Great Moments in Public Radio

Mendo's Vagina-Friendly Cops

AVA News Service

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Hudson: One of the things I would like to see people latch on to with the V-Day (Vagina Day) Movement...all of us who worked on [the domestic violence] protocol can look back on that movement over the 15 years it's been in existence and know that we were all part of something that was very special. V-Day is much the same way. The people I've worked...the people who've been involved with it locally, all have that same feeling of being involved in something special.

Ottoboni: And you were on the V-Day steering committee for 2002, and not only that, we come forward to 2003, and how were you involved in V-Day then, Gary?

Hudson: I was given the incredible gift of being allowed to go on stage as the only male performer in the Ukiah presentation of the Vagina Monologues, and deliver a monologue that I'd written myself.

Ottoboni: And he is also on the board of Project Sanctuary, been doing that since August of 2003, and he's also the elected chair of the Mendocino County Domestic Violence Council, and that just happened this year!

Hudson: Yes, it did! It was effective January.

Ottoboni: And on top of it, folks, he and Tony Craver even have spots in this documentary! Right?

Erica Cooperrider: This is your opportunity to see our Sheriff in a red boa! Our Sheriff and Undersheriff! Both in red feather boas! (Laughs)

Hudson: I have to tell you this story behind that. Um, the film crew had come to Sheriff Craver's office and they had asked to interview us, so they set up in the corner of Tony's office and we had a fairly lengthy interview, and, uh, I talked Tony into going to see the show with me that night, so I had my family with me, and uh, here's Tony, and we watched the show and at the end of the show the film crew had set up outside the art gallery out there in the college theater and they grabbed both of us, they wanted to get some reaction, but before they started the cameras rolling one of the film crew ran out, found a couple of the performers, and all the women in the show were dressed in black with these red feather boas. They grabbed the boas, they tossed one around my neck and one around Tony's neck, and, uh, um, Tony tried to take the loose end, I think it was the right side of it, and toss it over his left shoulder. Well, he had a leather jacket on and it kept slipping off. So during the whole filming he's fighting with this red feather boa, and if you go to see nothing else in this film, um, I'm told that that's worth seeing. I have not seen the film myself, I've talked to some people who have seen it and they tell me it's just an incredible film, and really something great for Ukiah!

Ottoboni: That's why Gary Hudson is on this show, Women's Voices, because he's been at this issue from the beginning, for a long time in Mendocino County, and very active and very proactive, very supportive in helping women through these issues and I think he's incredibly supportive of the topic. ... The reason Undersheriff Gary Hudson is on this show is because he's very vagina-friendly.