2025: a Year to Stand for Human Rights, Justice and Equality

• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
  Call: 988
  Available 24/7

• NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Health)
  Call 1-800-950-NAMI (6264)
  text “HelpLine” to 62640
  email us at helpline@nami.org

• LGBT National Coming Out Support Hotline888-OUT-LGBT (888-688-5428)

• LGBT National Help Center
  Youth Talkline: 800-246-7743
  Senior Hotline: 888-234-7243
  Monday thru Friday, 4pm to midnight ET; Saturday from noon to 5pm ET

• Trans Lifeline
  Confidential 24/7 peer support phone service run by trans people for trans and questioning people. Call us if you need someone trans to talk to, even if you’re not in crisis or if you’re not sure you’re trans.
  1-877-565-8860 (United States)
  1-877-330-6366 (Canada)
  Oprime 2 para hablar con unx operadxr en español.

• SAGE LGBT Elder Hotline
  1-877-360-LGBT (5428)
  Connects LGBT elders and caretakers with friendly responders who are ready to listen. Available 24/7, in English and Spanish, with translation in 180 languages.

• Trevor Project
  Phone: 1-866-488-7386
  Text START to 678-678
  Chat online
  LGBTQ young people can connect to a crisis counselor 24/7/365 from anywhere in the U.S. It is 100% confidential and 100% free.

We all need support. I hope these resources are helpful, and I will update this list as I learn of other helpful resources.

Next, I’ve listed a few organizations that may be helpful as you are doing your own research. This is currently a small list, I know it will also grow.

Organizations doing noteworthy work

Finding organizations that are doing the work is essential now. I encourage you to download the Indivisible action guide and set some calendar dates for some actions that work for you. If you have friends who share your passion for protecting equality and justice, set up some times to get together as a group and strategize. Brainstorm local organizations doing good work, brainstorm ways your talents may be of value to this movement, and take one action toward your goals. If you don’t yet yet have a group, fill out the form below to see if there are any in your area!

Indivisible.org

Indivisible.org offers this super helpful and handy Indivisibile.org Practical Guide to Taking Action.

Indivisible.org sprouted up in response to the 2016 election as a way to fight against the very un-American, racist, rooted-in-the-past-rhetoric designed to break trust in the idea of equality and progress.

This is a guide that helps us figure out how best to spend our energy. Based on where we live and how much leverage we have in our location, there are different strategies we can follow to work toward winning more democratic seats in 2026. As much as I believe we will be facing unprecedented changes in our systems and our democracy, we are still entrenched in a two party system, and one of those parties has been ruthlessly committed to stripping away rights from vulnerable groups, and targeting them with actual violence. So in the meantime, we work to protect these people by electing more democrats.

If you are interested in connecting with others locally at Indivisible.org, you can find a group or even start your own by filling out this form.

ACLU

The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) fights for equality, trans justice, immigration rights, and all civil liberties that are at risk. If you have the means, you may make a donation to the ACLU to support these important actions. They work in real time to fight for liberties on the chopping block.

Here’s a quick way to take action today – there’s a petition to stop Project 2025, federal policy agenda which uses extremely authoritarian language, and which this administration will likely work diligently to adopt. Every little thing counts when we’re working to preserve our democracy.

Visit their site for other ways you can take part in protecting civil liberties – we are sure to be coming up against a slew of battles on this front…

ProtectDemocracy.org

ProtectDemocracy.org is a non-partisan, anti-authoritarianism group that cross collaborates across political lines, using litigation to hinder authoritarian attempts. This group reminds us that there are three basic tests political scientists use to determine whether a political party is pro-democracy:

“First, healthy actors in a democratic system must unambiguously accept electoral defeat. Second, they must eschew violence. And third, they must be willing to break with extremists in their own ranks who violate the first two principles. There are countless individual Republicans who pass these tests — but a powerful faction within the Republican Party has violated all three. ”

Follow this group to see how they are fighting authoritarianism through the courts. Their efforts can provide good info on how many authoritarian agendas are trying to slip through.

So, how do we make a difference on a personal level?

Commit to taking care of yourself

If you feel deeply about ensuring basic human rights for all, you know how triggering this Trump-fueled hate hoedown is going to get. The last Trump presidency uncovered levels of hypocrisy, cruelty, discrimination, racism, lies, treason, abuse, absolute mayhem and even an insurrection – and… This one is not gonna be any gentler.

