Florida NOW

Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

WASHINGTON—Former Senator Birch Bayh (D-Ind.), who has died at the age of 91, was a passionate defender of women’s rights who guided the passage of Title IX into law.  He was a chief Senate sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and won congressional approval for the ERA in 1972. But he wisely forecast that the ERA might fail because of opposition from conservative state legislatures, so he produced the groundbreaking Title IX, which banned gender discrimination in schools that receive federal support.

His argument for the measure was simple:  “In a country that prides itself on equality, we could not continue to deny 53 percent of the American people equal rights.”

Bayh was the principal architect of two constitutional amendments—the 25th, which dealt with presidential disability and vice-presidential vacancies, and the 26th, which gave 18-year-olds the right to vote in state and federal elections. His dream was that the  Equal Rights Amendment would be the 26th.

NOW shares this vision, and salutes the visionary who did so much to advance gender equality.  We are committed to completing this mission with the ratification of the ERA in the states, and when we succeed, we’ll remember Birch Bayh with gratitude and affection.

Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

WASHINGTON – We observe International Women’s Day on March 8, paying tribute to women’s achievements and the ongoing campaign for equality. Although women of the world may be separated by language, geography, and culture, we are united in activism and energy.

NOW celebrates the women who are making a global difference and inspiring us here in the U.S.

Women like the “Feminist Five” in China—five women who were imprisoned for 37 days for planning to distribute information about gender equality and sexual harassment to mark International Women’s Day.  Their persecution showed the world that there is an organic, grassroots women’s movement in China and led to the emergence of the #MeToo movement in that country.

Women like Nadia Murad, a joint winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, human rights activist and survivor of sexual slavery at the hands of ISIS in Iraq. Following her escape, she became an advocate for the Yazidi minority in Iraq and for the cause of refugees’ and women’s rights. “My story, told honestly and matter-of-factly, is the best weapon I have against terrorism,” Nadia says.  “More than anything else, I said, I want to be the last girl in the world with a story like mine.”

And women like those in India, who held the largest public gathering of women for the cause of gender equality this past New Year’s Day.  As NPR reported, “… somewhere between 3.5 million and 5 million women lined up on National Highway 66, a long stretch of road that runs along the country’s western coast. The ‘wall’ stretched out 385 miles.”

As one woman wrote in response on Twitter, “The era of women folding hands and submitting to patriarchy is beginning to end from here. They will throw their fists on the air and demand for their rights. Women’s wall is just a beginning, a baby step of the impending cultural revolution. #WomensWall”

On International Women’s Day, these are the examples that lift up women here in the U.S. and around the world. Their struggle is our struggle, their cause is our cause, and their courage is our courage. We will not fail them, and we will not fail each other.

Read more by Elena Mieszczanski, Government Intern

This International Women’s Day NOW Celebrates Activists at Home and Abroad

Contact

NOW Press, press@now.org, 202-628-8669

Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

WASHINGTON – The National Organization for Women (NOW) strongly opposes the nomination of Shannon Goessling, who is unqualified to head the Office of Violence Against Women (OVW) in the Department of Justice (DOJ). If confirmed, Goessling would bring detrimental – and even dangerous – views on domestic violence and firearms. We urge senators to oppose this nominee and to insist that an experienced and knowledgeable candidate for the OVW position be considered.

Goessling claims that she worked on pro-bono domestic violence cases for 13 years as a lawyer in Georgia, though court records for Superior Court, Cobb County, indicate that she only worked on one custody modification case during that time. Her only other experience around violence against women is a 7-month stint, twenty years ago, as Director of the Crimes Against Women and Children Prosecution Unit, when she worked for the Assistant District Attorney for the Atlanta Judicial Circuit.

In her 11-year tenure as Executive Director and Chief Legal Counsel at the conservative Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF), Goessling advanced anti-gun control, anti-LGBTQ, anti-racial justice, and anti-immigrant cases. Because survivors of domestic and sexual violence also include racial, LGBTQIA and immigrant communities, understanding the challenges these groups face are integral to the job.

Most alarming is the fact that Goessling claims that widespread gun ownership would protect women, though many experts agree that there is a clear link between domestic violence and gun violence. An amicus brief that Southeastern Legal Foundation submitted in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008 asserted that widespread gun ownership is means of defense for women, reflective of a long-running campaign of the National Rifle Association. It is an ongoing tragedy that an average of 760 persons are killed with guns by intimate partners each year and more than 80 percent of victims are women. Nearly a thousand women each year are murdered by an intimate partner.

Goessling’s advocacy of socially conservative positions could negatively impact domestic violence and sexual assault survivors, especially those views on immigrants and LGBTQIA persons, child protective services in domestic violence and child support cases, and sexual assault victims.  

The director of OVW is responsible for making critical decisions for 25 key community grant programs totaling $450 million (in 2017), directed at services for victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.  Funds go to law enforcement, shelters, tribal authorities, campus programs, transitional housing, legal assistance for victims, training and technical assistance as well as formula grant programs for state, territorial and tribal domestic violence and sexual assault coalitions.

NOW strongly opposes the nomination of Goessling to this integral office, and urges the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to oppose her confirmation.

Contact

NOW Press, press@now.org, 202-628-8669