Sign up to join your local Impact Team! Attend a day-long training and become a "super volunteer" to help mobilize marriage supporters where you live. Trainings will empower you to organize local events in your community, and talk to local legislators and the media. Whether they are organizing a letter writing campaign or going door-to-door to talk with neighbors, Impact Teams help to educate voters and elected officials on LGBT equality and justice. Over 300 people have been trained so far and we are planning more trainings across the state soon.
Contact your state legislators. The Pride Agenda will regularly update a scorecard on the position of every state legislator. Call or handwrite a letter to your state Senator if they are scored as “position unknown” and ask where they stand. If they are not yet in support of the marriage bill, ask them to sign on as a co-sponsor and ask that they encourage their colleagues to do the same. Click here to find out where your legislators stand and click here to find out how you can contact them.
Volunteer on the campaign of a marriage-supportive candidate. In November 2008, every member of the New York State Legislature--meaning all state Assemblymembers and state Senators--is up for election. It will be important to stand up for candidates who support marriage against candidates who don’t, and to work to replace legislators who refuse to do the right thing. Contact the Pride Agenda to find out if there is a candidate near you who needs help making calls, stuffing envelopes or talking to voters.
Meet with your state legislators at LGBT Equality & Justice Day (April 28, 2009). Join over a thousand New Yorkers from across the state for the annual LGBT advocacy day in Albany. Educate your legislators about the rights and responsibilities that our state government provides with marriage to take care of families. Let them know how important it is that all New Yorkers have equal access to marriage.
Mobilize allies. Engage your union, church or employer in the fight for marriage equality by holding forums, passing resolutions or issuing public statements. Our Pride in Action programs (Pride in Our Union, Pride in the Pulpit and Pride in My Workplace) can all help show them how.
Advocate for a local resolution in support of marriage. Have your city council, local board, congregation, union council or workplace committee pass a resolution calling on their Albany legislative delegation to support and advocate for marriage legislation. In addition, you can encourage your county and city/town elected officials to write letters to their state legislative counterparts to do the same. Sample resolutions and letters of support can be found in the Marriage Tool Kit available here.
Get a speaker! Have an Impact Team member or Pride Agenda speaker discuss marriage equality at your home for a house party, or at a meeting of your church, union, PTA or other community organization. One of the best ways to win supporters is to engage people in your life who know you (friends, co-workers, neighbors and family members--especially non-LGBT people), but who might not know why the issue is personally important to you. We can connect you with a speaker to help you educate and engage them on this issue. Click here to request a speaker.
Canvass your community. Enlist the support of your friends and family members to talk with your neighbors about the rights and responsibilities that are denied same-sex couples by not having access to marriage. Impact Teams are organizing canvassing efforts for the fall, so activate your email/phone trees now!
Work with your local newspaper. Write a letter to your newspaper(s) in support of marriage for same-sex couples and email us a copy! Find out if your newspaper(s) print wedding and anniversary announcements of same-sex couples and, if so, send in yours. Straight couples can include language in their announcements calling for marriage equality for all loving couples.
Advocate for marriage equality at weddings. Raise awareness or money at your wedding or commitment ceremony to let your guests be part of furthering the day when all loving, committed couples can marry in New York State. Click here for our on-line wedding toolkit to provide you and your friends – gay and straight alike! – with ideas and tools.
Sign up to stay informed. By taking this simple step, you will be kept up-to-date on marriage developments and organizing activities in New York State. You will also know when to take a specific action at the time it will be most effective. Be sure and fill out the form completely so we have the information we need to keep you informed.
Support the work of the Pride Agenda. We need to fully fund this work if we are going to beat the forces that are working against us and win marriage in New York State. Click here to make a donation to the Pride Agenda.
For more information contact the Pride Agenda’s Field Director, Prairie Wells at 518.472.3330 x303 or pwells@prideagenda.org.