Kate Kelly (feminist)
Kate Kelly | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Born | 1980/1981 (age 40–41)[1] Arizona, U.S. |
Education | Brigham Young University (BA) American University (JD) |
Occupation | Human rights lawyer |
Known for | Founder of Ordain Women | Equal Rights Amendment advocate |
Spouse(s) | J. Neil Ransom
(m. 2006; div. 2016) |
Website | www![]() |
Kathleen Marie Kelly, known as Kate Kelly, is an American activist, human rights lawyer, and Mormon feminist who founded Ordain Women, an organization advocating for the ordination of women to the priesthood in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Kelly was excommunicated from the LDS Church in 2014.[2] She is also a nationally-known advocate for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.[3]
Early life and education[]
Kelly was born in Arizona to Jim and Donna Kelly, one of five siblings. She grew up in Hood River, Oregon. Her mother is an attorney and her father a retired newspaper publisher and university administrator. Both parents were converts to the LDS Church, and her father at one time served as bishop of a local congregation.[1]
Kelly graduated from Brigham Young University (BYU) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 2006.[4] While at BYU, she organized a campus free speech protest of nearly 100 students concerning the firing of a university employee for criticizing student elections.[1][5] While at BYU, and for a time after she graduated, Kelly wrote for "The Mormon Worker," a Mormon left-leaning publication modeled after the Catholic Worker founded by Dorothy Day.[6] In 2010 Kelly founded "Mormon May Day" as a day for liberal or radical Mormons to hold a collective fast and make their voices heard within Mormonism on progressive themes.[7]
Kelly earned a Juris Doctor from the Washington College of Law at American University in 2012.[8]
Career[]
During Kelly's legal career, she has worked for several human rights organizations including the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Committee Against Torture, Women's Refugee Commission, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Legal Action Worldwide, the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, Planned Parenthood, Columbia Law School's Human Rights Institute, and Equality Now. She is the host of the podcast Ordinary Equality on the Wonder Media Network.[9][10]
Ordain Women[]
In May 2013, Kelly founded Ordain Women,[11] an organization advocating for the ordination of women to the priesthood in the LDS Church.[12] Local church leaders requested Kelly to cease her campaign.[13][14] Kelly subsequently demonstrated on Temple Square during the church's April 2014 General Conference,[13] after which she was excommunicated in June 2014 in absentia after declining to attend a disciplinary council.[15][16] She instead submitted a written defense through her representative Nadine Hansen, a fellow Mormon feminist attorney, and hundreds of letters on her behalf from supporters.[17]
In the weeks before and after her excommunication, Kelly urged followers to stay in the church and "raise hell" if they could do so while maintaining their mental and emotional health.[18][19] Kelly appealed her excommunication, first to her stake president,[20][21] then to the church's First Presidency, all of whom rejected the appeal.[22][23]
Kelly often states that “equality is not a feeling,”[24] meaning gender equality is something that can be measured and does not depend on the individual feelings of worthiness or individual women feeling valued by their community.[25]
Women's rights[]
In January 2017, Kelly helped plan the Utah contingent of the Women's March on Washington and helped organize several hundred women to attend the march in Washington D.C.[26] The following Monday she organized and emceed one of the largest marches in Utah's history on the State Capitol in Salt Lake City. At that rally, Kelly said, “I'm sick and tired of men making laws about our bodies and our choices and our lives without consulting us.”[27]
While at Columbia University’s Human Rights Institute, Kelly provided training and technical assistance to local governments engaged in implementing issues from the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.[28]
In May 2019, Kelly helped facilitate workshops in Uruguay and Argentina for the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed. Kelly then participated in workshops put on by the Rapporteurship in Geneva in September 2019 and New York in October, situations where the human rights of women and Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity minorities clash with the right to freedom of religion or belief.[29] The workshops culminated in a report which was presented to the Human Rights Council in early 2020.[30]
Kelly has long spoken out about sexual harassment and assault against women.[31] In January 2020, with a group of other women and activists, she performed the viral anti-rape protest anthem "Un Violador en Tu Camino" (The Rapist in Your Path) outside the Harvey Weinstein trial in New York City. Kelly said of the action, “pointing the finger of blame for sexual assault at the appropriate target ... was a cathartic experience, to feel our collective feminist power as a force for good."[32]
