Interview and Photography by Kate Murray
Co-founder of the National Women’s March on Washington, Elected member of the Broward County Soil and Water Conservation District, Previous State Representative Candidate for FL Dist. 93
IN HER HOME IN FORT LAUDERDALE, FL
On her first political act: My first political act was an internship my junior year of college with Francine Delmonte who was a New York State assembly woman in Buffalo, New York… I worked for her when- and it was paid, and I really appreciated that- I worked for her in her Albany office, so the legislative office, and it was when plan B was not legal. And they had us do a mock legislative day, and I got up representing her, and I don’t know that she’d ever forgive me, and I said I don’t feel that my body should be legislated by old white men making decisions on what I can do across the counter. I ended up getting another job offer from another representative that day, but I’m sure Francine was fine, I’m sure she got over it.
On the Women’s March and the Feminist Movement: If your feminism isn’t intersectional, then it isn’t feminism that I want. And I think- and I believe- that what really came out of Women’s March and what- I believe this is what the fourth generation- fourth iteration of feminism at this point- I think is a conversation of those who have been left behind, whether we’re talking about the community with disabilities, whether we’re talking about the LGBTQ, specifically the trans community, whether we’re especially talking about the indigenous community- these communities that have been left behind, historically.
““If your feminism isn’t intersectional, then it isn’t feminism that I want.””
An Impactful Moment in her Campaign for State Representative: Of course along the way, Marjorie Stoneman Douglass happened, and it happened while I was running and that was a really big issue because the gentleman who I was running against, who was as the time the only Republican commissioner, walked on a vote that would allow counties and cities to say we need to do gun free zones. So he walked. I called him out. He called me out in a debate for calling him a coward, and I said I will call you far worse, it was a cowardly act. He did end up winning, and when it came for a vote on the state floor, he voted in support of gun- he was one of the only Republicans who supported the Democrats in voting for gun regulation. Whether it was through a change of heart, or was it because he knew in his experience somebody was going to call him out, I think that’s important. I think it's important that even when you are not individually successful, to me that was a win.
My family is one with a lot of environmental activism in upstate New York, so this is something that was really important to me continuing working on the anti-fracking legislation while I was with the New York State Legislature. You know, it continues to be one- it may be the most important issue of our time, you know, this impacts everything from gender equity to racial equity, to- you know, capitalist systems. It is the most important issue of our time.