Category Archives: gun control

Sometimes the polite way doesn’t work. Then we take to the streets.

On June 12th, 49 LGBT club-goers were slaughtered and 53 more injured with an assault weapon in Orlando, FL. The US Congress had no response besides the usual prayers and a strangely deafening moment of silence. That’s why Gays Against Guns is replacing moments of silence with moments of action to make our elected representatives pass sensible gun reforms.
Two weeks after the Orlando massacre, and just days after Congressman John Lewis’s sit-in on the House floor highlighting Congressional inaction on gun safety, hundreds of GAGers marched in the NYC Pride Parade, 49 of them shrouded in white veils and carrying signs with the names and faces of each Orlando victim.
In early July, GAG “named, shamed, and blamed” NRA puppet Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-LI) with a demonstration in his district and a puppet in his likeness. GAG members demonstrated outside Trump Tower on the opening night of the Republican National Convention. They staged “die-ins” outside two New York City Reebok Crossfit stores after learning that the winner of an annual fitness contest would receive a Glock handgun–the same gun used against Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and 19 others in Tucson, AZ in 2011. New GAG chapters are sprouting up across the nation, with actions to shame politicians in the NRA’s pockets this election season.
We’re in. Greater NYC for Change has long fought for sensible gun safety laws–laws supported by 90% of Americans and a large majority of NRA members.
We’ve seen the massacres, but also the daily gun violence that kills 33,000 Americans each year. Other nations–the UK, Canada, and Australia among them–have responded to crisis with life-saving gun regulations. Here at home, we increasingly recognize the futility of polite lobbying of politicians. Constituents need to know who is working for them, and who is working for the gun industry.
There’s more: Gun violence disproportionately affects minority and vulnerable communities–children at Sandy Hook, worshipers at a Charleston prayer group, young Black men, and the LGBT community, itself the target of an estimated 20% of all hate crimes. Trans women and LGBT people of color are at greatest peril. But as the direct actions led by ACT UP and others in the fight against HIV-AIDS and for Marriage Equality demonstrate, the LGBT community knows how to fight–and get results.

YOU can join us. Email gagnyoutreach@gmail.com and “like” GAG on Facebook. You don’t need to be gay to join GAG. All you need is a healthy disgust at politicians who won’t do their most fundamental job: ensuring our safety and protecting us from danger.

#RememberOrlando on June 26.

#RememberOrlando

For years, New York City’s Pride March has been a celebration of difference and community. At times, as after last year’s Supreme Court victory for Marriage Equality in Obergefell v.Hodges, it has been a joyful affirmation in a procession toward justice and universal rights.

This year, New Yorkers will march in solidarity with our 49 LGBTQ brothers and sisters, almost all Latino, who were slaughtered at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando on June 12th. While recognizing the outrage of yet another deadly homage to America’s romance with violence and its tolerance for shamelessly lax gun laws, we will walk and dance in a processional of love, not hate.

Members of Greater NYC for Change will be marching with some of our most dedicated public representatives and advocacy organizations. We encourage you to join in. We will also join our friends at New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, allied this year with LGBT4GVP, and the Gender and Family Project. Staging locations for the march, which kicks off at 12 noon, can be found atNYC Pride.

#LoveNotHate #ForOrlando #InSolidarity

Greater NYC for Change Annual Membership Meeting

Greater NYC for Change Annual Membership meeting

Our board has been ratified! Here is to a great year.

Over the last few years, Greater NYC for Change had led in the fight for health care reform, gun violence prevention, and reducing the glaring income inequality in our nation. This year, we’ve taken the steps to become a nonprofit corporation, and we were honored to launch as a nonprofit on Wednesday, May 22nd. Other community leaders and progressive visionaries joined in to plan great things!

After wine and cheese, the members voted in the slate of executive board members who will run the day to day operations of the group. Later this year, we’ll kick off a bigger party to celebrate – please stay tuned! This is a milestone for us. We hope to amplify your voice and serve worthy causes in partnership with your leadership and allies, in the cause of social justice.

Below are some of our top priorities for the year to come:

· Partnership with Health Care for All New York to educate and enroll eligible New Yorkers in the new health care exchange opening in January 2014

· Combatting voter suppression laws in Pennsylvania

· Advocating for reversal of the harsh federal budget cuts contained in the sequester and for maintenance of protections under Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid

· Partnership with organizations dedicated to immigration reform to lobby for passage of the DREAM Act and other meaningful immigration reform legislation

· Working to reduce gun violence in New York City communities and to pass gun safety legislation on the national level

· Organizing parents, teachers, and other members of the community to lobby state policymakers to expand the pre-k budget, raise educational levels, and combat poverty

· LGBT initiatives not limited to overturning DOMA and ensuring recognition of Marriage Equality in all states

· Organizing candidate forums to encourage civic participation in local elections

· Advocacy against income inequality, in particular for a true living wage in New York City

They Deserve a Vote

The letter below is from our friends at the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Last night, the President said it well:

Gabby Giffords deserves a vote. The families of Newtown deserve a vote. The families of Aurora deserve a vote. The families of Oak Creek, and Tucson, and Blacksburg, and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence – they deserve a simple vote.

The President and Vice President have laid out a plan to curb the rampant violence in our communities caused by guns falling into the wrong hands. We must not rest until our legislators do everything in their power to protect our families, our friends, and our entire communities from the constant loss of life caused by gun violence. We must not accept that nothing can be done, because doing nothing hasn’t worked.

Bills to protect our communities have been introduced. Now, our legislators need to vote.

We need you to call your representatives right now. They need to hear from you immediately to tell them that you will not accept inaction. Tell them they need to side with the American people who want real solutions to gun violence. Call your legislators and tell them that you support:

1)      Background checks with every gun sale;
2)      A ban on military style assault weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines;
3)      Making gun trafficking a federal crime with real consequences; and
4)      Background checks on the sale of ammunition.

Find your member of Congress now and call: http://bit.ly/myrepresentative

All of our legislators — no matter where they fall on this issue — are constantly hearing from those who want them to side with NRA lobbyists and gun manufacturers, people more interested in making money than protecting our communities. Don’t let them drown out your voice for the sake of greed and profit.

We all deserve to be free from the constant threat of gun violence in our neighborhoods, in our movie theaters, in our places of worship, and in our schools.

Call right now. It is time to get this done.

Thanks again,

Robyn
—
Robyn Thomas
Executive Director
Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence