Ally Week: Atticus Circle and GLSEN

by GLSEN Website Ally Week

It's Ally Week, so let's share humpy love for two great organizations promoting equality and collaboration. Working together is the best way to ensure that respect, safety, and equality happen in our lifetime. No one gets it all done in isolation, right?

Gay? Fine By Me!

First off, here in Texas, there's Atticus Circle, founded by local Austinite Anne Wynne in 2004. Atticus Circle is an Austin organization with a national scope, which in their own mission statement, "…educates and mobilizes straight people to advance equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) partners, parents, and their children."

That's a damn fine mission statement, and Atticus Circle works all year to promote education and political action, as well as provide up-to-date information about the rights of parents and partners, to conduct research and to disburse that information found across the nation on issues that you should know about.

Anne Wynne, and Executive Director Ruth Gardner-Loew want folks to get involved in the "civil rights struggle of our time." Their website is filled with news, links you can use, and ways to get involved, such as Sundays of Solidarity and the Gay, Fine By Me T-Shirt campaign.

Be an Ally. Be the Change.

Meanwhile in New York, there's GLSEN, the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network.

Their mission is "…to assure that each member of every school community is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression." Originally founded in 1990 to help start a dialogue about safe schools, GLSEN is now a national organization which helps schools create Gay Straight Alliances, promote Ally Week, and offer workshops, videos, and more, including the distribution of kits for students and teachers to help make the school environment a better and safer place for all kids.