Speech:

Statement of Mollie H. Beattie, Nominated to be Director, Fish and Wildlife Service

Speaker:

Mollie H. Beattie

1981 - 2000 / Environmental Advocacy and Gender Equity
Mollie Hanna Beattie (April 27, 1947 – June 27, 1996) was an American conservationist and the first woman to head the United States Fish and Wildlife service (FWS). Born in Glen Cove, New York, Beattie earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Marymount College-Tarrytown, a master’s degree in forestry from the University of Vermont, and…  Read more.
Speech:

Women in Public Life

Speaker:

Anna Arnold Hedgeman

1941 - 1960 / Gender Equity and Race Equity
For nearly seventy years, Anna Arnold Hedgeman advocated for equal rights, education, poverty relief, public health, and Christian service in the United States. Her advocacy was central to her work in a variety of roles—including teacher, nonprofit administrator, consultant, civil rights activist, government official, journalist, political candidate, church leader, and author. As a Black woman,…  Read more.
Speech:

Bitch on Wheels

Speaker:

Sylvia Rivera

2001 - present / Gender Equity and LGBTQ+ Activism
Sylvia Rivera, a Venezuelan and Puerto Rican drag queen, is remembered as a prominent trans activist of color in LGBTQ+ history and one of the great heroes of the Stonewall Uprising. She was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1951. Rivera’s father left the family when she was a young child and her mother…  Read more.
Speech:

Statement on Religious Liberty and LGBTQ+ Adoption

Speaker:

Sean Patrick Maloney

2001 - present / Gender Equity, Human Rights, and LGBTQ+ Activism
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (1966–) began his political career working on Bill Clinton’s 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns. In Clinton’s second term, Maloney served as a senior West Wing adviser—known as the “highest ranking openly homosexual man on the White House staff.” After the Clinton administration, he worked in the corporate and legal worlds, returning…  Read more.
Speech:

Speech to Judiciary Committee re: The Rights of Women

Speaker:

Mary Ann Shadd Cary

1700 - 1899 / Gender Equity and Race Equity
Mary Ann Shadd Cary was born a free African American on October 9th, 1823 in Wilmington, Delaware. At the age of ten, her family moved to West Chester, Pennsylvania so Shadd Cary and her siblings could receive an education, a right denied to them in Delaware on account of their race. Throughout her childhood, Shadd Cary’s…  Read more.
Speech:

The Feminist Movement and the Gay Movement: How Are They Related?

Speaker:

Laurie Morton

1961 - 1980 / Gender Equity, LGBTQ+ Activism, and Social Justice
Laurie Morton was a prominent member of the Radical Women organization based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1967, the group claims to be the oldest socialist feminist organization in existence. As a social feminist group, its members were committed to “exposing, resisting, and eliminating the inequities of women’s existence."  Read more.
Speech:

Speech at Angela Davis Rally

Speaker:

Paula Crenshaw

1961 - 1980 / Gender Equity and Race Equity
Angela Davis, activist, academic, author, and former political prisoner, gained global attention in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She gained widespread attention when she faced murder charges in a trial that inspired an “unprecedented political campaign waged for her release all over the world.”  Read more.
Speech:

Respecting Choice: Genital Surgery as an Option

Speaker:

Martine Rothblatt

1981 - 2000 / Gender Equity and LGBTQ+ Activism
Martine Rothblatt, a prolific innovator, musician, and one of the wealthiest transgender people in the world, was born in 1954 in Chicago and raised in a suburb of San Diego. Rothblatt went to college at UCLA where they earned an MBA and JD. After graduating from UCLA, Rothblatt met and married their second spouse, Bina.…  Read more.
Speech:

Lewis Statement on Marriage Equality

Speaker:

John Lewis

2001 - present / Civil Rights and Gender Equity
John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was born on his family’s farm outside of Troy, Alabama. His parents, Willie Mae and Eddie Lewis, were sharecroppers. As a child, Lewis attended segregated public schools in Pike County, Alabama. In his memoir, Lewis wrote of encounters with racist violence and inequitable segregation during his childhood.  Read more.
Major Ruth Cheney Streeter
Speech:

Speech Before Giving Oath to Women Being Inducted into Marine Corps

Speaker:

Major Ruth Cheney Streeter

1941 - 1960 / Gender Equity
Colonel Ruth Cheney Streeter was the first Director of the U.S. Marine Corps Women’s Reserve, serving from February 13, 1943 through December 7, 1945. She earned the Legion of Merit for "outstanding services" during World War II. The Marine Corps History Division credits Streeter for “[e]xercising judgment, initiative and ability.” She was also credited for…  Read more.