The Global Women’s Caucus Steering Team invites you to participate in our Women’s Suffrage Centennial Celebration.  We want to celebrate women’s right to vote as we close out our month of Suffrage Centennial events.

Grab your drink of choice (Happy Hour, Coffee Break or Tea Time) to join other women and men from around the globe to celebrate that women can and will vote in the 2020 election.

Feel free to dress in roaring 20’s attire, casual, or even your PJ’s. This is one event where we encourage you to turn on your camera.

There’s no agenda so just drop in to say hi.   We’ll be around for a couple of hours of celebrating.

The Story after Mrs America

The Global Women’s Caucus invites you to join us in conversation about what has  happened with the Equal Rights Amendment  in the last 5 years.  This is another webinar in our Suffrage Centennial series.  

Equal Means Equal (EME)  Co-Directors Kamala Lopez  and Natalie White along with Wendy Murphy, EME Legal Counsel, tell their stories about the ratification of the ERA in the last 3 states (NV, IL, VA) along with the now pending court decisions.  Hear first-hand their on-the-ground experiences fighting for equal rights for all of us.  You’ll find some things maddening, some surprising and some heartwarming.  These  3 women get credit for helping resurrect the ERA after Phyllis Schlafly tried to kill it off in 1982.

Kamala Lopez, founder and Co-Director of Equal Means Equal, is an award-winning filmmaker, actress and activist born in New York City to an Indian mother and a Venezuelan American father. A Yale University graduate in Philosophy and Theatre Studies, Kamala started her career as a child actor on PBS’ Sesame Street and has worked steadily ever since.

 EQUAL MEANS EQUAL, the documentary Kamala directed/produced and co-wrote, won Best U.S. Documentary (Audience Award) at Michael Moore’s TCF Festival and was a New York Times Critics’ Pick. The film was the catalyst behind a national movement resulting in the ratification of the 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: The Equal Rights Amendment. 

Her feature leads include Born in East L.A., Deep Cover, The Burning Season (winner of 2 Emmys, 3 Golden Globes and the Humanitas Prize), Clear and Present Danger, Lightning Jack, I Heart Huckabees and many more. Her extensive television career spans comedy and drama - from It’s the Gary Shandling’s Show to recurring roles on Medium, Resurrection Boulevard, Tour of Duty and guest leads on dozens of network shows including 24, Alias, NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, 21 Jump Street (winner of the Imagen Award). She hosted the PBS series Wired Science with comedian Chris Hardwicke and recently did a stint on adult swim’s Black Jesus.

 The recipient of multiple awards from both federal & state government as well as the private sector, Kamala received the Woman of Courage Award from the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Latino Spirit Award from the State of California and YaleWomen’s first Impact Award for Excellence. She was named one of the 21 Leaders for the 21st Century and has spoken at venues including the United Nations, the United States Congress, Stanford Law School, The Smithsonian Institution, the National Archives & the Women’s March in Washington D.C.

Natalie White, Co-Director of Equal Means Equal, is a provocative and progressive feminist and artist, best known for her self-portrait work with Giant Polaroid Photography and as a crusader for women’s rights.

Following her June/ July 2016 solo show at The WhiteBox Foundation, she led a 250 mile march from NYC to DC to raise awareness for the Equal Rights Amendment. The day after the march, Ms.White painted “ERA NOW” on the U.S. Capitol steps in broad daylight in twenty foot letters. She was arrested a week later, she pled not guilty and represented herself at a trial that took place two days before Trump’s Inauguration and three days before the first Women’s March in Washington, D.C.

With character witnesses including Academy Award winning actress Patricia Arquette and Award winning actress / filmmaker Kamala Lopez, White was found guilty but only given a $50.00 fine and a six month stay away from the Capitol, with the provision that if she was going there to lobby for the Equal Rights Amendment she could go on Capitol property.

She was able to make the trial into a media circus appearing on MSNBC, Forbes, in The Washington Post, and Vice to name a few.

In January of 2017, White became the co-director of the Equal Means Equal Organization started by actress and filmmaker Kamala Lopez. Together White and Lopez successfully achieved the ratification of Nevada, Illinois, and Virginia after no state had even voted on ERA in almost 40 years, bringing the ERA to the 38 state threshold needed to ratify a Constitutional amendment.

