Change: Now it’s Personal

Kate Kendell is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. Kate leads the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Like many others, I was not sorry to see 2009 come to an end. A lot of misery, great expectations, dashed hopes, deferred dreams, and daily anxiety were packed into those twelve months. While I’ve certainly had more difficult and personally painful years, 2009 was difficult and personally painful for a record number of folks in this country. As 2010 dawns, one can’t help but hope for better this year. But it feels to me that those hopes are not merely cyclically mandated, rather it may just be that we are about to turn a corner. I can’t say I possess irrefutable proof for my budding optimism, but there are some signs, both obvious and nuanced, that positive change may be coming our way.

There are of course some big indicators — an achingly slow, but nevertheless improving economy, finally movement in Congress on health care (what we end up with remains to be seen, but at least some improvements will be made), and, from my perspective, an active LGBT community that recognizes that our activism and engagement are essential if we are to see movement on LGBT issues at the national level. This coming year we must elevate our involvement in national and local politics, understanding that this is the only way we can hold our elected leaders accountable. I’m not the first to state the obvious — that enduring change only happens when we are personally engaged and invest our own future in making progress happen. But this past year has driven that point home. We voted for change, hoped for change, demanded change, but we will only realize the transformation we seek when we all sacrifice to make it so.

I respect and admire our President a great deal. I have some sense of the enormity of his task and the toxicity of his opposition. Even so, there is no reason why he cannot exert his moral leadership and his actual power to make change on behalf of every community marginalized by the law and stigmatized by prejudice. But as he himself acknowledged, his leadership will only be as good as our activism. He virtually demanded that we pressure him to be his best self on our issues. That is a call we must heed. And not just for President Obama, but for every member of Congress and every other elected official whose voice and courage and power we need pressed into service for our lives. Phone calls, e-mails, in-district and in-D.C. visits, letters to the editor, and recruiting friends and family to also stand with us. This is the language of political pressure, and, believe me, it works.

I ask that we all make this resolution: every time we are asked to get engaged by activists and organizations whose missions for the future we share, we do it. Whatever they ask, whenever they ask. Some of what we are asked can seem so small, a call to Congress for example, so small that it can be easily dismissed. But the truth of the matter is Congress is not hearing from the progressive community as much as they need to. Our opponents flood their phone lines and fax machines. They fill their inboxes. We don’t.

If our voices are not heard, we are dismissed. Let us be louder and brighter and bigger than our opponents. Let us shine the light on moral leadership and insist that our shared vision of a nation that embraces inclusion and celebrates difference is realized.

2010 is not a long year for Congress. With mid-term elections in November, we have little time to push through progressive, humane legislation. So let’s start the year off with a shout and let them know loud and clear that we are here and we demand that equality, dignity, and humanity for our brothers and sisters become a priority. That’s a resolution I can keep. Will you?

Photo credit: Half Apple