Standing on the rights side
We as the Board and staff of GRCB staunchly oppose the continuing assault on the individual rights and freedoms of all genders. This assault is escalating in legislatures across the country, catalyzed by decisions rendered by the U.S. Supreme Court, which, through Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, have wrenched away long-established rights for hundreds of millions of people in the United States and Indian country.
We recognize that gender justice, LGBTQIA+ rights, reproductive justice, and abortion rights are all connected issues. We believe, as Audre Lorde stated in 1982, “there is no such thing as a single-issue struggle, because we do not lead single-issue lives.”
We know that any time freedoms are constrained, removed, or denied in the United States, it disproportionately affects Black, brown and Indigenous communities as well as those living in poverty or in rural areas. We all become more vulnerable when people fear persecution for their reproductive choices, when trans people feel unsafe, when youths fear gun violence in schools, when voters are disenfranchised, and when the sovereignty of Tribal nations can be so easily overturned.
Massachusetts’ state government has taken steps to protect these rights within the borders of our Commonwealth, but we are not separate from the crises being created in other states and at the federal level. GRCB is part of the GRCA network with affiliates in states (and countries) that have lost far more. GRCB is committed to supporting our affiliate partners throughout the United States and around the globe–to build each other up, to amplify every shriek and chord, and to put our youth voices at the center.
Like so many in our immediate community and beyond, our anger is righteous. But anger, while a necessary catalyst to effect change and ensure gender-affirming and racial-affirming justice and democracy, will only take us so far. As the world becomes less and less safe, our work at GRCB to create a thriving community and space for girls, women, and gender-expansive youths and adults is more important now than at any point in our decade-plus history. We are deeply committed to continuing to be an inclusive space where everyone is welcome, those who are traditionally excluded are celebrated, and we are all encouraged to be, create, collaborate, express ourselves, and feel the joy in music and each other.
We are committed to honoring the self-determination, bodily autonomy, and personal privacy of us all. GRCB will not go quietly into “the Great Backslide.” We will write songs, take up space, play it loud, and be the soundtrack for the fight to restore the rights that are being dismantled as we work toward a better future.