‘We have come this far and we won’t turn around – we’ll flood the streets with justice we are freedom bound’

Jane Adams

Dear SONG Family, Happy May 1st – International Workers Day!!   On this day we stand in solidarity with hundreds of thousands of others throughout the South and the Globe – who share our dream and struggle for a new world – and the liberation of all of us. As many of you know or have read SONG has been working tirelessly to defeat Amendment One in North Carolina. On May 8th, one week from today – the people of North Carolina will go to the ballot – to vote AGAINST Amendment One. Amendment One is a tricky right wing plot to take domestic partnership benefits from all unmarried people, hate on LGBTQ people, take health benefits from kids of all unmarried people, and restrict rights of domestic violence survivors who are being hurt by people they are not married to. But, guess what is happening? When we started this campaign–it looked like we would lose 70 to 30. We built a great coalition–with over 160 groups, with strong people of Color leadership. The North Carolina NAACP has had our back at every step. SONG has a great core group of organizers on our team, and the group of North Carolina SONG members we anchor, All of Us NC, have worked tirelessly with us all over this state, at the grassroots level.  The coalition has 16,000 volunteers working on the campaign. We have organized in almost every county in North Carolina. People who have never said the word ‘Gay’ outloud–have come out and asked their families to vote AGAINST. We have 9,000 donors–mostly in small donations from North Carolinians. Just as importantly, SONG has seeded at the steering committee level the message that the campaign HAS to be about families, and about the truth that LGBT people are not the enemy and that we are tired of being treated as a wedge issue by the right wing. This has built on 19 years of SONG work. The people of North Carolina have taken that intersectional message and run with it–and organized libraries, churches, small towns, and groups of artists. The video below was made not by our big campaign team–but by a set of musicians and activists in Greensboro who followed that lead. It is symbolic of the things we are most proud of–and we think you will see the hard work of hundreds of SONG leaders and others in its message. Your Family is My Family Too: Vote Against Amendment One With 11 days left to go, we have some tired and hard working organizers that we are trying to support and coordinate– so please send love our way! For those of you not in North Carolina–we are on the news every day. Our ads are running every day, all day. In every town and rural road, there are signs for and against. The NC NAACP launched Vote Against ads on major Black radio stations this morning. The coffeeshop where this email is being written is against Amendment One. The internet code here? “Votemay8”. 🙂 Public opinion polls say that the state is essentially split – 50% for Amendment 1 and 50% against Amendment 1 !! All the pollsters, and our opposition, know that we could win. As a result of thousands of peoples’ tireless work, over the last few months, thousands and thousands of North Carolinians have joined our side and now oppose Amendment 1! If you give to SONG today, it will go directly to two things:

• Food costs for our members to feed community members in rural, poor communities as they gather their supporters for the final push of the campaign
• Gas costs for core SONG leaders who are working poor and unemployed to come to our Election night gathering and be celebrated for their hard work

If you want to join the fight but you live somewhere else — join the National Solidarity Phonebanking efforts. TO learn more click HERE.And on May 8th -we will celebrate together – throughout the state. Celebrating our work, our wins, the thousands of new relationships we’ve built together, the risks we’ve taken, the transformation that has and is taking place across the state and our future work together. For more information on the events and gatherings SONG will be helping to anchor and host throughout the state on May 8th, or to volunteer your time in the days leading up to the 8th please call Caitlin Breedlove at 865-310-1463 or email Caitlin@southernersonnewground.org

With much love and respect,

Southerners on New Ground