Lift Our Voices

Lift Our Voices

Abbreviation	LOV
Formation	December 2019 (2019-12)
Founders	Gretchen Carlson Julie Roginsky
Type	501(c)(3) Nonprofit organization
Legal status	Active
Headquarters	New York, New York
Location	United States
Website	liftourvoices.org

Lift Our Voices is an American nonprofit organization established in 2019 by journalist and television host Gretchen Carlson and Democratic Party strategist Julie Roginsky. The organization is dedicated to ending workplace abuses by eliminating non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and forced arbitration clauses that prevent survivors of workplace sexual harassment, sexual assault, discrimination, and retaliation from speaking publicly about their experiences.

Lift Our Voices engages in public education and advocates for state and federal policy changes related to non-disclosure agreements and forced arbitration.

In 2022, co-founder Carlson played a significant role in working with members of Congress to pass the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden in March 2022. Five years after the start of the MeToo movement, the law was singled out as one of the legislative changes to prevent workplace harassment.

History

Founding

Lift Our Voices was established in New York following Carlson and Roginsky's experiences with alleged workplace misconduct, including sexual harassment and retaliation, at Fox News. Both women subsequently filed legal actions against the network and its former chairman and CEO Roger Ailes.

As part of their settlement agreements, Carlson and Roginsky were each required to sign non-disclosure agreements restricting their ability to speak publicly about their experiences. After Carlson’s experience, she was named one of Time Magazine's Time 100 list of the most influential people in 2017, with the essay on Carlson written by journalist Katie Couric.

Roginsky has also described experiencing a toxic workplace environment while working as a consultant on New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy's 2017 gubernatorial campaign, stating she was fired after reporting misconduct allegations from campaign staff and was later bound by an NDA that prevents her from warning others.

In 2019, the film Bombshell told the story of Carlson's experience at Fox, but due to her stringent non-disclosure agreement she was prevented from speaking about her experience with the filmmakers or actress Nicole Kidman, who portrayed Carlson. Her story and Ailes’s removal from Fox News after the allegations was documented in the Showtime miniseries The Loudest Voice, based on journalist Gabriel Sherman's book The Loudest Voice in the Room and with Carlson portrayed by Naomi Watts. Sherman also wrote about Carlson's experience in New York Magazine.

Roginsky, a Democratic political consultant who was a contributor at Fox, said that she had difficulties finding other opportunities as a contributor or television host after her lawsuit against Fox News, with an agent telling her that she did not want to be associated with someone who had sued a network. Roginsky alleged experiencing a toxic workplace environment while consulting for New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy in 2017.

Activities

Legislative activity

Protecting Older Americans Act

The Protecting Older Americans Act would amend federal arbitration law to allow individuals alleging age discrimination – including disparate treatment, workplace harassment, or retaliation against workers aged 40 or older – to elect to pursue their claims in court rather than through arbitration, notwithstanding any predispute arbitration agreement, with courts rather than arbitrators deciding whether the law applies to a given case.

A December 2025 AARP survey, found that 69 percent (69%) of adults age 50 and older support congressional legislation to make forced arbitration illegal in age discrimination cases.

Lift Our Voices has supported the Protecting Older Americans Act since its original introduction in June 2023. The bipartisan bill, which would invalidate forced arbitration clauses in cases of workplace age discrimination, was reintroduced in the 119th Congress as S.2703 on September 3, 2025, by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, the late Lindsey Graham, Chuck Grassley, and Dick Durbin, and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

A companion bill, H.R.5115, was introduced in the House of Representatives. An earlier version of the bill was advanced by the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 15-6 vote on May 9, 2024, and formally reported to the full Senate a week later. Republican Senator John Cornyn opposed the bill in committee, arguing it would restrict access to arbitration as an affordable alternative to litigation, while Senator Cory Booker spoke in support, saying forced arbitration "obscur[es] how pervasive workforce discrimination can be from public view."

