Over the weekend a group of about 500 supporters of women's rights gathered at the Riviera—home of the bronze-ass Crazy Girls statues—to discuss the state of feminism for the annual National Organization for Women conference. NOW President Kim Gandy and Venicia Considine, president of the Southern Nevada chapter, took a few minutes after the conference to talk about it.
1. Why they chose Las Vegas
"The answer's pretty uninteresting," says Gandy. "Several cities bid for the conference and Las Vegas presented the bid that most interested the financial board." She says there was serious consideration of the way women are treated here, but decided that meant they need the support even more. (And, of course, there's that bottom line). The decision to come here was helped by a decision made to visit Louisiana years ago, after passing the most extreme abortion bills in the country that wouldn't even make an exception for a woman's life.
"So nationally we talked about doing a boycott of Louisiana, choice boycott, rights boycott etcetera. and the women in Louisiana, they just freaked out. Like 'Oh my God, don't boycott us. We are isolated enough and oppressed enough as it is down here. We need you to send resources in, not take resources out of the state.' So we did what we called a 'girlcott,' we sent in organizers to help elect more women to the state legislature so that they wouldn't pass bills like that anymore. And so it's sort of that attitude. If there's a place that really needs a NOW presence and a feminist presence, Las Vegas is right up there. We shouldn't deprive the women's rights supporters in Las Vegas and Nevada of our support and presence and the opportunity to participate because of what other people in their city do."
2. They inspired local activism against Wal-Mart
One of the speakers at the conference was the lead plaintiff in the discrimination suit against Wal-Mart. When this former Wal-Mart manager complained about making $12,000 less than a male manager she was told that he had a wife and kids to support. Soon after she spoke up, this single mother was fired. Her story prompted about 250 attendees to hop on four tour buses and protest and hand out fliers at the Charleston and Decatur Wal-Mart. At least, until the police came.
"People were just so fired up about that they marched and protested and handed out fliers," says Gandy. "The goons from Wal-Mart were going around and taking the fliers out from under the windshields as fast as we put them on and we just put them on again. We handed the fliers to people getting out of their cars and a lot of people got back in their cars. One woman I talked to said 'I'm a single mother with two kids, I'm not going to shop here anymore.'"
3. The issues they're focusing on
Obviously, the election. They've declared a state of emergency until November 2—or until the election is decided—to encourage people to vote for Kerry and get Bush out of office. Bush's anti-abortion record is fairly well known. But his crusade against birth control is less discussed. Gandy says that 40 percent of insurance plans don't cover birth control, but they do cover Viagra.
4. Our local chapter's recently started up again
After a brief hiatus, local NOW meetings began in April, and they have about 150 members. There's still no permanent meeting place, so if you need more information e-mail [email protected].
There's also a statewide chapter, and they hope to begin one in Reno and one at UNLV in the near future. The local focus on the upcoming election will be getting dancers registered to vote. "They have a voice," says Considine. "They just need to use it."