Knowing that people we love preferred bringing that level of maniacal, deranged power hunger back after watching Trump literally send out an e-mail trickle campaign inviting his base to stop the peaceful transfer of power (which led to a deadly insurrection)… it’s still hard for me, and for a lot of us. Like.. to know that people I love would prefer the convicted rapist candidate is really hard – and not only prefer him – post photos of him with a legion of angels behind him and Jesus Christ standing behind him in support… This time around, the blatant hypocrisy and pretend-land conduct has changed me.

And this time, I’m committed to taking care of myself in the same ways I have cared for others. My nervous system took a beating during the last Trump administration and all of the never-ending bull$hit that came along with it. I’m finding peace in letting go of the hope I once had for others and I’m going to give myself the permission to preserve my energy for my own goals, and to say things that I’ve kept under wraps in the past to protect those who have behaved badly.

Show up; and keep showing up

Dismantling oppression and shining a light on seedy, controlling realities is not the work of perfection, and you will fall on your face. I will too. And it will hurt, and it will bruise. And people will want to keep us quiet. As per usual.

But let’s keep showing up. Sometimes we’ll show up ready to do the work and we’ll unintentionally offend someone who we are trying to help. And, if, like me, you’re a white woman, there will be a lot to learn about how we’ve offended someone. And we will have choices: get offended and defensive and give up; don’t get offended, but feel the sting of knowing that our actions did harm, and then do the work to prevent ourselves from slipping in the same way in the future.

There will be opportunities for us to listen to how someone may experience our concern or action as harm because we don’t always get it right, even when we have good intentions. But it’s important to keep showing up, and show up in ways that respect others. And remember, don’t punish someone who was willing to tell you a truth that you needed to know even if you really didn’t like hearing it.

Tailor your actions and activism to your personal values and time commitment

Decide what personal actions you want to take that align with your values,  availability, and talent commitment. For me, this has looked like making signs for marches, making flyers or marketing materials for events, calling my senators and representatives, making stickers, and showing up to gatherings where I can connect with minded souls. For others who may have more money than time, their contribution may be more donation based.

Do what works for you, and what moves the needle toward more equality and preserving democracy.

If you’re a parent, I think the most important work you do is to show up for your kids and demonstrate what that looks like to show up and be responsible. Kids are watching all of this unfolding. They did during the last presidency too. From the sexual assault comments to the racist slurs to physically mocking a disabled man to colluding on an election to literally leading a violent and deadly insurrection to being a convicted sexual felon. These behaviors aren’t happening in a vacuum.

If you have influence in the lives of children, demonstrate integrity and teach them that kindness, compassion, and pragmatism are actually good things. Teach them truth.

Focus your energy on the issues that mean the most to you

Choose your top one or two areas of true passion and do your best to focus your energies there. It’s hard to focus when there are so many things at stake: book bans, racist laws and immigration policies, anti-trans legislation, assaults on reproductive rights, climate crises, healthcare crises..

All of these issues, and so many more, are incredibly important. And they are all under attack. (although kudos to Biden for passing that executive order to permanently ban oil drilling in some areas that the cartoon villains were salivating to drill baby drill in). A great way that to leverage our energy is to join with others, focus on something specific, and work on that topic diligently.

The battle for equality and justice will be a long slog, and we’ll need to keep showing up for a long time. Focusing your energy may help you to make a bigger impact, and will definitely help you to be more deeply informed about your areas of passion. If you are connected with others about the same issue, you’ll likely know when dangerous legislation is being written and can mobilize from there. Go deep and make waves – and if you have to… be a relentlessly hard-to-ignore pain in the ass!

Think globally, act locally

Assess your local community to determine local areas of need

This will allow you to focus your attention on one or two topics that really need your support. Are you in a city that has nonprofit organizations that assist immigrants and their families? Could you volunteer with them? Maybe you excel in planning and organizing things yourself, and have a strong social network. Creating a fundraiser could be something that’s really easy for you to do, that makes a huge difference for any organization doing good on-the-ground work. Find those organizations doing this work locally and ask them how you can support them.

And if you can’t find organizations locally that are doing work in your area of focus, see what others are doing nationally; would that work to do the same things on a local level? Are there others who could join you in that endeavor?

Get familiar with your local school board, and the organizations working to hold them accountable

Attending school board meetings is a great way to be involved in your own school district. Are there racist mandates being quietly passed? Show up and find out. Connect with others who are keeping tabs on the things you care about, and you can help inform each other – like maybe you each attend a school board meeting to gather info, but you all attend “the big one” when you know something bigger will be happening.