State legislative efforts

Lift Our Voices has advocated for state-level restrictions on workplace NDAs, including legislation enacted in New Jersey, California, and Washington State.

New York Stop Silencing Survivors Act

The Stop Silencing Survivors Act would amend New York's 'General Obligations Law' to prohibit employers from including non-disclosure or non-disparagement agreements in settlements or resolutions of alleged workplace discrimination or labor law violations, while still permitting a complainant to request that their identity and the circumstances of their complaint remain confidential.

Lift Our Voices has advocated for New York's Stop Silencing Survivors Act since state Senators Alessandra Biaggi and Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas announced the legislation in April 2022. The bill has been reintroduced to each subsequent legislative session – as S4233 in the 2023-2024 session and as S5404, sponsored by Gounardes, in the current 2025-2026 session – but has not advanced beyond referral to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

At a press conference at the State Capitol on May 8, 2023, Carlson said, "The bill we're advocating for today would eliminate NDAs, not just for harassment and assault, but for all toxic workplace issues, including race, gender, sexual identity, age and disability discrimination. This bill puts the power back in the hands of the survivors."

State Senator Andrew Gounardes has described the measure as intended to restore NDAs to their original purpose of protecting trade secrets and proprietary information, rather than as a tool to suppress workplace misconduct victims. "What we're talking about here is banning a bribe," Gounardes said. "You are bribing someone to keep their mouth shut about the harm that they have done to you."

A February 2025 poll conducted for Lift Our Voices found that 56 percent (56%) of New York voters surveyed opposed the use of workplace NDAs, with 68 percent (68%) surveyed supporting a statewide ban. Carlson said the polling showed "voters in New York stand with workers and their right to speak out against discrimination."

Mission and work

In founding the nonprofit organization, Carlson and Roginsky stated their goal was to work with both business and government leaders in order to remove NDAs and similar legal agreements from workplaces in instances of assault, harassment and discrimination. They remain subjected to NDAs preventing them from speaking publicly about their experiences and have committed to eradicating NDAs for issues of workplace abuse.

In July 2021, Carlson joined U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Lindsey Graham, and Rep. Cheri Bustos, when the lawmakers introduced the bipartisan federal Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021. The bill was proposed in order to end mandatory arbitration of such claims in the workplace from being required in employment contracts. It was passed in Congress with bipartisan support on February 10, 2022, with Carlson present on Capitol Hill. On March 3, 2022, it was signed into law by President Joe Biden with Carlson as the guest of honor and Roginsky in attendance. Lift Our Voices' co-founders Roginsky and Carlson in an interview with the National Press Club have called the bill a “model” for addressing workplace abuse allegations. The organization's effort was credited with helping Congress dismantle some of the "workplace roadblocks" that helped bring about the MeToo movement. In February 2023, Lift Our Voices launched Know Your Rights, an initiative aimed at providing resources and information for those in the workforce about the law's protections for employees.

In June 2022, Carlson and Roginsky joined Representatives Lois Frankel, Cheri Bustos, and Ken Buck, who as co-sponsors introduced the bipartisan federal Speak Out Act in House of Representatives, which would prohibit NDAs from being required as part of employment contracts to prevent employees from openly sharing allegations of sexual assault or harassment in the workplace; its lead Senate co-sponsors include Senators Gillibrand, Graham, Marsha Blackburn and Mazie Hirono. Lift Our Voices was called a "pro-worker policy group " that earlier in 2022 "ushered a similar bill into law, nullifying mandatory arbitration provisions for workers alleging #MeToo claims" and noting bipartisan support of both efforts in both chambers of Congress. If passed, Lift Our Voices intends to work to promote awareness for employees so that they understand their right to speak out about sexual misconduct in their workplaces, and its founders have stated that they intend to continue to advocate for changes to the law and corporate policies until "arbitration and NDAs are eliminated for all toxic workplace issues." The bill was signed into law by President Biden on December 7, 2022.