As I started thinking about an area of focus for the next President’s Project, I have to admit that I was struggling.
There have been several recent legislative changes in our country which will radically impact the lives of many, and it really hits close to home for me.
I think about my transgender son and his future.
I think about many of the midwifery clients I have served through very difficult situations over the years and those who have not yet needed my help.
I think about my friends who are in happy, loving, and caring same-sex marriages with adopted and foster children.
I think about people of color like my dad, who live in a constant state of hyper-vigilance because they know that from the instant they wake up, every day is a fight.
So today I announce this year’s President’s Project: Protecting Human Rights.
The United Nations created the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 setting fundamental human rights to be universally protected, and the first right listed is “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”
Our generation, like so many generations before us, is at a turning point where protecting those who exist in all walks of life is critical to ensuring liberty and freedom for all.
At the core of Omega Phi Alpha is dedication to one another. Dedication to others. This is the importance of protecting human rights – ensuring equality and protection for all persons. For all our sisters. Ensuring women’s rights, trans rights, religious rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, and of course, gender and racial equality just to name a few.
I’ve shared with you just a few rights that are important to me, and that I use my voice and platforms to fight for.
By focusing on this message of human rights, I invite sisters to find the ways they most want to support equality and love for others within their own communities.
I invite dialogues.
I invite understanding.
I invite fighting to protect one another.
I invite fighting to protect rights to clean water, rights to freedom of opinion, rights to education.
Together, working as one sisterhood, we can make a real impact across the world by serving to protect human rights.