Women's Suffrage and A Special Announcement!

This week the legislature returned from their week long recess. On Wednesday the League was invited to attend an event with the Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, Women’s Bipartisan Political Caucus, and Suffrage Celebration Commission kicking off Women’s History Month. Our League President, Dare Thompson, is a member of the Suffrage Celebration Commission. She and the other commission members will be working to plan events around the state. The commission has established a suffrage website which can be accessed here.   The League has already began our suffrage celebrations. You can see more information on our suffrage plans on our website: here. You can also see a calendar of all local League events happening throughout New York State here. In addition to celebrations and historical materials, we have set up a blog to highlight famous New York Suffragists: http://lwvnys100thanniversary.blogspot.com/

On Thursday we had several meetings with Senators from both political parties. We have been working hard to lobby to keep early voting and automatic voter registration in the budget. We have also been lobbying Senators on the Reproductive Health Act and Comprehensive Contraceptive Coverage Act. In the afternoon we attended a press conference hosted by Assemblywoman Nolan on full funding for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. The League has long been a supporter of full funding for CFE and we will continue to work on this effort in 2017.

Finally, the League is proud to announce our newest campaign: Be Earthwise! In support of the League’s effort to respect the environment and address the impacts of climate change, the League of Women Voters of NYS has launched Be Earthwise, our new campaign to engage all Americans from every state to learn the facts, vote with your dollars and vote with your daily actions to preserve our planet. We are asking that citizens take the pledge to Be Earthwise on Earth Day 2017:

I’ll vote with my dollars. I PLEDGE to respect the environment and address the effects of climate change when making my consumer purchases.

I’ll vote with my actions. I PLEDGE to respect the environment and the address effects of climate change through my daily activities.

I’ll participate in our democracy. I PLEDGE to take action as a citizen to help shape public policy that respects the environment and addresses the effects of climate change

To learn more and take the pledge visit our pledge page here.