Progressive Maryland and the undersigned organizations have sent a letter to the Chairman of the Board of Election Supervisors to protest the unconstitutional acts targeting City Council Member Martin Mitchell, candidate for Laurel Mayor. 

Land Acknowledgement

Progressive Maryland acknowledges that both our organization and the spaces we work within stand upon the unceded ancestral homelands of the Indigenous people of Maryland, including the Accohannock Indian Tribe, Assateague Peoples Tribe, Nause-Waiwash Band of Indians, Piscataway Conoy Tribe, Piscataway Indian Nation, Pocomoke Indian Nation and Youghiogheny River Band of Shawnee Indians. We acknowledge them as the original stewards of Maryland's lands. 

We recognize the history upon which we were founded and that Maryland government and institutions were founded upon and continue to enact exclusions, erasure, and genocide of Indigenous people. We strive to build robust relationships with Indigenous people and maintain a diverse and inclusive organization that can serve our surrounding communities with honor and respect. 

However, we also know that a land acknowledgement statement isn’t enough to undo the generations of settler colonialism and genocide in Maryland. In 2023, we made a commitment to support our Indigenous communities in their efforts for land preservation and sovereignty. 

As an organization, we operate on stolen Indigenous land. We pay a voluntary monthly land tax to the Cedarville Band of Piscataway Indians to support efforts to revitalize Native land and communities and to help Indigenous people regain control of their ancestral territory. 

See the historical boundaries, languages, and treaties of the tribes in Maryland here. 

What is #LandBack?

#LandBack is an Indigenous-led movement for the reclamation of everything stolen from Indigenous peoples. It means that Indigenous people regain access to sustainable food from the land and affordable housing. It means a language and cultural revival of ceremony and traditional medicines. It means access to healthcare and education for all Indigenous people, and the ability to self-govern and have sovereignty through a narrative, political, and organizational framework. Read the #LandBack manifesto to learn more.

Today is the International Day of Families, and it serves as a reminder to celebrate all Maryland families. However, today we are also reminded of the alarming trend plaguing Black and Brown families in Maryland, where an unacceptably high number of youth of color are being removed from loving homes and placed into foster care. It’s time to bring attention to the racism embedded within the foster care and adoption industry, which not only perpetuates the destruction of Black and Brown families but also profits from their suffering.

According to the Center for the Study of Social Policy, Black children in Maryland are 2.9 times more likely to be placed in foster care as compared to their white counterparts. However, with the rate of abuse and maltreatment being fairly even along racial divides, why do we have so many more Black and Brown children removed from their families in Maryland? 

While foster care and adoption can be a good protective tool for youth when used correctly, the adoption industry is a for-profit system that profits off the displacement of children from their families. Within this industry, children are commodities and low-income areas are disproportionately targeted. In addition, foster care has become privatized in many places, which results in the disproportionate policing of Black and Brown families with incentives given to child welfare agencies for increased adoptions. That incentive remains the same whether or not the child is removed for a legitimate or illegitimate reason, making it easier for the wrongful removal of some of our most vulnerable children to be extremely profitable. 

Implicit racial biases within the child welfare system are a large cause of the overrepresentation of Black and Brown youth in foster care. Studies consistently highlight the impact of racial prejudice within care assessments, resulting in hasty decisions to remove children from their homes. Stereotypes surrounding Black and Brown families, such as racist assumptions of neglect and criminality, need to be actively addressed within the foster care system immediately. 

The separation of children of color from their families and communities has far-reaching consequences. It disrupts the bonds that form the foundation of their identity and can perpetuate intergenerational trauma. Placement in unfamiliar environments can compound the challenges these children face, leading to a higher risk of mental health issues, diminished educational outcomes, and increased involvement with the criminal justice system. Additionally, children of color may be placed outside their cultural and religious community, resulting in identity loss. Adoption and foster care have also historically been used as tools of colonization through societal structures such as residential schools for Indigenous youth, which are similar in many ways to group homes and collective placements today. 

Support and counseling for parents while prioritizing child safety should be the priority before immediate removal. In many ways, the system neglects Black and Brown parents who could benefit from external support, choosing to give that effort almost unilaterally to white families. Studies have shown that preventative resources, too, are unequally distributed and that Black and Brown families are less likely to receive family preservation services. Children of color also have higher statistics of being mistreated or abused once they’re placed in foster care as compared to their white counterparts and are less likely to receive permanent placements. 

