Changing People’s Minds! Activism.

When I was studying Community Organizing at UConn one of the things that they drummed into us was…

Go for the movable center.

For our supporters thank them! And encourage them.

For those who are opposed to us, be polite and tell them that you think they are wrong… then walk away.

I have changed may people’s minds. This picture is of me talking at a town hall for marriage equality and the gender inclusive non-discrimination bill. We were speaking at UConn School of Law and I gave my talk. Afterward, two women came up to me and said we thought that battle was over with marriage equality but listening to you we realized that there is much more work that is needed to be done.

Back in the 50s and 60s the gays and lesbians, it was all about assimilation… see we are just like you!

But being swept aside were the drag queens, the flaming gays, and the trans people. We were not about assimilation… we were about being ourselves. But all that changed on June night in 1969.

So how did we go from being the dregs of society that not even the gays and lesbians wanted to associate with us to passing marriage and non-discrimination laws?

I went around to different places in Connecticut pitching marriage equality with Love Makes a Family and the gender inclusive non-discrimination bill. We went wherever they wanted to hear us, I'll tell a you going to a business club to talk to a bunch of conservative business people was very interesting… I think that we changed a couple of minds.

The Milwaukee Independent writes about Harvey Milk,

In the late 19th and early 20th century, gay subculture thrived in many large American cities. Gay men spoke of “coming out” into gay society – borrowing the term from debutante society, where elite young women came out into high society. A 1931 news article in the Baltimore Afro-American referred to “the coming out of new debutantes into homosexual society.” It was titled “1931 Debutantes Bow at Local ‘Pansy’ Ball.”

The 1930s, 1940s and 1950s witnessed a growing backlash against this visible gay world. In response, gay life became more secretive. The Mattachine Society, the earliest important organization of what was known as the homophile movement – a precursor of the gay rights movement – took its name from mysterious medieval figures in masks. In this context, coming out meant acknowledging one’s sexual orientation to oneself and to other gay people. It did not mean revealing it to the world at large.

Then along came Harvey Milk…

For instance, in 1978, in his campaign to defeat a California initiative that would have banned gay teachers from working in state public schools, openly gay elected government official Harvey Milk urged people to “Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are.”

Milk gambled that if queer people told their friends they were gay, Californians would realize that they had friends, coworkers and family members who were gay and – out of solidarity – would oppose the proposition. The campaign helped defeat the initiative.

And you know what? It worked!

When someone knows a trans person they are supportive of our rights!

I will say it again, our stories moves mountains! 48In48 writes about it in “Telling Stories That Inspire Activism: 4 Best Practices”

Where only 5% of people remember statistics, 63% remember the stories they hear. Storytelling is powerful, especially when it comes to spreading awareness and inspiring action. That’s why organizations of all shapes and sizes turn to storytelling to promote their activism — whether they’re educating the public about a disease, encouraging supporters to vote, or petitioning for the passage of a law.

Did you get that?

Telling true stories without embellishment is a fundamental rule of ethical nonprofit storytelling. Being authentic is how you earn the trust of new and existing supporters alike and inspire them to act. 

Telling my story at that town hall meeting changed those to lesbians, the movable middle!

Testifying!

No way will do that.

But that is what I thought and I did!

It is really nothing more than telling your story except it is before legislators, for me it was a little easier the first times… one of the co-chairs told me to relax. You see I had already met them at a fund raiser for Gender PAC. We sat around in a friend’s living chatting with the co-chairs and the future governor.

Did you notice something along the lines of “Telling Our Stories? We need to get out there and mingle with politicians, it came in handy in the future when I testified by the Judicial Committee.

Over the years I wrote down what I have learned from testifying.

Your homework: Read Chapter 8 of the Community Tool Box, read Saul Alinsky’s 12 Rules for Radicals and my rules for testifying. Next week I ask you if Alinsky's rule do you know anyone who uses them?

And next week I'll tell you a story about reading the 12 Rules for Radicals for class.

The Plan! Activism

This is a series on activism and grassroots organizing! The last time I wrote about the Inside Out Game, this morning I am writing about the first step in grassroots organizing… planning!

Getting Out There!

• When we were working to pass the gender inclusive non-discrimination bill we had a Speakers Bureau where we went out to talk to anyone who listened.
• We had a group whose job it was to write replies to newspapers editorials.
• We had a list of “Talking Point” so we were all on the same page.
• We had our “Elevator Speech” a 30 second summation of what the bill is about.
• We had a lobby day at the Capitol where we did training for those who wanted to talk to their legislators. (Here is a link to one of our training presentations.)
• We were organized!

For the lobby day we did training on how to talk to your legislators, (My presentation here.)

The Community Tool Box writes about communication…

What do we mean by communication?

