Río L. just wanted a doctor who understood.

Río is a transmasculine person who, for much of 2020, was trying to have a gender affirming procedure called top surgery, where the breast tissue of the chest is removed.��

“When COVID-19 canceled all my plans for 2020, I realized I had a unique opportunity and window of time to attempt to pursue top surgery,” said Río, a Virginia resident. “I fought to get it covered by insurance, which was a challenge.”��

Río, who uses they/them pronouns, said medical professionals often misunderstand their experience and often misgendered them. They also met resistance from insurance companies, which didn’t consider their surgery “medically necessary”.��

They finally were approved for surgery, but only after hours spent on the phone. Río concedes many people don’t have the time to dedicate to navigating the insurance process, not to mention the additional hurdles posed by pandemic, like delays to elective procedures and the need to self isolate before and after.��

“I have the time to devote to hours of phone calls with insurance and health care providers, time off work, and ability to self-isolate to stay Covid negative,” Río said in an email interview. “It seems like it would be really difficult to navigate this process with less resources.”��

Río’s challenges to accessing gender affirming health care are not unique.�� According to the , almost a quarter of the transgender community has been refused medical care because of their identity and over 20% of transgender individuals live without healthcare.��

Experts and activists say that the pandemic has further exacerbated these trends.��

Barriers to care��

As with other surgical procedures, physicians must first approve a patient for the procedure and file for insurance approval. Gender affirming procedures, like Río’s, are usually categorized as elective by insurance companies.

On the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many hospitals canceled elective procedures in an effort to mitigate the spread of the disease within their facilities. Additionally, many physicians transitioned their services online.��

has been offering gender affirming healthcare in Washington, D.C., since the 1970s, but since the pandemic, they’ve been unable to offer most of their in-person services and are instead relying on telehealth calls.

Britt Walsh, director of Gender Affirming Care at Whitman-Walker, said that because coronavirus cases are increasing nationally, most health care personnel at the clinic are having to work remotely to meet patients’ needs.��

“While we know that there’s some people who can’t access a video visit, we can have phone visits so we make sure we don’t leave anyone behind,” Walsh said.

After receiving a physician’s approval, the patient must then seek coverage through their insurance provider. Every insurance company is different, but overall, insurance coverage of a procedure is granted for a year’s time frame. Should a surgery be delayed, paperwork must be resubmitted for approval for the next year.

That means transgender people who received coverage for their gender affirming procedures during 2020 only for it to be delayed will likely have to resubmit paperwork to receive procedure coverage for 2021.��

Taylor Richman is a transgender woman living in the Savannah, Georgia, area who is nearly a year into receiving gender affirming therapies.��

While she said the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t directly complicated her receiving treatments, finding insurance as a trans person has been challenging.��

“I’m a Type 1 diabetic, so I’m trying to find insurance that will help me with my diabetes but at the same time help me go down the course I want to go down,” Richman said.��

Richman said she’s still looking for an insurance company that fits her healthcare needs, so she’s currently seeing a doctor outside of insurance for her hormone therapies.��

is one national organization helping LGBTQ individuals like Richman find the right health insurance for their needs under the Affordable Care Act.��

Katie Keith, leader of the organization, said because so many insurance companies don’t see top and bottom surgeries as critically important healthcare, many transgender individuals have to fight to receive the care that they need.����

“If your insurance company denies something, you should appeal, appeal, appeal, is what we tell people,” Keith said. “It’s a real pain in the ass, but oftentimes things are reversed if you appeal.”��

Keith admitted the pandemic has shed light on not just the insurance gaps within the community but also the importance of insurance during a national health crisis.��

“I think a lot of folks have found it even more challenging than normal to get the coverage that they need, especially if they were already having trouble getting coverage before now,” Keith said.

Organizations around the country have been attempting to meet the increased health care needs within the transgender community.��������

Eugene, Oregon-based offers both in-person and online resouces for transgender individuals nationwide, like surgical financial assistance, hormone therapies and shapewear shipment.

