News & Commentary

This week, the Nebraska Legislature is considering legislation to help close the pay gap in Nebraska. Without this crucial legislation, Nebraska women would have to wait until 2066 for the pay gap to close.

This isn’t the setup for a bad joke. This is the law for a young woman in Nebraska.

In 1995, Ruby Scott was 15 years old and unexpectedly pregnant. She did what most young women do in that situation – she talked with her parents. Before the family had taken Ruby to a doctor, her boyfriend’s parents had the State of Nebraska remove Ruby from her home to prevent her from having an abortion.

GayLynn Brummett and her husband, Jay, wanted to be parents. They got married in 1989 and one year later learned that GayLynn was living with HIV. They decided that the best way to grow their family was to become foster parents. They had their first child placed with them in 1991 and in 1992, a young boy was placed with them. After the boy's parents relinquished parental rights, the Brummett's decided they wanted to give this young boy a forever home.

In 1988, a student in Nebraska was denied the opportunity to play sports.

This piece was penned with Bri McLarty of Nebraskans for Civic Reform.

By 2066, my daughter may be preparing for her own retirement. Unless Nebraska addresses our wage gap now, she’ll have to keep working into her sixties to ensure she has equal pay for equal work.

January 28, 1995 the then Department of Children and Family Services issued a memo banning "homosexuals" from being foster parents. At the time, the ACLU stated:

In each of my roles — a mother, a daughter, a former State Senator, a lawyer, and the current Executive Director of the ACLU of Nebraska — the belief that personal decisions about family size and quality of life should not be decided by the government has remained constant.