Our INITIATIVES

D.C. NOW supports the Equality Model approach to the sex trade. This means sex sellers, predominantly women and girls, will be decriminalized. This model also calls for the city to provide exit services and resources to currently prostituted persons. The goal is to hold abusive buyers and third-party profiters responsible, thus shrinking the demand for commodified sex and therefore sex-trafficking victims.

D.C. continues to allow 16- and 17-year-old children to marry with parental consent. The courts do not necessarily take the best interests of the children into account. We, along with our coalition partners, call for the minimum required age to be raised to 18 years.

The "Birth-to-Three" Act consists of a suite of policies that would bolster the city's universal childcare program. These policies include fully funding the childcare subsidy program, raising wages for childcare workers, expanding pre- and post-natal care for women, and much more. Let's make D.C. the most family- and mother-friendly city in the U.S.!

We support all anti-poverty and pro-woman measures that improve the lives of women. This could include reducing metro fare, improving the lighting on sidewalks and around bus stops, better reporting systems for sexual harassment on public transit, extensive police reform, addressing the problem of food deserts, and much more.

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What policies do you want D.C. NOW to support? Write us at washingtondcnow@gmail.com.

For too long, D.C.'s teaching hospitals have forced medical students to perform pelvic exams on anesthetized women who have not given their consent and were not aware their bodies would be exploited for teaching purposes. It's time for the misogynist healthcare system to recognize women's humanity and autonomy.

Incredibly, this highly traumatizing religious practice is not explicitly banned in the District of Columbia. The practice itself is risky and has life-long negative health consequences such as chronic pain and infections. We support Councilmember Mary Cheh's initiative to ban the practice outright with penalties for violators. Girls deserve the right to their own sexualities.

We call on D.C. Council to apply a gendered lens to all legislation under consideration. This would require councilmembers to ensure that the policies within bills would not harm or burden women if instated into law. This would also encourage city government to collect more data and disaggregate it along sex lines, which will help policymakers determine how to better meet the needs or women and children in D.C.