Communication is the process of transmitting ideas and information. For a grass roots initiative or community-based organization, that means conveying the true nature of your organization, the issues it deals with, and its accomplishments to the community.

Communication can take many forms, including:

• Word of mouth
• News stories in both print and broadcast media
• Press releases and press conferences
• Posters, brochures, and fliers
• Outreach and presentations to other health and community service providers, community groups, and organizations
• Special events and open houses that your organization holds

To communicate effectively, it helps to plan out what you want from your communication, and what you need to do to get it.

[…]

How do you develop a plan for communication?

Planning for communication is an eight-step process. The steps are:

• Identify the purpose of your communication
• Identify your audience
• Plan and design your message
• Consider your resources
• Plan for obstacles and emergencies
• Strategize how you will connect with the media and others who can help you spread your message
• Create an action plan
• Decide how you will evaluate your plan and adjust it, based on the results of carrying it out.

Back in the early days of trying to pass the Gender Non-Discrimination bill we had an example of what

At UConn School of Law talking about the non-discrimination bill

not to do… A trans person wrote to their legislator a damning letter that got read on to the floor of the House, in the letter she swore, personally called their legislator names. It took a long time to counter the letter, there is nothing that we could do to stop them. So be prepared for letters like that!

Go on the Sunday morning’s talking head shows, I’ve been on all the local network affiliates including Fox. The local CBS network affiliate we the only one that I did a slow burn on the show… I was there to talk about the bill but the only the anchor talked about was trans athletes.

*** A Tip ***

If you can get a friendly media person to come in and talk about how to do interviews and avoid traps, it helps greatly. One of the things that I learned quick… talk in sound bites. No long winded speeches. 

Have you ever been in a press conference… I have.

Another Community Tool Box chapter is on press conferences…

What is a press conference?

You and your group members have probably seen them on television  before or after a major local or national event,. On the evening news there’s a short television clip of a speaker surrounded by a crowd of reporters asking questions. So, you may know what press conferences look like, in general.

But what exactly is a press conference? A press conference is a tool designed to generate news – in particular, hard news that can advance the cause of your organization. Hard news is defined as a story in the print or electronic media which is timely, significant, prominent, and relevant.

Imagine a flock of media reporters coming to an event that you have organized. This can be exciting stuff, and an important opportunity for your organization. If you've never done it before, holding a press conference can be intimidating, even frightening. But the material in this section will guide you through the process, and you'll see that it's not all that hard.

Why should you hold a press conference?

Press releases, interviews, and informal media contacts are excellent ways of getting your message across. They are the bread and butter of your media relations, and often of your entire outreach effort. A press conference is an additional media technique, for special occasions, when you really want to make an impression. More specifically, why hold a press conference? Because:

You can give more information than in a press release.

• A press conference is interactive; you can answer questions from the press, and emphasize points you might not otherwise have a chance to make.
• You can announce an important development, and explain its significant local and wider implications.
• You can set the record straight if your group received negative publicity.
• You can often generate the kind of notice or publicity – a spot on the 6:00 TV news, for instance – that you’d otherwise have to pay a large amount for.
• When many media representatives are present, it makes your conference seem really newsworthy -- the media presence itself adds to the importance.
• A successful media conference can not only generate news, but can also boost the morale of your own group -- that is, your group can take pride in knowing that the press will really turn out to hear what you have to say.

You just don’t call a news conference and wait for everyone to show up.

Rehearse what everyone is going to talk about… and keep to the script! Have one person who is the MC and they are the ones who answer the questions. Practice answering questions, have people quiz you before the press conference.

Your homework assignment: Read Community Tool Box chapters 3 through 7 on the media.

Activism!

[Tool Box]

On Friday I wrote about activism… the Inside and Outside games. Today I want to delve other types of activism. I want to state up front, the is no one right way to be an activist and sometimes a broad approach is best.

There are many logical steps for activism… first rule is what is your target? What are your goals… to get heat in an apartment building or to get legal protections for a minority. They require to different approaches. Would you close down a city because a landlord hasn’t gotten the heat fixed? Or would a better tactic be a sit-in in the company offices?

So let the method be determined by your goals. Maybe is a city passes a law saying trans people have to the bathroom of their birth gender. Well maybe some good methods might be something like they used in the civil rights movement. In the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro North Carolina where the police came in an arrested the protesters… but there was a line of people who would take their place when they got arrested. As the police arrested one person another came in and sat in the “White’s Only” counter. Maybe that might work with us… a line of trans women going into bathrooms where they are arrested. Or another tactic might be have all trans guys go into women’s bathrooms. (Have all trans guys go into women’s bathrooms in the Texas state capitol. Have one trans guys in each bathroom.)

