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NOW Blames 'Ultra-Conservatives' For Ireland YWCA Ouster
By Christine Hall
From
http://www.cnsnews.com/corporate/staffbios.asp#Staff%20Writer%20Christine%20Hall
Senior Staff Writer -- Christine Hall comes to CNSNews.com from Capitol
Hill, having served as Rep. Mark Sanford's Social Security policy analyst.
Prior to that, she worked as a policy analyst on Steve Forbes's presidential
campaign and also served as director of public affairs for the Seniors
Coalition where she edited the organization's quarterly magazine, the
Seniors Coalition Advocate. Christine holds a bachelor's degree in history
from George Mason University and is currently working towards a juris
masters degree at GMU's law school.
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
October 24, 2003
(CNSNews.com) - "Feminists across the country are outraged that
ultraconservative attacks could have resulted in former NOW President
Patricia Ireland's recent dismissal as the CEO of the YWCA," said current
National Organization for Women (NOW) President Kim Gandy.
"Ultraconservative groups slammed the YWCA for hiring a strong supporter
of
women's rights," Gandy alleged. She also blasted the Bush Administration
as
acting "in concert" with "these bullies" at the conservative Traditional
Values Coalition to remove Ireland.
The YWCA in public statements has neither confirmed nor denied speculation
that Ireland's termination after just six months on the job was the result
of a groundswell of objection from YWCA donors and conservative groups.
Instead, the 144-year-old Young Women's Christian Association has said
that
Ireland's firing was a private personnel matter and that she was not a
good
fit for the post of chief executive officer.
"It is our belief that in order for the YWCA to continue to carry out its
mission of empowering women and girls throughout the world, a change
needed
to be made," read an earlier statement from the YWCA.
Gandy indicated she was particularly incensed by the activities of the
Traditional Values Coalition, which had led a petition drive against
Ireland.
"The so-called Traditional Values Coalition [asked] Secretary of Health
and
Human Services Tommy Thompson to consider cutting off $114 million in
grants
going to local YWCAs," said Gandy.
But "without federal grants, local associations would be hard pressed to
continue providing quality child care to working moms and domestic
violence
services to women who are abused," Gandy said. "These women, who need the
YWCA the most, would be devastated.
Gandy warned that the "internal independence" and free speech of groups
like
the YWCA, the Girl Scouts, the Red Cross and others will be threatened by
the "chilling warning" of "the right wing."
--
Atheism teaches that there is no God, hence no God-given rights. That
ideology coupled with a system that believed in the superiority of the
state
at the expense of the individual was murderously synergistic.
.
