Blog of Rights
Alicia
Gay
Alicia Gay is a senior communications strategist for the Center of Liberty at the national ACLU; this is her second tenure with the ACLU. Her past experience includes developing social media campaigns, creating extensive messaging platforms and conducting media outreach. Alicia has a B.A. in Public Policy from Brown University.
05/16/2013
Marriage for Same-Sex Couples

Bringing Marriage to "Modern Family"

By Alicia Gay, ACLU at 10:34am

You might be asking yourself: What does Modern Family have to do with an upcoming landmark Supreme Court case about the freedom to marry? Well, the ACLU launched a campaign today urging Modern Family's producers to script a wedding episode for popular gay characters Mitchell Pritchett and Cameron Tucker. The campaign comes as Americans await the Supreme Court's decisions on two important LGBT equality cases challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California's Prop 8. The ACLU is direct counsel in the DOMA case, United States v. Windsor. Additionally, a stream of states have recently passed marriage equality measures.

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04/12/2013
Abortion Legislation

The Battle to Shut Down Virginia's Abortion Clinics

By Alicia Gay, ACLU at 12:43pm

After considerable arm twisting by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, today the Virginia Board of Health approved medically unnecessary regulations designed to force many women's health care centers in Virginia to shut their doors. These costly and unprecedented regulations require many women's centers to meet the building requirements as if they were newly constructed mini-hospitals. The retroactive application of these guidelines to existing health centers is excessive and inappropriate.

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02/24/2012
Celebrate Black History

Ain’t I a Woman?

By Alicia Gay, ACLU at 1:20pm

Recently, a colleague here at the ACLU sent around a story about an African-American woman’s experience giving birth that literally left me crying at my desk.

Birthing While Black, was written in the aftermath of the Blue Ivy Carter, luxury delivery rooms hype, but I’m sure Bey wouldn’t be able to relate to what Denene Millner went through. In advance of giving birth, Denene paid $800 on top of usual hospital fees for what she describes as a “Cadillac birthing experience.” Instead of receiving the posh experience she paid for she “was treated like a 14-year-old drug-addicted welfare queen, there to push out yet another daddy-less baby.” Her baby was immediately (and inexplicably) tested for drugs, she was put in a crowded room with other mothers and infants, was treated rudely by hostile hospital staff that were surprised when her husband walked in because who could ever believe a Black woman would be married when she has a child?

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08/30/2011
Abortion Insurance Ban

The State Strategy: Abortion Foes Undermine Access to Health Care State-by-State

By Alicia Gay, ACLU at 3:53pm

In a recent New York Times editorial, the Times highlights the mounting trend of efforts at the state level to make access to abortion care as onerous as possible for women. At the heart of the Times' argument is an ACLU case challenging a Kansas law that prohibits insurance companies from including coverage for abortion in their comprehensive plans.

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08/01/2011
Sharia

ACLU Lens: The Truth Behind the Anti-Sharia Movement

By Alicia Gay, ACLU at 2:52pm

Over the past few years, anti-Sharia organizations and politicians have introduced versions of anti-Sharia legislation in 26 states -- with some bills expressly singling out Sharia law for condemnation, and others sweeping Islamic law under broader categories of “foreign” or “international” law. The ACLU is currently working to overturn an example of this kind of legislation in Oklahoma.

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12/14/2011

12 Days of Religious Liberty - Day 1

By Alicia Gay, ACLU at 12:39pm

During what is often referred to as the holiday season, a variety of cultures and religions honor an equally diverse number of both religious and secular traditions. Christmas, Hanukkah, and Bodhi Day are just some of the religious holidays that are celebrated this time of year. And for many who don’t subscribe to a particular faith tradition, the season is still seen as an occasion to gather with friends and family.

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11/11/2011
Women in the Military

Soldiering On: The Fight for Greater Equality in the Military Continues

By Vania Leveille, Washington Legislative Office & Alicia Gay, ACLU at 4:31pm

This Veterans' Day, we thank our service men and women for their dedication, and we celebrate the strides our country has made towards greater equality in the armed forces.

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08/26/2011
Domestic Violence

Creating a Safe Space in the Most Obvious Place: At Home

By Alicia Gay, ACLU at 12:02pm

This post is part of Mom's Rising's Blog Carnival on women's health and economic rights, held this week to commemorate the anniversaries of the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment and the 1963 March on Washington.

As a little girl from Kansas once said, “there’s no place like home,” and she was right. All of us may have a different notion of what “home” is, but ultimately we can agree home should be a place where we can feel comfortable and safe. Unfortunately for too many people who have experienced domestic violence, home isn’t safe. It is also regrettable that in many cases law enforcement officials, and in some cases our own government, have failed in their duty to protect the most vulnerable among us.

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12/01/2012
Shaheen Amendment

Tweet to Restore Fairness to Servicewomen

By Alicia Gay, ACLU at 3:12pm

We are defending a Constitution that doesn’t apply to us.

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05/09/2012
Marriage for Same-Sex Couples

ACLU Lens: President Obama Endorses Freedom to Marry for Same-Sex Couples

By Alicia Gay, ACLU at 4:22pm

President Obama today became the first sitting U.S. president to endorse the freedom to marry for same-sex couples. In an interview taped earlier this afternoon, he told ABC News’ Robin Roberts:

“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”

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