December 8, 2011
Let me explain. I’m a graduate of Wesson Attendance Center Class of 2010. I loved my high school. I had great friends, I got good grades, I played soccer and was in the band, and I got along well with my teachers. I stayed out of trouble. My high school experience was pretty unremarkable, actually, until it came time for senior year portraits.
I’ve never been what you’d call a girly-girl. I feel uncomfortable in dresses and am much happier wearing T-shirts and khaki shorts. I always find clothes that I like in the boys’ section, rather than the girls’. But this was never an issue at school at all. Nobody ever made me feel weird or outcast. I was just Ceara.
For senior portraits, the school said that boys must wear a tuxedo and girls must wear a drape that made them look like they’re wearing a dress. I tried on the drape, but I just felt so uncomfortable. Imagine forcing a typical “jock” guy to wear a ball gown, and have that be the defining image of him in his high school years forever. That’s how I felt wearing the drape. It was humiliating to me to pretend to be something I wasn’t.
I really wanted to wear a tuxedo. No one flipping through the yearbook would notice anything amiss…I would blend right in with the other kids in formal wear. So we took the picture that way, and I even checked with the superintendent to make sure it was okay. He said it was, though the school board still threatened to not print the picture.
I tried to reason with school officials throughout the year, but when we got our yearbooks that spring, I was crushed to see that not only was my senior portrait removed from the yearbook, but my name wasn’t even in the senior section as “not pictured.” It was as though I didn’t exist in my senior class.
I didn’t want to pick a fight with my school, but what they did wasn’t fair. So, with the help of the ACLU of Mississippi, I filed a discrimination lawsuit against the school. This week, the school agreed to change its policy so that all students will be wearing the same cap and gown in their portraits. What’s more, they’ve agreed to change their anti-discrimination policy to emphasize that everyone has the right to equal protection under the Constitution.
Public schools should never make a student feel like an outcast just for being who they are. LGBT kids and gender-nonconforming kids deserve to feel welcomed and safe in school. The yearbook is a significant rite of passage. Anyone who’s been to high school can relate to the excitement of cracking the spine for the first time and flipping to see their picture. The yearbook is a keepsake to be treasured with family and friends, so your kids and grandkids and nieces and nephews can see what you were like when you were their age.
Tags: Human Rights, LGBT Rights, Students' Rights
Posted in Op-Eds
November 11, 2011
By Nsombi Lambright, ACLU of Mississippi Executive Director
Tuesday was a very emotional day for me. I began my work that day by voting. I always measure voter turnout (and potential problems) by what’s happening at my own polling place. That went smoothly. I then went to campaign headquarters to find out what neighborhoods needed canvassing in order to make sure that people were “getting out to vote.” Rabbi Debra Kassoff and I spent most of the day canvassing the communities surrounding Brinkley Middle School and Johnson Elementary School in northwest Jackson. These neighborhoods are joined by Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. While canvassing these neighborhoods, we saw many things. We witnessed poverty and government neglect, but we also witnessed family and community connectivity. We saw generations of families living under one roof. Grandma, daughter and granddaughter were all going to vote at the first home that we visited. Unfortunately, granddaughter never received her voter registration card although she’d registered multiple times at the WIC office. We talked to many grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, mothers and fathers who assured us that the family had voted against Initiatives 26 and 27 that day. We also had the opportunity to speak to young brothers who didn’t understand what the initiatives were about. Working directly in communities still brings me as much joy today as it did almost 20 years ago when I started organizing. It centers me and reminds me what this work is all about. The folks that I work with always remind me of my family and they remind me that even though I have a job that pays me to do this work, I am not disconnected from the communities that we serve. These are my people, whether I run into them at a meeting, a family reunion, church or the grocery store. I am privileged to do this work and will keep fighting!! Little Sister, I’ll be back to make sure that you get your registration card this time!
Tags: Criminal Justice Reform, Elections & Voting, Human Rights, Racial Justice
Posted in Op-Eds
November 10, 2011
Posted by Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, Reproductive Freedom Project
The people have spoken: Twice in South Dakota; twice in Colorado and now in Mississippi. Red state, blue state — it doesn’t make a difference. The message to government is clear: Women’s lives matter. Respect for women, respect for their decisions about their health and families, respect for their basic rights, matters. So keep out of our bedrooms, our doctors’ offices, and our personal lives and do your @##@$*#& job already.