I receive emails from a group that alerts me to when they are banning more books in my local school district, and which books they ban. They inform me when books have been banned without explanation (which is against the district’s own policy) and offer up a quick way to send a letter to a school board official.

Joining local groups like this who share information and remind each other of accessible ways to make a difference are so critical. If you have bandwidth, you may even consider banding together with others to form your own groups where you share information, get together to work on local campaigns, and make it harder to sink deeper into authoritarian hellscapes..

Picture it: you and your besties, a Wednesday evening + rosé and charcuterie + needlepoint and writing letters to local trans youth who need to hear that they matter. Or writing letters to senators who did a good thing and thanking them. Or writing your local school board to let them know you’re watching how they handle this or that. These things can truly make such. a. difference.

Connect with your state representatives and senators, and keep in touch on important issues

These people should be representing their constituents (that’s you) so make a commitment to communicate with them in the cadence and form that works for you. You can find out who your two senators are here. Addresses, email addresses and phone numbers are all listed on this page. You can find your house representative by entering your zip code here.

Pay attention to local bills, issues, and also to house bills where your representative has a voice. If something is super important, something that may adversely affect a group of vulnerable people, and something that your representative will be weighing in on, call them; email them; write letters and post cards.

Give yourself permission to be a real loudmouth and push for equality in every place that it’s being stripped away. It’s a little scary at first. Sometimes when I call my representative’s office, my voice shakes and I feel like I’m eight years old about to cry. But I have never encountered anyone who has treated me with disrespect. I just voice my concerns to my representative’s assistant, who lets me know they will pass the message on. When I email, sometimes I get a return email, and sometimes not.

Connect with your local elected officials

This would be the mayor, city council, etc. This is where a lot of discussions happen that affect local legislation. You can attend most city council meetings, and you can also read the meeting minutes, where the entirety of the meeting is transcribed. These meetings may be routine, or they may feel like a battleground depending on what kinds of issues are discussed.

Find a way to connect with your local leaders, or to be a pain if necessary. The thing is… These elected officials are concerned about reelection. If enough of their constituents make it clear to them that they will not stand for discriminatory legislation, they may listen. I mean – I’m in Utah, so they also may not around here… But I still think it’s important for them to hear what’s important to me, and I think it’s important for them to hear what’s important to you.

Pay attention to those good old boys networks, and don’t participate in the secret keeping

You know who this is and you know what I’m talking about. We all do. Sadly, this network could even consist of your elected officials, as well as those who run local civic organizations like Rotary Club, etc. It is often a group, or even “class” of doctors, attorneys, contractors, administrators, clergy, veterans, professors… Good old boy networks are usually a bunch of well respected and protected cis white dudes in elite professions who keep the illegal, abusive, terrible secrets of the other good old boys – and their sons.

This could look like the school district allowing a known and repeatedly reported sexual predator to teach his preferred age group of little girls for nearly 30 years before the Me Too movement finally inspired over 32 girls and women to come for his ass and he went to prison (Ya, this was in my home town, a place where the good old boys are the kings).

Remember, you can always report unprofessional or illegal behavior by licensed professionals to the Department of Professional Licensing or any other overseeing organization. And you know what? You can also just talk about things. Let’s normalize talking about and reporting the hidden behaviors that so many powerful cis men perpetrate that harm others. Let’s remove their cover. This is absolutely imperative, and it absolutely happens on a very local, community, and even neighborhood level. Dudes like this are probably the reason we even have the ability to have a convicted rapist take the highest office of the land. And.. just.. take a gander at the posse surrounding our incoming president – these are the good old boys. Causin’ harm and gettin’ richer.

Commit to disrupting the legacy of violence against people of color and gender non-conforming people, through learning, unlearning, and showing up for equality and justice over and over 

Learn about Project 2025 – this is on its way to happening now, and we need to recognize when liberties start being taken away, little by little

Essentially, this Project 2025 manifesto, authored by former Trump staff and the Heritage Foundation, was written as a federal policy agenda to replace current rules of law with right wing ideals. It’s long. I haven’t read all the way through it. I need to. Anyone want to do some accountability buddying? I think it’s super important for me to read it all the way through so that when things start happening, my brain can go back to what I read and take note of how it’s being implemented. I just can’t  bring myself to link to their website, so you’ll have to google that..

Remember – though Trump tried to distance himself from Project 2025, a New York Times analysis found that 182 of the project’s 307 authors have ties to Trump. And also remember, Trump’s most consistent trait is being dishonest.. and hateful… and a criminal. I guess it’s a tie.