We are continuously working towards closing racial disparity gaps in Maryland. We urge you to do the following to help protect Black and Brown families in Maryland:

1. Raise Awareness: Share accurate statistics, personal stories, and the devastating consequences of family separation to help foster a greater understanding in your communities.
2. Policy Reforms: Advocate for legislative changes that challenge the racial biases embedded within the child welfare system. This includes equitably implementing reviews of placement decisions, cultural competency training, and family preservation services.
3. Community Support: Support grassroots organizations that provide resources, mentorship, and advocacy for Black and Brown families, like Progressive Maryland. 
4. Dismantling Profiteering: Scrutinize financial incentives within for-profit adoption and foster care systems, and advocate for the well-being of children over profit.

It's time to acknowledge and address the systemic racism that permeates Maryland's foster care and adoption industries on this International Day of Families. We must work together to create a society that respects and values every family, regardless of race or background. We can start to establish a system that really prioritizes the preservation and support of Black and Brown families by elevating the voices of impacted families, calling for legislative changes, and assisting community-driven initiatives. 

The Charles County Commissioners must immediately stop the eviction of the Cedarville Band of Piscataway Indians off their ancestral lands, and return the land to its original stewards. 

The Cedarville Band of Piscataway Indians are a band of the larger Piscataway-Conoy people, who were and still are victims of genocide, forced assimilation, dispossession, and discrimination. The Piscataway-Conoy people originally had 7 million acres of ancestral land in Maryland, and the 16 acres that the Charles County Commissioners are evicting them from holds their ancestral winter hunting grounds and cultural museum, the only Piscataway-focused museum in existence today. The 30-day eviction notice from the commissioners came at the end of a 40-year lease, during which the Cedarville Band of Piscataway Indians established services and resources for the Piscataway people, as well as hosting Pow-Wows, school trips, and events for the wider community. 

Progressive Maryland stands with all Indigenous peoples of Maryland and their land sovereignty. We envision a Maryland where justice, equity, and dignity exist for all. We envision a Maryland where Indigenous nations and people have sovereignty and the ability to self-determine. That Maryland cannot exist while the government, institutions, and individuals around us continue to enact exclusions, erasure, and neo-genocide of Indigenous people. We believe that stopping the eviction and returning the land back to its original stewards is where reparations start, not end. The LANDBACK movement is essential for Maryland and the wider Turtle Island, colonially known as the United States, and is the first step to establishing Indigenous sovereignty. You can learn more about how you can specifically support the Cedarville Band at their website and Instagram. 

We stand with the Cedarville Band of Piscataway Indians in their fight to stay on their unceded ancestral lands. We encourage all Marylanders to use this email tool created by the ACLU of Maryland where you can demand the Charles County Commissioners return the land to its rightful stewards. 

Our organization and the spaces in which we work stand upon the unceded ancestral homelands of the Indigenous people of Maryland, including the Accohannock Indian Tribe, Assateague Peoples Tribe, Nause-Waiwash Band of Indians, Piscataway Conoy Tribe, Piscataway Indian Nation, Pocomoke Indian Nation and Youghiogheny River Band of Shawnee Indians. See the historical boundaries, languages, and treaties of the tribes in Maryland here.

TW: suicide, depression, transphobia, transgender genocide, forced detransitioning, abuse, deportation, kidnapping, coercion and grooming

Transgender people deserve to live a full life. Unfortunately, Eden Knight, a 23-year old Saudi Arabian transgender woman who was trafficked and forced to detransition, will never be able to.

Eden’s friends have published a document telling her story, including her final message where she described the events leading up to her passing. 

Eden was living in the US while she was attending school, and came out as transgender while she was living here. She was contacted by a man named Michael Pocalyko and his associate Ellen, who claimed he could “fix” the relationship between herself and her family, who she describes as “strict conservative Muslims”, who disagreed with her transition. 

Over time, Michael and Ellen connected her with a Saudi lawyer named Bader, who groomed her to detransition, to hide that she was transgender, and to get her to be, in Eden’s words, “normal”. At some point, Eden realized that she was reliant on Bader for food and shelter, and that since she was still seeking immigration status, that he could easily have her deported. 

Bader booked her a flight back to Saudi Arabia, and Eden returned to her family who then revealed that they had hired Michael, Ellen, and Bader to bring her back. She was entrapped, verbally and religiously abused, and searched daily, with her gender-affirming healthcare taken away from her. As a result of this, Eden ended her own life to escape from it. Her family put up a post on social media confirming this, complete with misgendering and misnaming Eden. She didn’t get to be her true self to her family, even in death. 

