This past weekend was historic. An unprecedented amount of media attention was given to the lack of civil equality for LGBT people because of the President's speech at the HRC National Dinner and because of the National Equality March. The big question following the weekend is whether the momentum will continue. Many critics of the march hold out little hope that they will be able to capitalize on the larger than expected turnout and turn it into concrete action to promote equality and pass legislation. That's why I'm happy to announce a new effort that will help build on the momentum of this past weekend: Act on Principles.
Act On Principles is inspired by The Dallas Principles, which you may already be familiar with and is a call for full civil equality with 'no delay and no excuses'. Act On Principles now gives us tools that put those principles into action. You can find it at: www.ActOnPrinciples.org
There is a video on the front page (and embedded below) that does a great job explaining the site. Here are the basics of what AOP has to offer:
- Blog for Strategy- Action Hub (searchable by State)- Public Whip Count on LGBT legislation in Congress (this will change how Washington works!)- Widgets for websites with up to date Whip Counts (it would be awesome on your site!)- iPhone compatability (work for equality on the go!)- Built in social networking and news aggregator functionality (share what you are doing to multiply its effect)- A daily digest email summarizing activity over the previous day
The AOP site is a resource for our movement and it will only be successful in furthering the Dallas Principles with large scale participation. Please go there, register, sign up for the daily digest email, and use the tools as much as you can. We are often told to do something to help achieve equality, but rarely given a specific thing to do. AOP provides the missing guidance and allows you to do something about it while sitting at your computer. You can do something every day or once a week. You determine your level of commitment.
Please share this with your networks. Facebook it, Tweet it, Forward it. Thanks for reading and thanks for helping to build on the momentum we are seeing in our journey to being full and equal in the eyes of our government.
PS - You can follow AOP on Twitter.