This will be a daily call to action for GLBT issues. I wrote a longer explanation of our purpose yesterday, here, but the goal is to simply keep Congress' minds on GLBT legislation while winning the hearts and minds of the American people one step at a time, through a constant stream of GLBT activism and education about our issues and discussion of why Americans should support us.
The important thing I want to reiterate is this: This is not an attempt to get our "ponies right now or we'll stop voting" or any such nonsense. This is merely a call for targeted, continuous activism to spread education to those who might not be on our side, or to those who don't know much about GLBT issues.
The right wingers have been winning with the fear card for decades now. As someone put it in a comment recently, they play victim and act like they're terrified of us to get sympathy. They'll say "please, please don't destroy our marriages! We're just a simple family trying to raise kids and be Christian! Please don't wreck our lives!" With Don't Ask, Don't Tell they are pathetically and irrationally begging us not to destroy the military and their families and not to hurt America.
I say, let's take them on. There is no reason we can't fight them on their lies. This is 2010. While picking on gays and forcing them to feel the need to remain closeted worked a decade ago, a whole lot less of us are in the closet and we are fighters! Let's do this shit!
This will be a poorly organized and hastily written daily attempt at activism. I'll urge all of you to write LTEs on specific themes and I'll provide phone numbers and email addresses, as well as snail mail addresses for Congressmembers and the President so we can keep this up.
The right is winning on state initiatives, they're winning on antidiscrimination ordinances, they're winning on fear of the destruction of marriage and society as we know it, they're winning the message war.
There's no reason for this except that we're not out there every day fighting back.
First up, since it could pass the House this month, as a baseline, over 80% of people polled think that GLBT people should be protected from job discrimination. I'm having trouble finding a poll on the Employment Non Discrimination Act itself, but if that poll from 2008 is still accurate, I'd imagine a large number of people would easily support ENDA, which is awaiting committee meetings, Barney Frank says it will get a House vote this month (I was unaware of this until today), and it already has 198 cosponsors, which you can find at that first link.
The latest marriage equality poll says that as of January, 42% of Americans support it while even less oppose and the rest are not sure. This is up from 33% or so. That poll is actually a conservative estimate, because others have shown support for marriage equality between 42-43% for at least four years, since 2006.
The latest poll on Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal has 57% of Americans supporting its repeal with a majority of Democrats and Independents supporting repeal, and only a majority of Republicans favoring keeping the policy in place.
Regarding the Defense of Marriage Act, the latest poll says that barely 50% of Americans support keeping it in place. Clearly there's going to be some work ahead, which is the main reason I'm doing this and will continue to do this regardless of how much support it maintains here. Think of it: what if our efforts lower that number to 45 or so? Once we're at less than 50 it will be easier to persuade some people, especially independents, to jump to the "support repeal" side. They just need to know why it's vital to our lives. H.R. 3567, the Respect for Marriage Act, the bill to repeal DOMA, has 108 sponsors so far, and you can find their names at that link. There are currently 1,138 marriage rights being denied gay couples in this country. For a good comment on how this affects us, see this:
Also, a focus on the unfair taxation of any DP benefits that we have been able to capture to this point would open eyes. When I tell my straight neighbors that I pay more in taxes, don't get to claim my partner as a deduction, get taxed on his benefits because we're gay, didn't get the $250 Soc Sec benefit to bury my first husband, have no rights to pass on my personal property without having my family fight to nullify my final wishes, and so on... they are truly shocked because they are truly not informed by anyone but me. Where do they go to get real information about the inequity?
Write some letters to Congress!
Write House Reps!
Write Senators!
Be nice but assertive. I don't have a theme for this first edition, as I don't even know how many are willing to help me with this. But whether they're supportive or not, GOP or Democratic, send them a message. Tell a personal story about how you're affected or how someone you know is affected. Explain how taking these actions will uphold American values, and especially with DADT, how its repeal will enhance national security.
When you mention Don't Ask, Don't Tell, be sure to let them know that we NEED the repeal to go in the Defense Appropriations bill where it has the best, and maybe only chance of passing.
The best way to get a message across, though, is to contact the House and the Senate's Judiciary Committees. They're the ones who deal with civil rights legislation. Again, whether or not specific members support or oppose us, contact them. The idea is to promote new arguments and new ways of thinking on these issues to help build consensus. Even sending a message to a vehemently antigay congressperson will help us plant these ideas into their subconscious.
House Judiciary
Senate Judiciary
And here's how to email or write the President:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Please include your e-mail address
Phone Numbers
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
The ACLU tells you how to effectively write Letters to the Editor.
Since all politics is local, contact your state legislators and tell them what you think about these policies. They should hear from all of us whether they agree with us or not.
I fully admit that a lot of the problem with getting gay rights legislation passed is the fact that we're not personalizing it enough. Take California for instance, there are a lot of complaints that there were no gay couples on the No on 8 pamphlets or ads. There is absolutely no reason we can't take a couple minutes out of our days to tell Congresspeople our personal stories or those of people we know.
No reason.
Realistically, this type of sustained action doesn't work without some sort of goal. I want to start by making a list of Senators and House reps who support these bills and those who don't, based on our calls and emails. Then we can go from there to take further action. When you call or write, make sure to ask specifically if they support or oppose DOMA and DADT repeal and if they support or oppose ENDA. Then report what they say in the comments!
It's time to do all this ourselves! We won't win this by waiting on state ballot initiatives to go our way and we won't win this by waiting on Congress or the President to do it without trying our best to build a national consensus. We need to FIGHT FOR THIS!