Rachel’s Civil Rights Agenda Centers on the Socially Vulnerable.

Rachel is an active member of the LGBTQI community, a long-time fighter for civil rights, and an advocate for the socially vulnerable.

Early on, Rachel led the fight in the Democratic State Committee to win support for marriage equality and championed passage of the Gender Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA).

Rachel also won early support for expansion of the legal rights of all domestic violence victims to be heard within the Family Court system, including same-sex domestic partners and common-law marriages.

Most recently, she actively supported language changes in the Bylaws of the State Committee to ensure inclusion of non-binary and transgender individuals, while still ensuring that women make up 50% of the State Committee.

And she has fought for the rights of workers, championing passage of a living wage and most recently fighting for the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act to undo the legacy of Jim Crow laws, and allow tens of thousands of predominantly Hispanic New Yorkers guaranteed overtime pay after forty hours. She has worked to enable New York to become a Sanctuary State and supported repeal of the Rockefeller drug laws and mandatory sentencing. Most recently, Rachel in conjunction with the Progressive Caucus has begun to look at prisoners’ rights and the social justice implications of taking away voting rights from convicted felons.