However, Jeff Main, secretary of the nonprofit’s board of directors, said its volunteers were unable to work at the center.��

“For a few months we had to suspend shipments altogether, and only recently were we able to mail again,” Main said. “This means that our recipients are without access to these gender affirming resources and are far more likely to, unfortunately, rely on unsafe binding techniques.”��

Point of Pride began accepting applications for its , which helps cover the costs of gender-affirming surgeries for many transgender people whose savings for surgeries have been impacted by the pandemic.����

“We expect the pandemic to have lasting effects on trans folks as they struggle to rebuild and afford care, particularly when it comes to access to surgery,” he said.

Job discrimination fosters more challenges

According to the Human Rights Campaign and PSB Research studies, 17% of LGBTQ individuals lost their jobs because of the pandemic as compared to 13% of their heterosexual peers.����

Many transgender Americans are not protected from discrimination in the work place, which increases their likelihood for unemployment. It can also increase their chances of becoming a victim of transphobic violence, addiction and homelessness, according to the .��

And according to the transgender women of color had the highest rate of sex trade participation, followed by Latinx transgender individuals. These two populations are chronically underserved, but D.C. organization , or HIPS, offers resources to local sex workers, such as shelter, a clothing closet and health care services.��

David Sternberg, HIPS clinical manager, said the pandemic forced the group to close its shelter with showers, laundry and community gathering spaces.��

“It really was once a hopping place, but there was no way to use those spaces safely with social distancing so we did have to close that center,” Sternberg said. “We’ve been able to open it in small ways throughout the pandemic, but we don’t have the traffic anymore.”

Despite the temporary closure, he said many of the group’s services have been able to continue uninterrupted as they were already virtual or mobile or have been converted to such.

But as the pandemic continues, healthcare and employment inequities will continue to widen, which could force thousands of transgender people like Río and Richman to go without critical healthcare that suits their individual needs as well as protections that safeguard them from discrimination, according to the and the .��

“The pandemic made this whole process both easier and more difficult,” Río said. Easier because of more time to recover from surgery. And more difficult because “less ability to see my closest friends,” they said.

“And much concern over possible delays due to COVID.”

The post Local LGBTQ groups bolster resources to trans community during pandemic first appeared on 91����.

Local universities, non-profit groups, museums and organizations are having to re-examine the events they’re offering to their communities and students.��

, a local organization in operation since 2017, hosts in-person college-level lectures at local pubs like the Bier Baron Tavern, La Pop, the Social Circle Bistro and Church Hall, all scattered throughout D.C.��

Since the pandemic, the group has hosted online events.

Peter Schmidt, founder and C.E.O. of Profs and Pints, said that keeping the lectures going online was challenging at first, but has paid off since the pandemic shows no signs of stopping.��

“I had somebody who works in a think tank and writes about Eastern Europe and Asia and a week before we knew really how bad things were going to be in the United States he said to me, ‘No, your life is going to completely change,’” Schmidt said, in regard to learning about the pandemic.��

With that advanced warning in mind, Schmidt said he took a few months off and was able to bring back Profs and Pints virtually, now reaching audiences into the hundreds on CrowdCast.

The has taken to hosting several day-long virtual events to educate indigenous tribes about policy issues, allow for networking among members and celebrate their culture.

This year’s 77th annual convention and marketplace was held virtually with sessions and breakout groups with titles like “Communications for Tribal Governments” and “Northwest Tribal Nations Cultural Night.”��

has hosted events virtually since the pandemic began, with virtual reading time for kids, workshops for adults, job seeking programs, virtual crafting events, senior wellness events, Dungeons and Dragons events and more held throughout the week.��

Chevy Chase branch manager Felicity Ann Brown said their events have gone smoothly so far and have even reached international audiences.��

“In a lot of ways it’s like we’re able to offer things online that are more accessible than they have been before,” Brown said. “There’s definitely a lot of need.”

The staff at local touring group has seen the pandemic as an opportunity to get even more creative with their event planning, according to Greg Bland, C.E.O.

