A new campaign launched yesterday with the goal of engaging one million kids—whether LGBTQ, children of LGBTQ parents, or allies—in advance of this summer’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality.
The campaign, One Million Kids For Equality, in coalition with The Personal Stories Project and the Mississippi Gulf Coast Rainbow Center, has launched a temporary website, Facebook page and Twitter account, and promises more in the weeks to come. It explains on the website:
We each have a story. Many of us were bullied in school for being different, some of us have been teased for having two moms or two dads, and still others have been beat up for standing up for a friend or loved one. Each of us has a dream. Some of us want to be able to walk hand in hand with the person we love without being stared at, some of us want to see our two moms married in our home state, or for our dad to be able to keep a picture of our family on his desk without fear of losing his job. Whatever your story, we invite you to join us as we work to build a movement to show that We Are. We Love. We Stand. United.
The name of the campaign is a direct jab at two campaigns from the anti-LGBTQ American Family Association. Its One Million Moms campaign, which aims to fight the “filth” and “negative influences” of the media and society on children, is best known for trying to organize a boycott of retailer J.C. Penney after the company hired Ellen DeGeneres as its spokesperson. The AFA launched the parallel One Million Dads campaign two days ago—one day before One Million Kids came to life.
It’s unclear exactly what One Million Kids has planned, but given how many young people have already spoken out for equality, whether in a brief to the Supreme Court, in person around the country, or as part of the Blogging for LGBTQ Families Day I host here every June, as well as in Gay Straight Alliance clubs in their schools, organizations like COLAGE and the Family Equality Council, and local groups like BAGLY (Boston Area GLBT Youth) , the campaign could be quite something. I hope it’s able to pull together all of the disparate threads of LGBTQ youth activism and direct them towards the marriage equality goal—and then (if I can speculate further) to additional goals such as employment nondiscrimination and transgender rights.
I know our kids are a powerful force. I can’t wait to see what more they can do.