Equal Rights Amendment[]
In August 2012, the same year she graduated law school, Kelly attended her first rally for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) on the front law of the U.S. Capitol.[33] Kelly then helped revive the group Mormons for ERA, originally founded by excommunicated Mormon feminist Sonia Johnson.[34][35]
In 2017, after the women’s marches worldwide turned attention to women’s rights, Kelly helped draft an ERA ratification resolution in Utah (one of 15 unratified states at the time) and helped recruit state senator Jim Dabakis to sponsor the resolution.[36] The ERA has not been ratified in Utah and is opposed by the LDS Church,[37] but Kelly continues to advocate for ratification there.[38] Kelly said in Truthout that more interest in the ERA exists today because, "I think that women are realizing that nothing that we have is permanent. Nothing is too sacred to be rolled back, and things that we have taken for granted in the past are now up for grabs."[39] She is featured in the MSNBC documentary "This Happened: On Account of Sex" on the ERA[40] and attended the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties first official hearing on the ERA in almost 40 years on April 30, 2019.[41] For the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, Kelly wrote a piece for ReWire News connecting votes for women to the continued campaign to ratify the ERA saying, "Today, two fights are left unwon—universal suffrage and ratification of the ERA."[42]
In December 2019, Kelly led a group of ERA activists in a demonstration on Temple Square in Salt Lake City. The group sang new-twists on Christmas carols with lyrics about equality outside the Salt Lake Temple and then proceeded to project an "ERA YES" symbol, which was over three stories tall, on the LDS Church's Conference Center.[43]
In January 2020, Kelly launched a podcast called Ordinary Equality on the past, present and future of the ERA, taking the title of the podcast from a quote by Alice Paul, the author of the ERA in 1923, who said of the amendment: "Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality."[44] Ordinary Equality has been recommended by the Today Show and Marie Claire as well as featured on shows such as WNYC's All Of It with Alison Stewart.[45][46][47] The podcast was mentioned in a story about the ERA in the New York Times, "The Roadblocks to Equal Rights for Women, a Century Later" after the U.S. House of Representatives voted to remove the original deadline on ERA ratification in March 2021.[48]
Kelly has written about how the ERA will cover transgender people and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.[49] She also co-wrote a piece with Virginia delegate Danica Roem, the first out-and-seated transgender state legislator in U.S. history, called "The Equal Rights Amendment Can’t Be Defeated by Anti-Trans Scare Tactics" about the role transgender women are playing to get the amendment ratified.[50] Kelly wrote in The Advocate in August of 2020 that the LGTBQIA community needs to be more vocal in its support of the ERA, "to get the protection and recognition that well over 50 percent of the population deserves — for women, girls, nonbinary folx, our transgender siblings, and all marginalized genders and sexual orientations."[51] Because of her zeal for the ERA, Kelly was featured in a 2020 Glamour Magazine piece where she said her excommunication "was a gift because it set me free to work on other causes and things I am passionate about and places that actually need me and value my work" and that "that freedom of religion includes freedom from religion."[52]
On June 29, 2020, Kelly was co-counsel on an amicus brief filed on behalf of the ERA youth activism organization GenERAtion Ratify in the case Commonwealth of Virginia v. David S. Ferriero.[53] The amicus brief argues in support of "the plaintiff states’ effort to resolve the century-long movement to guarantee gender equality in the Constitution, we urge the court to not view the Equal Rights Amendment as only our grandmother’s fight. Rather, we urge the court also to recognize its importance to young and diverse advocates of this generation that the Amendment be added to the Constitution. Young advocates have led the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment since its inception. Supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment recognize the expressive function it serves and the important message it will send to young people: that gender equality is among our nation’s highest values... Both as an expression of our country’s values and as a means for change, the Amendment has the potential to further young Americans’ interests in a broader guarantee of gender equality in all aspects of American life.”[54]
Personal life[]
Kelly served an 18-month LDS mission in Barcelona, Spain, and as a result is a fluent Spanish speaker. She has also lived and worked in San Jose, Costa Rica and San Cristobal de Las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico.
