The unveiling of a new portrait of the late Hawaii U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink at the U.S. Capitol, a lei ceremony and speeches at Mink’s statue in Honolulu, and other events and initiatives around the nation marked the 50th anniversary on Thursday of the anti-sex-discrimination law popularly referred to as Title IX.

In a passionate speech that was part of the lei ceremony on the Hawaii State Library lawn, Hawaii Supreme Court Associate Justice Sabrina McKenna said Hawaii and the nation have made giant strides in equity thanks to Mink’s work as the major author and champion of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The law bars discrimination based on sex in institutions receiving federal funding.

“Because of Patsy’s fighting spirit and commitment to equality, generations of women can now take their rightful place as leaders,” McKenna said, quoting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s speech a few hours earlier at the Mink portrait unveiling in Washington, D.C.

Before Title IX, McKenna said, “educational institutions receiving federal funds were not prohibited by law from discriminating on the basis of sex. And discriminate, they did.”

In the U.S. 50 years ago, only 7% of law school graduates and 9% of medical school graduates were women, for example, and 3.8% of the 1,145 members of the Hawaii State Bar Association were women, she said.

But thanks to changes in schools and colleges under Title IX — which was renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in 2002 — today nearly 60% of all college students are women. And well over half of all law students, and 42% of Hawaii bar association members, are female, McKenna said.

While people commonly think of Title IX mainly for promoting equity in sports, its primary impact has been much broader, across all areas of education, said Jennifer Rose, director of the University of Hawaii Office of Institutional Equity, who also spoke at the lei ceremony, along with Gov. David Ige, first lady Dawn Amano-Ige, and other community leaders. “Title IX is not just about athletics — it is about STEM, admissions, career and technical education, it is about transgender students having access,” Rose said.

McKenna, the first Asian American LBGTQ justice on any state supreme court, credits Title IX with helping her gain a scholarship to play on the first women’s basketball team at the University of Hawaii, where she later earned her law degree. She called Mink “my hero,” and said, “If it had not been for Rep. Mink and Title IX, I would not be addressing you as an associate justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court. I am a direct beneficiary of Title IX.”

In Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C., the painting of Mink was announced as the latest in a series of portraits recognizing members of Congress who have increased diversity and representation in the House. Mink was a Maui native and Democrat who in 1964 became the first woman of color elected and first Asian American woman elected to Congress.

“Thanks to Title IX, more women than ever before are leading in government, business, and of course, in medicine,” U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said in a speech at the unveiling. “But while we have come a long way since Patsy was rejected from medical school because of her gender, of course we still have a way to go for true equity.”

Hirono, who was joined at the unveiling by Pelosi, sports pioneer Billie Jean King, Mink’s daughter, Gwendolyn Mink, the other three members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation, and a long list of other dignitaries, continued: “We need to strengthen Title IX and protect the rights of every student to a welcoming and supportive school environment. By working to build on the progress Congresswoman Patsy Mink worked so hard to secure, we are helping generations of women and girls to come to have the support they need to thrive in school and beyond.”

The portrait in oil on aluminum, by Brooklyn, N.Y.-based artist Sharon Sprung, depicts a young Mink in a white sheath dress, smiling and walking with papers in one hand, a handbag in the other.

“The colors of the Pacific Ocean and abstractions of flora from her home state of Hawaii — heliconia, bird of paradise and others — form the background of the portrait,” says the history website for the U.S. House of Representatives.“The setting evokes Mink’s uniqueness at the outset of her 13-term career in the House — as a representative from a recently admitted state, a (Hawaii native) and woman of color, and an activist.”

But the battle over equity continues. An NCAA special report released Thursday for the 50th anniversary of Title IX shows that while the number of women competing at the highest level of college athletics is continuing to grow, so is the funding gap between men’s and women’s sports programs. The report found that 47.1% of participation opportunities across Division I in 2020 were for women, compared with 26.4% in 1982. Yet men’s programs received more than double that of women’s programs in allocated resources in 2020.

Meanwhile, debate continues over whether and how Title IX should apply to LGBTQ students. The Biden administration seized on the focus on Title IX on Thursday to announce a proposal to enshrine the rights of LGBTQ students in federal law and give victims of campus sexual assault new protections. It now faces a public feedback period before the administration can finalize any changes, meaning the earliest the policy is likely to take effect is next year.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.