IMPACT Invitation

Over the past few years, I have been interested in becoming involved in LGBT advocacy in the community, and have tried to "get in" with SAVEDade and Unity Coalition.  But it has proven to be a lot more difficult than I originally thought, due to seemingly "closed" circles that surround these organizations.  And now that I am back in Miami, I am ready to take action again.  This time, instead of trying to join the ranks of an already-established organization, I (along with a group of other interested activists) have decided to form a real advocacy group, IMPACT - Individuals Motivated to Produce Actual Change Today.

 We hope to represent the diversity of the LGBT community and have an open and transparent agenda which welcomes the participation of all. We intend to concentrate on legislative issues, but will also work on educational campaigns and other projects as our members and our community see fit.

Our first order of business will be to get every municipality in Miami-Dade County (as Miami Beach has done) to pass a resolution in support of the Uniting American Families Act, a bill in Washington that seeks to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to eliminate discrimination in the immigration laws by permitting "permanent partners" of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents to obtain lawful permanent resident status in the same manner  as spouses of citizens and lawful permanent residents. We are already writing language for the resolution and have made calls to elected officials in Coral Gables and Doral about placing it on their city agendas. Once we get a supporting resolution from every municipality, we might go to Broward County and get support from the governments there before forwarding them to the bill's advocates in committee.

We can also take on other issues, such as anti-hate and anti-bully education (making it a legislated requirement) in schools, among other timely issues, but we want to include more of you in the discussion before we take any direction.

We would love for you to join us. It does not take a huge commitment of time. Maybe you just want to attend the community conversations so that we may "pick your brain" so to speak, get your ideas and opinions on issues, so that we can make decisions and move on issues that are more representative of the community. In fact, strength in numbers can also have impact so by joining, you help. If you want to become involved with IMPACT, please let me know. We are trying to get a nice group together for the Miami Beach Pride event April 16 so that we can do some outreach there. We will soon have a Facebook page to keep everyone informed on our activities (we will post when we are before a town council or city commission so you know if it's your elected officials and you can be there to lend support). Also, feel free to forward the information on the new group along to your friends and colleagues in the community, LGBT or not, who want to make a difference.

Ready to take action,

Megan Conyers

Founding Member, IMPACT