Eden was loved. Eden was full of purpose. Eden was worthy. Eden deserved better than this, to live a full life and to grow old. And yet, none of that saved her from the people around her that harmed her. 

Transgender genocide is real. It’s even more real to our most vulnerable communities, including transgender people of color and transgender immigrants like Eden. There have been 465 anti-transgender bills introduced this year alone. These bills primarily target transgender people in areas such as healthcare, nondiscrimination laws, free speech, sports participation, public accommodations, and education. This legislative assault seeks to erase transgender people from society, taking away legal protections, medically necessary care, and breaking up families. 

This is why gender-affirming healthcare can be lifesaving for transgender people. Eden is heartbreakingly a representative of the catchphrase, “death before detransition”. For many transgender people, forced detransition is a death sentence. Transgender people deserve respect – not laws, contracted entities, and systemic violence forcing them back into the closet and denying them access to crucial and life-saving medical care. 

We remember the transgender people our society has failed, but we will not let their deaths be in vain. May this be the catalyst that sparks your righteous fury, prompting you to mobilize, to resist, and to rally others.

Testimony on Maryland Senate Bill 803

Labor and Employment - Payment of Minimum Wage - Tipped Employees

Thank you for the opportunity to offer testimony in support of SB 803. Progressive Maryland is a grassroots nonprofit organization with regional chapters from Frederick to the Lower Shore and more than 100,000 members and supporters who live in nearly every legislative district in the state. In addition, there are dozens of affiliated community, faith, and labor organizations across the state that stand behind our work. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families in Maryland. Please note our strong support for SB 803.

Antisemitism is rising globally. We are seeing this in mainstream media with prominent figures such as Elon Musk, who recently tweeted out a picture of a Nazi soldier with the caption “how times have changed”. This builds into an existing pattern of his, citing back to earlier this year when he tweeted out a picture of Hitler declaring admiration for his budget, which involved millions of dollars to execute the “Final Solution”, resulting in the deliberate genocide of six million Jewish people. 

We are also seeing it attack our local communities.

Bethesda Trolley Trail and Tuckerman Lane in Montgomery County were vandalized overnight with extremist antisemitic graffiti calling for violence against Jewish Marylanders. This isn’t the first time antisemitic rhetoric has been graffitied on Bethesda Trolley Trail or in the wider Maryland. “White Power” and “1488” were similary spraypainted in red on the trail in August of this year. 

Marc Elrich, Montgomery County Executive, said in a statement this morning that “...we must combat these tragic and despicable incidents through unity in every neighborhood and community throughout the County. We are one of the most diverse jurisdictions anywhere in the world and now is a time when we need to use it to make us stronger. We must support and uplift our Jewish community during this time and we must continue to not tolerate hate in any form in Montgomery County, the state of Maryland and in this nation.” 

At the current time, no one has been arrested for this hate crime. 

Now is the time to stand with Jewish Marylanders, and to educate yourself on antisemitism and dogwhistles when they appear. The graffiti included swastikas, white power symbols, and the numbers 1488 and 133. Notably, 1488 is a numerical neo-Nazi dogwhistles that joins the “14 words”, a white supremacist slogan “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” coined by David Lane, combined with “88”, which refers to the eighth letter in the alphabet, “H”. “88” means “HH”, or Heil Hitler. “131” refers to “NSC-131”, a neo-Nazi and white-supremacist group known as the Nationalist Socialist Club that has chapters throughout New England. Being able to recognize antisemitism when it occurs is essential to holding your community accountable on a local and large scale. 

Progressive Maryland stands in solidarity with Jewish Marylanders. Swift action was taken to remove the graffiti, but that cannot be where our effort ends. There is so much more work to be done to ensure the safety of our Jewish community in Maryland. We must support and uplift the greater Jewish community in Maryland during this time, and continue to be intolerant of hate and antisemitic violence on a wider scale. 

Breaking News

At-Large Council Members act to strip new Council Majority of zoning powers 

Council members Calvin Hawkins & Mel Franklin are at it again, seeking to protect their own political power and developers interests over the community. This past Tuesday, Council Chair Hawkins and Council Member Franklin presented two bills they hope will prevent the incoming Council Majority from enacting positive, community-centered zoning legislation or hearing most zoning cases. 