Kelly married J. Neil Ransom in the Salt Lake Temple in 2006.[55] The couple were "childless by choice".[56] On March 14, 2016, Kelly confirmed she and her husband had divorced. On April 15, 2019, Kelly came out as queer on Twitter.[57] She is dating Catholic writer and theologian, Jamie Manson,[58] who she initially met at a women's ordination conference in 2015.[59] In January 2020 she was quoted for the first time in the media and identified as queer: "'As a queer woman, I cannot tell you how elated I am to finally see myself reflected in our nation’s most foundational document,' added Kelly."[60]
In October 2015, she participated in the attempted ordination of a female Roman Catholic priest coordinated by the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, an organization claiming affiliation with the Catholic Church.[61] Ordination of women to the Catholic priesthood goes against canon law and any known participants are automatically excommunicated.[62]
Kelly no longer claims religious affiliation with any particular denomination,[63] and in 2018 she founded her own feminist/womanist interreligious and inclusive celebration of women and nonbinary people of all faith traditions called Sacred Space, with Yale Divinity professor and Baptist preacher Eboni Marshall-Turman and trans Jewish activist Abby Stein.[64]
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Marostica, Laura (March 7, 2014). "Feminism in Faith: Kate Kelly's Mission to Ordain Mormon Women". BuzzFeed BuzzReads.
- ^ Stack, Peggy Fletcher Stack. "Two years after an excommunicated Kate Kelly sought a giant leap, Mormon feminists keep making small steps toward equity". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2017-05-25.
- ^ Kelly, Kate (interview). "House passes historic resolution for Equal Rights Amendment". NBC News. Retrieved 2020-07-07.
- ^ Sista Beehive and Sista Laurel (January 26, 2014), "Ordain Women (Kate Kelly & Suzette Smith)", SistasInZion.com, Sistas in Zion, archived from the original on March 21, 2015, retrieved June 24, 2014
- ^ "BYU Students Protest Firing". KSL.com. KSL-TV/KSL News Radio. AP. April 1, 2006.
- ^ Kelly, Kate (2011-08-05). "Mormon May Day: Reclaiming Our Voice". The Mormon Worker. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
- ^ Dehlin, John (2010-04-27). "147: Mormon May Day with Co-Founder Kate Kelly". Mormon Stories. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
- ^ "Kate Kelly". Columbia Law School. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
- ^ "Kate Kelly Esq. | Attorney & activist". Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- ^ "Kate Kelly". To the best of our KNOWLEDGE. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
- ^ "Mormon Women's Group Founder Kate Kelly Excommunicated". NBC News. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- ^ Peggy Fletcher stack and Michael McFall The Salt Lake Tribune. "Kate Kelly out as leader of Mormon group Ordain Women | The Salt Lake Tribune". Sltrib.com. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Walch, Tad (June 11, 2014). "Two Mormon activists say they are facing church discipline". Deseret News. Retrieved April 25, 2015.
- ^ "Letter to Kate Kelly - The Washington Post". Apps.washingtonpost.com. 2014-06-30. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
- ^ Walsh, Tad (June 23, 2014), "LDS bishop excommunicates Ordain Women founder", Deseret News
- ^ Holpuch, Amanda (2014-06-23). "Mormon church excommunicates Kate Kelly over women's advocacy work". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- ^ Hansen, Nadine. "STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF KATHLEEN MARIE KELLY" (PDF). Ordain Women. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
- ^ Kelly, Kate, "Episode 112: Kate Kelly on Being Disciplined by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints", Feminist Mormon Housewives Podcast, archived from the original on 2014-07-14, retrieved 2014-07-10
- ^ Kate Kelly of Ordain Women speaks about her excommunication from the LDS (Mormon) Church, The Salt Lake Tribune, June 24, 2014
- ^ Carlisle, Nate (July 24, 2014), "Kate Kelly appeals excommunication from Mormon church", The Salt Lake Tribune
- ^ Nancy (July 23, 2014), "Kate Kelly's Appeal to Her Stake President", Ordainwomen.org
- ^ Stack, Peggy Fletcher (October 31, 2014), "Kelly loses appeal, keeps fighting for Mormon membership", The Salt Lake Tribune
- ^ Stack, Peggy Fletcher (February 28, 2015), "Ordain Women's Kate Kelly loses last appeal; husband to resign from Mormon church", The Salt Lake Tribune
- ^ Welle (www.dw.com), Deutsche, World in Progress: Human rights lawyer Kate Kelly: 'Equality is not a feeling' | DW | 04.03.2020, retrieved 2020-06-24
