Photograph: legislature.maine.gov
Rep. Reckitt was generally known as a relentless activist on behalf of ladies and devoted her life to preventing for equality. She served as the chief vice chairman of the Nationwide Group for Girls from 1984 to 1987, the place she fought for LGBTQ rights and to finish violence in opposition to girls.
The Feminist Majority Basis is saddened to listen to of the passing of a pricey good friend and an inspiring feminist activist, Maine State Consultant Lois Galgay Reckitt.
Rep. Reckitt was the co-founder of the Human Rights Marketing campaign Fund, the Maine Coalition for Human Rights, the Maine Girls’s Foyer, and the primary Maine chapter of the Nationwide Group for Girls. 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 Girls’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 ladies in Maine, but additionally nationwide. She was a champion for the Equal Rights Modification each for the US Structure and the Maine Structure. Lois was a pacesetter within the Nationwide Group for Girls and a nationwide chief within the battle to finish violence in opposition to girls and ladies. I had the nice fortune to work together with her carefully once I was president of the Nationwide Group for Girls and he or she 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,” stated Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Basis and former President of Nationwide Group for Girls.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills launched a press release: “Consultant Reckitt was a tireless defender of the rights of ladies and ladies all through her life, wielding her sharp wit and her humorousness to deliver folks collectively and to make a distinction for her neighborhood. 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 making an attempt to make our state higher for everybody. In per week already marked by such deep loss, I’m devastated to lose her as properly. I knew Lois for practically 5 a long time; she was a pricey good friend, and I’ll miss her deeply. I lengthen my condolences to her pals, her household, and her neighborhood 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 ladies’s rights.