Their bill, CB-91-2022 will amend the new Zoning Ordinance rules for enacting developer friendly amendments to the Zoning Ordinance so as to require a Supermajority vote (8 votes) instead of the longstanding simple majority (6 votes). Hawkins and Franklin, in collaboration with other Council Members, have adopted countless friendly amendments to the Zoning Ordinance based on a simple majority vote. Now, they want to change the rules for an incoming Council Majority that they know will be accountable to the community instead of developers. 

CB-92-2022 will amend the new Zoning Ordinance to prohibit the County Council from choosing to hear zoning and site plan cases from the Planning Board and Zoning Hearing Examiner. For decades, zoning hearings have been a vehicle for the community to express their concerns. If enacted, there will be no hearings for the community, and only appeals will come before the council in limited circumstances. Developers have long wanted to eliminate public hearings to avoid accountability.

In another anti-democratic move regularly used by Hawkins and Franklin, CB-91-2022 & CB-92-2022 are being rushed through the legislative process to avoid public awareness and scrutiny. ALL Zoning Bills must be "Introduced" by Tuesday, September 20th. These bills were presented Tuesday and have to be heard by the "PHED Committee", next week. The September 15th Committee meeting was announced 5 minutes before COB on Friday last, giving only 7 days notice for major land use policy changes that will dramatically harm citizen rights. This committee's members include current Council Members Mel Franklin, Calvin Hawkins, Todd Turner, Sydney Harrison. Many of this group of Council Members have a track record of trying to enact legislation that favors special interests groups over community stakeholders, always without community input, sometimes illegally as recent history has shown. The lack of notice undermines the community’s ability to plan to speak out against these bills.

HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO TO TAKE ACTION: 

Progressive Maryland & PG Changemakers are working together to get the word out to the community so that we can stand up to these members, and let them know we oppose Council Bills 91 & 92 that seek to, once again, silence the voice and usurp the will of the voters by using our system of democracy to cater to developers and their own political power instead of their constituents.  

• Sign up to testify or send comment 

• Sign the petition

• Send an email to our County Council members

Make sure your voice is heard!  Add your voice by signing the petition, send an email to your council members, and/or SIGN UP TO TESTIFY IN PERSON OR SEND IN COMMENT IN OPPOSITION OF CB-91 & CB-92 BY 3 P.M. EDT TOMORROW, SEPTEMBER 14TH AT 3 P.M. Share these actions with friends and through your networks and ask them to pass them along. If the fight against illegal redistricting taught us anything, it is that when enough of us stand up together in solidarity and demand that our elected representatives do what's in the best interest of the people of this County, we WIN!

In Solidarity, 

The Progressive Maryland & PG Changemakers Teams

“The current council is making sly legislative moves, planning on the fact that people are not paying attention,” said Devane Wright of Progressive Maryland.

Battle for the Soul of Prince George’s County: Council Elections

We WON the Battle for the Soul of Prince George’s County: Council Elections, but as you can see by the newest breaking news on zoning issues in the County, there is still much work to be done. Congrats to incoming County Council Members Eric Olson (District 3), Wala Blegay (District 6), Krystal Oriadha (District 7), and Edward Burroughs III (District 8) and their teams. 

A special thanks goes out to our members, allied orgs, and countless concerned citizens across our great County for getting involved and sharing in the work of electing a Council that is accountable to The People! We are much more powerful than special political and big money interests when we work together! Check out this Washington Post article by Daniel Wu that highlights our endorsed-candidate's victories!

Progressive Prince George’s: Official Chapter Reboot

We’re re-organizing the official chapter of Progressive Maryland in Prince George’s County! There are countless allied orgs and individuals all over the County doing work in conjunction with Progressive Maryland to move the place we call home toward a better, more equitable place to live, work and go to school. Some current issues/areas of work include but are not limited to:

• Returning Citizens 
• Police Accountability Board  
• Education/Community Schools
• Legislative/Co-governing 

We’ll be planning to call the Chapter back together soon after the Gubernatorial Election so stay tuned and sign up to receive our newsletter so you don’t miss out! We will be calling a general meeting, pointing people toward their area of interest, and getting some organizer trainings on the calendar soon so be on the lookout for future communications.

Interested in doing some local work with us? Have some ideas or a project you are working on that needs power-building behind it? Please complete and submit the Chapter Member Interest Form.