So in this case…
Target: State legislature.
Goal: Blocking anti-trans legislation.
Method: Having a trans guy in every women’s bathroom in the capitol.

So there is an article in the New York Times in the article, Transgender Activists Question the Movement’s Confrontational Approach they write,

Now, some activists say it is time to rethink and recalibrate their confrontational ways, and are pushing back against the more  all-or-nothing voices in their coalition.

“We have to make it OK for someone to change their minds,” said Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, executive director of Advocates for Transgender Equality. “We cannot vilify them for not being on our side. No one wants to join that team.”

They cite tactics, especially on social media, that became routine for devoted backers of the movement: Attempts to police language, such as excising the words “male” and “female” from discussions of pregnancy and abortion; decrying the misidentification of a transgender person as violence; insisting that everyone declare whether they prefer to be referred to as he, she or other pronouns.

There is room for all views, there is no one right way. There is room for radicals and there is room for those who want to go slow, but… but there no room for those who deny our existence and limit our rights.

Your homework (Hey! You didn’t think that you get off scot-free? Activism means work!):

• Read the first two chapters in the Community Tool Box
• Read Rules for Radicals

I created a tag for this series… “Tool Box” where I will write tips to becoming an activist.

[/Tool Box]

The Inside/Outside Game - A Series on Activism

[Editorial]

There has been much discussion over Rep. McBride decision not to fight the Republican ban on bathrooms. There are some who think she should fight the ban and others like me who think that she did the right thing.

There is something in politics call the inside game and the outside game and they work hand in hand. Perplexity AI put it this way…

Answer:

The insider-outsider theory in politics describes a dual approach to achieving social and political change by combining efforts from within established institutions (inside game) and outside of them through grassroots movements (outside game).

Inside Game

The inside game involves:

• Working within existing political structures
• Lobbying elected officials and policymakers
• Running for office or securing government positions
• Advocating for policy changes through formal channels
• Building relationships with decision-makers

Insiders often have more knowledge of local institutional contexts and can more easily develop rapport with key stakeholders.

Outside Game

The outside game focuses on:

• Grassroots organizing and community mobilization
• Protests, demonstrations, and direct action
• Developing alternative systems and models
• Shifting public opinion through awareness campaigns
• Creating pressure that forces institutions to respond

Outsiders may be valued for their objectivity and ability to ask "naive" questions that challenge assumptions.

Synergy and Challenges

The inside-outside strategy aims to create synergy between these approaches:

• Inside players can funnel resources to outside movements
• Outside pressure creates opportunities for insiders to push for bigger changes
• Combined efforts can more effectively shift public opinion and policy

However, tensions can arise between "moderate" insiders and "radical" outsiders due to differing tactics and immediate goals. Successful implementation requires coordination to leverage complementary strengths.

Rather than a strict dichotomy, researchers suggest viewing insider/outsider status as existing on a continuum that can shift based on context. This more nuanced view recognizes the complexity of researchers' and activists' identities and positionalities when engaging in social change efforts.

In an article by Peter Dreier in Horizon Institute, he writes…

The insiders, elected officials and lobbyists, see their job as pushing through changes in law that can alter the living conditions, incomes, and access to opportunity and environment of our citizens. Legislating involves the "art of compromise" that requires the skills of brokering deals, negotiating, and forging consensus.

Outsiders -- community activists, street protestors and radicals -- need different skills. They often view compromise as "selling out" by politicians tied to corporate and elite interests. Activists believe that the influence of campaign contributions, and the trade-offs required by legislative give-and-take, make most elected officials undependable allies.

[…]

Smart liberal and progressive elected officials understand that they really need "radical" protestors to change the political climate and make reform possible. When "disruption" is taking place in the streets, policymakers can appear statesmanlike and moderate when they forge compromises to win legislative victories.

I see Rep. McBride working the inside game to bring about reform, working within the system to bring about change, working to build a coalition in the House to overturn the bathroom policy. She also took the moral high ground with “Doing the job the voters sent me to do!” and not get involved in their petty Republican politics.

Now it our job to get public opinion behind us, showing how petty and mean spirited the Republicans are. We need to drum up support for her… “Look what the petty little Republicans are concentrating on, what about tackling the high cost of food, the lack of affordable rents, the crumbling  

bridges!”

So we as outsiders have our part to do... Speak up about the bigotry, the animosity, and how petty they are forcing her to go back to her office every time she has to go. Yes, and even point out how the Republicans are doing nothing about the sexual predators in their midst who have been accused of having sex with minors.

The Dreier article ends with...

Historians can debate how to divvy up the credit for future victories, but we already know that we won't see any progress without both noisy protestors and sympathetic politicians.

[/Editorial]

This is the first in a series on activism.