Dear Friend,
Today is Women’s Equality Day, the anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote on the basis of sex.
It’s also the 100th anniversary of that moment in our country’s history – which happened only after decades of marches, protests, hunger strikes, organizing and coalition building by women activists and their accomplices.
It’s important to remember that the Nineteenth Amendment was just a start. Even after it was enacted, many women – women of color, in particular – were still barred from voting. And women are still denied full equality today, from equal work for equal pay to reproductive rights to protection from abuse and violence to LGBTQ rights.
I’ve been fighting for women and girls for more than a decade, first on my college campus, then with Planned Parenthood, and now in the Florida Legislature. And I’ll never stop fighting for them.
We’ve made so much progress. But there is still so much more to be done. And it starts this fall, by electing more women – especially women of color – to the Florida Legislature and by driving Donald Trump out of the White House.
Today we took a moment to remember and reflect on what so many fierce women did to get us to this point. And now we get right back to fighting for more progress.
Onward.
Anna