WASHINGTON – Today, January 16 is Religious Freedom Day, an observance that marks the passage, in 1786, of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom. The United States was founded by people fleeing religious persecution, and the Founders took great care to protect the freedom to practice their faith, as well as the freedom to practice… Read more »
Press Releases for 2019
NOW Demands RCA Records Drop R. Kelly
WASHINGTON – For decades, R. Kelly has abused, exploited and endangered young Black girls. The Lifetime documentary series Surviving R. Kelly has provided chilling and appalling detail, and brought into focus a key question—why does the music industry enable a man who does monstrous things to women? Executives should ask themselves how they’d feel if… Read more »
Virginia Senate Ratifies the ERA, the House Must Follow
WASHINGTON – The Virginia Senate voted today (26-14) to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The National Organization for Women (NOW) applauds Virginia lawmakers for taking this first step towards passage of the amendment by the state legislature. NOW leaders and activists across the country are rejoicing that Virginia could become the 38th and final… Read more »
New Mexico Must Honor – Not Ignore – Dolores Huerta
WASHINGTON – New Mexico state legislator Rep. Miguel P. Garcia has proposed a state holiday in honor of the late farm worker leader Cesar Chavez of California and the late New Mexico State Senator Dennis Chavez. Garcia is quoted as saying, “There are no other kinds of individuals connected to New Mexico quite like these… Read more »
Celebrating The Life and Work of Bernice Sandler
Bernice Sandler, who passed away January 5 at her home in Washington, D.C., was widely known as the “Godmother of Title IX.” After earning a doctorate at the University of Maryland in 1969, she applied for one of seven teaching positions in her department but was told that she wouldn’t be considered for any of… Read more »
Cyntoia Brown’s Clemency Doesn’t End Her Pursuit Of Justice
WASHINGTON – Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam’s decision to grant full clemency to Cyntoia Brown was the right thing to do, but it doesn’t erase the injustice she endured. The criminalization of the trauma she suffered as a victim of sex trafficking and abuse is reprehensible and unacceptable. Cyntoia Brown was 16 when she was trafficked… Read more »
Repealing Roe Is Only The First Step—“Personhood” Laws Are Next
WASHINGTON – An alarming rise in “personhood” laws – including a new focus on beyond-the-pale criminal prosecution of pregnant women- is opening up a dangerous new front in the far-right’s attack on reproductive rights. As an editorial series in the New York Times described: “These criminal statutes are results of a tried-and-true playbook, part of… Read more »