It’s been just five days, and already Accio Books! is turning out to be one of the most exciting campaigns in the history of the HP Alliance! To keep the action going, we’ll be holding a Livestream this Sunday, March 7 at 6:00 PM EST with Paul and Joe DeGeorge of Harry and the Potters!
This will be the first of four Accio Books! Livestream shows, one for each House. Each show will feature the head of its respective house: Paul DeGeorge of Gryffindor, Lauren Fairweather of Hufflepuff, Maureen Johnson of Ravenclaw, and Brian Ross of Slytherin.
Although each of you are only competing as members of one house, we strongly encourage you to attend all four Livestream shows, the first one this Sunday! Tune in to our Livestream channel to view the show, and for more information about Accio Books and how to donate, visit our official Accio Books page.
I am proud to announce that HPA Chapter The Order of the Mustangs has won the second Chapter Cup!
Every time we run a house competition, we also run a contest between chapters. For Wrock for Equality, chapters competed with “hours of participation” for phone calls and concert-watching.
The Order of the Mustangs put in a total of nine hours to win. Two chapter members - Caitlin and Laurel - got together to make phone calls and then watch their first Harry and the Potters / Draco and the Malfoys concert on livestream - a full day of dedication to equal rights. Caitlin described it as a blast!
What’s especially cool about the Order of the Mustangs is that they were able to do all of this without even becoming a full-fledged chapter! Although Caitlin and Laurel have been working with the HPA for several weeks, their first interest meeting is actually next week. However, we are proud to say that they’ve jumped right in and tackled HPA campaigns like pros! (True proof that all you need to start a successful chapter is two dedicated people and a little bit of time).
Congratulations, Order of the Mustangs, and congratulations and thanks to all of the other chapters who entered the Chapter Cup!
For a few days, I have been playing with blog ideas in my head. I was asking myself how I could write about Same-Sex marriage, Prop 1 in Maine, Prop 8 in California, and the fact that even though I am married, I still feel like my union is not the same as other people’s.
And then yesterday happened; Wrock 4 Equality completely blew my mind. Every time I think the Harry Potter Alliance and the fandom can not get any more awesome, they surprise me with campaigns like this one. All the hard work everyone has put in until now means so much for me on such a personal level. Read the rest of this entry »
By getting coverage in the press a couple of things happen. It’s exciting for our fandom from the inside, in many cases opens the minds of people outside the fandom on power of fan communities, literature, pop culture, and mythology-based activism. But ultimately what it does is help shape the larger narrative that is being told about Equal Rights. When thousands of fans and musicians organize use the power of a beloved story as a meeting ground for Equal Rights, that is a very powerful thing.
By working with the story of Harry Potter and the story of the Harry Potter fan community on LGBT issues we are contributing to writing the story of the Civil Rights Movement. That is a very important contribution that I hope each of us can take a moment to breathe and be proud about - for in the end, the story of the Civil Rights movement is the story of humanity’s progression towards both human rights and highly notable in LGBT issues, the right to be human. It is the right to be human that we are all working for in the HP Alliance. I am proud and excited and humbled to see us making so much headway in working for that right.
New Hampshire has now legalized equal marriage! Finally, marriage is being protected to allow room for all those who love. Now that’s moral values!
And to those who think that heterosexual marriage is somehow being threatened by marriage being equal, well with more states having legalized marriage, what we’re about to see is a much more educated debate on what equal marriage looks like. Before those pushing for marriage to remain unequal were using old techniques of fear mongering - similar to the fear mongering that led us into Iraq and completely drained our resources away from dealing with the genocide in Darfur when it first began. But fear mongering can only last for so long in the marriage debate.
The movement for Marriage Inequality may be getting nervous because now the nation is about to see solid evidence that same sex marriage threatens no one. The only threat comes from those who stand in the way of equality. The only immorality comes from those who stand in the way of marriage equality. The only threat to values that are truly spiritual come from those who stand against legalizing love between consensual partners. We’ve still got a long way to go for marriage to be equal in this society and for those who are not heterosexual to be feel like welcomed members of this society - but the strides we are making are quite profound.
So Vernon Dursley Alliance - you who want to keep things unequal in the name of preserving what you feel is “normal” - the Wizards are coming to town whether you like it or not and we’re bringing the magic of understanding that every individual is worthy of love, loving, and the highest consideration.
New Hampshire has a saying: “Live Free or Die.” Today New Hampshire has chosen to live free. As a society grappling with issues so giant they may destroy us, it is time to follow suit and choose freedom for all. Not simply freedom for those who celebrate inequality with passive aggressive Umbridge like smiles. Love and Freedom are prevailing.
The Ministry of Magic had to enforce Muggle Protection Acts to prevent the killing and torturing of Muggles by wizards, but at the same time, they would pass laws that made it harder for Lupin, a werewolf, to find job.
Once again, the similarities between the Harry Potter world and ‘the real’ world become more apparent. Muggle governments enforce laws preventing discrimination, and yet we still need laws that better protect the LGBT community, different ethnicities and people with disabilities from hate crimes. It took 10 years, but we are now closer than ever to having an anti-hate crimes bill passed by congress and signed by our President.
The US House passed the Matthew Shepard Act – A bill that would not only protect gays and lesbians but also transgender people who are a part of the community that is left out more often than not. Now, the Matthew Shepard act is on its way to the Senate, and it will be their turn to vote on whether or not this should go to the President.
You may say, “Well, this act is a good thing! That should be no problem.” In reality, it has taken 10 long years for this Act to get this far. Many times, there would be deal offers, like it would have a better chance of passing if they took out the ‘transgender’ part of it. Thankfully, the people that have been fighting from the beginning refused to not have an all-inclusive bill. And they are right.
If you, like many others, believe that it is time for a federal law to protect those that haven’t been protected in the past, please visit the HRC Action Center to contact your senators and urge them to pass the Matthew Shepard Act. President Obama has already pledged to sign it; all we need is the Senate to see the light and realize that this Act is long due on the President’s desk.
Please take some time and watch this video, it will not take more than two minutes, but it has a very powerful message from Matthew Shepard’s mother.
Sometimes I wonder how Andromeda Black felt when she fell in love with Ted Tonks. Coming from a family of pure-bloods, I’m sure she knew what was coming when she and Ted decided to get married. I imagine the differences in the Andromeda/Ted and Narcissa/Lucius weddings. The latter one was probably fancy, with lots of guests, music and gifts while the first one was lacking the presence of any Blacks (with maybe the exception of Sirius). I wonder if Andromeda felt the same way I’m feeling right now.
At the end of last year, my sister told me she and her boyfriend of about 7 years got engaged. I was very happy for her; I congratulated both my sister and her now-fiancé (and I also took the time to congratulate their three kids =]).
Tomorrow April 17th, marks the 13th annual Day of Silence, a day that calls attention to the discrimination faced by LGBT people. The Day of Silence asks us to silently protest against this intolerance, an intolerance similar to that faced by Remus Lupin, Hagrid, and muggle-borns in the Harry Potter Universe.
They are also the first state where same sex marriage was passed by the state legislature. In every other state it has happened through the courts. In the case of Vermont, the governor tried to strike this down with a veto but there was so much support by the state legislature that they overrode any potential blocks by the governor.
Iowa and Vermont have now joined the ranks of Massachusetts and Connecticut to expand the opportunity for equality and protect the institution of marriage in the name of love. HOORAY!
I am proud to announce that HPA Chapter The Order of the Mustangs has won the second Chapter Cup!
