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Yesterday, I posted a poll on my blog, asking the question, “What stops you from being more of an activist?” If you haven’t yet responded to it, please do so. The results were interesting to me, and I’ll be writing some posts based upon the results, although I’m going to try not to read too much into it, as it wasn’t a very scientific poll.

13% of the responses were, “Causes just want money and I don’t have much of that.” This was higher than I was expecting! From my perspective, money is the least valuable resource that most of us have when it comes to activism, and should never been seen as a limiting factor stopping a person from being more engaged in activist work. Sure, every organization and cause needs money, but most every action or cause that is in ned of activists, needs far more than that.

There are atleast two ways in which all activist organizations and causes especially need money:

1. To help cover monthly operating expenses like rent, salary, and all the others costs of being in the business of creating change. To cover many of these costs, an organization or cause may have memberships. These are often low cost ($25/year) so that there is a steady amount of income coming in al the time, as new people join. It is extremely useful for you to think about helping by joining and organization or cause as you help that group keep their doors open. A $25 membership is less than having a Starbucks latte once a week! It isn’t hard to look around your budget and make a sacrifice to find $25 out of a whole year of spending.
2. At times organizations and causes have special appeals for money to cover TV and other media spots. For example, prior to the November election, the pro-marriage equality group in Maine produced really excellent TV ads that showed real gay and lesbian families, and these were attributed to helping that group in a positive way. Ads like these give us visibility by showing the general public who we really are. Ads are expensive, but the amount of visibility generated is often deemed worth every penny spent.

There are but two examples, out of many reasons groups and causes need money and find ways to raise it. But the battle in Maine also shows that money really isn’t the primary deciding factor when it comes to winning. The loss in California on Prop 8 was blamed, in part on the fact that the opposition outspent the marriage equality side, but in Maine this wasn’t the case, and we lost anyway. Money alone won’t achieve equality, only hard work by everyone will do that.

There are lots of causes and groups and ways to be an activist. My focus is mostly what I’d call issue advocacy that leads to legislative change and full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and straight people. In short, the issue is equality, and I think it deserves to be advocated for in a big way! So, two ways to be involved without the need for any money, is to do advocacy work towards legislators, and to do advocacy work in your daily life. Both are needed, and each relies on the other for real success, if we are every to achieve full equality.

Advocacy in your daily life

This is, in a big way, making choices about how you live your life, especially surrounding being “out of the closet” about equality. An easy example, is making sure that you are honest in conversations with friends, family and coworkers. So, when someone at work, asks you what you did over the weekend and you mention going out on a date, don’t change the pronouns. Or if someone is telling a derogatory joke about queers, speak up and say that isn’t really acceptable. Advocacy work in your daily life could be the subject of a hundred blog posts, so I’ll stop with these two examples and will write about it further later. But studies and exit polls show that when people know gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people, they are less likely to believe the misinformation and fear mongering and vote in favor of equality. Advocacy in our daily life speaks to that and can create allies for the cause of equality.

Advocacy towards legislators

This is possibly the single most effective tool we have towards gaining full equality, yet the place we always come up short. Thousands of requests go out to call, email, or visit with your elected officials, yet the number of people who follow through and actually call, email or visit is extraordinarily small! For example, during the campaign for an Allegheny County non-discrimination ordinance that covered employment, housing, and public accommodations. There were less than 1/10 or 1 percent of folks who called their county council persons! (Estimated based on number of calls, and estimated number of GLBTQA folks within Allegheny County). In the few weeks prior to that vote,m there were about 19,000 folks who participated in PrideFest, and 6,000 who participated in the Pride rally! So, the number of people available do do advocacy work is far greater than the number of people who actually do.

Currently, we are working to pass PA HB 300 which would provide protections from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations across the entire state. We have Western PA house members who have not made it clear that they can support this bill. If even 1/10th of the Pride participants contact their representative, it could mean the difference between this bill passing or failing!

Also, moving through the house is HB 745, a bill that adds protections in PA’s hate crimes legislation. If we had even 500 people contact their state representatives, we would see this bill easily passed.

Advocacy work like this doesn’t cost much at all! You can make a phone call, or send an email for practically nothing! However, you can have more impact, if you send a snail-mail letter or sit down and visit with your elected official. Can you spare the cost for a 1st class stamp? While every organization and cause needs money, if you want to do activist work that has enormous impact, do advocacy work in your daily life and towards your elected officials.