What's your advocacy?

I support women's rights, gay rights, trans* rights and surgery, secularism, republicanism (in the british sense, as in no monarchy. Not in the rightwing sense), animal rights and vegetarianism, science, free speech, atheism, racial equality, digital watches over analogue and good spelling.

No, it has not occurred to me that I have to many advocacies.

 

Digital watches. I wear one EVERY day.

Nah, kidding. I have the most support for animal and gay rights, and also secularism and free speech.

I can't say I donate money. I barely have enough to live on. But I do attend protests and talk. A lot.

 

Definitely a supporter of animal rights. I'm abit of a callous bastard when it comes to charities, show me an advert of humans suffering and i dont blink an eye. But show me an advert with animals suffering and i struggle to choke back the tears. Here in the UK we have an advert for a charity which deals with the welfare of donkeys and i sweat to god it is the most heartbreaking advert i have ever seen.

 

equality for every one, Communism, Prohibition replaced with therapy, and supporting small local businesses

 

oh, yeah. forgot that one.

 

My big thing is anti-war and anti-militarism advocacy. I've been particularly concentrating on Iran lately since multiple entities in the U.S. have been attempting to drag us into yet another unjustified war of aggression. For me this involves countering misinformation about Iran (usually through social media and in-person conversations) spread by American and Israeli media, donating what I can to alternative news outlets who tell the truth, promoting the study of Middle Eastern languages and history/culture both to educate people about our history as aggressors in that region and to humanize the people that the war party has demonized, and contacting members of Congress to express my displeasure when they do stupid things like vote for sanctions or generally attempt to fan the flames of war (though I don't really hold my breath on the effectiveness of this one).

I'm hopeful that Americans have grown sufficiently tired of war that Obama and Congress will feel boxed in by public opinion even if they want to expand their current operations to a full-fledged ground invasion, but I never underestimate the people's capacity for blood lust once they've been sufficiently propagandized.

 

anti-militarism and gender equality, animal rights (veganism), environmental issues, gay rights.
I'm going to refuse both military and civil service as a protest to armed forces and unequal treatment of men and women (men have a duty to serve, women don't), which means I will get ~180 days of either jail or house arrest.
As for animal rights, I try to sign any petitions I am offered and I frequently expose my friends to vegan foods, hoping to influence them to reduce the amount of animal products they use.

 

i don't really do anything, but support rights for everyone, the abolition of Capitalism, animal rights, getting rid of the Monarchy, drug policy reform & probably some other stuff i can't remember just now

 

In short, I'm a Human Rights advocate.

 

I read that sentence about three times, because I kept reading it like "My masters have ordered me to conduct a research study..." And I was trying to figure out what kind of bizarre relationship you were in.

I'm not youth, but I'll answer since I felt the need to be a smartass. My main advocacy groups are gay youth programs, literacy programs, and depression-and-related-conditions awareness. I host at least one visible fund-raising/awareness-raising event each year for the first two, and take part in ones for all three on a regular basis. I take part in fundraisers for other charities throughout the year, but those are the ones I actively look to take part in.

Lex

 

Actively, I support the visual arts. I attended a visual arts school for "urban youth" for seven years, and it changed my life. I became a skilled ceramicist and sculptor, and gained knowledge in a wide range of mediums. I have since graduated, but I go back to volunteer and would like to become a teaching assistant in my free time.

Inactively, I'm a huge supporter of the sciences. Scientific advancement and international cooperation, human space travel and technologies, and (of course) education.

 

Privacy rights, drug rights, suicide rights, freedom of speech (even 'hate speech'), laws based in logic and reason, efficient, secure, and simple ways to circumvent (break) laws, transparency in government, transparency in trade (I want to know be able to view every transaction a company makes and everything that went into creating a product or providing a service even if that requires enumerating every step in production), autonomy, more scientific research for...well everything. In the united states, I'd like for states to have more power over governing themselves, and I'd also like for carpet banning of substances to end. Recently there were a bunch of very unresearched drugs that were put into schedule 1. No one knows anything about them and now one ever will, but people continue to take them because they're enjoyable despite not knowing of possible side effects or interactions with other drugs. It's like congress wants for drug users to experience horrible side effects and complications. Gun ownership rights. Better conditions and treatment for prisoners and offending minors. Won't say how I promote some, I donate bitcoins to wikileaks, I donate to scientific organizations. Also, bitcoin. People should start using bitcoin more. It's approximately 12 times the worth of the US dollar and practically inflation proof.

 

My main advocacy groups are LGBT rights, animal rights, gun rights, and getting medical supplies and treatment to impoverished and/or disaster-stricken areas (usually through an organization like Doctors Without Borders).

