The truth is that Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans are running a full-court press to attack our most vulnerable communities this legislative session. DeSantis' own Press Secretary Christina Pushaw took to Twitter with a bigoted, anti-LGBTQ rant regarding Florida's Don't Say Gay bill. In the two-tweet thread, she accuses LGBTQ people of being pedophiles. She continued throughout the weekend, retweeting similar language from right-wing outlets and lashing out at NBC's SNL for a skit on the bill. DeSantis owns this unbridled hatred. Time is running out. And it’s not just Florida: Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country have introduced over 100 anti-LGBTQ+ bills, most of which especially target trans and nonbinary youth. So we must rise up to push back against these dangerous attacks. There is absolutely no time to waste. LGBTQ+ youth like me are counting on you to rise up and fight back. Bills like this cause further, immeasurable harm to communities that already face harassment, discrimination, and attacks like these day after day for simply existing. These bills are attempts at erasing us, stigmatizing us, and isolating us, and they would continue to push LGBTQ+ youth even farther to the margins. It's heartbreaking and hits way too close to home for me and so many others. These attacks are happening across the country, so it’s critical that all Floridians and people across the country know of the lengths Governor DeSantis and Republicans are willing to go in order to curb free speech, propagandize school curriculums, and police them in classrooms, private workplaces, and doctor’s offices. DeSantis and Republicans are willing to inflict harm on the most vulnerable in our state in order to shore up their extremist base. Together, we can stop DeSantis and Republican’s dangerous agenda by fighting back against white supremacy, homophobia, and transphobia.

The current push for book bans is the strongest that it’s been in decades, with attempts to stop students from learning about the Holocaust, slavery, gender and sexuality, and more. Schools should allow a curriculum that educates students on our collective histories and allows them to learn about resilience and empathy. In a state that often touts freedom, there is no freedom of speech, when books are now being censored after years of already being taught in Florida schools. School environments should be inclusive to all students and give them the opportunity to read stories that reflect their interests and identities. Students, teachers, and communities across the country are facing similar right-wing attempts to censor what’s taught in schools, but we are not powerless. Together, we can take action to ensure schools and libraries have the ability to serve everyone so that we can learn from our diversity, history, and culture, and work to create an inclusive future where everyone can thrive.

My name is Jaime. I’m a mom and teacher in Florida. My husband and I have three amazing children— our youngest is transgender. Our family is one of many with a personal stake in stopping the discriminatory “Don’t Say Gay” (HB 1557/SB 1834) bill currently working its way through the Florida legislature because our daughter identifies as a girl even though she was mistakenly assigned male at birth. Because of how she chooses to express her authentic self, our daughter has been bullied at school. We fear the passage of a bill to ban any discussion of children’s LGBTQ+ identity will hurt kids and limit schools’ ability to foster an overall environment of compassion and kindness to all. Right now, politicians in FL are proposing a bill that would BAN some educators from teaching about LGBTQ+ people. This bill would make it illegal for any elementary school staffer—including teachers and school counselors—to talk about LGBTQ+ people. They would be barred from talking about how kids express their gender identity, or the fact that some kids have two dads or two moms. And if a child confides in their teacher or counselor about their own identity, that staff member would be required to disclose that to their parents, even if there were concerns about potential abuse. Sadly, a third of all LGBTQ+ youth report being physically abused by parents due to their identity. Requiring staff to tell parents puts children at a huge and unacceptable risk of violence. Sign the petition now and tell FL legislators and the governor to oppose this dangerous bill. Thank you.

HBCUs exist because of the persistent desire of Black Americans to obtain higher education, in the past and today. HBCUs produce pioneers, leaders and responsible citizens. Their legacy is indeed “sacred.”

The medically disabled community needs some CHANGE!We should not be punished for conditions that are not under Our control. Many of us are unable to work and provide the necessities needed to have a Healthy, Safe, Quality of life. We are at times pushed into poverty stricken, unsafe, unhealthy communities, when we Actually need MORE resources than the average person to survive. Our illnesses are often made worse having to live in the conditions which are offered to us. Many families loose their homes and living situations due to someone in the home living with these progressively worse illnesses. We are looking for Change in Credit laws, Insurance laws, Housing laws/policies, Benefits for DAC (Disabled Adult Child) & More Specified Mortgage & Rental Assistance For times of hardship during medical Confinement. We are hoping to receive as much support as possible with this petition that will be sent to Our Senators in hope of some Action.

