classic tale of reproductive rights being denied within a harmful patriarchal system--not realizing then that the Texas filibuster rules were not the "read-from-the-phone-book" filibuster rules popularized in movies like Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.

On the day of the filibuster, I watched Wendy Davis speak from start to finish, joining the ranks of what were later numbered to be 182,000 people watching the live video stream of the Texas Senate floor. From the confines of my home, I yelled along with the unruly mob, and I went to bed feeling like I had witnessed something truly amazing. And when I woke, I did so with the conviction that this had to be preserved in written words. I announced online that I was going to spend the next year transcribing the filibuster--a goal that soon grew to include the Senate and House amendment sessions on the bills that were reintroduced in the next special session--and within a matter of days over one hundred people had volunteered to help in this task.

--excerpt from Standing With Wendy

Get the full transcript here, complete with audio and video.

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Label: Texas

June 2013
06-24-2013 - Abortion Ban In Texas
06-24-2013 - Living With Fear In Texas
06-25-2013 - Texas and Rape
06-25-2013 - Live Stream of the Texas Senate
06-25-2013 - Texas Live Blogging
06-26-2013 - The Bill Is Dead
06-26-2013 - Rick Perry Calls Another Special Session
06-26-2013 - Filibuster Retrospective (Part 1)
06-30-2013 - Filibuster Retrospective (Part 2)
06-30-2013 - Filibuster Retrospective (Part 3)

July 2013
07-01-2013 - The Latest From Texas
07-01-2013 - Ohio
07-03-2013 - July 2013
07-05-2013 - Filibuster Transcript (Part 1)
07-05-2013 - Filibuster Upworthy
07-05-2013 - Filibuster Transcript (Part 2)
07-06-2013 - Filibuster Transcript (Part 3)  
07-07-2013 - Stand With Texas Women
07-07-2013 - Filibuster Retrospective (Part 4)
07-08-2013 - Monday Twitter Roundup
07-09-2013 - Texas Monday Retrospective
07-09-2013 - Transcriptioning Help
07-09-2013 - Texas Tonight
07-10-2013 - Transcription Update
07-11-2013 - More Transcript Updates
07-12-2013 - Tampons and Guns
07-13-2013 - SB1 and Transcript Updates (Part Something)
07-13-2013 - Yesterday Retrospective (Part 1)
07-13-2013 - Yesterday Retrospective (Part 2)
07-13-2013 - Yesterday Retrospective (Part 3)
07-14-2013 - Yesterday Retrospective (Part 4)
07-14-2013 - Filibuster Transcript (Part 4)
07-14-2013 - Filibuster Transcript (Part 5)
07-15-2013 - For Wendy Davis by Bald Soprano
07-18-2013 - Rick Perry Day!
07-20-2013 - Transcripts, Transcripts Everywhere!
07-30-2013 - Transcripts! One Month Later!

post-July 2013
09-11-2013 - Transcription Update 
10-20-2013 - Texas Moves To Suppress Women Voters
10-28-2013 - Holy Fucking YES
10-29-2013 - Transcript Update!
10-29-2013 - Wendy Davis Signs Affadavit To Vote
11-19-2013 - SCOTUS Continues To Suck
12-13-2013 - Transcript Chart (12/13/2013)
01-06-2014 - Transcript Update!

Note: Last updated 07/04/2016.