but it takes everybody to do this. it took the school, it took me, it took the community having been involved in activities. but you can't just blame us. and you can't just blame teacher unions. because if you come to us, we have the answer. they like to attack workers on -- who want the to organize, and those workers -- their jobs are undervalued. but what i can say is that the more they're attacked, the more we will rise. thank you. >> thank you so much, marretta. it remains me of what a co-founder and board member and president of the foundation says, you know, you definitely -- she has the anecdote i think caesar

used to say which is that, you know, if you're -- you've got a bad -- a bad man running around threatening things like a dog or a horse, you shake a stick at a hive of bees and they'll think twice, because those bees are organized. and i'm totally brutally slaying that particular metaphor but it's a wonderful example. next i would like to introduce our wonderful, final, distinguished speaker, rae kerry, who is the executive director of the national gay and lesbian task force. rea took over in 2008 and has provided some truly visionary leadership for the organization. during her tenure, the task force has accomplished many things that are far too many things to list. i too -- one of the biographies i read of the three of you, i had had to pick and choose. but one of them i thought was

particularly note worthy was the passage of the lgbt inclusive federal hate crime prevention act, which was a huge victory. also -- yes. defeating many anti-lgbt ballot measures across the country. and playing a vital role in getting the united states census for the first time to count same-sex couples in the 2010 census, which is pretty massive. we are -- in addition to online leadership academy and many other innovations. i know she has to leave soon, so i want to make sure we get her up here. so please welcome rea carey. >> i -- you know, in true women's fashion, i won't rush through, but i do have to pick up my daughter from school. so i thank the teachers for teaching and i actually know she would like to be here today.

she loves a good party. and she is a little activist. so i'll tell her all about you. and i do want to thank the feminist majority. you have been incredible partners in the pursuit of equality. and i know we will continue to work together. and i just want to thank all of you for being part of such an important organization that we at the task force consider to be a sister. so thank you. and finally, before i get into my remarks, i do want to dedicate them today to audrey anrich, a poet, a fighter and a feminist. i'm going to talk about three general things. determination and destiny, love, and voice. first determination and destiny. we, together, as a progressive movement, and i happen to be in an organization that focuses on lgbt issues, but we consider ourselves first to be a progressive organization

in how we work on equality and how we work on racial and economic justice. we are determined to win marriage equality nationwide. and we believe that it is our shared destiny to do so. and we have made progress, thankfully. this year, doubling the number of people who can actually get married in states across the country by adding new york state to the list that has approved marriage equality. so we're pleased about that. but as i was thinking about spending time with you today, i wanted -- i want to talk very much about how our movements, which definitely overlap, so i want to make that point. but how our movements -- the feminist movement and lgbt movement are intertwined. our destinies are intertwined. and, in fact, we have much to learn from each other. i've been spending not only my

whole life learning from the feminist movement, and my mother is a feminist and my grandmother is a feminist, but also studying what happens to our movements. for example, in 1973, when roe v. wade went through the supreme court, the polling on -- the public polling on whether or not a woman could have an abortion in the first trimester was at 53%. it was at 53%. when we won roe. i don't need to go through everything that has happened since then in defending roe and defending everything else that has to do with freedom for our own bodies. as many of you know, we have a number of legal cases that are specifically on marriage equality that are barreling towards the supreme court. barreling towards the supreme court. a number of them may get there very soon, within the next

couple of years. the polling on marriage right now is at 53%. familiar, hmmm? so it is amazing, right. ten years ago we weren't even close to 53%. but it's a cautionary tale. and as i sit here with you today, and fight on the lines with you in virginia, where they are taking away public funding for access to health services for women, and in places across the country, 40 years later, after roe went through the supreme court, and we are looking at the same percentage, if we don't do much more as an lgbt movement and as a broader progressive movement to get that number up to talk to our friends and family and get way beyond 53%, i know that we are staring at history repeating itself. and i don't want to repeat that history.

federally, we do have to overturn the so-called defense of marriage act. i do want to do a piece of education. and we're working towards that. i could spend lots of wonky time telling you about that, which i'm not going to do. many of you are familiar with it. but we do have to overturn the defense of marriage act, and we're moving in that direction. but i have to take a moment to educate on one point, which is that when we overturn the so-called defense of marriage act, it does not mean that we have access to choose to get married across the land. it doesn't. there are 29 states that have constitutional amendments that say that i can't marry my partner, right? so we have to get rid of doma. but we have to make progress in the states. we have to fight off more constitutional amendments that are headed our way. and we have to overturn those that already exist.

