By Dan Kopf
Today, thousands of people (click here) across the world will participate in the third annual Women’s March. This time, they will be doing so with specific calls to action.
The Women’s March organization has just released its most detailed set of policy proposals, which they call the Women’s Agenda. The document is an attempt to coalesce the participants in the March around policy goals that they believe will sustain their movement. “The raw energy of the people dissipates over time without an ideological frame to continue building power,” the authors of the document write.
Ending Violence Against Women & Femmes (click here)
Ending State Violence
Reproductive Rights & Justice
Racial Justice
LGBTQIA+ Rights
Immigrant Rights
Economic Justice & Worker’s Rights
Civil Rights & Liberties
Disability Rights
Environmental Justice.
The Women’s Agenda details 24 federal policy priorities for which the organization will advocate. They include universal healthcare, passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, ending war, the expansion of voting rights, ending the student debt crisis, protecting the rights of trans women, and a move toward renewable energy. The authors of the Women’s Agenda say the policy priorities were developed based on an understanding of “intersectionality.” Intersectionality is the concept that black women, for example, face a unique kind of discrimination compared to white women because they have multiple identities that are discriminated against. This would also be true of gay women compared to straight women. The leaders consider this important because previous feminist movements have focused on the needs of straight, white women....
By Meg Robbins
Women gather on Saturday outside Waterville City Hall for an Equality Rally aimed at "amplifying the many voices of the unique and inspirational people and communities who call Maine home, including new Mainers, refugees and immigrants, indigenous communities, the LGBTQ community, women, and our youth."
Waterville — A handful of central Mainers (click here) — many of them of high school age or younger — spoke to a crowd of over 80 people gathered by Waterville’s City Hall to promote the rights of various marginalized groups at the city’s first-ever Equality Rally on Saturday morning.
The Waterville event was coordinated to take place around the anniversary of the national 2017 Women’s March that followed President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Eight other groups in Maine — and many others nationally — held similar social justice-oriented rallies this weekend.
A Facebook group called Central Mainers for Change, led by Stryker Adams and Mary Dunn, organized Waterville’s event and started advertising it about a month ago. It ran from 11:30 a.m. to about 1 p.m. On Saturday, Dunn said she “thinks it’s time we all speak up” and hoped the rally would inspire citizens to take action on injustices they observe.
“Something else that inspired me to do this was listening to what’s happening in Skowhegan with the ‘drop the mascot,'” Dunn said, referring to an ongoing debate over the appropriateness of Skowhegan High School’s use of the word “Indians.” “I’m floored by the things that I read, and so that encouraged me to speak out.”
Lisa Savage, one of the leaders calling on the high school to stop using the “Indians” nickname for its sports teams, was the event’s opening speaker....
