Em-URGE-ing Voices

Failed Montgomery nondiscrimination ordinance would’ve benefited local economy: Chamber

Courtney Roark, Alabama state policy and movement building director for Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity, or URGE, said the group was “incredibly disappointed and disgusted” in the city council’s vote. “It is extremely disheartening that the Montgomery City Council has rejected Mayor Steven Reed’s non-discrimination ordinance, which would have protected marginalized groups from discrimination in housing, employment, and public places. Everyone, regardless of their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, race, and disability deserve to be treated with dignity and respect,” Roark said. “We are incredibly disappointed and disgusted by the anti-trans rhetoric that continues to be spewed in policy-making chambers in Alabama, both at the state and local levels,” they added. “We are not going to sit idly by without holding the Montgomery City Council accountable. The LGBTQ+ community… Read more »

Remove ‘male’ and ‘female’ from birth certificates? Here’s why the country’s largest group of physicians recommends it.

Kimberly Inez McGuire, executive director of Urge, an advocacy group focused on reproductive and gender issues, says recommendations like the AMA’s are “essential” for moving the needle forward. “Young people are creating a world with such an expansive concept of gender,” said Inez McGuire. “They’re articulating gender identities that we don’t even have the language for yet.”

Sex Education In The United States Is Broken, But It Doesn’t Have To Be

For far too long and in far too many schools, LGBTQ+ kids haven’t seen themselves reflected in curricula — to this day, five states still require that only negative information be provided about being queer, and another 12 require a positive emphasis on heterosexuality, the Guttmacher Institute notes. This has serious ramifications. “As a queer young person, I had a lot of conversations within romantic and platonic relationships about the validity of queer sex,” says Makayla (M.K.) Richards, a Georgia State organizer for the organization URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity. “I was wondering, ‘Is this valid if it’s not penetrative penis-and-vagina, or cis-hetero-normative, sex? Does my pleasure matter if it’s outside of the scope of what society would deem as ‘normal?’” But beyond a conversation about the topic in their general… Read more »

Everything you need to know about Juneteenth, the new federal holiday

“As a kid, I always looked forward to the Juneteenth festival my mom took me to. Growing up in Birmingham, in a Black neighborhood, going to a Black school, we usually learned Black History in the context of a struggle—against Jim Crow, against enslavement, against the systems that sought to obliterate Blackness and Black people,” said Danielle Hurd-Wilson, Interim Deputy Director of Field and Programs at the nonprofit URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity, in a statement. “But the Juneteenth celebrations I went to growing up were centered around the joy of liberation and the vast, vast possibilities that lay in front of Black people who were to no longer be treated as property.”

If ‘Roe’ Falls, Abortions Could Be Criminal

The criminalization of abortion could take many forms. Penalties, fines, and jail time are all on the table. “The criminalization of pregnancy and pregnancy-related outcomes is not a new phenomenon in the U.S.,” says Preston Mitchum, the policy director for the nonprofit Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity (URGE). He says the trend will only worsen…

How Biden and the Democrats can save abortion access before the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

On the 48th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision in January, President Joe Biden put out a statement declaring that his administration is “committed to codifying Roe v. Wade.” Many legal experts believe WHPA is the law that would get that done. “This is a bill that addresses exactly the types of bans and restrictions like the 15 weeks case that’s in Mississippi,” Jackie Blank, the federal legislative strategist for the Center for Reproductive Rights, told Salon. “It creates that statutory right [to abortion] automatically,” Preston Mitchum, the policy director at Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity, explained.

After 100 days, how have Biden’s policies helped American women?

Kimberly Inez McGuire, executive director of the advocacy group Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, noted that the amendment bars many marginalized people — those who are Black, Latino, working class or living in rural areas — from having a safe abortion. “We have not seen the bold leadership we wanted in word nor in deed,” said Inez McGuire, who wants to see the Biden administration put pressure on Congress to repeal the Hyde Amendment once a new budget is put forward. She also sees opportunities for the Biden administration to be more aggressive in supporting LGBTQ communities, particularly transgender people, who have been targeted with discriminatory bills in state legislatures throughout the country. Many of the bills will restrict transgender youth’s ability to participate in sports, as well as… Read more »