and at the same time, as fighting the federal doma, overturning things in the states, as i said before, we've got a lot of legal cases going. and i think sometimes people say, well, sure there's going to be a silver bullet. one of these cases will go through and wipe the whole thing out. that would be nice, but i don't see it happening that way. the way i see it, it's like an arcade game. have you been to an arcade and there's that pony game, and you're throwing bean bags and your pony is first, and then the next pony? all of those ponies are all of those horses are running to the finish line of marriage equality and we will get there, but we have to get every single horse across the finish line, and we need your help to do it. but as arlene spoke earlier during a luncheon, our fates are tied together, particularly on ballot measures. we've just heard just two sets about measures. we're not even talking about anti-affirmative action. if you do an overlay of the

country, you will see very clearly how our fates are intertwined. so we must show up for each other. it's why the task force in 2011, we sent our organizers not just to alaska, where in just a few short days we're facing a ballot measure on nondiscrimination, but we also sent our staff to mississippi to work on the personhood measure. we sent our staff to maine, to secure the vote for people in maine. and we sent our staff to build a base of anti death penalty voters for a future fight in california. all of those issues affect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. they are our issues. so i invite each of you, as we look towards 2012, pick something that doesn't necessarily have to do with your life, with your family's life, and show up. write a check. participate in a phone bank. volunteer for a campaign. reach out and bring someone with you. and next time, ask them to come

and work on something that does affect your life directly. i believe we will make a difference. second, i want to talk about love. i may -- i am definitely a half- glass full girl. and i do believe that love will win out. and at the heart of the lgbt movement is love. started thousands of years ago. but more recently at the stone wall inn in new york city where a bunch of drag queens and gay men, sissy boys and people of color said, enough, we will love who we want to love, and we will fight for it. and i believe that love will win out. and i have great hope for this in the future of love. and the future of our ability to marry each other. in states like maine, where we can make history this year, where they are putting the first proactive marriage measure on the ballot, and we need all of

your help to win, this will make history. it will be the first time we've ever won on a proactive marriage ballot measure. i have hope in the future, in particular because of children. we have a young daughter, elementary school, when margaret and i got married in the brief window of time with 18,000 other people in california in 2008, we went out to california. our daughter came with us. she was telling her friends, and we prepared her for what her friends might say. because we didn't know, right? two women getting married. and it was fascinating because first of all, they already thought we were married. we have a house, a kid, we even have a dog. we drop her off at school each day, sometimes we forget her lunch, we've got to run it over. like, we were married to these elementary school children. and when they found out that we had to get married, many of them congratulated us and the only negative comment was from one of

our daughter's friends who is very jealous that she got to be a flower girl and that was it. that was it. but i'm reminded we have a long way to go. because at the same time, driving through virginia, my daughter and i, she says to me, "can people get married in this state?" and i really didn't know how to answer because identity i don't think that any child in this country should have to ask if her parents can get married. that should not be a question on the lips of any child in this country. and to the high school students in this room, i promise you we are doing everything we possibly can, so that this will not be your fight when you are 45 years old like i am. you will be fighting for something else, and we will stand with you. but we will not have marriage be your fight. i promise you.

and finally, our voice. this has been touched on a number of times today. but we must make our voices heard. and right now, we are facing a huge threat in voter suppression. it is the number one threat. i know i'm supposed to talk about marriage but i won't be from the task force if i didn't push the envelope a little bit. literally out of the jim crow playbook, some of the stuff going on, right? we have to fight voter suppression. and if you look at where our ballot measures overlap in states across the country, guess where we're seeing ballot measures? is in all of the states where issues are at play. what is true is that it used to be possible to mobilize the right wing base on hating the

gays, anti-woman ballot, anti-immigration ballot measure, anti-affirmative action ballot measures. and what's happening in this country is that no one of those are their trump cards anymore. they are losing. they are losing. they are losing. and so what do they do? they have to go deeper than that. they have to strike at the very ability for us to cast our vote. that is offensive, it is anti- democratic, and we must stop this threat to democracy in our country or none of us are going to win. i believe that we can stand together. because i've seen it before, again and again. many of you have shown up for us and our families, and i will show up for you. i promise. we will continue to do that. but we have to stand together. there are far too many forces at play to tear us apart.