Where once the group had originally been limited to in-person tours, Bland said they are now hosting virtual trivia nights, virtual tours of locations beyond D.C., dueling piano music events, magic shows and more.��

“On the one end, keeping up with the level of financial success has been difficult and requires a lot of patience. On the other end, it’s been a lot of fun,” Bland said. “Our creativity has allowed us to do things we’ve never done before and has allowed us to get closer to our customers.”

Creativity’s effect on participation has been less clear though.

“People come and go in spurts,” Bland said. “One week participation will drop off by 50%, the next week participation will be up by 70%.”��

He added that a lot of local universities, businesses and corporations have hired the group to host private events for employees or students.��

The District remains in its holding pattern of Stage 2 of the as per Mayor Bowser’s mandate. Currently there are over 18,000 cases of coronavirus within the region with many standards yet to be reached before Stage 3 is implemented.��

The post Online events continue, despite virtual fatigue and no end in sight first appeared on 91����.

Decriminalize Nature D.C. proposer Melissa Lavasani said the initiative was about trying to normalize mental health along with psychedelics. “D.C. tonight has proven that we belong here, and psychedelics have a major part in how we can heal as a community, how we can heal as a city and how we can heal as a country” Lavasani said.

In a , 80% of long time smokers who had tried and failed to quit their nicotine addiction prior to the study had success after taking a controlled dosage of psilocybin, the psychedelic component of naturally occurring entheogens.��

conducted in 2016 by New York University and Johns Hopkins, researchers found that more than 80% of cancer patients showed massive reductions in their anxiety and depression after taking a psychedelic compound — a shift that continued beyond six months after the study was conducted. Many of the patients reported also having mystical experiences which brought them a sense of centeredness or internalized peace after their “trip” was over.

Each of the four entheogens will still be considered illegal under federal law and in many other states across the nation.����

Decriminalize Nature D.C. is the campaign organization spearheading the initiative, also known as the “Entheogenic Plant and Fungus Policy Act of 2020.” The group says on their that the change has the capability to help many suffering from a variety of mental illnesses who would benefit from psychedelics but until now have not had access to the natural substance.��

This is not the first time that D.C. has decriminalized a naturally occurring substance. In 2015, the District decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana for adults age 21 and older.��

A portion of the initiative’s body states that the Metropolitan Police Department will now make non-commercial growing, purchasing, transportation and distribution of entheogenic plants and fungi among its lowest priorities for arrests.����

While it may be illegal in most of the United States, there are several other countries that have varying levels of legalization: Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Austria, Canada, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Italy, Mexico, Portugal and Spain.��

is a psychedelics retreat center in Jamaica which offers visitors the opportunity to receive psychedelics in a controlled, vacation-like setting along the shoreline.��

Retreat business director Mike Ljubsa said his experiences with psychedelics transformed his mental health to the extent that he no longer suffers from depression.��

“It’s been a tool that’s helped me overcome a lot of things,” Ljubsa said. “It’s all been through a lot of mushroom use and a few LSD experiences.”

Ljubsa said mushrooms have always been a part of human existence and he believes they have the capability to heal a lot of individuals at many different levels of human experience.

As American mycologist and author Paul Stamets wrote in his book Mycelium Running, “Mushrooms are bringing us a message from nature.”

Adam Eidinger is an alumni member of American University and the treasurer for Decriminalize Nature D.C. He said to not decriminalize the plants would not only be counter-intuitive but would also negatively impact locals within the District.��

“They’re growing wild in Rock Creek Park, in people’s front lawns and backyards. They’re all over the place. There are numerous psychedelic mushrooms that grow wild here,” Eidinger said.��

Eidinger said there are local, natural medicine healers and shamans who usually administer natural treatments that utilize naturally occurring entheogens, but because of D.C.’s restrictions, they have had to go elsewhere to conduct their business.��

“Why should they have to travel to New York or to Mexico?” Eidinger said. “There are shamans that will come to D.C. and if they know that things are tolerated here to some extent then they could have a ceremony with ayahuasca, for example, here.”��

