Justice Walks April 2025

Author

Abby Anderson
April 16, 2025

Welcome to this month’s Justice Walk newsletter.

Every step on your journey, including opening this email, matters.

This month I’ll:

  • Share what’s on my mind

  • Recommend a resource and some brilliant folks to follow and suppo

  • Offer a reflection to help us get more in step with ourselves

Let’s get to it!

A circle containing all white circles is on the left, separate from a circle containing circles and other shapes in Black and shades of brown on the right.

They'd like to bring back segregation.

I'm not being alarmist, paranoid, or dramatic.

The big-picture intent of this administration is written into its executive orders and other rule changes.

Recently, the administration removed "explicit bans against segregation" from a provision in federal contracting language. An article in NPR explained:

"Kara Sacilotto, an attorney at the Wiley law firm in Washington, D.C., which specializes in federal contracts, speculates that the provision was flagged because it was revised under the Obama administration to include "gender identity."... "And so, along with [Trump's] other executive orders about gender identification, I would suspect that is the reason why this one got identified on the list."

The memo does not say to exclude just the "gender identity" part of the clause, however. It says to exclude the whole thing." (emphasis mine)

The administration’s targeting of trans folks was never just about trans folks. (To be clear, trans folks are experiencing dramatic, urgent, and immediate attacks to their humanity, dignity, and safety. I am not minimizing that reality).

Going after trans folks is a tactic to build a broad coalition of people who will agree that there are some humans who don't deserve rights, access to opportunity, or even to exist. Who will support and celebrate laws, language, and policies to remove that group's rights and existence, e.g. removing trans folks from the military; erasing the T from LGBTQIA+; denying trans folks health care; destroying passports folks received with their gender marker as “x,” intentionally misgendering folks.

Once we've agreed that some "other" can be sacrificed, that there is a group of humans who are not worthy of existing, that it is O.K., in fact, important to eliminate a group...no one is safe.

They COULD have just taken out the part about gender identity (again, that would be very bad on its own). They didn't. They took out an explicit ban on segregation of any type.

No matter who you are, this is about you. This isn’t a thought experiment or a “what would I do if…” scenario. The explicit sorting of folks into “worthy of life” and “unworthy of life” categories is happening.

To be clear, right now, discrimination is still illegal according to state and federal law.

If we want to keep it that way, we have to fight for it.

Here are some tips:

  • If you, like me, still have relative physical safety, please use it.

  • Learn what more directly-impacted people are asking for and do those things.

  • Call your legislators' offices. Call your attorneys' general offices.

    • If your representatives and attorney general are fighting back, thank them.

    • If they are complicit, let them know your vote is on the line.

  • Find an local organization serving trans folks and make a donation or attend an event. Let trans folks know you see and honor their full humanity.

We ARE powerful. Our voices DO matter.

Learning Resource

The Super Bowl was two months ago (doesn’t it seem like two years!?). 🙃 😉 

Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show contained multiple powerful messages around race, belonging, democracy, and living in America. I’ll be honest, most of it went over my head.

Josh Johnson broke it all down and explained the layers of meaning and significance in a recent show. I learned a ton and can’t recommend it enough. Click above to watch.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Folks to Follow

Erin Corrine Johnson is doing amazing work internationally with Hola Magnolia Identityworks and The Reparations Work. Erin is a coach, organizer, artist, leader, teacher, movement incubator, and visionary. Check her out on LinkedIn or visit her website and learn about her upcoming Future of DEI Summit. (You know I’m attending!)

Jenora Ledbetter leads the Self Care Network doing transformative work with organizations looking to strengthen leadership, culture, and organizational health. Jenora uses data-driven analysis to identify the root causes of the challenges folks are facing and develop recommendations for how they can move forward differently. She’s a great follow on LinkedIn and I’m grateful she’s also become a friend.

Taking Care of Our Feet

Ash Creek entering Long Island Sound as the surface of the water reflects the clouds - photo by me

“What are you doing to stay grounded?” the facilitator of a recent call asked as the check-in question. I appreciate how intentional folks in my circles have been at reminding each other to rest, do the things that help us regulate our systems, lean on community, and prioritize joy.

Getting outside grounds me. Being in nature. Watching the tides come in, go out at a rhythm undeterred by our human nonsense. The red-winged blackbirds and osprey return because it’s time for them to do so. The daffodils and tulips come up. They have stored energy and germinated all winter. Now they bloom. I remember I am small. In the best way.

What are YOU doing to stay grounded?

Looking for more resources, recommendations, and tools for your journey? Upgrade to a paid subscription for either $10/month or “Name My One-Time Gift.”

Inspiration For Our Walk

People speak of hope as if it is this delicate, ephemeral thing made of whisperrs and spider's webs. It's not. Hope has dirt on her face, blood on her knuckles, the grit of the cobblestones in her hair, and just spat out a tooth as she rises for another go.

This definition of hope always gets me fired up. It reminds me that hope is a lot like love - perceived to be an adjective, a feeling, soft and cuddly. Actually hope, like love, is a verb. A practice. Shown through our actions. It’s not about how we feel. It’s about the choices we make and the visions we are willing to work to bring to fruition.

There was some discussion online about this framing of hope promoting a “grind” and “burnout culture” mindset. Fair point. For me, like almost always, the both/and is true. It’s not about rising for another go in a continual loop til we drop. It’s about doing things imperfectly, scared, and without certainty of how they will turn out. I’m going to rest. And when I rise, I rise ready for the hard work of building that which I want to see.

Ready for the next step? 

  • Forward this newsletter to a friend or colleague

  • Book a FREE one-hour discovery call to learn how I might partner with you or your organization to embed equity and belonging work into your everyday practices.

  • Follow me on LinkedIn 

Comment from a coaching partner:

“Abby is a wealth of knowledge with resources and tools readily available to offer me the help I need to create a culture change within my organization. Her compassion for my personal and professional journey in advancing equity work, in addition to her transparency of her own growth journey has helped to make an emotional and often overwhelming ideal become a reality. Because of Abby, I know culture change is slow, but possible, personal growth is painful but necessary, equity work is hard but imperative.”

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