Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt

WASHINGTON–We celebrate Pride month in June to coincide with the annual anniversary of the June 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City. Stonewall is considered to be the spark that ignited the modern LGBTQIA+ activist movement, following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a known LGBTQIA+ venue on Christopher Street in New York’s Greenwich Village.

Stonewall patrons and their supporters rose up in protest of the early-morning raid, taking to the streets and chanting “gay power.” Out of an oppressive police action, a mass movement was born. In protest against legal injustice, a new civil rights movement was energized.

Many groups over the years have been inspired by this movement, and NOW is proudly among them. We have never been content to sit back and watch events unfold around us.

We march, we organize, we take action, we push for meaningful social change.

We work with lawmakers to enact urgently needed legislation, and to block measures that take away our rights.

We strive to overcome discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in all areas, including employment, housing, public accommodations, health services, child custody and military policies.

NOW is committed to educational efforts that combat the adverse effects of homophobia, promote positive images in the media and ultimately ensure civil rights protection for all. NOW asserts the right of LGBTQIA+ people to live their lives with dignity and security, and marriage equality for all.

LGBTQIA+ people are still considered second-class citizens by powerful institutions and leaders. The Trump Administration has now refused for the past two years in a row to issue a simple declaration of support for Pride Month, although the White House has proclaimed June as Great Outdoors Month, National Ocean Month, National Homeownership Month, African-American Music Appreciation Month, and National Caribbean-American Heritage Month.

NOW is determined to stand up to the Trump Administration’s discriminatory agenda and attacks on LGBTQIA+ rights, and to work tirelessly to pass the Equality Act to ensure that sexual orientation and gender identity receive the full force of protection under our laws and in the workplace.

We celebrate Pride Month, and we also heed the call of history, which rang forth on the streets of Greenwich Village back on June 28, 1969.

Contact

Dee Donavanik, press@now.org, (951) 547-1241

Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt

WASHINGTON–This changes everything. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement opens uncharted, unimagined territory for women’s rights.

Now, Donald Trump will have the chance to radically alter the Supreme Court for generations to come. Never mind repealing every initiative of the Obama Administration-the Trump Supreme Court could erase programs going back to the New Deal!

But it will start with Roe v. Wade. Donald Trump’s next Court pick will promise to repeal Roe and block access to women’s reproductive health care. And starting today, Donald Trump and his enablers in the Republican party will make every conversation about the Supreme Court.

Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell think they’ve just handed themselves a winning hand in the next election, but this week’s primary results dramatize how determined women are to elect candidates with strong, feminist priorities. Now, those voters have an even greater incentive to build a blue wave in November.

NOW is saddened and alarmed by Anthony Kennedy’s retirement, but we are more determined than ever to strengthen our grassroots movement and win overdue victories for women. We’re calling on Trump to hold on proposing nominations and urge the Senate to not approve any nominations until after this election. It’s time to hold the Trump administration accountable and do what’s right.

Contact

Dee Donavanik, press@now.org, (951) 547-1241

Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions are turning our nation of immigrants into a country of cruelty. They have issued an edict to forcibly remove young children from the arms of their parents, as families seek refuge from dangerous conditions and lethal violence.   Children are being torn from their parents, shipped off to ‘foster’ families at the taxpayers expense and we have no idea if these families are licensed, speak Spanish or if these children are being labor or sex trafficked. There is no specific law, no regulation, no political consensus to support this obscene and unlawful policy. It is pure pandering to Donald Trump’s morally bankrupt political base. It is legally indefensible.

Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions would take a wrecking ball to the Statue of Liberty and replace it with barbed wire and guard dogs.

In addition to snatching children from their immigrant parents, AG Sessions has now doubled down on the politics of cruelty by undermining hard-won protections for immigrant women and girls fleeing domestic violence. He has single-handedly changed existing policies that protect tens of thousands of women seeking protection from unimaginable abuse, denying their legal right to apply for asylum in the U.S.

This afternoon at 2pm, in front of the Customs and Border Protection Building, NOW is joining other allies to protest the administration’s despicable actions. NOW calls on Congress to exercise its moral duty to protect immigrant families, particularly women and children. Hearings must be held and legislation drafted to end this reprehensible policy.  If judges and courts are overwhelmed, appoint more judges. If lawmakers refuse to act, then women will lead the charge to replace them at the ballot box. We must take action NOW to ensure these survivors are protected, not persecuted for seeking the inalienable right to safety and freedom.

Contact

Dee Donavanik, press@now.org, 951-547-1241

Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

The Supreme Court’s decision in the Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission case does not codify discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people, but it does normalize it. Opponents of gender equality will see this ruling as a green light for denying same-sex couples their constitutional rights, and an endorsement of the Trump Administration’s discriminatory policies.

This issue will continue to be litigated in the courts and debated by voters and lawmakers. We will continue to press for legal remedies to policies that deny fundamental rights to persons who need and deserve absolute and unchallenged equality.

When the Supreme Court rules to take away human rights, rather than expand them, it only emboldens and encourages those who would perpetuate hate speech and discrimination. This is why since its introduction, NOW has supported the Equality Act, which is now before Congress and would protect LGBTQIA+ people and everyone facing discrimination simply because of who they are. Today’s ruling makes it clear: we need equality, NOW.

Contact:

Dee Donavanik, press@now.org, 951-547-1241