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Things We Saw Today: It’s Women’s Equality Day in the U.S.!

Today is Women’s Equality Day in the United States, celebrated every year on August 26 to commemorate the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, which forbade states from denying the vote to anyone on account of their gender. This nominally extended the right to vote to every woman in the U.S., but Native Americans, African-Americans, and other women of color were still frequently denied their right to vote after its passage.

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However, the Nineteenth Amendment still led to political enfranchisement for millions of women, including black pioneers like Anna Simms Banks, and it laid the groundwork for women’s greater political participation. It moved us toward a world where women like Hillary Clinton and Shirley Chisholm can run for President; women like Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Mazie Hirono can serve in Congress; and women like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor can serve on the Supreme Court.

May the next 100 years of women’s rights move even more rapidly, and more inclusively, than they have in the near-century since the Nineteenth.

  • Tee Franklin wrote about the difficult reality of attending conventions as a disabled comics creator. Cons need to do better.
  • The Punisher has cast Oscar-nominated actress Shohreh Aghdashloo as Farah Madani, the mother of Homeland Security agent Dinah Madani (played by Amber Rose Devah). (via /Film)
  • Over on their blog, DC has restored the beloved Superman diversity poster and written more about its history as a textbook cover for students. Now can they hurry up and print some of these for today’s schools? (via io9)

  • This article casts a much-needed spotlight on the midwives who center trans and non-binary people in their practice. (It’s from a while back, so apologies if you’ve already read it.)
  • Stranger Things has released about a dozen new character posters for the upcoming season.
  • LeVar Burton is a gift as he animatedly discusses verb tenses and how they dictate the way you should pronounce “read receipts” on your phone.

  • The Republican National Committee had to release a statement condemning the KKK and Nazis, because it’s honestly that unclear how they feel about violent white supremacists. I guess it’s at least a good sign that they could get this passed? (via Politico)
  • Watch this dancing, glow-in-the-dark bug puppet to remind yourself that humans can also create joyful things and not just bigoted executive orders.

(Featured image via New York Times Photo Archive)

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