In case you missed it, the people of Mississippi voted yesterday to reject a so-called “personhood” amendment that would have criminalized all abortions without exception, including treatment for ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage, as well as some of the most common forms of birth control. No one believed they could do it and we owe this landmark victory–and a huge debt of gratitude–to the people of Mississippi who fought tirelessly and against all odds to defeat this extreme and dangerous initiative. Mississippi, reputed to be the most conservative state in the nation, now joins South Dakota (which has twice voted to reject abortion bans) and Colorado (which has twice voted to reject a “personhood” amendment) in saying enough is enough—stop playing politics with women’s lives.
Indeed, while this is a huge win for Mississippi, the effects of their victory will and should be felt nationwide. This past year saw an unprecedented legislative attack on the reproductive rights and health of women and families around the country. We saw bans on insurance coverage for abortion; laws that tried to strip any and all public funding from organizations that provide, or even talk about, abortions; and a law that would require any woman seeking an abortion to visit a crisis pregnancy center to be lectured by anti-abortion activists about why her decision is wrong. If anything, the vote in Mississippi tells us there is a huge disconnect between these politicians and the people they are supposed to represent. Yesterday’s vote should make it crystal clear that the American people do not support this extremist, anti-woman, anti-family agenda. The American people trust women, and it’s about time their elected representatives do so, as well.
Tags: Human Rights, Reproductive Freedom, Women's Rights
Posted in Op-Eds
September 30, 2011
By Nancy Kohsin-Kintigh
I have worked to protect the rights of women across the country for nearly 20 years. As an organizer for a national women’s rights organization, I traveled around the country working beside activists to prevent anti-abortion extremists from shutting down abortion clinics with their rhetoric, their bodies, and sometimes their bullets.
I have been outside hundreds of clinics watching extremists spew hate and judgment on women and their families entering these facilities while holding a Bible to justify it. I have seen parents with up to a dozen children ranging from newborn to teens standing in 100-plus degree weather for eight hours holding signs (that most of them couldn’t even read or understand) in an attempt to intimidate or shame women from getting an abortion. I have worked with federal, state, and local law enforcement in an effort just to get existing laws enforced at clinics which are legal businesses and more importantly – healthcare facilities. I have taught doctors, nurses, and receptionists how to protect themselves and their children from harassment in their homes, in their children’s schools, and at the healthcare facilities.
In all these years of working tirelessly with loving caring human beings who risk their lives every day to provide safe, legal, and sometimes medically necessary healthcare to women – nothing would stop the bullet that killed my friend and someone I admired – Dr. George Tiller. He was killed while attending service at his church.
Today, we are seeing a different kind of “bullet” aimed at the heart of women. This past legislative session was frightening for those of us who fight to defend the dignity of women across this country. We are still making 77 cents for every dollar a man makes and we face assaults on our fundamental rights to control our own bodies. We watch legislators in our states and in DC spew vitriol about us in an attempt to legislate our womb and our ability to access services. While the men hold these great debates about us, we are getting breakfast for our kids, heading off to our second job, meeting with our children’s teachers, and caring for our aging parents while trying to scrape up enough money for the rent that is due in a few days.
Mississippi extremists want to take away the right to abortion and birth control by passing the “so called” Personhood Ballot Initiative #26. It is dangerous and is an all out assault on women and their families. If passed, this amendment would not only ban abortion but also birth control and many assisted reproductive healthcare procedures which include in-vitro fertilization. The initiative will insert government control over our wombs, our ability to choose when and how many children we have, and we will be criminally investigated when we have a miscarriage.
I still have nightmares about my friend being murdered. I see the bullet exit the weapon in slow motion and I dream that I put my hand up and stop it. Initiative #26 is a bullet. The bullet is moving slowly through the air in Mississippi. This time, I am putting my whole body up to stop it. Will you?
Don’t allow this initiative to pass. Individuals across the state are banding together and getting out there to educate voters on the broad and sweeping implications of Initiative #26 if passed. Organizations are educating their members and mobilizing to the streets. Even if you oppose abortion, this “bullet” will explode into a million pieces and it WILL hit you too. Get out there and talk to your friends, family, church, and civic organizations. Make a case for stopping the bullet. On November 8, use your hand to stop the bullet and vote NO on Initiative #26. If you sleep in on November 8, you might just wake up to a nightmare.
Tags: Elections & Voting, Human Rights, Reproductive Freedom, Women's Rights
Posted in Op-Eds
September 21, 2011
That’s basically what a high school principal told Ceara Sturgis at the start of her senior year — you’ve got to wear a “drape,” or scoop-necked covering that looks like the top of a dress, in the yearbook photo. Ceara isn’t comfortable in such revealing clothing, and had spent her entire high school career wearing more masculine attire. The photographer took Ceara’s picture in a tuxedo instead of the drape, as she requested, but the principal jettisoned that photo and printed the yearbook without either her photo or her name appearing in the senior portrait section.
