This was originally published on a social media thread responding to the DnE Caucus' response to the statement of the national party's Diversity Committee published in early October 2020. It was written by Bridget Duffy, whose fourth run for public office was her Green Party bid for County Supervisor in Sacramento County California against a real estate agent funded by "powerful development, real estate and law enforcement interests". Ms. Duffy took 25% of the vote in that race with no material or moral support from the state party, as she was apparently considered a persona-non-grata after the state party's General Assembly described in her comments below.
-----
by Bridget Duffy
I absolutely resonate with this statement.
I spoke up at a general assembly meeting in California a couple of years ago.
My statement began with these words -
“I am a woman, I have estrogen coursing through my veins .... “ I didn’t get to finish my statement, which was to point out the unchanged physical conditions which have led to thousands of years of slavery.
My plea was to the Green Party to recognize the need to bring the female struggle into the foreground of our fight for freedom and justice.
Someone immediately tried to grab the mike out of my hand. When I refused to relinquish it, it was turned off.
I found myself actually running away from the people trying to wrest the mike from my hands.
Finally it was, so I resorted to simply speaking out to the audience with my own voice.
For a minute there I thought I was about to be physically attacked.
Within the Green Party and throughout the gambit of political correctness, feminism ( the belief that women should have the same rights as men) has come to be associated with being anti trans. I honestly do not know how that has happened.
But I do know that today in America 4 women a week (sic. its actually per day) are murdered by their intimate partners ( that doesn’t include x intimate partners). One third of all women alive today will be beaten or raped in their lifetime.
Women make up the majority of the poor.
Women are woefully under payed and sexual harassment still ends our careers and destabilizes our lives on a regular basis.
We have almost no representation in government or business leadership. And are very quickly losing our reproductive rights.
There was a time when homosexuality and gender non conformity was met with prejudice and violence. Many people, including many many female people, fought hard to change that. And thankfully it has changed. Gay and transgender rights are observed and respected legally throughout the country. It is considered a hate crime to accost a homosexual or a transgender person in America today.
Yet, when a woman is assaulted, verbally or physically it is not considered a hate crime, and in fact isn’t usually taken seriously at all.
Why?
It is time to face the awful truth ladies -
Ain’t nobody interested in fighting for our rights. Far too many people still benefit from our inherent weakness. We are all we got .
It’s about time we understood that, put our petty differences aside and unite to accomplish the equal station we are entitled to as Americans.
It ain’t gonna fix itself.