The ACLU's work in Roe and its landmark Massachusetts counterpart Moe wasn't the start—or the end—of our work to ensure reproductive freedom and gender equality more broadly.
The ACLU has long fought the gender-based systemic discrimination that people encounter in school, at work, in healthcare settings, in public spaces and at home.
Locally and nationally, we challenge politicians' intrusions on individuals' access to contraceptives, abortions and medically accurate sexual health information—intrusions that disproportionately target people of color and poor people. We take this fight to ensure that reproductive rights are a practical, not just theoretical, reality all the way to the Supreme Court. We stand up to workplace policies that target pregnant and nursing employees and perpetuate economic inequality, and we work towards closing the wage gap by supporting the Pay Equity Act. We hold government agencies accountable to stop cycles of violence and end discrimination against survivors of violence in housing, employment, education, services and benefits.
We understand that transgender men and women, too, face these gender-based barriers to full safety and equality, and so we advocate for similar protections on the basis of gender identity.
In November 2011, the Massachusetts legislature passed an ACLU-backed law that made gender identity a protected class in employment, credit, education and housing. And we support the Transgender Non-Discrimination Bill, which would protect transgender people from discrimination in places of public accommodation—such as restaurants, movie theaters, retail shops, and public transportation—and close the gap in civil rights law. We condemn the violence aimed at transgender people, particularly at transgender women of color.
The ACLU is committed to gender equality—whether it is access to services, equal treatment at the workplace and in public spaces, or equality and respect within the community as a whole. Join us in our fight for gender equality.
