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There's a joke going around the internet about Cybertrucks having more rights than women. Sadly, these days, there's some truth to that punchline.
Given the current attacks on women's rights, trans people, immigrants and others, we're dedicating the month of March to a series called "March On." In our first edition, we dug into how to safely protest in NYC—it's an American right and a New York tradition, after all. This week, we turn our attention to women's rights, with a focus on a powerful nonprofit called Girls for Gender Equity. Read on to learn how you can get involved with this local organization that works to serve Black girls and gender-expansive youth aged 14-24.
RECOMMENDED: March On: How to protest safely in NYC
What is Girls for Gender Equity?
Girls for Gender Equity works "intergenerationally, through a Black feminist lens, to center the leadership of Black girls and gender-expansive young people of color in reshaping culture and policy through advocacy, youth-centered programming and narrative shift to achieve gender and racial justice," per the group's mission.
How exactly? Through three guiding principles.
First, they meet young people where they are with programs like Sisters in Strength, a survivor circle for youth survivors of childhood sexual abuse and their allies. Another important program is the Young Women's Advisory Council, which helps young people dig into political education, learn to organize for issues that matter to them and understand the bureaucracies they're working within, the organization's president and founder Joanne N. Smith explained.
Second, the organization's leaders advocate for inclusive policies on the city and state level. Specifically, they're focusing on issues related to school climate and restorative justice; gender and sexuality justice; reproductive freedom and justice; and healing justice and mental health. A few recent initiatives focus on dress code laws and gender neutral/equitable language in school handbooks. That work has become even more important given the current federal government, Kimberly Blair, GGE's senior director of policy and advocacy said.
We know that New York is going to be looked as a safe haven and almost as a leader in how to proceed.
"As we're facing all these challenges at the federal level, we know that New York is going to be looked as a safe haven and almost as a leader in how to proceed moving forward to uplift, especially in the context of gender equity and justice," Blair said.
Finally, GGE strives to make a culture and narrative shift, showing other adults how to work with young people and advocating for centering youth in media, from news stories to Broadway.
"Culture and narrative shift is a strategy and a necessary way of interrupting and actually naming and talking about the work the way it should be," Smith said. "Writing ourselves into history, writing young people's voices and words into history. Being sure that the Black feminist archive isn't missed and isn't lost because their voices are here."
How did Girls for Gender Equity get started?
Twenty-three years ago while working at the Brooklyn Community Task Force in Brooklyn, Joanne N. Smith noticed that "young people were invisible" on her caseload. The organization didn't get funding to support them, so their needs were written off ignored.
On a site visit to a Brooklyn home, she noticed a 12-year-old Dominican girl who was playing with a basketball. Smith challenged her to a game, and an idea pounded into her brain with each bounce. The girl mentioned that there was no place for her to play safely and that other kids didn't want to play with her.
Smith remembered how sports helped her deal with emotions as a teen and how a scholarship helped her lift the tide for her whole family under Title IX's protection against sex-discrimination in sports and other programs. Smith knew she could help.
She founded Girls for Gender Equity in Sports (later expanding to even more than sports). Within just three months, the organization, housed at the Bed-Stuy YMCA, recruited 80 girls to participate in health and fitness activities, plus 15 women volunteers.
An organization now that's rooted in the intergenerational resistance of cis-hetero patriarchy.
"Here we are 23 years later as Girls for Gender Equity, as an organization now that's rooted in the intergenerational resistance of cis-hetero patriarchy," Smith said. "That centers the lives of Black girls and gender-expansive young people and that is really committed to shifting the landscape, shifting the policies, the practices, the resource allocation and the narrative about Black girls and gender-expansive young people."
Why does this work matter right now?
The personal is political, as it always has been, but beyond that, Smith says that now is the time to resist for collective human equity.
"Not only are we in a time where fascism is now dictating so much of how our nation—how our world—will function, countries are emulating this war against gender, this war against women. But we're not just waiting out a term, we're needing to interrupt this radicalization of the right," Smith said.
If you're neutral ... then you are part of the problem. You have to help us resist.
"We have to work locally and think globally as people who can interrupt what is happening," she added. "If you're not, if you're neutral, if 'it's not bothering me, and I'm not impacted' then you are part of the problem. You have to help us resist, and it will impact you."
How can you support Girls for Gender Equity?
Events
April 7: All are invited to a state advocacy day in Albany on April 7. The event will highlight the group's policy agenda. Of course, young people's voices will be centered; they'll talk about the recent school cell phone restrictions and how they related to gender equity and justice. Fill out the contact form on GGE's website if you're interested in joining.
April 30: The organization's annual Denim Day in NYC invites all to wear denim as a public display of activism and survivorship. Anyone is invited to join in with Sisters of Strength (as long as they are respectful, of course) to be in community with other survivors. The group will compile demands to city council to create a safer and more survivor-justice friendly city. It's important to note that while other crime stats may be down in NYC, sexual assault are up, Smith underscored. Fill out the contact form on GGE's website if you're interested in joining.
Fundraising
Donations are welcome to support the group's mission.
"If we want movements to win, if we want our people to win collectively, we have to fund leadership of color," Smith said. "We have to fund women's leadership. We have been strategists throughout, and we have been underfunded, and we've been doing it for so long that so many of us are burnt out, are tired. We need these healing justice strategies. So not only do we need partners, we need the resources to not make it so hard," Smith said.
Individual donations are welcome, as well as discussions about trusts.
"It's important that people really don't wait on government or don't wait on foundations and philanthropy," Smith added.