Don’t miss her speak at this weekend’s Virtual Walk for Change

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley is fond of saying, “the people closest to the pain should be closest to the power.” Since she was first elected to public office in 2009—a history-making turn as the first Black woman elected to the Boston City Council—Pressley has demonstrated the value of her credo every day.

Pressley grew up in difficult circumstances in Chicago, the daughter of a mother who worked multiple jobs to keep the family afloat while Pressley’s father, who struggled with substance use, was incarcerated. She is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and campus sexual assault who did years of grunt work as a political aide before winning an at-large City Council seat, and then toppling a long-time incumbent to win Massachusetts’ 7th Congressional District seat in 2018, this time becoming the first Black woman to represent the Bay State in the U.S. House.

As an elected officeholder, Pressley has consistently used her power to improve the lives of women and girls and those in underserved communities—including communities of color and LGBQ/T people. She has also used her platform to amplify the voices of sexual assault survivors and advocate for their needs.

As a city councilor, for instance, Pressley created the Committee on Healthy Women, Families, and Communities to work on stabilizing families and communities, reducing and preventing violence and trauma, working to end poverty, and addressing issues that disproportionately impact women and girls.

More recently, in response to alarming reports showing that Black, Latino, and low-income people are being disproportionately affected by COVID-19, Pressley is leading efforts to convince the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to collect racial and ethnic demographic information from people being tested and treated for COVID-19, so high-risk people and communities can receive the prevention and mitigation resources they need to respond to outbreaks.

We’re excited for Pressley to join us at our 2020 Virtual Walk for Change this Sunday, April 26, to deliver the keynote address, as she has since 2010. The Virtual Walk for Change brings together (online) survivors, their loved ones, community members, and supporters and helps raise vital funds for BARCC’s free, confidential services. Speaking at the Walk is one of many ways she uses her platform to educate the public, show solidarity with fellow survivors, and press for measures to prevent sexual assault. As she told Walk for Change participants in 2018:

“It is your human right, it is your civil right, to be safe in your body. We are affirming your very human right, your very civil right, to be safe.”

Pressley struck a similar note when she and several colleagues filed a bill last December to prevent Education Secretary Betsy DeVos from instituting a rule change to Title IX that would undermine the ability of survivors of sexual assault and harassment in higher education settings to come forward and receive the support they need on campus.

“The Massachusetts 7th Congressional District is home to the largest concentration of young people and as such, I am committed to lifting the voices of survivors of campus sexual assault and to providing students with the resources and support they need to feel safe coming forward on campus,” Pressley said in a statement. “As the Trump-DeVos administration continues its cruel policy of rolling back crucial protections for the most vulnerable, I’m proud to support this bill to ensure justice for survivors.”

As vice chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, Pressley has continued to question the appropriateness of DeVos’ proposed rule change, requesting more supporting documentation for the change and expressing concern about whether the Department of Education was adhering to the rulemaking process in a February letter to the education secretary.

As a sponsor of the Bringing an End to Harassment by Enhancing Accountability and Rejecting Discrimination (Be HEARD) in the Workplace Act, Pressley is also working to safeguard and expand upon existing antidiscrimination laws and protections to better protect employees from sexual harassment and assault on the job. Again, she centered the needs of the actual people the legislation would protect.

“This is for the brave women of the Boston Fire Department, for the hotel workers I worked alongside when I was scrapping money together to help my family, for the transgender men and women who face discrimination for living their truth,” Pressley said in introducing the bill. “This is for those workers who shared their stories and instead of justice, faced retaliation. Now is the time to push the conversations and the policies so that those who have been suffering in silence feel seen and represented in our democracy.”

Last September following another report of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Pressley filed a resolution calling for the opening of an impeachment inquiry into the justice.

In her statement on the resolution she affirmed her belief in the reports by Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez of Kavanaugh’s abuse, adding, “Sexual predators do not deserve a seat on the nation’s highest court and Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation process set a dangerous precedent. We must demand justice for survivors and hold Kavanaugh accountable for his actions.”

In a meeting with survivors following the filing of the resolution, Pressley dispensed hugs and comforting words in her office, reaffirming once again her commitment to justice for survivors.

“What’s most important to me is that my survivor tribe knows that I see them, and that I’ll be carrying them in my heart every day,” she told the group. “This is one of the reasons why I ran—was to center  the voices of and to lift up the stories of survivors, and to fight every day for their healing and for their justice.”

A few weeks later, at a protest outside the court on the one-year anniversary of Kavanaugh’s confirmation, Pressley was more confrontational than comforting—bringing the pain to the power, so to speak.

“Kavanaugh may have that seat—for now—but what you, what we are fighting for is so much bigger than one insecure man blinded by his privilege,” she told the crowd. “You are fighting for the liberation . . . for all of us. Because you know that our destinies are tied. For generations we have softened our language and moderated our tone,” she added. “No more.”

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