If you’re sleeping better now than you were four years ago, this post is probably not for you. But can you please email us to tell us how and why, if you don’t mind?
Hey hey, 2020, we see you. We’ve heard plenty of people say, ooh, can’t wait until 2020 is over. But let’s take a pause and remember our feelings about 2019, when we were excited for 2020 because it was to be the year of change. There’s only one way 2021 is going to be better than 2020: that’s if we band together to vote out sexism, racism, ableism, fear and discimination of all kinds, and nihilism.
And so, for the first time, we’re rebranding our website through the election to let you know we’re doing everything we can to ensure that our rights are saved. You have a choice. Do everything you can to vote and encourage others to vote out hate and discrimination, or don’t and wait and see. No pressure, but well, that’s not true. Pressure. Lots of pressure. We are a fun-loving and optimistic group, but we want to make this very clear. This is very, very serious and we are being quite realistic about what could happen in November (and beyond).
We aren’t a political organization by any means, but we cannot sit idly by while those in power continue to go against everything we stand for as a company – nay, small business!
As a reminder, here’s what we’re talking about:
Most recently, Trump has straight up attacked our work. And he’s always attacked our community, which is why we endorsed a candidate (which we never had any intention of doing before). His words and his actions continue to be racist. And because of this, we are seeing attacks of innocent people and murders of people exercising their right to protest at the hands of his biggest supporters. And if you’re thinking things wouldn’t be different if someone else were in charge, that could be true, it’s impossible to know. But what we do know is that hate organizations have almost doubled in the last 20 years in this country. Surely someone in charge at the White House promoting hate and definitely not denouncing it from majority groups isn’t making things better.
So we have a choice. We have to use everything we have to stop hate. We are better than this. Yes, we’re tired and scared too, but that’s what people who prey on fear want. They want people who are tired and feel hopeless. People who think “we’re not responsible.” “It’s people that are more powerful than us who are.” All of this literally might be true, but it really would be worse if we didn’t try, right? So here’s where we get optimistic. Here’s where we get action-oriented. Here’s where we stay positive and believe that we can turn this beat around. And that 2021 can be something we actually look forward to.
We don’t need 51% of the vote, we need way more than that. We need critical pockets of this country to vote him out. We need white women and other marginalized genders to vote in solidarity with our BIPOC sisters. This is it.
Below you’ll find a list of resources (honestly it’s pretty meta, there are thankfully so many resources of resources).
We’re also hosting a very special She+ Votes Out virtual letter writing party to write to those who are most likely to vote Democratic but aren’t really feeling the vibes to get to the polls. This will be on October 7th, the night of the Harris-Pence debate. Get all the info here.
We’ve also updated our swag shop, and all proceeds are going to the Fair Fight, an organization dedicated to ensuring free and fair elections.
Thanks for sticking with us. Here’s to voting him out.
VOTING RESOURCES
Why voting matters (go here when you’re feeling like it doesn’t)
- Why Voting Matters | Vote Safe 2020
- National Geographic on Why Voting Matters
- Time Magazine on Why Voting Matters
Voting action
- Indivisible.org
- Fair Fight
- When We All Vote
- Vote Forward
- Vote Out Hate
- Ballotpedia
- Make Time to Vote
Media Bias
It’s worth remembering bias exists pretty much everywhere, so who do you trust? This is important too, when thinking about voting and braving discussions with people who may read from different sources than you.