After pairing up and raising chicks, males and females of some bird species spend their winter break apart. At the end of their journey to Central or South America, you might find mostly males in one habitat, and females in another.
Yet conservation strategies have typically overlooked the habitats needed by females, putting already-declining species in even more peril, according to a new study in the journal Biological Conservation. » Continue Reading.
Transgender Day of Remembrance occurs annually on November 20th, is a day to memorialize those who have been killed or murdered as the result of transphobia, (hatred or fear of transgender and gender non-conforming people).
This day serves to bring attention to the continued violence and non-acceptance endured by the transgender community. » Continue Reading.
State University at Albany History Professor Gerald Zahavi is set to give a lecture on the dynamics of gender and the importance of women in the temperance movement, on Thursday, August 29th, at the Adirondack History Museum.
The lecture “Dry Women-Wet Men: Gender, Temperance, and the Fight for Prohibition” will look at the early years of the struggle for a “dry” America and the National Prohibition of alcohol following the the passage 18th Amendment on January 16, 1919. » Continue Reading.
June is LGBT Pride Month, a time when LGBTQI+ community members, family, friends and advocates acknowledge and celebrate the gift of diversity that is unique to each of us. Many municipalities host “Pride Parades” where LGBTQI+ community members outwardly profess their rights to live freely and openly as themselves. This is also a time to acknowledge the many accomplishments of LGBTQI+ community members both past and present as well as mark strides in our current social/political arenas. » Continue Reading.
In the past two years we’ve seen an outpouring of hate, attempts at overt discrimination, attempted role back of basic human rights protections at the federal level. We are facing a potential crisis in the US Supreme Court over settled law in the area’s of women’s health, reproductive rights, marriage equality, and basic LGBTQ civil rights protections.
We’ve seen attempts to ban members of the transgender community from serving openly in the military as well as prohibit their use of public accommodations based on lies and fears of spread by homophobic and transphobic hate groups bent on our elimination from society. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who heads the Department of Justice, issued guidance stating that LGBTQ people are not covered under federal anti-discrimination laws. This opened the gates to discrimination in all aspects of our lives, including housing, employment, medical care and insurance coverage. We’ve see repeated civil rights violations of our immigrant and native neighbors. » Continue Reading.
Adirondack North Country Gender Alliance has announced their third annual LGBTQ Pride Event has been set for Saturday September 29th from noon to 4 pm, beginning at Trinity Park in Plattsburgh.
This family friendly event for all ages is intended to bring members of the LGBTQI+ community, family members and allies from the regional Adirondack North Country area as well as people from across New York State and Vermont, together to stand side by side to promote love, acceptance, respect and unity. » Continue Reading.
Until 100 years ago, women did not have the right to vote in New York State. That changed on November 6, 1917, when New Yorkers voted to give women the ballot. The Adirondack History Museum is marking the occasion with “Adirondack Suffragists: 100 Years of Votes for Women,” a multimedia exhibit highlighting the national, state and regional aspects of the movement.
Though preceded by many western states in state-level action, New York was nonetheless a major national battleground in the fight for women’s rights in general and in the struggle for the passage of a national woman’s suffrage amendment – one finally ratified in 1920 as the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. » Continue Reading.
Fire! … Please send help — there’s been a car accident! … We found our son in the pool … please help us! … We need an ambulance … I think my husband’s having a heart attack! … My wife can’t breathe and she’s turning blue! Many of us have experienced terrifying moments like those at one time or another. In modern times, amazingly quick responses are the norm from fire and EMS personnel directed by information received at county emergency service centers.
Until several decades ago, those positions were nearly all filled by men. But for much of the twentieth century, most rural areas lacked coordination of services. A vital cog in emergency situations back then was the local switchboard operator, who was nearly always a woman. In almost every instance where policemen and/or firemen were needed, the telephone operator was key to obtaining a good outcome. She was the de facto emergency services coordinator of yesteryear.
Her importance during times of crisis was often overlooked, with most of the glory going to policemen and firemen capturing criminals, rescuing victims, and saving lives. But emergency personnel and telephone-company executives were aware of the vital role operators played on a daily basis. » Continue Reading.
On Sunday, April 9th at 2 pm the documentary The Gender Revolution will be shown at the United Methodist Church, 127 Beekman St. Plattsburgh.
This event is co-hosted by the Adirondack North Country Gender Alliance and the Plattsburgh United Methodist Church. The event is open to the community and free of charge. » Continue Reading.
Marcy Dam was my first tool pack-in, back in the summer of 2012. I was fresh out of finals week, the airless world of fluorescent screens and dim libraries, and wholly intoxicated by the smell of balsam fir, the sun glinting off Heart Lake, the entire summer before me. It was late May, but the morning was already warm.
Outside the Wiezel Trails Cabin, my fellow first-years and I practiced tying-on — the artful process of lashing a share of gear and tools to one’s pack-frame with parachute cord. I situated a box full of cans of tuna and pineapple on my frame’s shelf and pulled the cord tight across the cardboard, securing it with a clumsy half-hitch. Holding the frame steady with my knee, I looked at the massive pile of tools beside me and tried to envision how they could all fit onto this small rectangle of metal, which would then, somehow, be strapped to my body. » Continue Reading.
North Country newspapers, the only media during the 1800s, were slow to come around and at times downright resistant to women’s rights. Their job was to report the news, but in order to maintain readership, they also had to cater to their customers — like the old adage says, “give ’em what they want.” That atmosphere made it difficult for new and progressive ideas, like women’s rights, to make headway.
The push for women’s rights exposed many inequities early on, but it was difficult to establish a foothold among other important stories of the day. The powerful anti-slavery movement of the 1800s presented an opportunity, for although women and slaves were at opposite ends of the spectrum in the popular imagination — women on a pedestal and slaves treated terribly — they sought many of te same goals: freedom to speak out on their own behalf, the right to vote, and equal pay for equal work. Women passionate about those subjects joined anti-slavery organizations to seek freedom and equal rights for all, regardless of race or sex. » Continue Reading.
For decades, history books have fed us the simplistic notion that women struggled for the vote while men opposed them. Hogwash! Some women opposed suffrage and some men supported it. The issue was a battle about the sexes; the battle itself was fought by women and men against other women and men.
The North Country region resembled most of upstate New York in the 1800s, rural and a hotbed for reform movements: abolition, prohibition, forest preservation, women’s rights. Of course, there was also opposition to some of these changes. The major reason for resistance to women’s rights had to do with long-held conventional notions about the roles of men and women, the roles of blacks and whites, and the interpretation of the Bible. In general, these views supported a white patriarchy and contested any threat to the perpetuation of its authority. » Continue Reading.
Women’s history month (March) is a reminder of the struggles they have endured for equality and fair treatment. Unity is important in any movement, but in the North Country, women were often on opposing sides in the battle for equal rights. The region’s rural nature had much to do with that division, as did the population’s roots: mountain folk, farmers, and miners were primarily immigrants (many via Quebec) from European countries that were overwhelmingly Catholic or Protestant.
Resistance to change was organized by branding the opposition as silly and simultaneously ungodly. For more than a century in the United States, those promoting women’s rights were labeled Bluestockings, a term that has been used both in a complimentary and a pejorative sense.
Its origins are nebulous, but it’s known that in the 1700s, Bluestockings in England were educated women unwilling to settle for being simply an adornment on a man’s arm. They learned languages, engaged in political discussions, and sought to better themselves by gaining certain rights previously enjoyed only by the privileged in society: men.
In honor of the tenth anniversary of Women’s History Month, I want to recognize the work of the Great Old Broads for Wilderness, a national grassroots organization dedicated to protecting wilderness and wild lands. This organization was conceived by older women who love wilderness, giving voice to the millions of older Americans who want to protect their public lands as wilderness for this and future generations. The group prides itself on the thousands of hours (37,857 last year) people volunteer to care for the environment. Based in Durango, Colorado, their on-the-ground work happens throughout the country, with 36 active chapters in 16 states. » Continue Reading.
The Ticonderoga Historical Society will unveil ‘Votes for Women,’ the first of three new exhibits being installed at the Hancock House on Friday, March 31 at 7 pm. Historical Society Programs Assistant and former Essex County Historian Diane O’Connor will present the opening talk, which is free and open to the public.
Votes for Women looks at the fight for women’s suffrage in New York State, where women won the right to vote in 1917, more than two years before the national amendment to the Constitution was ratified. » Continue Reading.
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