My main way of support is donating to various groups that support those causes, along with a little volunteering here and there.

 

PLEASE tell me that's a Hitchhikers Guide reference.

As for my own- there are quite a few, and I know I'm going to miss a ton. Most have actually been listed here already, but I'll put them down anyway.

LGBT rights, women's rights, animal rights, immigration rights, euthanasia, legalization of prostitution and marijuana, atheism, free healthcare, education (especially the sciences), free speech, anti-patriotism, anti-militarism...and I too would be lost without my digital watch (I have 3 identical ones that I bought for $12 at Kmart, and they've had every possible bodily fluid on them, been plunged into body cavities, gone through the wash, endured several showers/baths and been chewed on and are still in perfect condition) so let's throw that in there too!

Communism is a tricky one. I've read the Communist Manifesto several times and still can't work out exactly what I think. I guess libertarian socialism is more my speed.

I definitely don't do as much as I should and/or could to push these issues in terms of major action, but I do attempt to educate those around me to the best of my ability. The one real exception would be animal rights. As a vet tech, it's sort of in my job description to do everything within my power to ensure the well-being of every creature that comes across my path (not counting harmful bugs, which I have no problem eviscerating, sometimes with the help of my trusty feline sidekick who seems to get endless endless enjoyment out of stalking, capturing and devouring any creepy-crawly he can find. A lot of them crunch, especially the centipedes. Blood-engorged ticks explode with a satisfying pop if you put a flame to them though. Y'know, just in case you were wondering).

Apologies for the rambling, I've been up for 30 hours so I'm a tad spacy right now.

 

Feminism

I advocate for gender equality, queer rights, racial equality and economic justice. It is the core of all of my beliefs. Our target society is some kind of libertarian socialist one. I'm partial to anarchosyndicalism, but I'm open to whatever strictly libertarian possibilities present themselves as relevant for our time.​

Atheism

While I acknowledge that religion has played a positive role in the lives of many people, I think that the needs of community, belonging, and spiritual connectedness that we have can be satisfied in other ways. At the moment, religious belief is doing damage to modernization efforts in other countries and is threatening the integrity of political and legal structures here in the United States and elsewhere.​

Chivalry

I believe that every person should engage in self-improvement for the benefit of all, aim for compassion, honor, and generosity in all their endeavors, abhor gossip, seek and hold the truth. That includes physical improvement. Everyone who is able should exercise, not only for personal health, but to develop a greater ability to defend the defenseless. It includes intellectual improvement. Every person should study the world and current events to be appraised of the latest facts about our reality. Finally, it includes ethical improvement. Every person should study an ethical theory and make rendering it a priority in all their actions.​

My method for spreading these ideas is by face-to-face discussion. Compassionate behavior on an individual level always produces positive results even if there are no systemic changes.

 

Perfect, haha! Now I can't see how it's supposed to look.

Actively, I'm assisting efforts to block the new pipelines that will funnel oil and bitumen from Alberta through sensitive coastal ecosystems. I habilitate feral kittens in my tiny apartment and find homes for them. I participate in pride efforts at my school, including going to talk to high school students about LGBTQ* issues.

I'd like to do more for humans in need. I'm going to look into helping out at a soup kitchen or distributing warm clothes once my semester is over.

I don't donate money, a)because my mom keeps reminding me that I'm a starving student and my parents donate plenty, and b)because she's right and I don't have any money to spare.

---------- Post added 11th Dec 2012 at 12:58 PM ----------

I think people are misinterpreting your question as "What issues do you care about?" Or is that how you meant it?

 

My big one I suppose is I think a feminist one. I'm big on equality for women to men in just about every aspect I think about, and just for women's rights in general. I wished I could have participated in the rape walk, they did something like it here in Boston; I would have loved to be out there with a sign saying it doesn't matter how a woman chooses to dress, rape is never okay. I'm for equal pay for women, obviously; it's kind of a glass closet fact in this country that if you have two, let's say doctors for the sake of example, one man and one woman with the exact same qualifications the man will still earn slightly more. Which is plain stupid.

My biggest fight I would say is against things like slut shaming. I don't subscribe to the notion that men can enjoy sex but women are somehow "wrong" if they do. I tell people all the time that it's either admirable for women to enjoy sex like it is for me or you have to slut shame us both. I don't entertain that double standard from people. This one's particularly hard to fight against because it's so ingrained in our type of society. Even I'm not perfect, I'll call people a stupid hoe all the time without thinking; but I have to remind myself that a) being a hoe is not wrong and b) it shouldn't be associated with an insult for someone I don't like. Even if I can change a few people's minds about these things throughout my life I'll be satisfied.