Thursday, July 8, 2010

A Suggestion for Engaging More Progressive Activists

Yesterday, the governor of Hawaii vetoed the legislatures bill to legalize same-sex civil unions. EPIC FAIL!!!!

Why, oh why, would our gurl Linda do this? Well, according to the Associated Press, 60% of the letters, phone calls, and emails her office received about this bill asked her to veto it. How can we get progressive, feminist, gay rights supporters to start making more calls than the haters?

Well, at the Campus Progress event that my lovely fellow intern Dena just blogged about, I attended a great panel about Reproductive Justice. A representative from the Illinois ACLU was talking about a comprehensive sex education bill they've been trying to pass in the state, and it got me really inspired. I mean, it's really rad when people are actually making progress, rather than constantly defending the things that we have.

Don't get me wrong: we really do have our work cut out for us in trying to defend the constant onslaught of attacks to women's rights, reproductive rights, LGBT rights, ect. But, when we're talking about galvanizing people, getting a group to together to fight for a cause and all, I think that it's a lot easier to get people to hop on board for change than to stand guard.

So my suggestion to activist: take a bit of time to work towards CHANGE! That's how we'll get out the phone calls (and the votes) we need!

No comments: