Posted: October 11th, 2011 | Author: Dinah | 1 Comment »
Join the Wait... What?! Campaign today, and stand up for equal rights!
Did you know your friends can be fired in 29 states, just for being gay? Surprised? So are lots of folks; equal rights are farther from reality than many of us would like to believe.
Today is the annual celebration of National Coming Out Day. Thousands of people across the country are standing up for their gay friends’ rights. You can add your voice by turning astonishment into action.
Join the Wait…What?! social media campaign to learn some surprising facts and let your friends know that you support them.
Through viral sharing on Facebook and Twitter, thousands of new voices will chime in to bring attention to equal rights issues like employment and housing discrimination. The movement has made great strides over the past year, year with the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the passing of the marriage equality bill in New York, but there’s still much more to be done!
Friendfactor Founder Brian Elliot explains the campaign like this:
Not everyone realizes the full extent to which their gay friends are not equal: they can legally be fired and evicted in 29 states just for being gay. In 32 states, there’s zero protection from the law when gay friends are bullied. My straight friends are shocked when they learn these things, and we know other straight friends will be too. We believe there’s a tremendous opportunity to engage these friends and accelerate the pace of change for their gay friends.
With one share on Facebook or Twitter, you can join the team of celebrities — including Adam Lambert, Ke$ha, Cyndi Lauper, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Joan Rivers, Margaret Cho and Wendy Williams — who are standing up.
Take Action: Join the campaign and share a surprising fact to stand up for your gay friends. The more eyes we can get on these facts, the faster we can fix what’s broken.
Posted: September 22nd, 2011 | Author: Dinah | 2 Comments »
Jamey Rodemeyer, victim of gay teen suicide
We see all too many stories of gay teen suicide cases in the news. This one is particularly horrifying. Jamey Rodemeyer was only 14 years old when he took his own life this week, after being relentlessly bullied for who he was. His story is all the more tragic because his struggle with this issue was so public: he wrote regularly on his blog about other students teasing him for having girls as friends, and even made a video for the It Gets Better Project (you can watch it here).
It feels like once these stories hit the news it’s too late to do anything; a life has been lost to bullying, and there’s no way to bring it back. But a bunch of big players are banding together to fight gay teen suicide. They’re calling it “The Stop Bullying: Speak Up Social Pledge App.” A bit of a mouthful, yes, but also a way to for you to join a movement to prevent more tragedies like losing Jamey:
The Stop Bullying: Speak Up Social Pledge App is an interactive tool that enables educators, parents and teachers to commit to end bullying by signing an online pledge and recruiting others to join them.
Leveraging the resources of [Facebook and Time Warner], the social pledge app will be promoted across multiple platforms, from Facebook to CNN, Cartoon Network, and magazines such as TIME and Sports Illustrated.
The app is meant to be a one-stop resource with practical information about bullying prevention, with recommendations on how to respond in specific situations along with opportunities to share personal experiences, and information from non-profits and government groups involved in the cause. The app also encourages the creation of school-based bullying prevention groups on Facebook.
While the hope is that young people will download the app, the online tool is also targeted at bystanders–those who witness an act of bullying.
(via AllFacebook.com)
Kudos to the celebs and companies who are throwing their efforts into this, and let’s hope it helps. Still, it’s going to take a lot more than a well-branded app to change hearts and minds across the country so kids like Jamey feel accepted. Ending gay teen suicide will take a massive effort from all of us; this could be the start of that effort, truly.
Take Action: “Like” the Facebook page for this app now, and keep an eye on the Friendfactor blog: we’ll keep you updated on this, and other initiatives to prevent gay teen suicide.
Posted: September 13th, 2011 | Author: Dinah | 1 Comment »
Being a friend means not staying silent when somebody’s treating your friends badly. That’s why we’ve launched a petition on Change.org: so you can tell the Sizzler that discrimination and violence against gay customers won’t fly on your watch.
Add your name now.
The full story is in the petition, but here’s an excerpt that’ll send shivers down the spine of anyone who enjoys the occasional meal out with gay friends:
Imagine being out to brunch with a few pals. So far so good, right? Until, the manager aggressively approaches your friend, yelling and accusing her of not paying for brunch.
Screaming, the manager violently shoves your friend. He calls her a f***ing d*ke. An angry mob of patrons joins in, relentlessly attacking your friend with homophobic and hate-filled language, even threatening her with sexual assault. Finally the police arrive and your friend is taken, bruised and battered, by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
Take action now to help make it right.
It’s unthinkable, but true. This is what happened to Liza Friedlander at the Sizzler in Queens, and it could happen to you and your gay, lesbian, bi, or transgender friends. Lambda Legal has taken up Liza’s case, and now’s our chance to make a public showing that we all think this sort of treatment is unacceptable.
This isn’t an abstract political argument about why gay Americans should have full freedom from violence and fear of bias crimes. This is a real story that happened to someone’s real friend. This is why we all need to stand together and denounce this behavior and the lack of corporate response: we still live in a world where this can happen to our friends.
Be a friend: Add your voice.
Send a powerful message that it’s not just gay people who care about discrimination and assault – we all do. You can make a difference today by demanding that the management at Sizzler provides better training on anti-discrimination policies, gets serious about enforcement, and speaks out against discrimination and violence toward customers. Gay assault is assault, period.
Take Action: After you sign the petition yourself, share it or this blog posts with as many friends as you can. If we can reach our goal of 5,000 signatures, we’ll be letting Liza and all our gay friends know we have their backs when it gets tough. We can hold this corporation accountable and make the world a little safer for everyone.
Posted: September 12th, 2011 | Author: Dinah | 1 Comment »
As we discussed last week, marriage for gay couples is an incredibly important issue in the gay rights movement in the USA. Not only does marriage confer more than 1,100 rights and protections, it allows our gay friends to participate fully in one of the most recognizable and important ceremonies in our adult lives. You have an opportunity to make a difference for North Carolina gay marriage laws, today.
Chris Hughes, the co-founder of Facebook, has joined with his fiancé Sean Eldridge in pledging to donate $10 for every person who “likes” Equality NC’s Facebook page by Tuesday, up to $10k.
"Like" Equality NC to protect North Carolina gay marriage laws now!
The money will go to help Equality NC fight the marriage amendment, which [Hughes] says “is bad for business, bad for the perception of my home state on the national stage, and a far cry from job-creating legislation that North Carolina lawmakers should be focused on.”
Hughes’ letter says he knows what it’s like to grow up different in a small Southern town and that this legislation “will only perpetuate this stigma for a new generation of creative, talented youth, uninterested in second-class citizenship in a state they call home.
(via NewsObserver.com)
As The New York Times notes, NC is the lone standout in the Southeast without a constitutional ban on marriage for gay couples. In reality, the constitutional ban would only truly server as salt in a wound — state law already prohibits North Carolina gay marriage. Taking it to the constitutional level only further solidifies the legislating of discrimination. The state is widely considered more gay-friendly than others in the region, leading activists in the area to bring particularly vocal opposition to the proposed ban.
Take Action: “Like” Equality NC’s Facebook page now, and share this article so your friends can do the same. We only have til Tuesday, and a few seconds of your time can make a real difference for friends in North Carolina.
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