so let's stand together, let us save this democracy, and let our voices be heard. thank you. i'm hoping we have time for some q & a now. so we have some mikes. i believe -- help me point them out. they're on some tables or -- oh, yes, the people who are lining up. oh, yes. please, go ahead, while we have our wonderful panelists. >> okay, hi, everyone. my name is melanie keller and i'm part of the unite women team, the maryland state chapter. so if everyone could come out and rally with us on april 28th in every state. and i just have a question. maryland is a pretty blue state. and looking at the congressional voting records that were passed out the previous forum, you can see that senator barbara mikulski has 100% record on

those measures that are listed. so i just have a question specifically for megan darby of planned parenthood. with everything that's going on in states like oregon, montana, texas, with the ultra -- or the transvaginal ultrasound bill, what can states like maryland do? what can voters and residents do to help out from the sidelines, i guess? is because it's easy for of us to sit back and rest on our laurels, because in our state, things are relatively okay. >> that's a great question. so -- sorry. so i guess the first thing they tell you is, you know, educate. and talk about it. that is the most powerful thing you can do. to go back to mississippi, we are very fortunate that not only it picked up steam nationally, because people were outraged and they knew about the issue and talked about it. i mean, i could tell you,

facebook feeds were just full of talk about mississippi. and that's how really it gets the ball rolling. and that really could help. i also would say donate. because everything -- this is expensive fights everywhere. and i would also say, you know, locate the people that you think are working on the issue and call them and say, what can i do? can it be a house party? can we have a phone into texas day? whatever you can do. but number one, talk about it and make sure people know about it, because a lot of times they don't. >> could i -- >> please. >> -- weigh in on that? i think we kind of heard that from the mom. that there's -- you could do a lot with the internet now. because you can talk to people all over the country just by using the internet. i know -- i'm from maryland too. and we send people to pennsylvania, to virginia, to do labor walks. so when we -- we know there are problems in those states.

so maybe even doing labor walks in states where you know you have a -- you have a problem. >> i also want to throw the feminist majority foundation's two cents in here. i am one of the campus directors for the choice is campus leadership program. and this election year, we're putting a call out to all college students, recent high school graduates. if you feel like interning with us, or planned parenthood or the national gay and lesbian task force, we are going to be active especially battling these initiatives. colorado, california, all across the country. if you want to intern with us and take a semester off from school this fall and have the experience of a lifetime, we do encourage you. and i'm happy to speak to you after this plenary session. or go to maine and work on passing their equality. but these are opportunities that could be available for you here now in addition to the world of cyberspace, which can sort of put you everywhere now. thank you. anyone else?

oh, sorry, yes. >> i actually do not have so much as a question, but a comment. i want to thank you, rae, you're the first person to see transgender today. so i want to thank you for coming out and saying the word transgendered, getting the people the notoriety other than lg bt. so thank you. >> i'm going to say transgender, so i become the second person. transgender. okay. yes. >> hi. my name is kinita. and i'm with united women here in the state of -- no. we don't have a state. so i am -- i am representing the dmv, the greater d.c. and metropolitan area. one of the things that i'd like to bring to the attention, when we talk about women being disproportionately affected, whenever we say that women are disproportionately affected, you can double that number when you

talk about minority women being disproportionately affected. and one of the things i would like to say, i find that it's -- i don't have -- maybe i don't have the tools. i find that may don't have the tools, but i find it a little difficult to galvanize that minority voice and to bring it into the greater fold at times. if you're in, for instance, seattle, washington, someone in your group should be speaking. there is a large somali population there. if you are in a latino community, someone in your group should be speaking spanish. there's a large latino population there. so, i wanted to say to the greater group, and i've said to my group, if your group looks just like you, maybe only you live in your neighborhood, but i doubt it, so there needs to be a greater outreach. and i'd like to also know how, or find out how through the different consortium of organizations, maybe classes

about how to reach across sometimes cultural borders or boundaries so that we understand each other so that we are able to communicate well and address each other's needs. >> do any of the panelists want to respond to that or should we move on? okay. >> virginia armstrong, president of the league of women voters, southampton roads, virginia. i have one comment and one question. for the woman from maryland who doesn't have any particular needs related to maryland, please come to virginia. we are in one hell of a mess! secondly, with the league of women voters, we especially want

to focus on voter suppression. and do you have any specifics for us that would be helpful? >> a couple of things. unfortunately, there are so many choices to get active, and i think naacp has done so much work on this, both on their own website, in other arenas, in identifying which states are experiencing voter suppression laws now with an eye in particular towards 2013. the opposition thinks we're going to be asleep in 2013, so we think 2012 is bad? just wait until 2013. so, what i would encourage you to do is, you know, google "voter suppression" or "naacp voter suppression," look at the states, and in many states, they're starting to ramp up campaigns, or the local naacp chapters may start doing some activities. but there are a number of organizations that are starting to do those.