Some are projecting that this administration will be working to start enacting Project 2025’s policies on day one. We. Gotta. Be. Vigilant. And loud. And prepared to throw sand into the machines of injustice…

The ACLU explains Project 2025 here. This will help give a bit of a synopsis on why this rhetoric is so dangerous.

Accept that there has been a long history of violence stemming from white culture

I know how much we cherish white culture in the U.S. For so many of us, it’s so iconically all-American – white culture is the same as apple pie and baseball.

And also.. White culture is inherently violent to people of color, erasing their experiences, whitewashing their experiences, constantly invalidating their experiences with systemic and situational racism, devaluing their lives, and on and on and on. As a white woman, there are things that feel just “normal” to me, and since I live my life in a white body, I don’t experience what others have to deal with on an ongoing basis. Being aware of this legacy of violence will be really important as we usher in a new administration that has already proven its willingness to incite deliberate racist violence anywhere and everywhere.

If you are truly working toward justice, and you’re a white person – you’ll have to be willing to unlearn some of the “givens” that come along with white culture, and how those privileges have harmed people of color.

Be willing to hear things that make you uncomfortable. Learning about my own biases, unlearning behaviors that have seemed so “normal” to me, realizing how white-centric everything around me is – it’s uncomfortable. It probably won’t stop being uncomfortable.

I think mending this discord will require that we get familiar with the actual feeling of discomfort in our bodies. Sit with it. Feel it in our bellies, our bones, our cheeks. We have to practice feeling it squeeze our chest and clench our jaw. We have to give it a little space so we can feel it and let it be, and know we will be okay even if we’re really uncomfortable learning something that is really important to learn.

Learn about racism through antiracism education

And pay for it; don’t ask a person of color to educate you unless they offer an antiracism course you that you are purchasing. The questions that antiracism education asks can be applied to so many vulnerable and oppressed groups. I personally feel that unpacking our own biases and assumptions through unlearning the racism baked into every possible system and structure is a requirement if you want to truly learn to look at the world through a more equitable lens.

Since America was literally built on a legacy of genocide, terror, the unpaid labor of enslaved and stolen humans from other lands… That level of white supremacy has been cooked into the fabric of our nation. We don’t have to don pointy white hats to participate in or benefit from the rampant white supremacy pillars that still underpin many of the values we hold dear in the U.S. Bring this knowledge to your school board meetings; your workplace; your personal relationships.

Don’t allow it to be erased simply because so many patriarchal political poopoos have done so much to erase our nation’s history; which is racist.

Learn how patriarchy and white supremacy go skipping together, hand in hand, down the lane of white christian nationalist glory

Equality and justice can’t exist within the scope of white supremacy. White supremacy literally holds the belief that white people – white men first, and then white women – are superior bodies on this planet, even in the eyes of their god. Patriarchy holds the belief that a hierarchy of value can be applied to different bodies, rather than simply “all people are valuable simply for being human.”

Both systems place human beings on a hierarchy. White men at the top. Then white women; Men of color next, and then women of color. At the bottom are Black men, and then Black women at the very bottom. When we look at the number of women who die in childbirth (which, btw, USA as a whole has rates of Black women dying in childbirth that rival third world countries; because for profit healthcare and white supremacy…) it’s clear whose lives are more valuable and whose are not. Add in classism, homophobia, mental health disorders… When we look at pay rates, school expulsions, police murders, etc., it’s clear to see that America runs on white supremacy. Point it out. Educate others. Be willing to be uncomfortable.

Learn about authoritarian governments, fascism, and how authoritarianism creeps in to squash justice and equality

One example that is easy to remember is the reign of Hitler. Authoritarian governments sort of “creep up” on you. Just last month, the language in House Bill 9495 showed this danger in real time. The bill’s stated purpose is to stop nonprofits who are financing terrorist organizations – and who can argue with that?? But on closer look, the language unilaterally allows the Secretary of the Treasury to revoke the nonprofit status of any 501(c)(3) organization, regardless of whether it had terrorist ties or not. Simply put, the Secretary of the Treasury can revoke any nonprofit without due process, deeming them a terrorist threat. Tricky. That’s now authoritarianism works. 

The very organizations fighting for justice, equality, and democracy, will be the organizations that are targeted. We’ve got to be super vocal about this if it starts happening.

And finally, after many words, I leave you with my wish for celebration and joy… So read on, you’ve come so far, my reader friend.

 

Other blog posts you may enjoy:

Ahhh… The Fall of the Patriarchy… My Favorite Season!

Art and Politics… How Art Tells the Stories of the Times.