Matthew Johnson, Ph.D., is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at John Hopkins University. In the book How to Change Your Mind, Johnson called psychedelics a biological reboot.��

“Psychedelics can be used to change all kinds of behaviors, not just addiction. It can ‘dope-slap’ people out of their story,” Johnson wrote.��

, a weekly online and biannual print publication that focuses on psychedelics, publishes educational information for those who don’t know much about entheogens and their health benefits and also offers online workshops like their Double Blind 101: How to Grow Mushrooms and Double Blind 101: Using Psychedelics for Growth.

DoubleBlind editor-in-chief Shelby Hartman, veteran “tripper,” said entheogen treatment can open up many internalized doors for an individual who’s trying psychedelic treatment and that there’s more to entheogens than what meets the eye.��

“You have to be in a place psychologically, emotionally, where you want to have this experience, so if and when things get challenging you are prepared for it and able to move through it rather than resisting it,” Hartman said.��

She added that while there is research being done on some entheogens to manipulate how an individual undergoing treatment will experience it, “for now, the trip is part of the deal.”��

After election results are certified by the D.C. Board of Elections, the initiative will be formally passed along to Congress. Since Washington, D.C. is not a state, the legislation will be subject to congressional approval. If approved by Congress within 30, Initiative 81 will be implemented and published as law for the District.

The post DC Initiative 81 passes, making psychedelic therapies accessible first appeared on 91����.

The post AUDIO: Sports betting on the ballot in Md first appeared on 91����.

Plans for this Women’s March were made public just hours after Justice Ginsberg’s death was announced on Sept. 18, as people across the United States and around the world mourned the loss of a progressive icon.����

Attendees joined up at Freedom Plaza, listened to a line-up of local activists and marched to the National Mall.������

Though the march was created by and for female-identifying individuals, not all attendees were such. One man named Alan, who declined to share his last name due to safety reasons, said he’s been coming to every Women’s March since its beginning in 2017.��

Alan held a sign that riffed on President Trump’s claim of being a “stable genius.”

“My sign is multi-leveled in meaning… it’s also a polite way of calling him a name,” Alan said. “It also makes reference to how he treats women.”��

He said he believes this March will send a strong message about what people want during this election season.��

“If you read these signs, they’re all statements based on what we want out of people. We need to turn this thing around and start working for the people, not just the 1%,” Alan said.��

Another family of protestors sat in the plaza with their dog in a pull wagon wearing a bandana which read “I Bite Racists.”��

One of the family members, a young adult named Jacob, who declined to share his last name due to security reasons, said he was attending the march to support women’s rights.��

“We’re focused on wanting to bring about change by speaking out, because that’s really the only way good things will happen — if people speak up about what they like and what they dislike,” he said.��

Some attendees came from out of town and out of state.��

Teri Rankin, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, attended the protest as a member of the Chattanooga Moms for Social Justice, a group of primarily middle class, white women who promote radical change.

Rankin said it was important, as a mother, to get to the march and show her daughter that all American people have power. “Power to the people. This is a country by the people for the people,” she said. “And we have to take it back.”

‘We decide our futures’��

After milling around the plaza, hoisting up protest signs and cheering each other on with chants of revolution, protestors then listened as various speakers took to the platform to rally march attendees.��

Hope Butler Khodaei, a woman of the Piscataway tribe, a Native American nation indigenous to the Potomac region, sang a welcome greeting and land acknowledgement to protestors.��

“Oh Great Eagle, King of the sky, lift our Spirit up and carry us high. Wings of strength that float along, take away the weak and make us strong. Make us strong. Strong. Make us strong,” she sang.��

D.C. local Nee Nee Taylor, one of the core organizers for the Black Lives Matter D.C. group, demanded public police reform and statehood for the District.��

“For those that don’t know, Washington, D.C. is not a state which means we lack the power to make basic decisions about our city or holding our representatives responsible,” Taylor said. “D.C.’s systematic disenfranchisement comes from a legacy of racism and bigotry.”

Jenny Lawson, a march organizer and executive director of Planned Parenthood, said she believed Americans could not afford four more years of a Trump administration.��

“We cannot afford four more years of this administration attacking our access to reproductive health and rights,” Lawson said. “Because in this election, we decide our futures.”

Since the Trump administration’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court as Justice Ginsberg’s replacement, women have begun voicing their fear of losing their rights to vital women’s healthcare needs should the high court overturn Roe V. Wade. The Senate will vote on Barrett’s nomination on Oct. 26, and just two weeks later, America will know who its next president will be.��

Jess Morales Rocketto, director of domestic worker’s protections group Care In Action, reminded those who are fearful of their rights as citizens.��

“Nobody should tell us what we should do with our bodies. We should already have a White House that actually cares about keeping us alive,” Rocketto said.

Marches across the East Coast

In addition to the D.C. rally, hundreds of women’s marches took place Saturday, all over the United States.

Athena Scalise Waitt was one of the coordinators for the Herndon, Virginia, Women’s March, RISE UP on the Herndon Town Green, along with Brenna Danatzko and Coco Buck.��

Their event featured speakers as well such as Virginia state Senator Jennifer Boysko (D-V), Sean Perryman of the Fairfax County NAACP and others.����

“I find it imperative that all daughters, regardless of their parents’ political leanings, should have a right to a more equal future,” Scalise Waitt said. “I think pandemic or no pandemic, our country is going in the wrong direction.”

Sterling, Virginia, Women’s March coordinator Dona Dickinson said she believes it’s important for individuals to use their voices in public to raise awareness about social justice moving in the wrong direction.����

“I think even if we can’t all be downtown, that all over the place wherever we can be, we need to stand up and stand in public and say this is wrong and we disagree with it,” Dickinson said. “We cannot stand down. We cannot cede our ground.”

Dickinson also said she’s been visiting President Trump’s golf course over the past few months during the pandemic, holding up a sign with the ever-climbing death toll numbers. She said she hopes President Trump sees it as he drives to the course because she believes he should have managed the pandemic better.��

A.J. Sanchez joined the Women’s March in Philadelphia. He said he felt more than obligated to participate. Sanchez also said if Trump wins this upcoming election, he expects the majority will riot against another four years.��

“As we the people, we are fed up. We are tired of the hate that the President has been spewing,” Sanchez said.��

Organizers of the Women’s March are planning another D.C. rally in the early spring months of 2021.��

The post Thousands of women march to protest Trump administration first appeared on 91����.

Now, as the pandemic appears to be slowing in certain parts of the country and multiple pharmaceutical companies are developing vaccines, museums are starting to reopen using new systems and approaches to keep visitors safe.

The was one of the first museums to reopen after the initial closure of all museums in the D.C. area.��

Aliza Bran, media relations manager at the museum, said the museum quickly switched over to offering individuals digital programming after the initial closure, focusing on monthly spy chats offered online and trivia challenges once or twice a month.��

“It’s a lot of fun, and we have new material based on whatever theme that’s chosen,” Bran said.

Bran said the museum is currently offering a family program for 8-13 year olds called “Spies in Disguise: Halloween Edition.” The program is a webinar where families can meet former CIA Chief of Disguise Jonna Mendez and professional makeup artist Roger Riggle and learn the art of spy disguises.

“We’re trying to make it fun and keep it fun,” Bran said.

Smithsonian Institution museums are utilizing free-timed entry passes where visitors can register for a time slot, plan to arrive at the time in a waiting line socially distanced apart from others, then be scanned in by Smithsonian personnel. Others utilize a similar system where visitors can purchase tickets online.

Some visitors are less enthusiastic about the reopening process, as they are still concerned about being infected.��

“For me, no, I have not visited any museums,” said Cara Todd, a resident and graduate student in the District. She said she’s both busy with schoolwork on the weekend and “low-key paranoid” about COVID-19.��

Although the declined to comment for this story, they did point to the protocols in place, all of which are detailed on the museum’s website in order to keep visitors safe.