On October 19, 2017,  EME filed the first lawsuit against the Trump Administration and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for their illegal order to the schools, encouraging them to violate the civil rights provisions guaranteed to women and girls under Title IX. On January 7, 2020, EME filed the first lawsuit against the archivist of the U.S. Constitution following the D.O.J.’s opinion letter the archivist should not certify E.R.A. - that case is now pending in Massachusetts Federal District Court.

Wendy Murphy, Equal Means Equal’s Legal Counsel, is an impact litigator specializing in women's and children's constitutional and civil rights. She is the Director of the Women's and Children's Advocacy Project under the Center for Law and Social Responsibility at New England Law|Boston where she has been teaching Sexual Violence Law for twenty years. Wendy has won many landmark cases and has filed countless briefs in State and Federal court to improve legal protections for women and children. She is a former child abuse and sex crimes prosecutor and served as a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School where her work focused on the status of women in their capacities as victims in the criminal justice system. She has published numerous scholarly articles and has worked as a legal analyst for CBS, NBC, CNN, and Fox News. 75% of her work is pro bono.

Join the Global Black Caucus in a Q&A with award-winning television producer, public speaker, author, peace advocate, and former violent extremist Christian Picciolini.

After leaving the hate movement he helped create during the 1980s and 90s, he began the painstaking process of making amends and rebuilding his life. Christian went on to earn a degree in international relations from DePaul University and launched Goldmill Group, a counter-extremism consulting and digital media firm. 

In 2016, he won an Emmy Award for producing an anti-hate advertising campaign aimed at helping people disengage from extremism. 

Since leaving the white-power movement, Christian has dedicated his life to helping others overcome their own hate. He now leads the Free Radicals Project, a global extremism prevention and disengagement network. He has spoken all over the world, including the TED stage, and shares his unique and extensive knowledge, teaching all who are willing to learn about building greater peace through empathy and compassion. 

Christian chronicles his involvement and exit from the early American white-supremacist skinhead movement in his memoir, WHITE AMERICAN YOUTH. He showcases his disengagement work in a second book, BREAKING HATE: Confronting the New Culture of Extremism, published in February 2020 by Hachette Books, as well as the MSNBC documentary series of the same name.
https://www.christianpicciolini.com/

To Purchase Books Wholesale:

Breaking Hate by Christian Picciolini (2020, nonfiction):
https://www.porchlightbooks.com/product/breaking-hate-confronting-the-new-culture-of-extremism--christian-picciolini
https://www.christianpicciolini.com/breaking-hate-book

White American Youth by Christian Picciolini (2018, memoir/nonfiction):
https://www.porchlightbooks.com/product/white-american-youth-my-descent-into-americas-most-violent-hate-movement--and-how-i-got-out--christian-picciolini

August 30 at 4 pm CEST

Event Start Times

When? August 8, 2020 – 09:00 to 21:00 CEST; 00:00-12:00 PDT; 03:00-15:00 EDT; 15:00-03:00 HKT

Where? Online via CallHub

Why?

As the GYC, we believe the voice of every eligible voter matters. Therefore, we want to increase voter participation from abroad to ensure victory in November!

What is it?

The GYC Call-a-Thon is a fundraising calling marathon. Our phonebankers will make as many calls as they can between 9am-9pm CEST on August, 8, 2020 to remind DA members to request their ballots. The GYC and callers will work together to secure sponsors to help us reach our calling goals and generously provide the funds we need to keep our voter outreach projects going strong through November!

How can YOU help?

First, please RSVP below to the event. Then, use this form to let us know how many calls you will commit to making during the call-a-thon. In about 1 hour, a caller can make up to 30 calls – that is 30 potential voters reached!

• We also ask you to find sponsors to donate money to support our efforts. You can share this link with your friends and family to secure pledges for your calling commitment. Your sponsors may donate whatever amount they would like! But remember, the more money we raise, the more voters we will reach! However, we understand this may be a difficult time for many people, so please only do what you can.
• Please also share this event with other Democrats Abroad members and encourage them to join our effort!
• If you are unable to participate in the call-a-thon, but would still like to donate money to assist us with our efforts, please do so here.

The GWC and GBC invite you to join in conversation with two champions for women’s rights as they discuss with us the on-going battles for equality in the United States. Both of these women have fought to bring women into the Constitution and are far too familiar with all of the reasons the ERA is absolutely mandatory to provide and protect the rights of women. The attack on women’s rights, particularly over the last four years has intensified, with every aspect of women’s lives threatened and the challenge is clear, we must have that protection. But, to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, we must flip the Senate.  If you haven’t put your focus there yet, you will by the time this conversation is over. 100 years after women took the vote by sheer force of will, it is time for women to use that power to defeat the opponents of their rights.

