Gael Murphy

Gael Murphy, left, and Medea Benjamin at an April 2007 protest at the Senate Hart office building.

Gael Murphy, a resident of Washington, D.C., is an anti-war activist with Code Pink who has planned or participated in many of its high-profile protests and activities against the Iraq War.

Murphy worked in the Peace Corps and later as a public health officer in Zaire and Central America. She also was a foreign service officer and an aid contractor, gaining first hand experience of the mishandling of America's public policy.[1]

In 2002 she helped coordinate Code Pink's Women's Peace Vigil held across from the White House. She heads up the group's D.C. office.[1] She is also a member of its executive committee. A Salon writer who interviewed Murphy in 2008 described her as a "warmly robust, welcoming and intelligent presence with a firm handshake" who was tough enough for hard questioning.[2]

In 2004 Murphy was the lead protester speaking out at a Senate hearing featuring then United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.[3]

In 2004 she was arrested with fellow Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin inside The Republican National Convention.[4] She also participated in protests against the 2008 Republican convention.[5]

At an antiwar protest rally during United States President Barack Obama's Inauguration where protesters threw shoes at a balloon replica of George W. Bush, Murphy told protesters "Hold on to your shoes. The struggle is not over."[6]

Murphy is among the activists featured in an anti-war documentary film, Finding Our Voices.[7]

  1. ^ a b Pink Protests: The Purpose of the Pink Ladies in CodePink Archived 2009-11-10 at the Wayback Machine, Fox News, April 14, 2009.
  2. ^ Cintra Wilson, Cracking Code Pink, Salon.com, July 17, 2008.
  3. ^ Code Pink Protesters Interrupt Testimony of Sec. Of Defense Rumsfeld during Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing Call for Rumsfeld to be Fired, Common Dreams, May 7, 2004.
  4. ^ Democracy Now, Sept. 3, 2004
  5. ^ Faces of the convention: The dissenters, Star Tribune, September 1, 2008.
  6. ^ Robin Abcarian, Throw a shoe, sing for peace: Protesters gather in D.C., Los Angeles Times, January 20, 2009.
  7. ^ Finding Our Voices Archived 2008-07-23 at the Wayback Machine(2008)