The other day, I received a question in the form of a comment to the blog, and wanted to reply with an answer. Here was the comment:
Hi Tom, Cool blog. I’ve been checking it out for awhile and seeing you at Pride reminded me to take another look. I wonder if you would post advice for those of us who live in Pgh in areas where elected officials are supportive of HB300 and other GLBT initiatives. I send them notes to thank them for their support, but otherwise wouldn’t lobby them at this point because they are already on board. I’ve been told that officials don’t care much to hear from people who are not their constituents… so I’m not sure about lobbying officials who do not represent my neighborhood. Given all of this, what can I do to be more politically active? Thanks. H
Awesome question and one really worth talking about! Let me preface by saying this is just my opinion- others may feel differently, and perhaps we can get some dialogue going via comments to this post to highlight other ideas as well.
“More politically active” can mean a lot of different things, and defining some of them may seem like the way to start, but rather, I’m going to start at the other end of your question- the part about legislative lobbying for those in Pittsburgh. There are so many things going on, that I think there is something for anyone to do no matter where they live. I want to preface the rest of this post by organizing issues/legislation:
1) Allegheny County Nondiscrimination Ordinance. There is work to do here for everyone who lives in Allegheny County, although hopefully we are close to the end of this struggle. If your county representative is Amanda Green, there isn’t much to do- no need to contact her, but for any other representative, a phone call or an email is good. I believe the vote may be scheduled for this week, and I’m told this will pass, but until it does, we need to stay on top of this.
2) PA State-wide Constitutional Ban on Gay Marriage. There isn’t too much to do here, yet, but a letter to your State Senator isn’t a bad idea. This has been shot down twice before, so it is easy to think we will shoot it down again, but we may have much work to do on this later, so be prepared. but other matters are currently more pressing.
3) PA State-wide Marriage Equality. This was introduced by Senator Daylin Leach. There are a number of diverse opinions on this. Some feel that it takes energy and focus away from PA HB 300. The Senator believes it will be helpful to A HB 300. While the idea of Marriage Equality in PA is a great idea, it is hard to imagine how this bill introduced into the Republican controlled state senate will do very well. Time will tell. Because the state budget is the biggest push right now in Harrisburg, there most likely isn’t much to do on this at the moment.
4) PA HB 300. I left this to last, because it is in my opinion the most important piece of legislation after the Allegheny County ordinance. After the ordinance, because passing the county ordinance will help pass the state bill. I have written much about why I feel this bill is so crucial, so I won’t say much about that except that this bill provides protection for everyone in PA. That is everyone- meaning there isn’t a group of people, not touched by this bill including straight people, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgenders.
There is an easy 2- part conditional here to decide what you need to do:
A) If your state representative is NOT Dan Frankel, make a visit to go see your state representative.
B) If your state representative is Dan Frankel. support your friends to do choice “A.”
So, let’s talk for a minute about these two. This suggests that the representatives are divided into two groups- Dan Frankel being one group and all the other representatives in the other group. Do we really need to lobby those representatives who are in favor of HB 300, such as all of the co-sponsors?
Yes. Especially now, that the status of the bill is that we are working to assure that we have enough votes for passage, and with the budget taking all of the attention of the representatives. We need to keep this bill on the front burner. With a representative who is a co-sponsor, our goal is to thank them, and to ask them to get more involved by nudging their own colleagues in the House. We want them to be spokespersons for this legislation. For all other representatives, we need to be meeting with them face-to-face to talk about why this bill is important.
It isn’t true that all state representatives from the Pittsburgh area are firmly behind this bill. We may think of Pittsburgh as this big old center of progressives on the western side of the state, but in reality, we have a number of representatives who are more conservative within the larger “area” that we may think of when we say “Pittsburgh.” H- I do know where you live and so I know you live in Dan Frankel’s area. My suggestion to you personally, is to utilize your network of friends and colleagues across the state, to encourage them to set up a face-to-face meeting with their representative. My second suggestion is that since you have excellent communication skills, to consider helping those friends- go to meetings with them, and be able to talk about the key points of this bill. Your elected officials have an obligation to meet with their constituents, so any face-to-face meeting needs to include one or more constituents from that representative’s area, but it can include others as well.
What can be most useful is to help identify friends who live in areas where there is a representative who is either on the fence or who we think is opposed to HB 300. These folks really need to be lobbied by their constituents. Often, these representatives do not know enough about the bill, or have been mislead by false information by the bill’s opponents. Some may be close-minded people who don’t want equality for all of their constituents, but I think for the most part, when the facts are presented even opponents can get to the point of saying that no one should be discriminated against in employment and housing.
If you appreciate reading my posts, would you like to thank me with a coffee?
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