June is Gay and Lesbian Pride Month
aka LGBTQ+ Pride Month
“We are powerful
because we have survived,
and that is what it is all about
— survival and growth.”
– Audre Lorde,
self-described “Black, lesbian,
mother, warrior, poet”
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Welcome to WOW2, a four-times-a-month
sister blog to This Week in the War on Women.
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“If the world conference on
women is to address the
concerns of all women, it
must similarly recognize
that discrimination based
on sexual orientation is a
violation of human rights.”
– Beverly Palesa Ditsie,
South African lesbian activist
at the 1995 UN Women’s
Conference. Her speech
was the first to address
LGBTQ+ rights as human
rights at a UN conference.__________________
“I’m one of just four special envoys
for LGBTQI+ rights in the world.
So this position represents a
growing trend in foreign policy
to recognize that good foreign
policy is inclusive foreign policy.
And that means having senior
experts on LGBTQI rights.”
Jessica Stern,
appointed in 2021 as
the first U.S. Special Envoy to
Advance the Human Rights
of LGBTQI+ Persons at
the Department of State__________________
The purpose of WOW2 is to learn about and honor women of achievement, including many who’ve been ignored or marginalized in most of the history books.
These trailblazers have a lot to teach us about persistence in the face of overwhelming odds. I hope you will find reclaiming our past as much of an inspiration as I do.
THIS WEEK IN THE WAR ON WOMEN
will post shortly, so be sure to go there next, and
catch up on the latest dispatches from the frontlines.