Making a List and Checking it Twice

Back in 1996 I attended the Christian Coalition’s Road to Victory conference. I saw lots of speeches from anti-LGBT leaders, and even got to meet then-executive director Ralph Reed. But what I remember most from that weekend is learning how local, state and national anti-LGBT groups could generate grassroots support or opposition to everything from federal legislation to school board policies.

One organizer from Tennessee bragged that she could generate 1,000 calls to her state legislature in just a few hours. Another local organizer from Michigan said his group called every registered voter in his county, urging them to vote for the conservative candidate in the local school board election.

Our political opponents have known for years how to mobilize their supporters, and we live and work in a world shaped by their results:

• Less than 4% of high schools have Gay-Straight Alliances;
• 54% of school board members are religious conservative; and
• More than 36 million students in 44 states go to school with no statewide protection from discrimination.

In launching the Safe Schools Action Network this week, GLSEN has become the first grassroots organization in the country with the online capacity to target individual school district superintendents. No other organization - not even the PTA or the American Family Association - has the capacity to generate letters to every local superintendent in the country.

The Safe Schools Action Network is simple to use. When you first visit you enter your name and address so the site can determine your local school district and elected officials. You can then automatically send an email or a fax, or be connected by phone to your elected officials. You can write your own message or use the prepared template.

The Safe Schools Action Network provides GLSEN with important advantages over our opponents:

• First, because timing is everything when a school board vote is pending, the Safe Schools Action Network sends all subscribers a short e-mail alert, linking them directly to the site to take action.
• Second, the site does most of the work: you don’t have to look up phone numbers or addresses or remember the proper letter format.
• Third, the site keeps a tally of how many faxes or e-mails we generate on a particular issue. We’ll know how many letters a school board member or state legislator received on an issue. We’ll know how many people said they’d attend the school board meeting. Having these measurable results, so rare yet so important in organizing, greatly enhances our grassroots efforts.

We have a critical, yet often forgotten, advantage over those opposed to our work: a majority of Americans are on our side. Most Americans favor job protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Most parents favor policies protecting LGBT students from discrimination and harassment. Parents also favor teacher training promoting respect for LGBT students, and the formation of Gay-Straight Alliances. Our challenge today, and it’s a formidable challenge, is identifying and activating these supporters.

Our opponents have made their list, and they've checked it twice. Now it’s our turn. Our technology is better and our positions on the issues are more popular, but our lists are smaller. Not for long.

Here’s what you can do:

1. Go to the Safe Schools Action Network and take action today.

2. Send an announcement about the Safe Schools Action Network to your email lists. Use the sample announcement at the end of this email or create your own.

3. Include an announcement about the Safe Schools Action Network in your next newsletter.

4. Add a link and Safe Schools Action Network icon to your chapter website. Simply copy and paste the following HTML code into your home page:

   

   The resulting icon and link will look like this:

   

5. Contact your regional organizer whenever your chapter is working on a campaign that could benefit from an action alert. We may be able to include it on the Safe Schools Action Network, enabling you to activate people to attend that school board meeting, write letters to the superintendent, etc.

SAMPLE ANNOUNCEMENT FOR EMAIL AND NEWSLETTERS: You can customize and send this announcement to your email lists and include it in your newsletter.

INTRODUCING GLSEN’S SAFE SCHOOLS ACTION NETWORK http://glsen.policy.net/

GLSEN recently launched its Safe Schools Action Network, allowing concerned users to target key education decision makers with the click of a mouse and at no cost.

"The power of this new system is that is builds upon our already extensive chapter network," says [CHAPTER LEADER NAME, TITLE]. "By merging grassroots energy and technology, we'll have an even stronger presence at the local, state, and federal levels."

"Our goal is to engage thousands of new people in a way that's easy for them but incredibly meaningful for us," [HE OR SHE] continued. In launching the Safe Schools Action Network, GLSEN has become the first grassroots organization in the country with the online capacity to target individual school district superintendents. This first-of-a-kind feature makes it possible to reach superintendents in communities where GLSEN chapters or other safe schools groups have yet to form.

Other highlights include:

• The capacity to communicate via email with state and federal representatives on key issues impacting LGBT people in schools,

• Timely legislative updates on positive and regressive legislation under consideration at the state and federal levels, and

• A "send to a friend" feature that makes it easy for you to help GLSEN expand its reach to communities nationwide.

So, please, take two minutes to sign on as a member. Got to the Safe Schools Action Network and begin creating positive change in America's K-12 schools today.