Meeting Next Week + News

A4D June Meeting: Homelessness in the Portland Area

Mark your calendars! Next week on Tuesday, June 27, at 5:00pm we will hold A4D’s meeting via Zoom.

Cole Merkel from HereTogether Oregon will be our guest. She will speak about HereTogether’s work—the state of homelessness in Portland today and what we can do about it.

Keep an eye on your inbox for an email with the link to register.

Don’t Let Your Privacy Be a Walkout Victim!

Oregon Senate Bill 619 aims to give consumers more information about the collection of their personal data and how it is stored and used by large data-driven companies.

The Oregon Capital Chronicle reports that the bill, which is the most monitored bill in the current legislative session, might still pass thanks to Democratic support.

Please call your state representatives and let them know you want them to vote for it.

Stop Salmon Extinction

On Sunday, June 4, an op-ed authored by four chairpersons of Columbia Basin tribes was published in TheSpokesman Review. It expresses their strong collective support and leadership of a Columbia Basin initiative that funds habitat restoration in the Basin, replaces services currently provided by the lower Snake River dams, and reintroduces salmon to the upper Columbia River.

Here are graphics and suggested messages you can use to amplify these important demands by our tribal neighbors.

We’re in a Climate Emergency Our Government Must Act

Please join our friends at Indivisible Oregon to call on your representatives in urging President Biden to declare a climate emergency.

Oregon members of Congress whose constituents have regularly faced wildfire pollution are the perfect spokespeople to convince Biden to declare an emergency.

Here are sample paragraphs and additional background information you can use in your correspondence.

Lori Chavez-DeRemer Refuses to Listen to LGBTQ2+ Constituents

Last Saturday, June 17, Lori delivered the commencement address at Central Oregon Community College. She was there to talk, not listen.

Community members and allies stood together wrapped in Gay Pride banners, holding rainbow flags, and wearing rainbow pins while similarly-attired graduates marched to their seats.

Lori spoke briefly, ladling out her advice to the graduates and assuring them that if they would “work hard and keep their heads down,” they would succeed like she had. Her counsel provoked the only outburst during the ceremony when one of the two moms of LGBTQ2+ activist/graduate Freddy Finney-Jordet (known to many in Deschutes County for his enthusiastic work for the Deschutes Dems) exclaimed, “That’s a lie!”

Then, Lori departed, leaving behind her empty chair on the dais. She missed all of the speeches by LGBTQ2+ activists, who inspired the audience with their clear-eyed yet optimistic determination.

The college’s LGBTQ2+ student body and allies were deeply offended by the invitation to Representative Chavez-DeRemer. Shamefully, Lori had co-sponsored and voted for the transphobic Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act and the anti-LGBTQ2+ Parents Bill of Rights Act, both of which passed in the House with MAGA votes. These bills pose grave threats to the LGBTQ2+ community and have whipped up hatred and divisiveness in those states where they have been enacted.

Read more about why Lori is so dangerous for all Americans.

Enjoy the longest day of the year!