ABOUT OUR GUESTS:

Jennifer Carroll Foy 
Delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy was the chief sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment ratification bill in the Virginia House of Delegates. With Virginia’s passage in January 2020, three quarters of states have ratified the ERA, making the amendment eligible to be added to the U.S. Constitution. A graduate of the Virginia Military Institute as a member of the third class of female cadets ever to attend VMI, and a public defender, Jennifer was first elected to the House of Delegates in Virginia in 2017 in a seat long held by Republicans, in an election in which Democrats flipped 15 seats in the House. Foy was a leading advocate for Medicaid expansion in Virginia, raising the minimum wage and teacher salaries, and criminal justice reform. 

Eleanor (Ellie) Smeal
As Co-Founder and President of the Feminist Majority Foundation and former President of the National Organization for Women (NOW), Ellie has played a pivotal role in defining the debate, developing the strategies, and charting the direction of the modern day women’s movement for nearly five decades. She was the first to identify the “gender gap” – the difference in the way women and men vote and view issues – and popularized its usage in election and polling analyses to enhance women’s voting clout. Ellie has been an activist leader in the passage of landmark legislation, such as the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, Equal Credit Act, Violence Against Women Act, and Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. She led the fight for the U.S. ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (from 1977-1982), and is in the leadership of the current efforts to pass the ERA.  

If you have questions for the panelists, you can send them in advance to womenscaucus@democratsabroad.org. 

Global Women’s Caucus Events for Suffrage Month:

Global Women’s Caucus
Suffrage Centennial
GLOBAL PHONEBANKING DAY
“USE YOUR VOTE”

August 26, 2020 will mark the 100th anniversary of passage of the 19th Amendment, the first step in ensuring US women the right to vote.  This battle continued through the Civil Rights Act of 1965, and the struggle faces us even today as we fight against voter suppression efforts.

On this day we will honor the women and their allies who did-- and continue to do--  work to bring full enfranchisement to all citizens of the United States.

On this day we commit ourselves, in countries throughout the world, to making (at the very least) 1920 calls to Americans living around the globe to urge them to register to vote, request their absentee ballots, complete them ballots correctly and return them immediately.

August 26 Global Phonebanking Day 
SIGN UP TO BE A CALLER HERE

There are special online training sessions for callers.  These calls which would be quite helpful for all of those who haven’t yet used CallHub (super easy!).  

July 28 at 7:00pm CEST  (GWC with DAG)
PHONEBANKING TRAINING SIGN UP

August 13 at 7:00pm CEST  (GWC with DAG)
PHONEBANKING TRAINING SIGN UP

August 19 at 3:00pm CEST  (GWC with DAG)
PHONEBANKING TRAINING SIGN UP

We’ll be calling people who are Democrats Abroad members and are receptive to our messages and grateful for our reminders.  You might also take the opportunity on this day to call other friends who need a bit of a nudge.

The goals? Make voters aware of www.VoteFromAbroad.org

Inspire voters to register/request their ballot immediately through the site and let them know where they can ask voting questions.  Urge voters to complete and return their ballots as soon as they receive them.

Ballot Day is September 19**!  Request yours today!
** US election officers send out overseas ballots by email or postal mail beginning September 19^th.

NOTE:
On August 26, we will have a Facebook Live feed where we’ll post how many callers participated, how many calls they made and which countries and chapters had the highest participation and numbers of calls (adjusting for membership, of course).  We’ll recognize top callers in each region and report donation totals.  Funds raised will support our extensive, ongoing efforts to register US overseas voters, dramatically increase overseas voter turnout and help win elections in November. 

DONATE HERE:    https://www.democratsabroad.org/gwc_suffrage100campaign

The movements for suffrage and equal rights based on gender and on race intersected, overlapped and sometimes faced off throughout American history. Understanding when, how, and why is critical to ensuring these rights are protected. The histories of the U.S. women’s suffrage and civil rights movements also stimulate a timely conversation on the value of the vote today. 

The GWC AND GBC invite you to join in conversation with two esteemed historians and writers, Dr. Alison M. Parker and Dr. Nikki Brown . They will explore the contested struggle for voting rights in the past and present in their opening remarks and will then respond to questions and comments from the audience.  

