Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Join the Impact

Activism Rooted in the Internet

IMPACT The White House Part 2

Posted by amy On December - 15 - 2008

Yesterday, we gave you an amazing opportunity to help us Impact the White House with Equal Rep. Today, we were asked to join with Change.org to provide another GREAT opportunity to make an IMPACT in government!

Change.org announced the following:

What’s Your Big Idea for Change in America?

President-Elect Obama says he wants to hear ideas from all Americans, so we’re taking him up on his offer. Submit your ideas for how to change America, discuss with others, and vote for your favorites.

The “Top 10 Ideas for America” will be presented to the Obama Administration on Inauguration Day. We will then build a national campaign to advance each idea in Congress, marshaling the resources of Change.org, MySpace, and our dozens of partner organizations and millions of combined members.

They asked us to participate and we feel that this is a great opportunity to affect positive change for the LGBTQ community. Since JoinTheImpact is YOURS, we are asking you a simple question: What idea for change should we post to make an impact? Once we decide on an idea, we can all work together to give it the support it deserves. Imagine if EVERYONE who came out for November 15th and who will be coming out for the December 20th Light Up the Night event, were to join in and vote for our idea. What an amazing IMPACT we WILL make!

3 AMAZING LGBTQ ideas have already been posted to the site (Trans Inclusive ENDA, Gay Adoption, and Same-Sex Civil Marriage). PLEASE lend your support and VOTES to these great ideas. Change.org is picking the top 10, so we should definitely add to these two amazing requests for positive change. Please help us decide what is the best idea. Here are some suggestions:

  • Repeal DOMA
  • Repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
  • Stronger Hate Crime Legislation

These are just a few. Check out the suggestions on Change.org and then add your suggestions in the comments on this post. Our voices came together on November 15th. They are coming together over and over again. People are starting to pay attention! We have been asked to make our voices heard again. Let’s take this great opportunity for change. We WILL prevail!

Make an IMPACT in the White House

Posted by amy On December - 14 - 2008

So what are you up to this week on December 17-19? How about helping to shatter a glass ceiling? This week, EQUAL REP was formed calling on people across the nation to urge President-elect Obama to appoint Mary Beth Maxwell the next Secretary of Labor.

In more than 200 years, the United States Cabinet has never included an openly gay member. Growing national focus on GLBT civil rights has therefore made the Secretary of Labor appointment a national issue in the struggle for equal representation.

Maxwell is being closely considered for the position and she is highly qualified. She is the founding Executive Director of American Rights at Work, a national advocacy organization launched in 2003 whose mission is to modernize and reform the labor laws of our nation to better meet the needs of 21st century employers and workers. She is a longtime activist for better collective bargaining rules and a big proponent of the Employee Free Choice Act. She’s a vocal progressive and would make a fantastic Secretary of Labor.

In a short amount of time, Maxwell has also earned the endorsements of the AFL-CIO, Change to Win Federation, the CEO and President of American Income Life Insurance, and the Human Rights Campaign just to name a few.

There is a special significance to this moment as we mark the thirtieth anniversary of Harvey Milk’s assassination. It is both a reminder of how far we’ve come as well as the work that remains to be done.

Join the facebook event, invite your friends, and plan on giving the Obama administration a friendly nudge to put his call of change into action. Here’s to hoping that Mary Beth Maxwell is the next Secretary of Labor!

____________________________________________

On December 20th, we will come together to Light Up the Night For Equal Rights and hopefully enter into the new year a bit early – moving from a time of no LGBTQ representation in the White House, to a new era in the movement for FULL EQUALITY. So let’s prepare for our National candlelight vigil with a week of change. Let’s make an IMPACT in the White House!