This year will mark the third year that thomascwaters.com has sponsored a town hall forum and advocacy training during Pride week. In past years, the focus was almost entirely on advocacy training because earlier in Pride Week both years, the ACLU had sponsored a “Know Your Rights” session and each time they covered legislation pretty well. But this year, there is no session by the ACLU, so my session will be more of a town hall than before, where we can talk about the pending legislation affecting the LGBT community, and also devoter time to advocacy training. Here is the blurb about the event:

Democracy is a participation activity! Learn about the status of pending legislation and the things you can do to assure passage of these critical protections. Leave with step-by-step ideas about how you can make a noticeable difference towards achieving equality. This event is co-sponsored by ACLU Pittsburgh, Equality Partners, and thomascwaters.com.

With the GOP in control of both he PA House and Senate, as well as a GOP governor, we are a seeing a lot of clearly anti-LGBT legislation, as well as other agendas that while not directed at the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities, will impact us in big ways. Some pro-LGBT legislation has also been introduced, but if it is going to get anywhere, it will need our help more than ever before. How can we stop the negative legislation and accelerate progress on the positive legislation? We will show you how to get Harrisburg to hear your voice! That’s what advocacy training is all about.

Who can affect t Harrisburg? Do we need highly trained and educated super-activists? No! We need regular folks who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender as well as supportive allies who are wiling to talk to their legislators about what matters to them. That’s all there is to it. Get inspired, trained and supported so that you can go out and make a difference, by attending this important session during Pride Week!