An on-going list of political and social action items to keep you aware in these rage inducing times.
-Take a deep dive into the weird with the Occult Voices – Paranormal Music, Recordings of Unseen Intelligences 1905-2007 archive.
– Call or write your senators and House rep to say you support the Student Non-Discrimination Act (SNDA) that would protect LGBTQ students from discrimination in schools
-Lambda Legal is spearheading the legal challenge to Trump’s new ban excluding transgender people from the military. If you are trans, Lambda Legal invites you to anonymously contribute to arguments being presented in court with your story. If you are an ally, you can donate or volunteer here.
-Not cool: Health Department removes breast cancer and Obamacare info from website.
– Extremely cool! An unnamed donor has promised $9 million to Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas to construct two new centers in West Texas. Planned Parenthood has had no clinics in the region since 2013.
– Argentinean artist transforms victims of gender violence’s scar wounds into beautiful and haunting sculptures.
– States that are making voting easier. Good work!
-In Georgia, voters who move within their county now remain on the “active” list.
– Virginia ballot instructions clarify what voters should do if they incorrectly mark the ballot.
– Washington to automatically register citizens when obtaining a driver‘s license or ID.
– Maryland to allow automatic voter registration once the governor signs the bill.
-In Indiana, voters can now send a text message to register to vote
-Hopefully more good news to come: 14 states and Guam introduced voter registration bills in 2018!
– There are decent people who do good things! Cheer yourself up with the latest stories from What Went Right.
Below you will find items from previous newsletters that are still relevant:
-A Texan’s Political Guide to Resisting Trump. Not just for Texans!
-These Women Made a Database of Black Women Running for Office in 2018. Links to the list and info about the rad-ass women behind it.
– Check out Jen Hoffman’s new year activism challenge with her activism plan worksheet and a bonus self care worksheet. Sign up for her weekly newsletter which is so ridiculous more thorough than ours!
– Join the Handmaid’s Resistance! Get updates about events, resources, organizing your own event and more.
– fire up that cellular device and oppose the rollback of birth control coverage, defend childhood immigrants and DREAMers, denounce Trump’s ban on transgender troops, tell DeVos to maintain title IX protections for campus assault victims. Or pick any other five issues from 5 Calls, there are 31 active issues! Bonus points: follow up with emails and faxes through an app (see below) or good ole snail mail.
– Try the Stance app. Record a voice message and will send it directly to your representative’s phone.
– Head to the House of Representatives website to find your rep in congress and contact them! Emails are great, phone calls are better, but do something. Contact them until the poor, unpaid interns who have to answer the phones all day know you by name. Contact them until everyone cries because you will not stop until your rep knows exactly where you stand on all the issues.
– Follow your congress(wo)man on Twitter or periodically check-in (if clouding your social media feed with their trash is too repulsive), representatives will often tweet about upcoming town halls. Attend town halls.
– If you are in a time crunch and want to contact your senators or representatives but can’t get to a town hall, check out this genius texting bot called Resistbot. You will have to come up with a short message, but the bot will fax your legislators DAILY if you so desire.
– The Women’s March is a goldmine of resources and suggested actions to combat the growing voice of racism, bigotry, and sexism. Follow them on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram as well!
– Check out The American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) handy-dandy doc Know Your Rights for when you’re out there on the street peacefully protesting and expressing your motherfuckin’ right to civil disobedience. In fact, while you’re at it, donate some cash monies if you can. Here in ‘Merica we vote with our dollars.
– One of the handiest resistance guides out right now is the Indivisible Guide. A wealth of information and actions.
-If you are a Texas resident, you can go to the Texas Legislature Online and sign-up for an account, allowing you to view legislative content and add bills to an alert list. Whenever a bill you’ve put on your list is updated, you’ll receive an alert. Also, feel free to check out our list of Texas legislative bills that we are monitoring and updating. Stay woke, witches.
-Check out Planned Parenthood Texas Vote‘s guide on attending legislative committee hearings where the public is given the opportunity to provide input and feedback on proposed laws.
– Don’t over extend yourself! Yes, we’d all like to fix all the problems right the fuck now, but that’s not practical. You will burn yourself out if you try to keep up with everything in this country (and world for that matter) that needs fixing, so we recommend you come up with a short list of the most important social issues to you. This does not mean you don’t care about everything! We know you do! But we can’t all be doing everything all the time.
Souvenirs