We must protect our rights as voters in selecting the person of choice to represent and ensure that we retain equitable representation in our marginalized community.

Our kids deserve the opportunity to be taught American history in its entirety – not just history about white Americans. The extremist GOP doesn’t get to take away our right to teach students about complex histories. We can all play a part in fighting back against white supremacy and misinformation in our schools by sending a clear message to school boards, principals and superintendents that our children should be taught accurately about the history of this nation.

The IRS wants taxpayers to provide credit history and submit to facial recognition just to access their tax information online. They’ve hired a third party company called ID.me to verify user identity even though it’s common knowledge that facial recognition technology has racial and gender biases. Anyone who cares about privacy and racial justice should be up in arms. That’s why we’re pressuring President Biden to end the contract between the IRS and ID.me. Sign the petition: Demand President Biden end facial recognition at the IRS! ID.me’s verification process is so invasive that a technology reporter at Gizmodo felt “sufficiently creeped out” and refused to finish it.1 If ID.me is allowed to continue working with the IRS then every tax filer will have to give over personal information – like photo IDs and access to consumer credit reports – just to access their tax information online. But this gets much worse! The CEO at ID.me got caught lying to journalists about how it uses facial recognition2 and admitted that the company uses Amazon Rekognition, which is well known to have racial biases. The IRS already 1) has enough of our sensitive income information, and 2) is scarily underfunded. They shouldn’t be spending more of their resources on an untrustworthy third party vendor who wants to scoop up more of your information and subject you to racist facial recognition technology. The Treasury Department is already asking the IRS to reconsider this contract, but President Biden can end this private contract with the stroke of a pen. That’s why we’re taking the issue directly to him. Sign the petition: Demand President Biden end facial recognition at the IRS! Sources: 1. Gizmodo, “IRS Will Require Facial Recognition Scans to Access Your Taxes Online,” January 19, 2022. 2. Axios, “ID.me CEO apologizes for misstatements on IRS facial recognition,” January 27, 2022.

The health and safety of the Essex County Public School students, teachers and staff is of the utmost importance. Essex County Public Schools had to release students early on February 4, 2022, due to a staff shortage. Many teachers and staff members believe the learning environment is unsafe and do not want to put themselves at risk of contracting COVID-19. An Essex High School student was sent to the principal on February 3, 2022, after a teacher discovered a flyer organizing a student walkout. The flyer read, “Covid-19 is real. We lost too many lives," and asked students to walk out for 16 minutes in honor of the 16,412 people who lost their lives due COVID-19 in Virginia. A parent of a special needs student who is nonverbal and wheelchair bound, said she took her daughter out of school because of health and safety concerns. Signing this petition is important because we cannot allow elected officials to put the health and safety of our children and community at-risk. By prematurely ending COVID-19 mitigation strategies and protocols, the school district is unable to provide a safe environment for students to receive a free appropriate public education.

Nobody plans to bury their murdered child – it’s among the worst possible unexpected expenses, yet thousands of Illinois families are paying it. They are depending on your help during some of the most tragic and painful times of their lives. We look forward to working with the Illinois General Assembly to ease some of their pain.

Rather than taking active steps to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, President Biden is actively expanding it. According to The New York Times, the Pentagon has begun building a new $4 million courtroom at Guantánamo where the United States plans to hold secret trials starting in 2023. That means at least another year of this ongoing national shame. It’s not only far from the closure we wanted to see, it’s working backward from it. But before ground breaks we have a moment of opportunity to remind the president of our decades-long demand: CLOSE GUANTÁNAMO. Sign now to send the president a message he can't miss: the time to shut down Guantánamo is now!

According to the Brennan Center, Arizona legislatures passed three restrictive voting bills in 2021, AZ HB 1003, AZ SB 1485, and AZ SB 1819. These bills will purge voters from voting lists and limit the time voters can fix their absentee ballots and cure their signatures. These new laws compound earlier discriminatory voting laws passed in Arizona that restrict ballot collecting and provisional ballots. The majority of voters harmed by these laws are African American, Latino and Native American voters, rural voters, and poor and low-income voters. Join us as we demand the NFL move Super Bowl LVII from Arizona due to its discriminatory voting laws in order to protect our democracy.