NASHVILLE, T.N. — This week, Independent Women’s Network (IWN) and Independent Women’s Voice (IWV) held a “We Know What a Woman Is!” event to celebrate the momentum of the 2023 Women’s Bill of Rights (WBOR). The event was held at the Hermitage Hotel, the historic site of the final battleground of women’s suffrage.
WBOR legally defines basic sex-based terms, like ‘woman’ and ‘man,’ and protects the existence of single-sex spaces, such as rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, prisons, athletic teams, locker rooms, and sororities.
Special guest speakers included the following WBOR Champions:
- Lynn Fitch, Attorney General of Mississippi
- Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General of Tennessee
- Kerry Roberts, Tennessee state Senator
- Gino Bulso, Tennessee state Representative
- Dr. Carol M. Swain, Be the People Project
- Riley Gaines, Independent Women’s Voice advisor and 12x All-American swimmer
Independent Women’s Voice, Independent Women’s Law Center (IWLC), and Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) collaborated to draft the model legislation in March 2022. The U.S. Chapter of Women’s Declaration International (WDI, USA) also endorses WBOR.
Thanks to WBOR’s policy champions at the national, state, and local levels, in 2023, WBOR supporters include 16 Attorneys General, including Fitch and Skrmetti, more than 25,000 members of the general public, and various organizations and groups across the political spectrum. WBOR recently became law in Tennessee and Kansas. And, Gaines was recently joined by U.S. Members of Congress on Capitol Hill for a press conference to highlight the need for WBOR legislation, urging consideration by both House and Senate chambers.
Independent Women’s Network (IWN) will launch its Nashville Chapter later in June and will be led by Michelle Parker. A retained executive headhunter and strategic hiring advisor by profession, Parker’s advocacy work has been centered around championing women and children.
IWN was created to build a supportive community for women and to give them the tools they need to make a positive difference in their neighborhoods and our country. Anyone interested in joining IWN can email jenny.avis@iwnetwork.com.
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:
“I am so grateful for the Independent Women’s Forum, the Network, all that you do, because you’re making a difference. You’re changing lives every day, empowering, uplifting women, and that is so significant to the future.” – Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch
“But now we are dealing with this weird new slippery situation where existing laws that were voted on at a time when everybody understood what they mean are being changed through a corruption of language. So that words that meant something very clear and to a lot of us still mean something very clear are being reinterpreted to mean something different. And as a result of that effort, people are trying to change the law without persuading people without going through the processes that allow law to be become law in America. It is a privilege to be in Tennessee where our state legislature, through the democratic process, reiterated that the law is what we meant at the time and what we still understand it to be. They’re ratifying not just the rights of women, but the democratic process in general. I’m pleased to be here supporting this legislation. It’s a pleasure to be here with AG Lynn Fitch with Riley Gaines, who is a hero to young women throughout Tennessee and the country.” – Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti
“And there’s no reason that anybody who is simply exercising their First Amendment right to offer not only their opinion, but an opinion that has stood the test of time pretty much throughout the entirety of known history, would fear and have to say, hold up the road until security comes in and rescues me—and apparently takes their time doing it—so we’ve opened the can of worms here.” – Tennessee state Senator Kerry Roberts
“And what the Women’s Bill of Rights is doing is actually further embellishing the indispensable support that our country needs – the moral foundation, the moral principles.” – Tennessee state Representative Gino Bulso
“I’m so excited for the Independent Women’s Forum, Independent Women’s Network and Voice, because this Women’s Bill of Rights is so needed. And it’s unfortunate that today we would have to refight something that we thought we could take for granted. In 1964, we passed the Civil Rights Act that protected women. We passed Title IX, and yet we’re still fighting the same battle. And so it’s unfortunate that rights that we once thought we could take for granted, that if we are not vigilant, all the time watching, we have to refight those same battles. What I love about the Women’s Bill of Rights is that it’s simple. It’s written in such a way that anyone with common sense would agree with it. And I would like to see it sweep the country. I can’t imagine a state turning it down.” – Dr. Carol M. Swain, Be the People Project.
“The Women’s Bill of Rights encompasses a lot more than just women’s sports. But what it does for women’s sports is it gives longevity to bills, such as the bill we’ve already passed in Tennessee, the Fairness to Women’s Sports Act. We have unelected bureaucrats and officials who are trying to define this word for us. They’re trying to interpret ‘woman’ to whatever they want it to mean. It doesn’t allow these unelected bureaucrats and officials to define these words anymore. It’s bigger than sports. It’s prisons, it’s sororities, it’s shelters, it’s across the board, which is really huge.” – Riley Gaines, advisor for Independent Women’s Voice and 12x All-American swimmer
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Independent Women’s Network, a project of Independent Women’s Voice, in partnership with Independent Women’s Forum, is a positive, supportive community of engaged, informed, and activated women working together to inspire, interact, influence, and have impact.
Independent Women’s Voice is an advocacy 501(c)(4) that fights for women and families by effectively expanding support among women, independents, and millennials for policy solutions that aren’t just well intended, but actually enhance freedom, opportunities, and well-being.
