ONLINE: I’m Kinky and I Vote! Legislative Advocacy for Our Communities

Note: This will be a live, online class offered through Zoom. No on-site tickets will be available.

As kinky folks, our bodies, activities, and jobs are often regulated by policies and laws. Additionally fear of us – kinky, queer, nonbinary, trans, POC, educated folks – is used to scare people into supporting dubious legislation. Currently, there are more than 45 laws aimed at harming trans folks. The EARNIT Act uses fear of child sexual abuse to create vast government overreach and privacy invasions. Many of us have already felt the negative impacts of SESTA/FOSTA laws.

This class teaches you how to harness your story, your lived experiences, and your specialized knowledge to effectively advocate for change and against policies which hurt our communities. In this class you will learn:

•    The most effective ways to contact federal, state, and local officials

• How to frame your story, your lived experience, and your job to make politicians feel more sympathetic and support legislation which helps or deny legislation which harms

• How to become a local or state legislative aide’s “go-to” for information you are a specialist in

• How to organize a lobby day

• Basic media training

• How to combat stigmas that surround our identities and communities.

This class is taught by Auntie Vice who has a Ph.D. in Political Psychology, served as a nonpartisan researcher for the State of California, and ran the CA Commission on the Status of Women and Girls. Her work is the basis for more than two dozen state and federal laws in five different policy areas. Her advocacy for women veterans gained the attention of Nancy Pelosi and Michelle Obama. Prior to all that, she worked as an advocate and later the Executive Director of a CA AIDS Foundation.

Participants will leave with a workbook for writing effective letters, making effective phone calls, setting up advocacy days, and how to get media attention for a cause.

PRESENTER:

Auntie Vice/Rebecca Blanton is a freelance writer and podcaster. She has been part of the kink community for more than three decades. An agender, queer, submissive, her work focuses on kink from the right of the slash. She runs the popular blog "Love Letters to a Unicorn" and the podcast "Fat Chicks on Top." She has a BA in psychology and a Ph.D. (abd) in Political Psychology. She brings her background as an academic researcher and understanding of systematic, institutional and personal power to her work about kink.

TICKETING:

Tickets: $15 - $35 in advance. Please pay at the level you can comfortably afford.
We offer a sliding scale, so that cost is not a barrier to attendance.

The regular ticket is $25. This is what most people should pay.

The $15 ticket is offered for those for whom the $25 ticket would be a barrier to participation. If $25 is too much, we take your word for it! Just pay $15.

Have a great salary? Feeling generous? Paying at the $35 level allows us to make the discounted ticketing available to others who need it.

So - that's it! Choose the level you can comfortably afford.

If cost is a barrier at any level, please use the "Volunteer List" to request a free scholarship ticket. We will award as many scholarship tickets as we an on a space-available basis.

ACCESS:

This will be a live, online class offered through Zoom. To participate, you will need to download the free, basic version of the Zoom app before the class! This class will not be recorded and is not available for later viewing.

Zoom now provides closed captioning which will be available for this event.