Other open Smithsonian facility changes include closures of various exhibits that involve more hands-on approaches, children’s play areas, retail shops and cafes within the museums and museum hour alterations.

The , while welcoming visitors, has opted to close some of its more heavily-trafficked locations in the park such as its visitors center, certain pathways, panda exhibit and Asia trail, and a few others.��

In addition, there are ample cleaning, distancing and monitorization processes that ensure that any and all visitors will be safe and protected from the virus while visiting the establishments of their choice.

Father of two and area local Matt Smith said he feels completely comfortable taking his children to the zoo even with the pandemic going on.

“It’s been a solid experience. A few of the exhibits are unfortunately closed, but other than that, it’s been perfect weather so we’ve enjoyed being outside,” he said.

Some museums like the have taken to advising visitors to follow protocols in a tongue-in-cheek way, calling them “The COVID Commandments” listed both inside the museum and on the website with instructions like “Thou shalt follow directions provided by Museum of the Bible staff,” and “Thou shalt follow the recommended flow path.”��

According to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s , the District is currently in Phase 2 of the reopening process. The city has already met a few criteria for the process of entering Phase 3, with a current positivity rate of less than 3% and sufficient healthcare capacity has been maintained in District hospitals without a surge. Still, Bowser has extended the city’s emergency order on Monday, effective through Dec. 31.��

Many area museums still remain closed, including the Library of Congress, the National Geographic Museum, the Washington National Cathedral, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Lincoln Theatre, Ford’s Theatre and the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.

The post Amid pandemic, museums slowly reopen in DC first appeared on 91����.

Melissa Malzkuhn and Lorna Quandt, Ph.D., launched , which is funded by a grant from the . The idea to begin this unprecedented research group began in 2019 after the professors realized researchers struggled to stay abreast of what was happening in the field.

“There’s a gap in having no central hub, no core, no heart for bringing these fields together,” Quandt said, referring to technological developments in deaf research.��

They hope the network will open more professional opportunities for new researchers to engage in a dynamic field. Without CREST, it would be difficult to advance research at this level because training and collaboration is necessary, Quandt said.

They also created the network because they noticed too few deaf and hearing-impaired individuals were involved in research. The network will address the need for a pipeline for young researchers and deaf individuals into the research community, Malzkuhn said. “We want their participation in the field but also others who just have a general interest in a place to connect and join in collaboration and partnership,” she said.��

The CREST network was preceded by another research lab and collaborative effort with a variety of departments at Gallaudet University that paved the way for the new network, including Deaf Studies and Deaf Space and Urban Planning. Malzkuhn is one of the four trainers for the program.����

Motion Light Lab began in 2009 as a place for people to meet to analyze the science behind resources for the deaf community, such as interactive storytelling, gesture-recognition technology and architecture and deaf space. Some of the lab’s projects have been sponsored by the National Science Foundation, beginning in 2018 as a project to innovate new exploratory research in Signing Avatars and Immersive Learning or SAIL. While many researchers have already explored�� virtual speaking avatars, the helpful possibilities for virtual singing avatars in virtual reality and other learning environments are still being developed.����

“Before corona happened, we submitted this, and we had a plan in place for an in-person workshop,” Malzkuhn said of the CREST network. “Now it’s up in the air whether we’ll be going completely virtual or not, but we’ll have to see what happens.”

The training program called or VL2, while based out of Gallaudet University, is offered at over 15 schools and labs throughout the United States. Each training offers a new opportunity to learn about the latest technologies becoming available for the deaf and hearing impaired community and how they can be used at home and in educational settings to promote deaf literacy and education.

Gallaudet University continues to be a flagship in research and education for the deaf community by the deaf community, because of scholars like Dr. Lorna Quandt and Melissa Malzkuhn. The institution was originally incorporated by Congress in the mid-1800s to establish a school for the deaf and blind called the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and Blind. Many name changes and program advancements came later, including its renaming to Gallaudet College in 1954 in honor of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, the founder of the Connecticut-based American School for the Deaf. The college earned its university status by the 1980s.

