My Point of View, By Jennifer Vogt-Erickson

This past weekend I missed the Women’s March in Rochester due to the DFL gubernatorial forum at Southwest Middle School on Saturday. Last year at the Capitol in St. Paul it was thrilling to be part of a huge, energized mass of people who believe in the right of women to actively and safely participate in every part of our society.

While Republican majorities in Congress, in partnership with President Trump, have chipped away at birth control access, student loan debt repayment programs, child care assistance, transparency in gender pay disparities, overtime pay protection and investigation of sexual assault on college campuses, the allies of women’s rights have been mobilizing for 2018.

Although the #MeToo movement may have been an abrupt shift in the past year, it had been building for a long time. Despite inevitable backlash, we must keep moving forward.

One fallout is that Lindsey Port recently suspended her campaign for state representative. She’s a trailblazer who stood up against sexual harassment within the DFL Party last fall when she accused state Sen. Dan Schoen of sexual harassment (he has since resigned). I’m disappointed with large donors in the DFL (with too much influence in picking candidates), who withdrew support from Lindsey Port and took sides with another man who has repeatedly been accused of violating women’s bodies. It may be a stretch, but some have blamed Port for “softening the ground” under Al Franken, even though she was not one of his eight accusers.

Other than a Republican Party that is mostly too scared or capitulating to stand up to President Trump’s incursions into authoritarianism (the free press is not “the enemy of the people” in a democracy, full stop), here is one of the most unpleasant truths I learned this past year: It’s still an acceptable idea to many Democrats that women are squeeze toys for men’s amusement and that powerful, popular men (Al Franken) shouldn’t resign when a pattern of that behavior comes to light. Some downplayed it and others quickly latched onto the idea that the women’s accounts must be a conspiracy against him. This was more revelatory to me than Franken’s alleged actions.

Al Franken did the right thing by resigning, and he may make a comeback later. Tina Smith entered the Senate to fill Minnesota’s vacant seat on the same day that Doug Jones became Alabama’s new senator. I’m perpetually grateful that Roy Moore, a man accused of misusing his position of authority to sexually assault teenage girls and women, was not the person sworn in instead of Jones. But it was a narrow victory.

Of course it’s not just the political arena. I’m relieved that MPR cut ties with Garrison Keillor, another well-known liberal from Minnesota. Again, a pattern of sexualized mistreatment of women came to light, which MPR reported on extensively this past week.

In athletics, I’m horrified that Larry Nassar was able to molest over 100 women and girls in his positions with USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University, and I’m grateful to the dozens of victims who would no longer be silent. I’m pleased that, the day after his sentencing last week, two U.S. senators launched an inquiry into how the appalling abuse continued for two decades.

The list could go on and on. The behaviors had varying degrees of seriousness, but they share one thing in common — the men treated women (and sometimes girls) as objects rather than persons. This is wrong.

So, there is much work to be done, including the basics that affect women in Freeborn County — access to affordable birth control, child care, housing, job training and health care coverage, living wages, equal pay for equal work, paid maternity and family leave, and addressing domestic violence, elder abuse and sex trafficking.

Our work starts at the local level. Freeborn County DFL precinct caucuses will be next Tuesday at the Eagles Club on 205 W. William St. in Albert Lea. Registration begins at 6 p.m., and the caucuses convene at 7 p.m. Items on the agenda include conducting a straw poll for the governor’s race and submitting resolutions to be considered for the DFL platform.

The DFL ongoing platform already includes, under the subheading Civil, Human, and Constitutional Rights, the statement, “We oppose barriers to participation in society.” That should mean that silence and acquiescence to sexual degradation are not the price of admission for women and girls to any part of society.

Jennifer Vogt-Erickson is a member of the Freeborn County DFL Party.