On Human Rights Day, BISC Reflects on Election Wins to Safeguard Our Rights and Liberties
For Immediate Release: December 10, 2024
Contact: Erika Gulija; [email protected]
WASHINGTON — In honor of Human Rights Day, the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center uplifts 2024 ballot measure wins where voters across the political spectrum actively chose to protect the civil liberties of their communities. Ballot initiatives can be a tool for liberation and again this year voters used them to defend the freedom to marry and reproductive freedom while also combating legalized slavery and transphobia.
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- Protecting the Freedom to Marry: Voters in California, Colorado, and Hawai’i passed constitutional amendments that remove marriage definitions that only included opposite-sex couples.
- Prohibiting Slavery: In Nevada, voters removed language from the state constitution that allowed the use of slavery or involuntary servitude as criminal punishments.
- Asserting Reproductive Freedom: Seven states moved to include protections for abortion and reproductive rights in their state constitutions. For Arizona and Missouri in particular, these protections overturn extreme abortion bans.
- Defending Transgender Kids: Advocates in California and Colorado ensured that transphobic ballot measures never qualified for the ticket in the first place. Solidarity against harmful parental notification policies and gender discrimination in sports helped to keep gender-affirming healthcare and counseling in reach.
- Securing Equal Rights: Voters in New York amended their state constitution to include a fundamental right to reproductive freedom and protection from government discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, disability status, sexual orientation, and more.
If interested in learning more about these human rights ballot measures, and their legislative implementation to follow, or connecting with BISC Executive Director Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, please contact Erika Gulija at [email protected].
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