- ^ Joanna Brooks, Rachel Hunt Steenblik, Hannah Wheelwright (2015-11-02). Mormon Feminism: Essential Writings. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. p. 265. ISBN 978-0-19-024803-1.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: date and year (link)
- ^ Walch, Tad (2017-01-21). "Utah women in Women's March on Washington say it is a new movement". Deseret News. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- ^ "'We raised our voices here': Massive women's march headlines Utah Legislature's opening day". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- ^ Human Rights At Home (2 May 2018). "Women's Rights on the Move: Coming to a City Near You!". lawprofessors.typepad.com. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
- ^ "New UN report on religious belief & the rights of women and the LGBTQ+ community". Equality Now. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- ^ "OHCHR | Annual reports". www.ohchr.org. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- ^ Bacchi, Umberto (2018-08-02). "Woman punched in Paris hits back with anti-harassment campaign". Reuters. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
- ^ Jha, Nishita. "Women Performed The Viral Chilean Anti-Rape Anthem Outside The Harvey Weinstein Trial". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
- ^ Johnson, Kimberly. "Start Me Up with Kimberley A. Johnson on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
- ^ Fabrizio, Doug. "Will Utah Be The 38th State to Ratify the ERA?". RadioWest. KUER. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
- ^ Pemberton, Jennifer. "When the Equal Rights Amendment Came to Utah". Utah Public Radio. Utah State University. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
- ^ "Flashback to the '70s: ERA again pushed in Utah Legislature". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- ^ Jacobs, Becky (3 December 2019). "LDS Church announces it still opposes Equal Rights Amendment as supporters rally at Capitol". Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
- ^ Kelly, Kate (26 August 2019). "Kate Kelly: Utah, let's ratify the ERA". Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
- ^ Walker, Lauren. "After Nearly a Century, 2020 May Usher in the Equal Rights Amendment". Truthout. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
- ^ "'This Happened: On Account of Sex' The Divide Between Tradition and Change". MSNBC. 28 February 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
- ^ "First Congressional Hearing on the ERA in 36 years". Equality Now. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
- ^ Kelly, Kate (Aug 18, 2020). "How to Make the Promise of Suffrage a Reality". Rewire.News. Retrieved 2020-09-01.
- ^ Guzmán, Jennifer. "We Wish You an Equal Christmas". Salt Lake City Weekly. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
- ^ "Wonder Media Network". Wonder Media Network. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
- ^ Ramberg, JJ (9 March 2020). "9 podcasts about remarkable ladies to listen to during Women's History Month". NBC News. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
- ^ Rodriguez, Bianca. "The 10 Best Educational Podcasts for Adults in 2020". Marie Claire. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
- ^ "Keepin' it 100: Virginia Set to Vote on the Equal Rights Amendment". All Of It with Allison Stewart. WNYC.
- ^ Gupta, Alisha Haridasani (2021-03-17). "The Roadblocks to Equal Rights for Women, a Century Later". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
- ^ Kelly, Kate (23 February 2019). "The ERA Is Queer and We're Here For It!". Advocate. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
- ^ Roem, Danica; Kelly, Kate. "The Equal Rights Amendment Can't Be Defeated by Anti-Trans Scare Tactics". Teen Vogue. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
- ^ Kelly, Kate (2020-08-07). "The ERA Is Queer, and It's in Joe Biden's 'Agenda For Women'". www.advocate.com. Retrieved 2020-09-01.
- ^ Singer, Jenny. "Kate Kelly—Excommunicated Mormon Feminist—Wants to Recruit You". Glamour. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- ^ "Brief for GenERAtion Ratify and Other Groups as Amici Curiae in Support of Plaintiffs" (PDF). Court Listener. 29 June 2020.
- ^ Thomsen, Jacqueline (30 June 2020). "How Women in Big Law Are Stepping Into the Court Fight Over the Equal Rights Amendment". National Law Journal. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
- ^ Stack, Peggy Fletcher (June 22, 2014). "Mormon Bishopric Wants More Time to Decide Kate Kelly's Fate". The Salt Lake Tribune.
- ^ Kelly, Kate. "488-490: Neil Ransom and Kate Kelly – After Kate's Excommunication". Momron Stories Podcast.
- ^ Kelly, Kate [@Kate_Kelly_Esq] (15 April 2019). "Hi everyone