Yes on 3

[redbird]

I went to a "Yes on 3" rally for transgender rights this morning. That's to keep the protections that are currently in Massachusetts law. If you're in Massachusetts, it's on the ballot in November. "Yes" on question 3 because it's phrased as "do you want to keep the law that provides these protections?"

The rally was partly to show support for keeping trans rights in state law, and partly to ecourage the attendees to volunteer, talk to our friends and neighbors and so on. The speakers were an odd mix. We heard a few personal stories—a woman talked about her kid having come out to her as trans and how she has tried to support him, and then her 14-year-old son talked about having felt safe enough to come out, at 12, because the law protects his rights, and what his day-to-day life is like. There were also speakers who have been involved with/supporting this cause for years, well before they got the law passed. That included Rep. Joe Kennedy, but also the CEO of Eastern Bank: the organizer told us that ten years ago, they'd approached a lot of businesses for support, and this was one of three that said yes.

This is the first rally in a long time that I managed to stay until the end of, which felt like an accomplishment. I got a ride home from Lechmere, because Liam (who I don't think is on DW) recognized me from a fannish party, and they and their mother had driven to the T station. I enjoyed talking to them, because they're nice people and because I'd gone to this rally by myself, and not seen anyone I recognized during the rally.

I got a call early this evening from one of the campaign organizers, Ben, who is following up with everyone she talked to about the pledge cards. We chatted a bit, including a bit about why I volunteered to work on this issue; a bit of it is that it feels more personal than (for example) ranked-choice voting, and partly because it feels like I'm more likely to be able to accomplish things at the state level. It's also somewhat arbitrary: there are more things worth doing than I could work on if I had the energy to do politics 40 hours a week. I don't need a complete list of things I could be doing, to pick the best: I need to find one, or a few, that are worthwhile and fit with my abilities.

Comments

[rafiwinters]

Oh, I almost went to that rally! I wasn't feeling well enough to leave the house, as it happened (too much sun on Saturday), but my wife J did go and thought it went quite well. Hey, maybe we will meet in person at a future event? ;)

[redbird]

That would be cool. I go to a fair number of protests these days, weather allowing (in my case, too hot is more likely to be an issue than too cold), and in particular try to show up for the ones many people won't be able to because they're during the work/school week.

[drwex]

Thing 2 does not in fact have a DW and I suspect would be vastly amused by this weird adult notion of journaling.

[redbird]

I didn't think they did, but I have a few online friends here who are a lot closer to Thing 2's age than to mine. (I have no idea why I put it that way for them, but just used Michele's name.)

[pygment]

I told Thing2 about this and they said "Oh like live Journal?" And I said "Yes, but not in Russia."
You are quite welcome for the ride. And I asked Thing2 and they do not care about being listed by name.

[redbird]

Thanks for checking that; I wasn't thinking about identifiability (though Thing 2's wallet name is less common than yours) when I posted yesterday.

[nanila]

Thank you for your activism. <3

[redbird]

You're welcome.

This isn't what I thought being (mostly) retired would mean, but this is the world we live in.