resolve. Each and every day I receive about 4-5 emails from right
wing organizations asking their supporters to take action to strip
away the rights of LGBT people. Other LGBT advocates and I monitor
these lists to know what we’re up against and to respond in kind;
perhaps some of you do, too. It’s not the most joyous part of the
work I do, not nearly as joyous as staffing Little Gatherings at
Family Week, but it is as necessary to ensuring the health,
happiness and safety of LGBT families as producing fun, safe
community events.
If you read these right wing emails every day, I’m sure that you,
like me, are incensed by the hateful rhetoric and the downright
lies about our families. Just this weekend Family Equality Council
sent out an action alert to our Massachusetts families
asking them to contact their representatives in support of a
nondiscrimination bill here in the Bay State. And just this week we
received an action alert from the Massachusetts Family Institute, a
right wing group, asking their supporters to oppose the
same bill.
Surprising? No. Inflammatory? You betcha.
Generally speaking, it’s not worth one’s time to repeat these
attacks. Occasionally, though, it’s important to remind ourselves
the lengths to which the right wing groups will go to energize
folks against us.
From the Massachusetts Family Institute:
***
ACTION ALERT
Call your State Representative and
Senator and ask them NOT to co-sponsor the “transgender rights”
bill.
The homosexual special interests are again
pushing their bill to give special rights to the gender-confused
(i.e. transvestites) which would endanger women and children and
threaten those opposed with draconian legal consequences….Openly
homosexual Rep. Carl Sciortino (D-Somerville) and Rep. Byron
Rushing (D-Boston) in the House, and Sen. Benjamin Downing
(D-Pittsfield) in the Senate are the lead sponsors for the
2009-2010 legislative session.
If this bill were to become law, the
consequences would be serious. Women and children would be put at
risk since anyone, regardless of their biological sex, would be
allowed access to sensitive areas such as single-sex bathrooms and
locker rooms as well as college dormitories. Nothing would prevent
a male sexual predator from pretending that he is confused about
his sex to gain access to a woman’s bathroom or to join a
female-only fitness club. The law could also affect sex education
classes in school, suggesting that sex change operations are
mainstream and confusing children even more.
***
Unlike these groups, we will never lie to you or exaggerate threats
to get you to act. In turn, we need all of our supporters to stand
strong and take action when asked. We need our voices to be just as
loud–no, louder–than theirs if we want to end these
attacks and make equality a reality now. Here’s what you can do
today to ensure that you’re tuned in to take action for
equality:
1. OPEN OUR EMAILS — It may sound silly, but
opening our emails will provide you with the most current
information, opportunities and resources to support equality. We
try not to overload your inboxes and make our emails accessible and
informative. If you don’t think the email address we have for you
is current, send an email to info@familyequality.org to request a change. Check
your spam settings to make sure that our domain name,
“familyequality.org”, is on your safe senders list. There’s lots of
little technical barriers to receiving emails these days. Make sure
your settings aren’t depriving you of opportunities to make
change.
2. SEND THOSE LETTERS, MAKE THOSE CALLS — At
the Join the Impact rally this weekend here in Boston, veteran LGBT
politician Barney Frank and others made a very good point again and
again: Registering our outrage in the streets can be morally
necessary and sometimes immediately effective in making change. Yet
the political process continues on whether we’re protesting or not.
It’s very, very importantthat your elected
officials hear from YOU. Contacting legislators directly can seem
intimidating, but let me assure you it’s as painless as can be. It
takes just a few minutes, an envelope and a stamp to make a big
difference on whether a legislator prioritizes a bill that you care
about, and engaging legislators on a particular bill can be a great
learning experience for your kids. Remember School House Rock’s
“How a Bill Becomes a Law”? Teach those same lessons to your kids
by having them work with you advocating for change.
3. EDUCATE, EDUCATE, EDUCATE — There won’t be
an action alert every day of the week, but that doesn’t mean you
can’t act to make change each and every day. One-on-one
conversations with family members, neighbors, co-workers, teachers
and friends make a world of difference in creating a safe, healthy
world for our children. Talk about specific issues that matter to
your family. If you can, talk about specific bills. You
never know what emails some of your acquaintances are getting.
Perhaps they’re being fed the same inflammatory misinformation
given by the Massachusetts Family Institute above. You can help
counter those messages just by being honest and confident in who
you are.
4. SUPPORT A UNITED ENDA TODAY — We also sent
out an action alert last week asking our supporters to contact
their federal representatives and senators in support of the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Take action on ENDA right
here, right now, today:
Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and have
them connect you to your Representative (based on your zip code).
Tell them: “I am a constituent and I would like you to please
tell Representative _______ that I strongly support the Employment
Non-Discrimination Act that would ban discrimination against all
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.” Then, call back
and leave messages with your two Senators, too! It only takes a
minute and makes a world of difference.