Dear Members and Friends,

March is already here. Time goes fast when facing so many bad things from DeSatan and the GOP legislature. I was published in Florida Politics with my harsh words on DeSantis. They practically did the whole press release including my quotes. Just FYI, Arlene and I listed the bad things DeSantis is making happen. I called him a racist and white supremacist. I don’t think there is any other conclusion.

I am going to Tallahassee twice in March. Please make a trip to Tally. Feminists must be visible during session and at committee meetings. Contact Arlene Ustin, she will connect you to Barbara DeVane, our lobbyist., for being escorted and for low-cost housing.

FLNOW needs to be seen and heard. Galvanize people? Respond to FLNOW Action Alerts. “Like” FLNOW posts on Facebook. Write letters to the editor. Do Op-eds. Help with press releases. Talk to everyone you know about what the legislature and DeSantis are doing. Stand up for all women!

Women’s History Month is March. It is our time to highlight how women helped build this country.

For your Chapter, post contributions of women, search for the unknown contributors. You can also send to us for us to post. This country was built on the backs of Black women so don’t forget contributions of all peoples of color.

We have a chair for the Racial Justice Task Force. Please encourage members of color to participate on the task force, as well as other members to support the task force. This is a critical task force especially because DeSantis and the legislature are trying to erase African Americans, e.g. AP Black History and Issues Course, Book Banning, School Vouchers—school segregation and less than equal. Racial Justice is a key issue for us. Please join Task Force by contacting Arlene Ustin. We need people of color for this task force, but we also need our white membership participating to support. The Racial Justice Task Force Leader will be the voice of FL NOW on racial justice, and we’ll do press releases based on her direction. This is exciting to better work our issue of racial justice.

Head to Tallahassee if you can to help get our opposition on record. We are so close on getting “Greyson’s Law”passed. I think we’ll get this good bill passed and perhaps closing the rape loop hole. To find out about bills coming up, click on “Current Action Alerts” on the FLNOW webpage. (It’s in a pink box on every page).

Take Care,

Debbie Deland

Women's History Month

I am a Woke Woman and very proud of it. But what is Woke? Woke is knowing our real history and being a champion of issues of social injustice whether economic justice, racial justice, climate/environmental justice, equality and more. Woke is about being informed by fact, e.g., Biden won the 2020 election, Republicans did propose cutting Social Security and Medicare, you cannot be groomed to be LGBTQ+… Woke is not liberal or conservative, not democrat or republican. Woke is having empathy for marginalized communities and taking action to improve their situation. Woke is understanding that many of us are born into privilege and need to use that privilege to improve the lives of others.

A Woke Person is aware that making fixes to an old house requires knowing its bones, its history. Therefore, realizing we Americans need to learn and understand our full history to move forward. Black history is American history just as much as white history. Knowing our past sins may be uncomfortable or produce a feeling of guilt, however, from that discomfort, we grow, our kids grow. Knowing and acknowledging the uglies of our history help us move forward determined not to repeat the past and to make the huge changes required for a better future for all.

Woke in the past meant fighting for women and people of color to vote, allowing women to have credit cards in their own name. Woke means knowing that women’s rights are human rights, e.g., right to birth control, right to an abortion, the right to equal pay. Woke means we know we aren’t living up to the ideals from our founding and are determined to move forward toward those ideals. Woke is understanding that on many key measures of a healthy country, America is not performing, e.g., teenage pregnancy, infant mortality, average lifespan, knowledge of math and science, environmental quality, has the largest incarcerated population in the world, etc.

Woke is acting on injustices. It is wholeheartedly about recognizing and calling out lies. Woke is about a liberal education with a variety of views represented and discussed. Woke understands that clean energy policies and electric vehicles are required to reduce the impact of climate change. It recognizes climate change as an existential threat. Woke doesn’t ban books, ban talking about gays in school, doesn’t ban black or any other history from being taught, doesn’t deny the right for transgender people to exist and get medical treatment, does not fuel hate speech and violence. Woke means working to be an Anti-racist. Woke is a very high aspiration for all of us. It comes from a place of love and kindness. It is not naïve; it is fundamental truth driven. Woke is being a feminist.

Debbie Deland, FLNOW President

Please Mark Your Calendars!

May 19, 20, 21—Friday Evening, Saturday, Saturday Evening, Sunday Morning

Theme: Woke Women

Sponsored by West Volusia NOW Chapter

Venue: The Florida Hotel, Orlando FL

Exciting Speakers and Workshops

FL NOW Elections Will Be Held

Registration opens soon!

Same Room and Registration Prices as last year! We’re not doing inflation.

Women History in Florida

The Miami District Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission invited Florida NOW to participate in its observance of African American and Black History Month with the theme of Black Resistance.

On February 22 Kat Duesterhaus and I accepted and with Iman Alleyne, founder of Kind Academy in Broward County, were the three panelists. Aside from all her tireless work with Florida NOW, Kat spoke for the Miami Coalition to Advance Racial Equity (MCARE) and the local grassroots resistance “Bans Off Miami” group, which she founded. I was able to bring to the discussion my work on the LWVPBC’s DEI Task Force and People of Purpose, a nonprofit that serves Returning Citizens of which I was one of its founders.

The outcome was strengthening relationships that formed prior and after the event to educate the public about the continued dire plight of women workers, to fight to secure their legal rights, and resist all forms of discrimination. Adding to this network I am happy to report is Laurie Scop, President of the Miami NOW Chapter. It turns out that Laurie has been in this battle for a long time.

FYI: The story behind Intersectionality was coined in the corporate arena: Professor Kimberle W. Crenshaw, co-founder of the Columbia University Law School African American Policy Forum, introduced the concept of Intersectionality in 1989, 34 years ago, in a paper describing the double bind of having to simultaneously deal with racism and sexism discrimination in the workplace of huge corporations. She analyzed three legal cases in which Black women employees were denied promotion in General Motors, Hughes Helicopter, Inc. and Travenol because of the narrow irrational interpretation of the law - it was either to be based on race or gender, not both, and because they didn’t align at the time, the women lost their cases! Today the concept has expanded and has become mainstream. It explains the interconnected nature of all social categorizations.

FYI: EEOC and NOW have been on parallel paths towards equity for more than 50 years and at times crossing paths! I’d like to tell you about Sonia Pressman Fuentes, who was born in 1928. She is a pioneer and relentless warrior for economic and racial justice, especially for women. In 1963 she testified before Congress to pass the Equal Pay Bill on behalf of the ACLU and two years later she joined the EEOC as its first woman lawyer and advanced its reluctant legal commitment to women's rights - it took time, but we can all evolve! At the same time, in 1965, she was a co-founder of NOW!

And the fight continues: Economic Justice is one of Florida NOW’s Task Forces and will be up and running very soon. Please consider participating on this very important task force.

Submitted by Arlene Ustin, Florida NOW, VP

March 9, 2023

Arlene R Ustin

After a 40-year career in public, private and higher education, which included teaching in the South Bronx during the Civil Rights Movement of the ‘60s, being the first woman to hold a permanent program position in the U.S. Outward Bound Schools in the ‘70s, after 28 years at The Athenian School in CA (seeing education at its best), and joining the faculty of the Master of Arts Program at Prescott College, Arlene relocated to Delray Beach Florida.

She describes herself as a humble, firm and fearless, advocate/activist with a commitment to racial and social justice. After ten years on the board of the Palm Beach County chapter of NOW as President for two terms, Vice-president and Program Chair, and 2019 Feminist of the Year she is currently Vice-president of Florida NOW. She is active in the League of Women Voters of Palm Beach County (LWVPBC) on the Gun Safety, Voters Services, Voting Rights Coalition and Advocacy committees and serves on its DEI Task Force. In 2020 she became Vice-president of People of Purpose, Inc. (POP) which is dedicated to ending recidivism by serving Returning Citizens, their families and communities.

In past years she was a member of POAST (Partner Organizations Against Sex Trafficking), and CAGV (Committee Against Gun Violence) and participated in the Women’s March in Washington DC in 2017. She has rigorously gathered petitions for the citizen-initiated amendments to Restore Voting Rights to Returning Citizens and to Ban Assault Weapons Now.

Other highlights of Arlene’s service include volunteering for local and national candidates who have integrity, vision, intelligence and savvy; always seeking to register voters; creating and participating in rallies and demonstrations that advocate for vulnerable populations, women’s rights and environmental protection.

2023 is here!  FLNOW needs your active support in the continuing fights against the unacceptable and outrageous assaults on our democratic values and rights.

Below are our FLNOW Task Forces. Please join us in making NOW gain ground in the social / political arenas and let's educate the public.

Reproductive Rights:  Amy Weintraub Monthly zooms are held and we need NOW members to attend, especially since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. When organizations work in coalitions rather than in local advocacy, more effective actions can reverse this situation. 

Constitutional Equality (ERA): Nancy Terreri - This Task Force is part of the National ERA Coalition and Fund for Women's Equality.  The ERA wraps around every issue which impacts women with 280 members who will present resolutions in both chambers of the 118th US Congress. Help Nancy get the ERA into the US Constitution.

LGBTQIA+ Rights: Beck Andre - Does excellent work in coalition with other organizations, especially Compass Center, which is in Palm Beach County and has far reaching connections. Please join us in "Saying Gay"!

Freedom from Violence: Kat Duesterhaus & Beck Andre - Members of this Task Force engage local Sexual Response Teams to promote the responses that Start By Believing. Join us in making Florida safer for all people by advocating for survivors.

Families Against Court Travesties (FACTS): Natalie Andre & Sheila Jaffe - Serving women and some men for over 20 years who face horrible treatment in court. FACTS created Court Watch, which adds a vital public dimension to proceedings so that the demeanor and behavior of presiding judges and attorneys, which are frequently biased against the mother, can be raised to the level of fair hearings.