National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund Celebrates Women's Equality Day

The National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund is celebrating Women's Equality Day by calling on Congress to do more to advance freedom, justice, equality and equity for all women.

"In so many ways, today's on-going struggle for women's equality calls to mind the line from A Tale of Two Cities...'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...' We have seen recent victories in the U.S. Supreme Court that protect vital reproductive rights; we cheered the record-breaking wins of women athletes at the Olympics that are in no small part due to the impact of Title IX and other civil rights laws; and we've collectively witnessed the historic moment when a woman has finally won the presidential nomination of a major political party."

"But far too many challenges remain for women in this society," they continued. "Women still lack paid leave, face workplace discrimination, are persecuted for exercising their constitutionally protected freedoms and live under the ever-present threat of physical violence. For women of color and trans women of color, the disparities are greater and the conditions are even more dire."

"While we celebrate progress such as the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces regulations the Obama Administration recently issued, key legislation such as the Paycheck Fairness Act, the Healthy Families Act and the Equality Act languish at the hands of an indifferent and recalcitrant GOP-led Congress. Our task is to get these measures passed into law, knowing they would go a long way towards tilting our society away from these 'worst of times,' towards one in which all of us, including women, may truly live under the best of times," said Stacey Long Simmons, Director of Public Policy & Government Affairs, National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund.