‘Its No Joke’ Is Movement Launched To Battle Sexism

In light of the insensitive comments about strippers from one lawmaker on the floor of the house, and the fact that they dovetailed so closely with the failure of the equal pay for women bill said house was debating that same week, New Orleans Rep. Helena Moreno has come forth with a campaign to highlight the rights and plights of women in Louisiana. Its No Joke is the name of her movement to further awareness of just how far women still have to go to catch up to their male counterparts in our state.

The failure of the bill for equal pay and the tasteless comments by a male colleague has, "...highlighted that we do have a problem in Louisiana regarding the way women are treated.", says Moreno, adding, "So lets up our efforts and start pushing more than we have before for some significant changes." "We're going to highlight different things that we're going to change in Louisiana regarding pay equity. We'd like to change the amount of violence there is against women. We'd like to increase healthcare access for women."

To do this she has launched an online petition, using the hashtag #ItsNoJoke. Moreno believes that if legislators start getting an earful from the voters on this issue they might begin to take it seriously. "We're going to start doing even more, launching a website, launching different events, building a network all across the state with women and supporters." Moreno said.

We wish her well in her quest to drag the Neanderthals into the Cro-Magnon cave, and encourage you to learn more about this at morenocampaign.com.