Last year, we filed a sex discrimination lawsuit against Ceara’s Mississippi school district because its efforts to enforce these gender-based norms are harmful to kids, including LGBT kids, who might not be comfortable with traditional gender norms. We’re looking for ways to ensure that students can engage in the gender expression that is relevant to them, without having to adhere to stereotypes, and without having their existence denied or erased by school officials.
Some will say, “What’s the big deal, it’s just a yearbook photo.” But the people who should have to explain what the big deal is are the school officials. Why exactly is it so important that all girls wear the drape and all boys wear the tux? What message is the school trying to send by forcing Ceara to wear a drape as a condition of appearing in the yearbook just because she is female?
Yesterday, a federal judge in Mississippi asked the school district precisely the same question: What’s your reason for insisting that Ceara wear a drape? The question came in an opinion in which the judge denied the district’s motion to dismiss Ceara’s case and instead sent the case to the information-gathering phase of litigation. The judge said he needed to learn more about the facts, including what the school’s reasons were. We’ll have lots of questions for the principal about that, and we’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, we’ve got a court decision that should make other school districts think twice before insisting on the same strictly gendered rule.
Despite the promising developments in this case there is still more work to be done. Everyday, in schools across the country, kids like Ceara face harassment and discrimination. The Student Non-Discrimination Act will help to ensure that discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students has no place in our country’s public schools. Take action now and demand the fair treatment of all students!
Posted by James Esseks, LGBT Project
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Tags: LGBT Rights, Students' Rights
Posted in Op-Eds
September 15, 2011
The Mississippi Supreme Court refused Sept. 8 to prevent proposed Initiative Measure Number 26 from being placed on the November 2011 ballot. The initiative attempts to redefine the term “person” in the Mississippi Bill of Rights to apply at the moment of fertilization. The court did not rule on the constitutionality of the initiative, but instead said that it would not rule on any proposed measure before the election.
The initiative was challenged by a Mississippicitizen because it failed to comply with the ballot initiative process as set forth in the Mississippi Constitution, which forbids making modifications to the Bill of Rights.
“We’re disappointed with the ruling,” said Nsombi Lambright, executive director of the ACLU of Mississippi. “A measure will be on the ballot that will allow the government to dictate what is a private matter that’s best decided by a woman, her family and within the context of her faith.Mississippivoters should reject this intrusive and dangerous measure.”
“This initiative is extreme and could severely undermine women’s access to birth control, in vitro fertilization and life-saving medical procedures,” said Bear Atwood, legal director of the ACLU of Mississippi. “This measure is harmful to women and has no place on the ballot.”
“It is unfortunate the court decided it could not review the initiative at this point in time, but the Mississippi Constitution is clear — you cannot make any changes to the Bill of Rights through the initiative process,” said Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project.
“As a lifelong Mississippian, I am disappointed that this broad and intrusive measure has been allowed on the ballot,” said Cristen Hemmins, plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging the initiative. “I call on all voters to vote ‘no’ on #26. The government should not be interfering with the personal and private health care decisions of Mississippi families.”
Tags: Elections & Voting, Human Rights, Reproductive Freedom, Women's Rights
Posted in Op-Eds, Press Releases
September 1, 2011
You may have already heard about the
Posted in Op-Eds
January 3, 2011
As 2011 dawns, the ACLU of Mississippi is looking forward across the state, sizing up the coming battles and victories ahead. Last year was a great year with some really great victories. But the ACLU has never been an institution that looks backward, resting on its laurels, because threats to the U.S. Constitution are ever before us. Constantly pushing forward and taking on new challenges is the nature of the work we do–the nature of the fight for freedom. As the abolitionist Wendell Phillips put it, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance”.
What will your part be in the fight for freedom this year? I can think of no better resolution than a promise to yourself to be part of the good fight for liberty in Mississippi. In practice, that might mean simply showing up at the state capitol during this legislative session to voice your support for good, pro-Constitution legislation (and opposition to bad legislation). It may mean joining/donating to the ACLU. Or, in its simplest form, being part of the good fight may mean speaking up for equality and freedom whenever and wherever you can–among friends, at work, in church.
However you choose to be part of the move forward, we hope you’ll do it alongside the ACLU. Sign-up for our monthly email newsletter. Drop us a line and let us know what’s happening in your community. Comment on this blog! Just stay in touch, and let’s carry Liberty’s torch forward together into 2011!
