Join your local Marriage Action Team! Each month, marriage supporters from all across the state meet as Action Teams to plan local events around marriage equality. Whether they are organizing a letter writing campaign or going door to door to talk with neighbors, Marriage Action Teams help to educate voters and elected officials on the issue of marriage equality.
Take the next step and sign up to be a Marriage Ambassador! Attend a day-long training and become a "super volunteer" and help mobilize marriage supporters where you live. Marriage Ambassadors trainings will empower you to organize local events in your community, plan Get-Out-the-Vote (GOTV) efforts, and talk to local legislators and the media. Over 200 Marriage Ambassadors have been trained so far and we are planning more trainings across the state in 2008.
Contact your state legislators. The Pride Agenda will regularly update a scorecard on the position of every state legislator on marriage. Call or handwrite a letter to your state Senator and Assemblymember and, if they are undecided, ask where they stand. If they are not yet in support of the marriage bill, ask them to sign on as a co-sponsor and encourage their colleagues to do the same. Click here to find out where your legislators stand and click here to find out how you can contact them.
Advocate for a local resolution in support of marriage. Have your city council or local board pass a resolution calling on their Albany legislative delegation to support and advocate for marriage legislation. In addition, you can encourage your county and city/town elected officials to write letters to their state legislative counterparts to do the same. Click here for a sample resolution.
Invite us for dinner! Have a Marriage Ambassador or Pride Agenda speaker to discuss marriage equality at your home for a house party, or at a meeting of your church, union, or PTA group. In order to win marriage equality, we have to enlist the support of our friends, co-workers, neighbors, and family members (especially non-LGBT people). One of the best ways to win supporters is to engage people in your life who know you, but who might not know why the issue is personally important to you. We can offer resources and/or a speaker to help you educate and engage them on this issue.
Recruit a "New Yorker for the Freedom to Marry." Enlist the support of a community leader, elected official, member of the clergy, union leader, or respected business person in your area who will lend their name to the fight for marriage equality. Their statement of support will be added to the growing list of prominent New Yorkers who have already joined this campaign online. Click here to view the list!
Work with your local newspaper. 1) Write a letter to your newspaper(s) in support of marriage for same-sex couples and email us a copy! 2) Find out if your newspaper(s) print wedding and anniversary announcements of same-sex couples and, if so, send in yours. 3) Talk to your newspaper's editorial board about the importance of New York protecting all families, including LGBT families, and ask it to support equal access to marriage for all New Yorkers.
Fill out a Marriage Equality card and have your friends do the same. By taking this simple step, you will be kept up-to-date on marriage developments and organizing activities in New York State. You will also know when to take a specific action at the time it will be most effective. Be sure and fill out the card completely so we have the information we need to keep you informed.
Support the work of the Pride Agenda. We need to fully fund this work if we are going to beat the forces that are working against us and win marriage in New York State. Click here to donate to the Pride Agenda.
For more information about how you can get involved with winning marriage equality where you live in New York State, contact the Pride Agenda’s Field Director, Nora Yates at (518) 472-3330 or nyates@prideagenda.org.