SiX National Conference 2024

Are you fighting in your state to hold the line against attacks on gender justice? And/or are you looking to advance bold gender justice policies? Join us to learn more about the new State Gender Policy Collective and how we can work together to support state legislators working on health and reproductive rights, workplace and education justice, LGBTQI+ rights, child care, economic security, and other gender justice issues. During the session, legislators will also connect, share lessons, and strategize with colleagues who are working on similar efforts in other states.

Systemic patterns of oppression have ensured that Black people, people of color, Indigenous people, people with low incomes, young people, people in rural areas and gender-expansive people have less access to, and lower quality of, health care in the U.S. This reality is starkly illustrated by the ongoing maternal mortality and morbidity crisis, particularly for Black and Indigenous birthing people. Workforce shortages and hospital closures further limit access to maternal health care at the same time as restrictions on reproductive health increase risks to pregnant people. Birth centers, midwives, and doulas have proven solutions to respond to the needs of pregnant people in their communities—both rural and urban—to improve quality of care and outcomes, but often face barriers at the state level to implementing them. Panelists will provide key insights on the historical and current landscape of maternal health, case studies from a regionally diverse set of states, and concrete strategies for state legislators to meet this moment.

In order to address the glaring disparities in maternal health, morbidity, and mortality for Black pregnant and birthing people, state legislatures have created Black Maternal Health caucuses. These innovative caucuses tackle this public health crisis through community- and evidence-informed policymaking. State legislative leaders from the Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia Black Maternal Health caucuses will engage in a guided conversation. They will share best practices for organizing and leading a Black Maternal Health caucus. They will discuss the impact caucus organizing can have on short and long-term goals to end preventable maternal deaths. This is an opportunity for state legislators to build connections for introducing Black Maternal Health policies, forming a Black Maternal Health caucus, and continuing the work of a Black Maternal Health caucus.

Care work impacts every single person in all stages of our lives. Whether it’s child care, health care, elder care, care for persons with disabilities, or sick and paid leave, care is essential to our irresistible futures. The care economy is also rapidly growing, but it is historically gendered, racialized, and increasingly at risk of consolidated corporate control. Corporate-run care prioritizes shareholder profits over the well-being of care workers and those receiving care, and leverages corporate lobbying power to undermine our organizing and maximize profits. In fact, many of the workers providing care for our loved ones are overworked, underpaid, and unable to provide care for their own families. But state legislators and caregivers across the country are challenging corporate power and building economies that value care not as a product, but as a public good. From paid family medical leave, to public retirement and child care, to workers rights, this workshop centers the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of state leaders across the country challenging corporate power and building care economies that create good jobs, advance equity, and empower people. 

From death star preemptions, to removing democratically-elected officials, state takeovers of local jurisdictions, and banning local innovations on every policy issue under the sun—guaranteed income, fair wages, education, climate and conservation, LGBTQ+ rights, abortion, community IDs, animal rights, and housing—extremists and corporations are leveraging abusive preemptions laws to centralize their control of our communities and maintain structural disparities based on race, gender, and class. These efforts are not new.They are tactics used by corporations like Big Tobacco for decades, rooted in Jim Crow era practices to undercut Black leadership. How can legislators, local electeds, and impacted communities organize collaboratively to fight back and restore local power? What solutions do we have to curtail the rampant abuse of preemption? From repealing abusive preemptions to strengthening home rule in our state constitutions, learn from national experts, legislators, and organizers on the latest efforts to restore local power to the people.

To get to our long-term vision of an irresistible future where all people have power and agency over their lives, state legislators and advocates must be ready to confront rising authoritarianism in the immediate-term. For years, priorities outlined in Project 2025 have been field-tested in many states by extremists—many of us are already familiar with what it will take for us to beat back efforts to dismantle democracy. Join this informal space to share strategies, ideas, and resources across states to get on the offensive against rising authoritarianism in 2025 and beyond.