Posted in Op-Eds
December 21, 2010
In December at the ACLU of Mississippi we usually receive a few cards or letters complaining that the ACLU is “anti-Christmas”. Those cards are, unfortunately, usually sent anonymously. Were a return address included, the ACLU-MS could respond with a gentle explanation that, in truth, the ACLU isn’t anti-Christmas (or anti anything for that matter), it’s pro Constitutional freedom. That includes religious freedom, which is enshrined in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
Those cards and letters always bring to mind this wonderful editorial by Jeremy Gunn. If the ACLU-MS could respond to the anonymous critics who say the ACLU is anti-Christmas, perhaps this editorial would be included with the response–along with an invitation to join the ACLU of Mississippi, which leads the fight to protect religious liberty in our state year ’round.
A fictional ‘war on Christmas’By T. Jeremy Gunn
Last December, a group called Public Advocate for the United States (which claims to defend America’s traditional family values) sent some Christmas carolers over to sing in front of the ACLU offices in Washington.
Carrying signs reading “Merry Christmas” and “Please Don’t Sue Us!” — they also seem to have carried with them some rather strange imaginings about an assault on Christmas.
I don’t know what the carolers thought might happen.
To tell the truth, the ACLU is not often serenaded by Christmas carolers. So it was with some excitement that the staff went outside and joined in the singing. They brought with them cookies and warm drinks to share. One staff member, who is an ordained Baptist minister, did a little witnessing about his faith to some astonished proponents of family values.
Fox News did broadcast the event (as a part of its “war against Christmas” campaign). Although the visiting singers were shown, the cameras failed to include any footage showing that everyone had participated in the caroling. Rather than reporting the facts, the anchor preferred the propaganda: “We believe the ACLU heard the message loud and clear, but they don’t care.”
The battle cries
This year, several groups are once again introducing the Christmas season with some heated and misleading military rhetoric. Some declare, “There is a war against Christmas!” One group launched a “Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign.” One particularly bizarre charge is that there is “a thorough and virulent anti-Christmas campaign.” Without a shred of evidence, they pretend that there is an effort afoot to remove “God” from the Declaration of Independence. Two groups even announced that they have assembled hundreds of lawyers to protect Christmas against this imaginary threat.
Make no mistake about it. These warrior-lawyers are not asking us to love our neighbors (and certainly not our enemies), nor to turn the other cheek, nor to be peacemakers, nor to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.
Nor is this a joyful effort to encourage the Christmas spirit in the millions of places where it can be promoted without any conflict: in people’s hearts, in their homes, with families, in churches, or with friend and neighbors.
No, this is a campaign of military-infused rhetoric demanding that everyone accept one politically correct version of “Christmas.”
For example, this year in Boston — the same city where Puritans once prohibited the pagan-inspired “Christmas tree” — the new Puritans now demand that the city call its evergreen spruce a “Christmas tree,” and they threatened a lawsuit if the city didn’t comply.
Another group charges that there is a “campaign of fear, intimidation, and disinformation” against seasonal symbols in Raleigh, N.C. — and they offer to provide a defense for the city against any threatened lawsuit. Yet they give no evidence that anyone is threatening a lawsuit. Before accusing others of engaging in “disinformation,” perhaps these Christmas warriors should first take a look in the mirror.
Why this desire to manufacture controversy — about Christmas?
Guidelines already exist
Rather than engaging in propaganda about a “war on Christmas,” all who want to promote the spirit of Christmas should remember a couple of simple guidelines.
First, Christmas displays — including nativity scenes — are perfectly acceptable at homes and churches. This religious expression is a valued and protected part of the First Amendment rights guaranteed to all citizens.
Second, governments should not be in the business of endorsing religious displays. Religion does best when government stays out of the business of deciding which holidays and religions to promote. Religion belongs where it prospers best: with individuals, families and religious communities.
And finally, as a seasonal greeting to all Christians: Merry Christmas from the ACLU! And for believers in all other traditions: Thank you for enriching our world!
T. Jeremy Gunn is director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.
Tags: Religious Liberty
Posted in Op-Eds
December 10, 2010
Today, December 10, is Human Rights Day. It’s a day we celebrate the U.S. signing onto the United Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) treaty in 1948–but, more fundamentally, it’s a day to celebrate the very principles of human rights. The UDHR, like the U.S. Constitution, doesn’t actually give us our rights, it spells out that we have these inalienable rights as human beings, and declares that governments shall not violate them.
Are you celebrating Human Rights Day? Perhaps the best way to do so is to stand up for your rights. Today you can sign on to the petition calling on the new U.S. Congress and President Obama to recommit to the UDHR and the very principles of human rights.
Happy Human Rights Day!
Tags: Human Rights
Posted in Op-Eds
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