and a lot of us are trying to also kind of, in the midst of ballot measures that are specific to some issues, reach out to people who are interested in voter suppression to make sure that we're partnering together as we work on these, because we know we're going to have to turn around and fight. so, look for campaigns in your local areas. >> all right. thank you. >> i just want to say one thing. i've been doing this 25 years, and suddenly, i realized what we have to do. we are, women, there are a lot of us. money, some of us have. the power, the men all have. we have got to take over their offices. we have got to run for the fucking senate and the house of representatives. [ applause ] and i say that word all the time. i hope no one's offended. and you've got to do it in the states, too, where so much of

this -- we have to do it. otherwise, 25 years from now, i will not be here, i promise. we're going to be saying the same thing. >> thank you. a great note to end on. i think we need to flood the ticket, and hopefully, everyone will consider running for office or helping support an excellent woman for public office. thank you. and we're on to our next plenary, concluding plenary sessi session. yes. >> do i hear a yorkin for senate campaign? >> thank you. i'm sorry. [ applause ] coming up, more from the feminist majority foundation here on c-span3. we'll bring you a discussion on women running for house and senate seats this year. among the speakers, carol moseley-braun, the only black woman ever elected to the senate. >> we're going to go right on, because debbie walsh is -- the reason we're moving so fast is

we are on c-span live and we wanted to keep the ball rolling. so, i feel like everybody should get up and stretch after all that, but i want to give a big hand to this panel on ballot initiatives. i think we have our work cut out for us. anyway, we want to get going on to the second one, and we have a central question of this one, and the central question is, are we at another anita hill moment? and just to -- debbie walsh is going to set the stage, so i'm going to move right to her. the center for american women in politi politics of the eagleton institute of rutgers university. if you are not familiar with their website, please go to it.

it is cawp.org. yeah, okay, i missed it. on my little ipad, all i have to do is put in cawp and i get there. so, google's awful smart. but anyway, the official thing is cawp.rutgers.edu. and basically, it is a marvelous, marvelous instrument. it has all the facts, really, about women in office. it tells you how many women are in the state legislatures, who they are. it tells you by state. it does all the appointive offices. it does it by state. it does the congress. it does the history of all the women in congress. i could go on. it is a bible. and one of the reasons we wanted debbie walsh, who's the executive director, to come

forth, is because she can, better probably than anybody, set the stage of how do we get from 17%, or as peg yorkin said, how do we get more women in power and stop this constant discussion of how we fight off going forth one step, coming backwards another step, as we keep on doing for nearly 40 years. so, i want you to set the stage. i want to commend the center for american women in politics and the eagleton institute. eagleton institute is headed by ruth mandel, who is an absolute treasure for the women's movement, but also for the united states, because they feature local and state politics, which are so often overlooked. but if we're going to do this, we have to be at all levels. so, please, set the stage and keep us running on time.

>> that's a tall order, keep us running on time. ellie, i want to thank you, and i want to thank alice and kathy for having me here. we were really lucky. just a couple of years ago, we brought ellie to rutgers university, where we gave her an honorary degree, and she was the commencement speaker for rutgers university, and we're delighted to count ellie as an alum of rutgers university. so thank you. i'm going to put a little bit of this year into an historical context for you, and i want to just talk about the numbers of women who are in office and running for office. and as ellie said, we keep track of all these and we monitor the trends for women in office. and pre-1992, we saw this slow, steady growth for women in elective office, and we used to bemoan that because we would only go up about a percentage point or so every election cycle when it came to women in state legislatures and very little in every congressional cycle.

and then came 1992, and we've all been talking about this. so, it's 20 years ago. and we saw a year of redistricting, we saw a year where there were record numbers open seats, and we saw a year where there was a catalyzing moment, when everyone in this country saw firsthand how white and how male the united states congress, and in particular, the united states senate was. and i know that many of you in this room remember that weekend where we all sat and watched all weekend long, never leaving our tv sets, as we watched anita hill facing down that all-male, all-white senate judiciary committee, and we all had that moment of these guys don't get it, and where are the women? as a result of that year, when we had record numbers of open seats, we had what was then called the year of the woman. and unfortunately, that's sort of been the last year that we had.