2018: A Year in Review
If you are anything like me, you are arriving at the end of 2018 dazzled at what we have accomplished, and energized (if slightly daunted!) by how much is left to be done. As 2018 moves into the rearview, here is a reflection on the highs and lows of this year.
In February, 17 teenagers lost their lives to gun violence in Parkland, Florida. Out of the tragedy arose new, young voices demanding change — and organizing the country alongside them. Just a month later, hundreds of thousands of people joined March for Our Lives rallies across the country and the world — demanding an end to gun violence in all its forms. Since Parkland, many more lives have been lost — at a nightclub in Thousand Oaks, California, at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, at Santa Fe High School in Texas — the epidemic of gun violence, mass shootings, and toxic masculinity is not over. But we are poised to fight it head on.
A grassroots-powered progressive wave flipped 40 House seats and 7 Governorships from red to blue across the country, along with hundreds more at the state and local level. Pantsuit Nation published dozens of first-person stories from candidates including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Lucy McBath, Lauren Underwood, Haley Stevens, and Lina Hidalgo — 5 women among the hundreds who made history in November. The blue wave was led by women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and our sights are now firmly set on equally important elections in 2019, 2020, and beyond — the first election of the year is on January 2!
Midterm election years are traditionally known for low voter turnout. But this year, long standing voting records were broken, seeing the highest voter turnout since 1914. Young people lead the charge in early voting, increasing early voting turnout by 188% since 2014. While voter turnout was a triumph, we also saw voter suppression and racism at work in Georgia and Florida, with thousands of people being purged from the voter rolls, and the Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate stooping to racist overtones in his attacks on his opponent. In North Carolina, Republican-led voter fraud resulted in the state’s bipartisan voting commission voting unanimously to declare one election’s results invalid. But there is hope. Florida voters restored voting rights to 1.4 million citizens who have been convicted of a felony and served their time. The tactics in Georgia are being examined by the courts. Our next elections will be freer and fairer because of leaders like Stacey Abrams who are willing to go to the mat to enfranchise and and empower as many voters as possible.
This year we learned that ICE has not only been separating children from their families at our Southern borders but also going to cruel and inhuman lengths to increase their suffering rather than fulfill the American promise of freedom and opportunity. Children have been locked in cages, moved across state lines without parental notification, and “lost” by a system that is putting into practice the racist and xenophobic rhetoric espoused by the current administration. Rage and sadness erupted at this revelation — and while the process has been minimized due to the activism by our community and others, it is still happening. This is a fight we cannot lose sight of, for these children cannot fight for themselves.
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford showed us courage personified when she testified in front of the Senate Judiciary committee about the sexual assault she endured at the hands of then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Her bravery brought the #metoo movement into the Senate chambers. Despite her efforts and the hundreds of thousands of phone calls and in-person protests organized by women and survivors around the country, Kavanaugh was confirmed with the narrowest possible majority. But Dr. Ford’s efforts have lead to many more women finding the strength to come forward with their stories. We fight on.
Outside of politics, Serena Williams shone a light on the rate of black maternal mortality by sharing her own story of being close to death due to a health care system that doesn’t believe black women know their own bodies, or feel pain at the same levels as white women. Serena turned her own personal struggle and near tragedy into an opportunity to advocate for change to save the lives of others.
Pantsuit Nation members also created waves of our own this year. In January, Reyma McDeid announced her run for Iowa State Senate to the Pantsuit Nation community. Reyma is a nonprofit executive, a woman of color, and autistic, and her campaign was part of what TIME Magazine called “a new disability rights movement.” Reyma was featured in a February TIME article highlighting all of the ways the current administration’s treatment of the disabled community has energized candidates and activists alike.
On Memorial Day this year, JoAnn Ortloff posted in Pantsuit Nation a photo of herself wearing a shirt that read “I’m the veteran, not the veteran’s wife.” JoAnn said that she “was getting tired… of being asked for my husband’s ID, or having retailers etc thank my husband for his service.” Her image and story, which was seen by almost a million Pantsuit Nation members, was picked up by the Huffington Post, and JoAnn, a 33-year Navy veteran, was able to turn her moments of frustration and insult into a broader moment of education.
In October, the president shared his opinion that “it’s a scary time for boys and men right now” in response to the #metoo movement and the Kavanaugh hearings. Pantsuit Nation member Lynzy Lab created the perfect response. On October 8th she shared her song, “A Scary Time” in the group — and it quickly went viral. Within days Lynzy was invited to play the song on the Jimmy Kimmel Show. This catchy tune perfectly captured the frustrations women everywhere feel with the very real risks they face on a daily basis — and made it easy to sing about!
Many more amazing things came out of the community, including 162,671 signatures on a thank you letter to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, millions of dollars in donations to the RAICES fundraiser to support families separated at the border, and thousands of proud voting selfies during the midterm elections. When we asked our community this fall about how Pantsuit Nation has impacted their activism in the last two years, 98% reported it helped them connect to the larger “resistance” movement, 85% reported that Pantsuit Nation has helped them develop a vocabulary and find resources related to social justice, and 68% said Pantsuit Nation helped them find tools to directly support their political and civic engagement. With 3.6 million members, these numbers tell a powerful story about the impact this community has had, and all we can accomplish together in 2019 and beyond.
If you’d like to close out this year by paying some good cheer forward along with other Pantsuit Nation members, please consider donating to Home for the Holidays, a fundraiser by Color of Change to provide energy and utility bill support to Black families in Baltimore, Detroit, Flint, and Newark this holiday season. Families in these cities are victims of some of the worst anti-Black environmental racism in America right now, and many Black families are at risk of living in the dark or freezing cold because of exploitative energy corporations and/or racial exclusion from homeowner energy efficiency resources, keeping their utility costs unaffordable. Pantsuit Nation members have already given over $8,000!
The final thing I’ll highlight here is, of course, about Oprah (my fave). Her speech at the Golden Globes early this year was a rousing call for people everywhere to harness the power of their own voices and stories. Oprah reminded us that, “speaking your truth is the most powerful tool that we all have, and I am especially proud and inspired by all the women who have felt strong enough and empowered enough to speak up and share their personal stories.”
I can’t think of a better quote to end on. While many other important things have happened in 2018, every single one revolves around storytelling: the conversion of one person’s experience into another person’s moment of education, empathy, and action. As we push forward into 2019 and face down the issues we still need to solve and brace for new ones that will surface in the future, let’s continue to use the most powerful tool we have to make meaningful change: our voices.
If you have valued Pantsuit Nation in 2018, please consider becoming a monthly donor in 2019 so we can continue to expand and strengthen our programs. $5 a month goes a long way!
