Planners announce speakers for BansOffOurBodies: March Reproductive for Freedom to happen on October 2 in Minneapolis
BansOffOurBodies: A March for Reproductive Freedom is happening on Saturday, October 2 from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. The march to Loring Park will begin at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at 11:00 ; the rally will start around noon when attendees reach Loring Park. Planners are pleased to announce speakers for the program in Loring Park:
Reproductive Freedom Legislative Caucus (Two members will speak)
Yolanda Roth, Strategic Partnerships Director, TakeAction MN
As Strategic Partnerships Director, Yolanda brings over 20 years of experience in organizing, training, and ethical lobbying. In this position, Yolanda advances movements, campaigns, and coalitions by building, maintaining, and aligning strategic partnerships with local & national allies both old and new. By developing strong collaborative channels within people-first movements, she builds deep-rooted partnerships with labor & community organizations. Through her relationship-building skills, she works with campaigns at every level of government.
Yolanda is politically mobilizing and ethically lobbying for a better Minnesota. Her most recent work revolves around criminal justice reform. More specifically, she is working on prison reform, probation & parole reform, and reform at the intersection of criminal justice and immigration. When she is not working on that, she is continuously and fiercely fighting for the rights of working people.Shayla Walker, Vision Realization Advisor, Our Justice
Shayla is a Black Dominican American, surviving and thriving on Dakhóta + Anishinaabe land. She is a rare Twin Cities native who loves Minneapolis just as much as she does St. Paul. As the Vision Realization Advisor, she uses her organizing skills to advance the Our Justice mission to ensure that all people and communities have the power and resources to make sexual and reproductive health decisions with self-determination. In her free time, she practices pleasure liberation through engaging in humor, joyous deep belly laughs, twerking, bougie restaurant eating, napping, dream manifestation and car karaoke.Erin Maye Quade, Advocacy Director, Gender Justice
Erin is the Advocacy Director at Gender Justice. In her role, she works to advance gender equity through public education, legislative outreach, strategic partnerships, and coalition-building. A former Minnesota State Representative first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2016, Erin was a fierce advocate and champion for issues like paid family leave; expanding access to affordable child care; ending childhood hunger; LGBTQ rights; reproductive rights; eliminating gun violence; and investing in treatment for mental health and substance abuse issues. In 2018, Rep. Maye Quade founded the Childhood Hunger Caucus, a coalition of businesses, nonprofits and policymakers dedicated to ending childhood hunger in Minnesota. In June 2018, Rep. Erin was endorsed as the DFL candidate for Lt. Governor. Erin sits on the boards of State Innovation Exchange (SiX) and Hunger Solutions.James Darville, Policy and Organizing Director, OutFront MN
James joined the Policy and Organizing Team as LGBTQ+ Voter Outreach Manager in March of 2020. James works with Queer Communities and Communities of Color to register folks to vote throughout the state of Minnesota.
Raised in North Carolina, James attended North Dakota State University and studied Strategic Communication. After graduation, James worked as a cheesemonger before getting hired as the Grassroots Organizer for Planned Parenthood in North Dakota. In that position, he helped run election campaigns throughout the state, collected stories from queer folks, and organized groups at college campuses across the state. Moving to Saint Paul, he was hired to be the Coordinator of Volunteer Programs for Planned Parenthood North Central States. He organized and oversaw all-volunteer programs across five states. He is excited to continue his work building progressive communities and advocating for reproductive justice and queer liberation at OutFront.Nature Keletso Inger, Human Rights Activist
Nature is an ardent advocate for ending gender-based violence and promoting gender equality and has launched and promoted social media campaigns to raise awareness about these issues. Most notably, she launched the #everythreehours campaign to highlight the high incidence of rape in Botswana, which has the second-highest rate in the world. Her mission is to change societal behaviors around gender, which she believes will lead to systemic change and improve the lives of women and other marginalized groups in Botswana. Currently, she is a fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, where Nature plans to learn more about human rights advocacy and strategies for running effective social campaigns. Her goal is to use the knowledge she acquires to broaden and deepen her work to change national narratives and attitudes around gender-based violence and drive systemic reform in Botswana.Kendra Harris, Planned Parenthood Youth Council Representative
Kendra was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, and is a longtime Planned Parenthood Action Fund supporter and a recent addition to our Rochester Super Activist team. Kendra is a graduate of Meharry Medical College and a 3nd year OBGYN resident. Kendra is passionate about fighting for reproductive justice in Minnesota, specifically addressing the massive health disparities that exist for black, brown and indigenous women, specifically maternal morbidity and mortality. Kendra believes Planned Parenthood is critical in increasing healthcare access for low-income, rural, and BIPOC communities across Minnesota.Fardouza Farah, Planned Parenthood Youth Council Representative
Fardouza is a high school student in Owatonna, Minnesota. She’s the head of the MN chapter of Students Against Sexual Violence and through that she began volunteering with Planned Parenthood on our legislative comprehensive sex-ed campaign. She’s also one of 2 MN Student Senators in the United States Senate Youth Program. Most recently she was one of the Healthy Community Organizers with PPNCS that went out into the community to spread awareness about the COVID-19 vaccine, dispel misinformation, and get people scheduled for vaccine appointments.LyLy Vang, Board Chair, Our Justice
LyLy (lee-lee, she/hers) is a co-chair of Our Justice, Minnesota's abortion fund and reproductive justice organization. LyLy is a proud Saint Paulite working at the intersection of people, politics, and joy. Being a dedicated cat parent is important to her. She values intention, pleasure, and a good raunchy romance novel. You can find her drinking coffee somewhere, riding a bus, and/or watching TikTok.
BansOffOurBodies: A March for Reproductive Freedom is organized and hosted by Women’s March Minnesota (WMM), Unrestrict Minnesota, Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund, and more than 25 other groups. Please register for the event online.
All are welcome to attend and masks are required to keep everyone safe. The 1/2 mile route (map) is fully accessible and there will be a small accessible seating section with chairs in front of the stage in Loring Park.
