Category: Blog

CNOW would like to highlight the work of two of its Women Who Dared honorees—Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx (’18) and Illinois State Representative Kelly Cassidy (’19)—who respectively championed and sponsored a bill supporting survivors of sexual violence during COVID-19. The bill authorizes specially trained staff at Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) to provide evidence collection and medical treatment to sexual assault survivors during the pandemic. This amendment to the Sexual Assault Survivors Act provides that an approved FQHC may provide medical forensic services to all sexual assault survivors 13 years old or older who present for medical forensic services in relation to injuries or trauma resulting from a sexual assault during the duration, and 90 days thereafter, of a proclamation issued by the governor declaring a disaster, or a successive proclamation regarding the same disaster, in all 102 counties due to a public health emergency.

The act also provides that under specified circumstances, an FQHC’s areawide sexual assault treatment plan must include a procedure for ensuring a sexual assault survivor in need of medical or surgical services receives the services at the treatment hospital. In an interview with the State Journal Register, Cassidy said, “[T]his bill provides much-needed options for survivors of sexual assault, and it is time-limited, it is specific to this crisis that we’re in, but it is equally critical that we ensure that these survivors have access to services.” We applaud our Women Who Dared, who continue to lead and inspire us through their dedicated public service.

June 15, 2020 was a celebratory day for LGBTQ rights when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6–3 decision in favor of the most expansive federal protections provided to the LGBTQ community to date. In Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex, included the prohibition of employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The opinion, which was penned by Justice Gorsuch, was joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan, and Chief Justice Roberts.

This case had been consolidated with two other LGBTQ rights cases, Altitute Express v. Zarda and R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC. The facts were undisputed that Plaintiffs Gerald Bostock and Donald Zarda were terminated when their employers learned of their sexual orientation, and Plaintiff Aimee Stephens was fired when she informed her employer that she would be transitioning. The U.S. Supreme Court held that “an employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies law.” This decision provides millions of individuals with the respect and protection they deserve in the workplace. UCLA’s Williams Institute reports that approximately 1 million U.S. workers identify as transgender, and approximately 7.1 million U.S. workers identify as lesbian, gay and bisexual. A study by the Human Rights Commission found that almost half of LGBTQ individuals are closeted in the workplace. Every person deserves the right to work with dignity and should not fear that at any time they could be legally fired based solely on their sexual orientation or gender identity. This landmark decision is an enormous legal victory for the LGBTQ community and a necessary step toward overdue equality under the law.

However, the fight for equality is far from over. The Equality Act, which has already passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, must be enacted. The Equality Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, sex, national origin, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity beyond the workplace and extends to the marketplace, public services, housing, medical insurance coverage, public accommodations and federally funded programs. These protections are especially important to those individuals who face many other discriminatory barriers. Without such comprehensive legislation, true equality under the law cannot be reached.

For now, we relish in a long-fought victory. To Plaintiffs Donald Zarda and Aimee Stephens, who unfortunately passed before they were able to witness this groundbreaking decision in their favor, rest in power.

Today, Chicago NOW joins the state and local chapters of the National Organization for Women calling for President Toni Van Pelt’s immediate resignation. Further, we call for swift reform of NOW’s bylaws to decentralize power at the national level and empower the hundreds of grassroots chapters nationwide to take immediate action during times of crisis.

Last week, we called for transparency and concrete answers from President Van Pelt regarding several recent news articles claiming a disturbing pattern of racist behavior among NOW’s national leadership. As of now, we have not received any official response from the national board about these allegations. Today, we realize our previous demand is not enough. We no longer have confidence in President Van Pelt’s leadership, and we do not believe she can effectively speak for the thousands of women in this organization.

We believe women of color. It is now evident that the allegations of racism at NOW reported in recent news stories were merely the tip of the iceberg. Furthermore, we see that this is not a new problem, but that our national leadership has allowed a toxic environment to fester for far too long. We have driven women of color out of our organization by turning a blind eye to their pain. To that end, it is not possible for those who were silent and complicit while the cancer of racism spread throughout our leadership to continue to helm our organization as we take steps to root out this toxicity once and for all.

Our members deserve leaders who will take immediate action to rally behind their sisters. To that end, we reiterate our call for a transparent, comprehensive investigation into all racism allegations at all levels of leadership within NOW, and for the results of this investigation to be provided to local chapters. Should this investigation confirm the widespread pattern of racist behavior suggested by these allegations, we believe that allowing all those currently in power to continue to steer the course would be a conflict of interest that would further erode the faith our members should have in their national leadership. However, we are constrained by NOW’s archaic bylaws from taking further necessary drastic action to root out corruption. We call on our fellow grassroots organizers to join us in demanding we overhaul a system that has allowed racism to thrive for far too long.

We meant it when we said that no form of feminism is legitimate unless it is intersectional, that we trust the experiences of women of color, and that we take all allegations of racism seriously. We fear the current leadership of NOW cannot advocate for our mission in an inclusive way. As such, we call upon our fellow grassroots chapters to join us in demanding legislative reform and calling on our leadership to listen to women of color, drive change, and earn the trust of all of our nation’s women.