Issue Number 1022 | Your Handy Activist To-Do List | Advocate.com Your Handy Activist To-Do List  | ACTIVISM | Advocate.com

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Your Handy Activist To-Do List

Because you don’t want to wait idly for a court decision or congressional vote to decide on your rights, we asked five leading LGBT activists for their suggestions on what you can do personally to end your second-class status.
From The Advocate  January 13, 2009
Your Handy Activist To-Do List

Talk to 10 foes of marriage equality
Begin speaking with people who are not “like-minded,” says Amy Balliett, co-organizer of JoinTheImpact.com’s nationwide day of rallies. For the next 10 months, pick one person who opposes equal marriage rights. “Speak with him or her as much as possible over a month -- every day, if you can,” Balliett says. “Always have an honest, respectful debate with them. This is how I got my mom to vote for Barack Obama. You’ll plant a seed of change.”

Send a postcard to President-elect Obama
Buy a postcard picturing your town and mail it to the presidential transition office, says Matt Flanders, cofounder of the new grassroots campaign Civil Rights Front. “We really need to make sure Obama knows that we were listening when he made certain statements and promises” to gay voters, says Flanders, who provides step-by-step directions at CivilRightsFront.com. Flanders recommends writing: “Please ask Congress to repeal DOMA! All Americans should have the right to marry. Thank you in advance for advocating for the civil rights of your LGBT citizens.” The most influential element, Flanders believes, is your handwritten signature.

Build public support for the California supreme court to overturn Proposition 8
Write letters to the editor and talk in churches and schools about Civics 101 -- that the Founding Fathers intended for federal and state constitutions and courts to protect everyone equally, including minorities. “Proposition 8 put the rights of a minority group up for a popular vote,” says Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “If Proposition 8 is allowed to stand, who knows who or what will be next in California?”

Lobby lawmakers in states on the brink of marriage equality
“We need you to help sway legislators and work with organizations to get us over the threshold,” says Evan Wolfson, author of Why Marriage Matters and executive director of the group Freedom to Marry. For example, if the New Jersey legislature passes a law recognizing gay marriage, Gov. Jon Corzine has said that he would sign it. And New York governor David Paterson has directed his state’s agencies to revise policies so they recognize same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts and Connecticut. “Linking up with groups like Garden State Equality and taking their specific action-steps is a great way people can help,” Wolfson says.

Offer your help to senior citizens
Volunteer at a local retirement home and wear a T-shirt that identifies you as gay while volunteering, says Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. “My theory is, once they know us, they’ll stop voting against us,” he says. “I think the people who vote against us have a lot of preconceptions of what gay people are.” Don’t volunteer and simply preach, says Black, who is an organizer of the Seven Weeks to Equality campaign. “Do outreach to help fix up their homes, to entertain them, to help take care of them. A dozen people going into a senior citizens’ home twice a month is going to make quite a difference,” he says. “What’s important is to make yourself visible. How can we expect them to help in our cause unless we help in their cause as well?”

Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

  • Name: Corey Mondello
    Date posted: 2009-01-04 7:33 AM
    Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts

    Comment:

    I do not think all pro-gay organizations should pull their resources. Why, because when one gets too much power, one doesn't make positive strides in everyone's eyes. Case in point; HRC decides to build a building that represents the "equal sign", their organization icon, so to speak. How many millions of dollars wasted for that? The Log Cabin Republicans, the gay republican group, supported John McCain and has supported MANY anti-gay politicians over the years I have been watching them. More gays just need to speak out more. Attack the issue from all sides, not one side.


  • Name: Mike McDonald
    Date posted: 2009-01-03 10:33 AM
    Hometown: New York

    Comment:

    Until all LGBT groups large and small pool our resources, talents and money together, we are never going to achieve equality or dignity. Each and every minority that ever gained human privileges were never effective until they forgot their difference and self-pride, cemented and created a power block to be reckoned with. If the other oppressed humans could do it, why can't we? When are we going to unite and fight? As my Partner of almost 30 years says, "ALONE, WE MARCH, TOGETHER, WE CONQUER!" Mike McD. Viet Nam Veteran 9/11 Ground Zero Survivor Partner/Lover 30 Years


  • Name: Mike McDonald
    Date posted: 2009-01-03 9:36 AM
    Hometown: New York City

    Comment:

    Until all LGBT groups large and small pool our resources, talents and money together, we are never going to achieve equality or dignity. Each and every minority that ever gained human privileges were never effective until they forgot their difference and self-pride, cemented and created a power block to be reckoned with. If the other oppressed humans could do it, why can't we? When are we going to unite and fight? As my Partner of 30 years says, "ALONE, WE MARCH, TOGETHER, WE CONQUER!" Mike McDonald Viet Nam Veteran 9/11 Ground Zero Survivor Partner/Lover 30 Years


  • Name: Gene Elder
    Date posted: 2009-01-02 5:32 PM
    Hometown: San Antonio

    Comment:

    Join the WEDDING CAKE LIBERATION FRONT::: "Put on your mascara girls. This means war." ---Gene Elder "Never has battle tasted so good, or a wedding cake been so fierce." says Gene Elder, Archives Director for the HAPPY Foundation and the artist behind the Wedding Cake Liberation Front. elder4tomato@yahoo.com Start your own chapter of the Wedding Cake Liberation Front in your town and bake it into a fundraiser to support marriage equality in America. And Remember: "Art, like the Alamo, has to draw the line somewhere." Gene Elder San Antnoio, Texas


  • Name: Chris
    Date posted: 2008-12-04 12:37 PM
    Hometown: San Francisco

    Comment:

    Other things to do: - make and hand-deliver holiday greeting cards to your neighbors with "From Our Family to Yours" and a picture of your gay family on them - Walk your dog in your neighborhood and talk to your neighbors when you see them. Build a rapport with them. Offer, as D.L. Black suggests above, to help them with repairs on their homes. Offer to walk their dog for them if they can't, or to go for walks with them and their dog.


  • Name: George DeCarlo
    Date posted: 2008-12-04 12:34 PM
    Hometown: Berkeley Heights

    Comment:

    New Jersey's Gov Corzine is doing all he can to delay or avoid giving same-sex couples the human right of civil marriage. The excuse given last year was he would wait until after the election. He would wait? The legislature passes a bill then all he has do is sign it. Not much work. Now Crozine's excuse is that he wants to do something about the economy first. It is a simple process for the legislature to pass the current bill then he just has to sign it. This requires less than a half a day of work. Of course, this assumes that the Democrats are the saviors of Gays and Lesbians. This assumption ignores Democrats when in control of Congress for 40 years doing NOTHING for Gays and Lesbians. Democrats also voted for DOMA, approved DADT and rejected ENDA. Yes, they rejected ENDA since they had a Democratic senator leave town avoiding a tie that would have had VP Gore cast a vote. Oh, Rep Frank also told a Congressional caucus that it was OK for them to vote for DOMA.


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