Equal Rights for All
Jamie Belsito has always fought against inequities, whether they were in the health care system, the public schools, or the immigration system.
Congress has an obligation to address the consequences of its policies: Intended or not, our federal laws perpetuate racial divisions and gender disparities. They make poverty harder to overcome and the American Dream less attainable. These long standing inequalities need to be addressed in many areas, including: affordable housing, criminal justice, the economy and workforce, and the public education system. We must do better in making opportunities available to all Americans.
Women’s Rights
Women simply want to be treated as equals in the workforce. We want to work and be compensated for our work, equally. That means Congress needs to address health care equity, pay equity, and universal, affordable childcare.
We are tired of hearing men campaign as pro-choice when they’ve never had to make that choice. We cannot continue to leave questions of bodily autonomy in the hands of the courts. We need a federal policy that women have a hand in establishing, which clearly states our rights.
Voting Rights
There should be no difference in how voting works between rural and urban places. There should be no waiting in long lines in one part of town and easy access in another. Congress needs to create a 21st century Voting Rights Act, which re-establishes the goal of enfranchisement and federal oversight for guaranteeing these rights to all our citizens.
Racial Inequality
Congress needs to address the legacy of segregation that continues to this day in our housing, education, health care and political systems. The incarceration system is disproportionately hard on people of color. We see economic policies, such as credit scores, make poverty a harder situation to leave. Our education funding systems create deeply unfair outcomes between the wealthy and the poor. Our children’s zip code should never determine their future.
LGBTQ Rights
We have seen the federal government step backward in protecting the basic human rights of transgender citizens in schools and in the military. This has to stop.
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