ABOUT OUR GUESTS:

Alison M. Parker is Chair & Richards Professor of American History at the University of Delaware. She has research and teaching interests in women’s and gender history, African American history, and legal history. In 2017-2018, Parker was an Andrew W. Mellon Advanced Fellow at the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference at Emory University. Her book, Unceasing Militant: The Life of Mary Church Terrell is forthcoming (December 2020) from the University of North Carolina Press, in its John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture. Among other publications, Parker is the author of two monographs, Articulating Rights: Nineteenth-Century American Women on Race, Reform, and the State (2010) and Purifying America: Women, Cultural Reform, and Pro-Censorship Activism, 1873-1933 (1997). She also serves as the founding editor of the Gender and Race in American History book series for the University of Rochester Press. As Chair of the History Department at the University of Delaware, Parker is committed to helping to build a coalition of students, faculty, and staff promoting a wide-ranging anti-racism agenda.

Nikki Brown Nikki Brown has been teaching American and African American history since 1999.  She majored in History at Oberlin College, and she earned a PhD in History from Yale University in 2001.  Her book, Private Politics and Public Voices:  Black Women’s Activism from World War I to the New Deal (Indiana University Press) won the Letitia Woods Brown Award for Best Book in African American Women’s in History in 2006.  The major themes in Dr. Brown’s work are around gender, race, identity, representation, and politics.  Dr. Brown is also a professional photographer, and has recently completed a photography project on African American men in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  She is currently working on a book about Louisiana’s Civil Rights Movement.  Dr. Brown travels often to Turkey, where she taught Civil Rights history and American Women’s history in 2014 for one semester and 2018-2019 for the academic year, as a Senior Lecturer with the Fulbright/CIES Program. She is also preparing an oral history of the Afro-Turks, the African descendants of slaves in the Ottoman Empire.

If you have questions for the panelists, you can send them in advance to womenscaucus@democratsabroad.org.

Did you know every eligible American living  abroad can vote in U.S. elections this year? 

Do you have questions about how to vote? Click  the chat bubble at the bottom of this screen and we'll help you find the answers.  

Join us August 16th, or any Sunday till November from midnight to midnight Eastern  time to talk to a volunteer LIVE on Zoom about  questions you have about voting from abroad.

More information: The easiest way to request  your ballot is at VoteFromAbroad.org. It takes  just a few minutes to complete your form and  send it in to the US state where you last lived. If  you've never voted from abroad, the website will guide you step by step. In most cases it’s pretty simple. But if you’re new to overseas voting, or if you haven’t done it in a while, you may have additional questions. That’s why we’ll be here every Sunday until election day to help.

If you can’t make it any Sunday, you can always email us at helpdesk@votefromabroad.org or send in your question through our online help bubble, and a volunteer will get back to you promptly.

We'll be live on Zoom from midnight to midnight this Sunday to answer any questions you may have about requesting your ballot through votefromabroad.org and returning it to your Local Election Office.  

Use these details to log in to the help desk on Sunday: 

Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/91090344003
Meeting number: 910 9034 4003
Password: Vote2020   

Did you know every eligible American living  abroad can vote in U.S. elections this year? 

Do you have questions about how to vote? Click  the chat bubble at the bottom of this screen and we'll help you find the answers.  

Join us August 9th, or any Sunday till  November from midnight to midnight Eastern  time to talk to a volunteer LIVE on Zoom about  questions you have about voting from abroad.

More information: The easiest way to request  your ballot is at VoteFromAbroad.org. It takes  just a few minutes to complete your form and  send it in to the US state where you last lived. If  you've never voted from abroad, the website will guide you step by step. In most cases it’s pretty simple. But if you’re new to overseas voting, or if you haven’t done it in a while, you may have additional questions. That’s why we’ll be here every Sunday until election day to help.

If you can’t make it any Sunday, you can always email us at helpdesk@votefromabroad.org or send in your question through our online help bubble, and a volunteer will get back to you promptly.

We'll be live on Zoom from midnight to midnight this Sunday to answer any questions you may have about requesting your ballot through votefromabroad.org and returning it to your Local Election Office.  

Use these details to log in to the help desk on Sunday: 

Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/91090344003

Meeting number: 910 9034 4003

Password: Vote2020