The Feminist Majority Basis is saddened to listen to of the passing of an expensive pal and an inspiring feminist activist, Maine State Consultant Lois Galgay Reckitt. She was 79.
Rep. Reckitt was often known as a relentless activist on behalf of girls and devoted her life to preventing for equality. She served as the chief vp of the Nationwide Group for Ladies from 1984 to 1987, the place she fought for LGBTQ rights and to finish violence in opposition to girls.
Rep. Reckitt was the co-founder of the Human Rights Marketing campaign Fund, the Maine Coalition for Human Rights, the Maine Ladies’s Foyer, and the primary Maine chapter of the Nationwide Group for Ladies. She additionally established the Household Disaster Shelter in Portland, Maine and efficiently lobbied to guard victims of home abuse, resulting in the passage of a number of influential payments. Her spectacular resume led to her induction into the Maine Ladies’s Corridor of Fame in 1998.
In 2016, Rep. Reckitt prolonged her abilities to the Maine Home of Representatives, the place she served till 2022. She was unrelenting in her push to cross the Equal Rights Modification within the Maine Structure, bringing the modification to a vote thrice within the legislature.
“Lois Reckett has not solely been an inspirational chief for ladies and women in Maine, but in addition nationwide,” stated Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Basis and former President of Nationwide Group for Ladies. “She was a champion for the Equal Rights Modification each for the US Structure and the Maine Structure. Lois was a frontrunner within the Nationwide Group for Ladies and a nationwide chief within the battle to finish violence in opposition to girls and women.
“I had the nice fortune to work along with her intently once I was president of the Nationwide Group for Ladies and she or he was the Govt Vice President. She labored for ladies’s rights till the time of her dying and was very proud that she had simply handed historic laws in Maine to finish intercourse trafficking.”
Maine Gov. Janet Mills additionally launched a press release: “Consultant Reckitt was a tireless defender of the rights of girls and women all through her life, wielding her sharp wit and her humorousness to carry folks collectively and to make a distinction for her group. Because the long-time govt director of Household Disaster Companies in Cumberland County and, later, as a legislator for the folks of South Portland, Lois by no means stopped attempting to make our state higher for everybody. In per week already marked by such deep loss, I’m devastated to lose her as effectively. I knew Lois for almost 5 a long time; she was an expensive pal, and I’ll miss her deeply. I prolong my condolences to her mates, her household, and her group throughout this troublesome time.”
Within the wake of Rep. Lois Reckitt’s passing, we mirror on her exceptional legacy. Her unwavering dedication to feminism and her tireless advocacy for equality stand as a permanent supply of inspiration for us all. Rep. Reckitt’s ardour and dedication will proceed to gasoline our efforts to honor her reminiscence by urgent on within the battle for equality, justice, and girls’s rights.
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