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Proposal Details

Proposal ID	981
Proposal	Using RCV for Gender Equity
Presenter	Lavender Caucus
Floor Manager	Gloria Mattera
Phase	Closed
Discussion	11/04/2019 - 12/01/2019
Voting	12/02/2019 - 12/08/2019
Result	Failed
Presens Quorum	34 0.6666
Consens Quorum	51 0.6666 of Yes and No Votes

Background

Quorum is 34 of 50 state parties/caucuses.

AJ Reed, a nonbinary person, had previously been elected to the CCC. When new elections were held, AJ ended up running in both the female and male elections. The CCC (which promoted this working group) Committee Structure states: "Each year the election to fill seats on the CCC shall actually be two elections, one to elect males to the committee, one to elect females to the committee."

The purpose of this proposal is to create intentionally inclusive language that will create Gender Diverse Committees and permit non-binary people to run for office without confusion. It will also eliminate the need for any gendered elections, thereby simplifying committee elections. All committees are urged to update their election language upon passage.

Driven by our values, respectively:
#2 Social Justice and Equal Opportunity, #7 Feminism and Gender Equity, #8 Respect for Diversity, #9 Personal and Global Responsibility and #10 Future Focus and Sustainability.

We offer the opportunity to realize more of the potential of our preferred method of voting, Ranked Choice, by using the ranking of our choices to be intentionally inclusive of women, men and non-binary people in our committee elections.

This will be achieved by setting a threshold for male identified candidates or nominees in our elected committees to no more than half.

This will also allow efficiencies to be gained by negating the need for any gendered elections.

For example, in the current CCC by-laws, we would no longer need two gendered elections and instead simplify to only one.

Proposal

Append the following 2 paragraphs to Article V. Voting Rules of the GPUS Bylaws.

If the total number of winning candidates that are male exceeds the total number of winning female candidates, then the lowest ranked male identified person shall be replaced by the highest ranking, non-winning, non-male identified person. If there are still more male candidates than female, then repeat the process until the number of male candidates do not exceed female candidates.

Otherwise, for those elected committees who have chosen to elect half of their members in alternate cycles, the latest round of top ranked candidates should be added to the list in ranked choice order. With the existing members holding the top ranking, the latest candidates would be subject to the gender balance rule.

Resources

Immediately upon passage, the By-Laws should be updated to reflect this new language and committee elections after this proposal is adopted will use the RCV Gender Balance rule.

In Committee elections using Ranked Choice Voting, RCV. If the total number of winning candidates that are male exceeds the total number of winning female candidates, then the lowest ranked male identified person shall be replaced by the highest ranking, non-winning, non-male identified person. If there are still more male candidates than female, then repeat the process until the number of male candidates do not exceed female candidates.

Contacts:
Margaret Elisabeth
301-922-7640
margaretelisabeth@outlook.com

Cathi Woodward
303-596-3760
cathi_w@yahoo.com

References

In addition to publications from the web provided for various perspectives around the subject of Gender Diversity, we are also pleased to present a personal perspective from a member of the National Lavender Green Caucus, Cynthya BrianKate.

The idea of a gender balance guideline was suggested for the Green Party decades ago when women were too often being denied active roles and participation, and organizations were disproportionately run and represented by men. The goal of these guidelines were to make for more equal balance for two genders. However this is now out of date because our understanding of biological sex and gender identity and its expression have evolved beyond the idea that there are only men/male and women/female. The Green Party needs to update and expand its concept of gender balance to include all the people who currently are not included in Green Party policies and guidelines.

The issue with gender balance as it is has been perceived is that only men and women have been considered. Now the Green Party needs to consider the category of Non-binary (NB). In gendered areas/aspects of the party, such as with elections where gender balance has been a concern, the categories will be expanded to be Men/male, Women/female, and Non-binary. This is so that anyone who does not identify as a man or a woman for any reason can run under non-binary status. The Green Party is to hold all genders as being of equal status.

That is what gender balance means. Non-binary, women, men are of equal status in the Green Party. None are to be treated as less than others.

While the Lavender Caucus has an understanding of what transgender is and means, we must not assume that the rest of the Green Party necessarily does even though the GP platform affirms the womanhood of transgender women and the manhood of transgender men.

While we have an extensive glossary of terms and definitions on the Lavender Greens website, basic definitions are listed here.

Transgender refers to a person having and/or expressing a gender identity, or identities, which does not necessarily match their assigned sex at birth.

The word cisgender is given to people who are not transgender. It refers to people whose gender identity matches that associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. This includes the term cisgender man or cisman, and cisgender woman or ciswoman for men and women who are not transgender.

Intersex is the current term used to refer to people who are biologically in-between the medically expected definitions of male and female. This can be through variations in hormones, chromosomes, internal or external genitalia, or any combination of any or all primary and/or secondary sex characteristics. An intersex person may identify and know themselves to be of any gender identity or expression. As with other categories/demographics/populations, some intersex people live as women, some live as men, and some live as non-binary.

The word Chimera refers to when twins, triplets or other numbers of multiples merge in the womb, resulting in the birth of a composite person. The phenomenon is referred to as chimerism. IF the siblings who merged started out as fraternal siblings of differing sexes, then the person is also intersex, or an intersex chimera. A person who is a chimera may identify as having any gender identity or identities. Some people are only noticed as being chimeras during genetic/paternity/maternity testing, while some have noticeable variations or asymmetries in bodily and/or facial features, some may have duplicate organs, limbs, fingers/toes or other bodily structures.

Non-Binary (sometimes abbreviated as NB) Refers to individuals who identify as neither man or woman, both man and woman, or a combination of man or woman. It is an identity term which some use exclusively, while others may use it interchangeably with terms like genderqueer, gender creative, gender nonconforming, gender diverse, or gender expansive.

Deadnaming is referring to a person by a name or calling the person by a name the person no longer uses - for example calling a person who was named Michael at birth rather than calling the person by their chosen name (and many times legally changed name) of Mikala. The person's preferred name is always the one which is understood to be their name.

Transgender women are women and will be given the same respect and access in any area/aspect of the Green Party relating to women as all women deserve. Transgender men are men and will be given the same respect and access in any areas/aspects of the Green Party relating to men as all men deserve. Likewise, Non-binary people will be given the same respect and access in any areas/aspects of the Green Party.

People are to be called by whichever name they prefer and their preferred pronouns are to be used in referring to them. If one does not state their preferred pronoun it is appropriate to ask. People are not to be deadnamed.

No othering. No one is to be held as anything but equal to everyone.

There will be no usage of terms like "biological," "natural," "real" or any other terms to differentiate people. Some people do not like to be called cis. This is to be respected. A transgender woman (also known as transwoman or trans woman) is a transgender person who lives as and knows herself/their self to be a woman, and a transgender man (also known as transman or trans man) is a transgender person who lives as and knows himself/them self to be a man. Transgender people who live as and know themselves to be non-binary will be respected as being non-binary. The Green Party will respect the gender identity of intersex/chimera people.

Intersex/chimera people who live as and know themselves as women are women, and intersex/chimera people who live as and know themselves to be men are men. Intersex/chimera people who live as and know themselves to be non-binary are to be respected as being non-binary. People are not to be disrespected in any way for not conforming to stereotypes about sex characteristics or demanded to fit expectations of being only male or female.

For further understanding of non-binary genders:
https://www.elitedaily.com/p/i-use-gender-neutral-pronouns-heres-how-you-can-respect-that-16959250

https://www.dictionary.com/e/gender-sexuality/nonbinary-gender/

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/9-things-people-get-wrong-about-being-non-binary

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