Thursday’s PBS NewsHour tackled the concerns of “local menstruators” in Hawaii, a story that fused the tax-funded outlet’s search for niche necessities that require government funding with its ongoing attempt to defy science and pretend humans other than biological women get periods.
It’s the latest “period piece” from tax-funded PBS, whose long anti-scientific advocacy for the “choose your own gender identity” brigade was documented here, now joined with advocacy for yet another liberal-spending cause, the supposed "inequity" of "period poverty."
Amna Nawaz: It took years of effort by students and advocates, but Hawaii is now one of nine states requiring public and charter schools to provide free menstrual products for students. Kate Nakamura from our Student Reporting Labs has the story.
Sarah Kern, Representative, Ma’i Movement Hawaii: All the public places that we have access to as citizens, if there's toilet paper and soap stocked there, to me, there should also be period products stocked.
Kate Nakamura: Not being able to afford menstrual products is known as period poverty. It's an issue of inequity that is familiar to teachers like Sarah Kern, who witnessed the issue while teaching at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School.
Kern: I saw a lot of period poverty at our school. It was mostly indirect. There's a lot of students who would go to the health room to get their products, and that resulted in missing class time. I personally and a lot of teachers would provide products to students, so I would always keep some in my desk.
....
Nakamura: It took several years of lobbying, but students and advocates celebrated a victory in June 2022, when legislation requiring the Hawaii Department of Education to provide free menstrual products in public and charter schools was signed by the governor. Hawaii is now among nine states in the U.S. to do so, according to the Alliance for Period Supplies. It's already making a difference to students like Breanne Battulayan, who attends Kauai High School....Kern, who serves as the Kauai representative for the Ma'i Movement, a nonprofit organization working to eliminate period poverty in Hawaii, in addition to teaching, says expansion of access to free menstrual products in other spaces in the community, such as university campuses, will benefit local menstruators.
Sometimes tax-funded news conveniently forgets that men can get periods, when there is a feminist point to be made, as in this National Public Radio story from November 20, “Period simulator allows men to experience the pain of menstruation.”
Doesn’t PBS imply that they already do?
This silly segment was brought to you in part by Consumer Cellular.
A transcript is available, click “Expand.”
PBS NewsHour
11/30/23
7:52:15 p.m. (ET)
Amna Nawaz: It took years of effort by students and advocates, but Hawaii is now one of nine states requiring public and charter schools to provide free menstrual products for students. Kate Nakamura from our Student Reporting Labs has the story.
Sarah Kern, Representative, Ma’i Movement Hawaii: All the public places that we have access to as citizens, if there's toilet paper and soap stocked there, to me, there should also be period products stocked.
Kate Nakamura: Not being able to afford menstrual products is known as period poverty. It's an issue of inequity that is familiar to teachers like Sarah Kern, who witnessed the issue while teaching at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School.
Sarah Kern: I saw a lot of period poverty at our school. It was mostly indirect. There's a lot of students who would go to the health room to get their products, and that resulted in missing class time.
I personally and a lot of teachers would provide products to students, so I would always keep some in my desk.
Kate Nakamura: Hawaii State Representative Amy Perruso has been advocating for period poverty since her former days of teaching.
State Rep. Amy Perruso (D-HI): When we talk about, for example, Hawaii public schools, the vast majority of our menstruators live in fairly high-poverty communities and conditions.
Kate Nakamura: It took several years of lobbying, but students and advocates celebrated a victory in June 2022, when legislation requiring the Hawaii Department of Education to provide free menstrual products in public and charter schools was signed by the governor.
Hawaii is now among nine states in the u.s to do so, according to the Alliance for Period Supplies. It's already making a difference to students like Breanne Battulayan, who attends Kauai High School.
Breanne Battulayan, Student: The first time I saw it was in P.E., and I was like, oh, my gosh. Wait. I don't have to carry my big period bag everywhere. I literally just have a pad right there that I can just grab from the wall.
Kate Nakamura: Kern, who serves as the Kauai representative for the Ma'i Movement, a nonprofit organization working to eliminate period poverty in Hawaii, in addition to teaching, says expansion of access to free menstrual products in other spaces in the community, such as university campuses, will benefit local menstruators.
Sarah Kern: One of the next steps to getting period products more widely accessible throughout the state is definitely getting them free and accessible in the U.H. system, so the community colleges U.H. West Oahu, U.H. Manoa, U.H. Hilo, all of those campuses.
Kate Nakamura: Representative Perruso, who supports this bill in the state House, knows that there are many challenges that come along with creating change.
State Rep. Amy Perruso: I think that the most difficult obstacle is the education piece, because, sometimes, not always, but sometimes, legislators live in their own bubbles, right?
So — and that can affect the quality of their policymaking. So, if they are not actively seeking out young people and trying to identify the concerns of young people, and then working to address them, then they're never going to be engaging with young people.
Kate Nakamura: For "PBS NewsHour" Student Reporting Labs, I'm Kate Nakamura in Lehua, Hawaii.