“It feels very powerful to be able to say and have the National Science Foundation agree to give us the support for our idea that the people who should be at the heart of this network should be Gallaudet University,” Quandt said.

The post Gallaudet University launches new deaf research network�� first appeared on 91����.

To experience a little of what the vigil was like yourself, listen to the audio embedded below, recorded that night.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday, Sep. 18, after losing her final battle with metatastic pancreatic cancer. Ginsburg has battled cancer four times with pancreatic, lung, and colon cancer.��

She leaves behind an incredible legacy, not only in her personal life but in the life that she lead as a Supreme Court Justice working to uphold the highest laws of the United States.��

Her career at the Supreme Court lasted 27 years as the longest serving woman, but Ginsburg’s career in law as a whole lasted much longer than that in a male-dominated legal culture who did not welcome her.��

Ginsburg was born Joan Ruth Bader in Brooklyn, New York on March 15, 1933. She received degrees from Cornell University, Harvard Law School, and Columbia Law School. After teaching at Rutgers University Law School and at Columbia University, she served on the general counsel of the ACLU and its National Board of Directors. She was placed by then President Jimmy Carter to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1980 and on June 14, 1993, Ginsburg accepted then President Bill Clinton’s nomination to the Supreme Court.��

Many of her most well-known cases tackled issues of women’s rights, discrimination in the workplace and other socially impactful cases. Her first case in 1996 was one that directly challenged the Virginia Military Institute’s all-male admissions policy. The final decision was that the state-funded school would have to shed its misogynistic policy and allow women to attend the institution.

It’s because of her rulings and decidedly feminist views that she began to be heralded as a heroine of womankind and an icon to be admired among many within the feminist movement.����

In another case, Chief Justice John Roberts led the majority of the Court in a decision that essentially invalidated a portion of the Voting Rights Act that had forced districts, often in the Southern states, within the nation to undergo federal oversight before altering any voting changes. It was her written dissent in this case that earned her the nickname “Notorious RBG” from an admiring law student which would be touted until her death and beyond as a hallmark for her passion for justice.��

She wrote this in her dissent, “throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”

Ginsburg was at first reluctant to accept the title of notorious, as she found nothing “notorious” about herself or her views. When it was explained to her that the nickname was a derivative of Brooklyn rapper “The Notorious B.I.G.,” – she told her family, “In the word the current generation uses, it’s awesome”.��

There are throw blankets, pop art posters, bobblehead dolls, pins, quote books, stickers, biographies, pillows, action figures, coffee mugs, magnets depicting RBG. Scientists even discovered a new kind of praying mantis in 2016 and dubbed it Ilomantis ginsburgae. In 2018, Felicity Jones portrayed Ginsburg in the film “On The Basis Of Sex”.����

Ginsburg was also known to wear a variety of dissent collars, used for when she dissented from the majority decision on the Supreme Court, when Justice Kavanaugh was appointed, and when President Trump took office. The collars were often intricate and beautiful in design. Katie Couric once interviewed Ginsburg about her collar collection and asked what they meant to the justice symbolically.��Ginsburg told her, “You know, the standard robe is made for a man because it has a place for the shirt to show, and the tie. So Sandra Day O’Connor and I thought it would be appropriate if we included as part of our robe something typical of a woman. So I have many, many collars.”

With the loss of such a liberal icon of the high court, Americans are now looking ahead to the November election and the potential that President Trump will try to appoint a new Supreme Court judge to take Ginsburg’s place. ��

Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be the first woman in history to be laid in state at the U.S. Capitol this Friday, Sep. 25. in the National Statutory Hall. A private ceremony will be held for family members and friends early Wednesday at the Supreme Court, and the public is invited to honor her on Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and again on Thursday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. under the portico. She will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery next week.

The post Mourners gather to remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg first appeared on 91����.