Civic Activism for Aromanticism
Written by the AUREA Team
Word count: 2732
Estimated reading time: 12 minutes
Aromantic activism is still in its infancy. Community organizing is typically confined to online spaces, and the changes we are able to create are often small or symbolic, but this won't be true forever. The aro community is fast growing, and the larger it gets, the more it will be able to effect political and social change.
So what would it mean to create a world that accepts and supports aromantics? What changes would need to be made and more importantly, how do we create those changes?
While there are many answers to these questions, a good starting point is civic activism. Pushing for political change not only helps people who are harmed by unjust laws, but it can also lead to wider visibility and social change. With this in mind, let's look at some general tips and guidelines for effective political activism.
Coalition and Community Building
One person can only do so much, so the first step when it comes to effective activism is building in-person communities. AUREA already has an article on how to do this, so we won't spend too much time on that topic. Instead, let's discuss why community is necessary.
While a lone activist can make some impact, a larger political movement tends to create more lasting change. Creating this kind of political movement requires you to first find others who share your goals and concerns, and where better to find those people than among your fellow aromantics? Focussing on community activism also brings a greater diversity of ideas and experiences to your activism, and gives you more people to share the work with, both of which are incredibly helpful in a political movement.
Of course it’s also good to keep reality in mind. It’s no secret that aromantics are few and far between, and relying on the aro community alone isn’t the most effective way to fight for political change. One solution to this is coalition building. Consider which other communities are affected by your issue. Ace and poly groups, as well as more general queer community groups, are likely to share political intrests with aromantic folks. However, when working on specific issues like anti-single bias within adoption agencies or medical discrimination, it may also be helpful to build coalitions with imigrant communities, disability commuities, or any other community that faces discrimination from these agencies. Keeping your options open and being willing to partner with a variety of different people is a good way to ensure that your issue, whatever it happens to be, has momentum behind it.
Staying Local
Local politics are where most large scale policy change starts. This is because local politics are typically much easier to influence. While federal government officials often have millions of constituents, all with different issues, legislators on the city, district, and state/province level have far fewer people competing for their ear. As a result, local government officials are much more likely to be influenced by your activism and introduce bills around your cause.
This makes understanding local government jurisdictions an important part of effective civic engagement. You want to make sure you’re focusing your political action on the right people. Your city government probably doesn’t have a lot of power when it comes to adoption laws, but a county or provincial government might. Knowing who has power over what is a big part of activism, so always do your research!
Local policy change can also set a precedent for the rest of a country. For instance, in 1894, after suffragettes won the right to vote in the state of South Australia, activists in the rest of Australia were able to use their victory to support granting votes for women in their own states/territories. In this way, local activism can have a very far-reaching impact. Even global advocacy organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch tend to partner with local groups and spend their resources on smaller province and state based political campaigns. Your voice is most influential close to home, but it can always ripple outwards. Keep your activism local first and then see where it leads.
A Unified Message
While every political group has a multitude of issues worth fighting for, focusing community activism onto just one issue at a time often leads to more tangible progress. The most effective protests have actionable solutions, and when a political movement has too many irons in the fire, what those solutions are can become unclear to both the activists and the legislators you’re trying to convince.
Let's take a quick look back at history to see how effective having a concrete objective can be. In the 1970s, disability activists in the U.S. started a series of sit-ins to persuade then-president Jimmy Carter to sign section 504, a piece of legislation that would prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities. While section 504 only applied to government-run institutions, and certainly did not fulfill all of the needs of the disabled community in the United States, it was a very clear and achievable goal. By focusing community efforts on the signing of section 504, activists were able to improve the lives of many disabled people, and pave the way for later legislation like the Americans with Disabilities Act.
You can see here how choosing clearly defined goals like ratifying or repealing a piece of legislation is often very effective, and can lead to greater change later on. We can apply this same idea to aromantic community activism by taking larger ambitions and narrowing them down into actionable policy changes. For instance, while something like ending amatonormativity might be an ideal goal, making progress towards that goal would involve smaller, more focused projects, like legislating against the unequal treatment of singles in areas like taxes, adoption, and housing.
Emails, Letters, and Phone Calls
We’ve discussed some more general guidelines for political organizing, but now it’s time to get into the nitty gritty of civic activism! What gets a politician's attention? What will convince them to support your cause? Typically the answer is numbers. A politician's main priority is getting re-elected, so they want to know that their constituents support a cause before backing it.
One good way to show that you have support from voters is with mail and phone campaigns. Receiving a significant number of emails, letters, and phone calls about one particular issue shows a politician that there is public support for a particular policy change, especially when coming from a variety of different people within their legislative district. Emailing and calling representatives on your own can still have some impact, especially when it comes to frequently overlooked topics, but mass email, mail, and phone campaigns are ultimately much more effective.
One good thing to do when creating a large email or phone campaign is to create a template other potential activists can use. Templates are helpful for people who are concerned about an issue, but aren’t sure what exactly to say to a representative. Templates can also help engage people who are concerned with, but not heavily invested in an issue, and wouldn’t have taken the time to contact a representative on their own. If you want to learn more about writing effective activist emails and letters you can find more information here.
Meet Your Representatives
One good way to influence your elected representatives is to meet with them in person. Meeting with your elected officials puts a human face to your issue, and will often make a politician more empathetic towards your cause.
When speaking with representatives you can go as a small group, or by yourself. Government officials have limited time to meet with constituents, so make sure to have all your major points hammered out beforehand. One good strategy is to spend your face to face time with a legislator telling them an emotionally charged story relating to your issue while bringing along a fact sheet to give to them at the end of your meeting. This will allow you to cover both emotional and factual arguments in a short amount of time, and it has the added benefit of helping your representative remember your issue.
If you want more tips on meeting with elected officials you can find some here.
Getting Out the Vote
You’ve probably been told before that if you want your interests to be represented politically you should vote. While this is true, when it comes to aromantic political issues things get a little more complicated. When was the last time you heard a political candidate talk about aromantic issues? Probably never, right? It’s hard to elect people who represent your interests when there aren’t any on the ballot.
So which political candidates will actually be responsive to aromantic needs? Who is willing to represent our interests? One option is to vote for politicians who are invested in related issues. Maybe a politician doesn’t have the exact same goals as you, but they could have concerns about similar problems in another community that would make them willing to work with you on an issue. Another option is voting for queer candidates. While not all queer candidates have an understanding of aromantic issues, they might be a little more willing to listen and learn than non-queer politicians. The third option is to run for office yourself! Putting yourself on the ballot, or supporting other aromantic people in running, is a good way to put aromantic voices front and center.
What’s key to the success of all of this is voting down ballots, voting in off season elections, and voting in primaries. Local politics is where most politicians start out. Voting down ballots and during off season elections will help new politicians who share your interests gain new positions and experience. Voting in the primaries will help your preferred candidates move on to the general election. While the ability to vote is often limited by age and citizenship status, for those who are able to do it, it can be an effective way to help bring about political change.
Referendums
Sometimes contacting your legislators just doesn’t work. Whether we like it or not, politicians are people and they can’t always be convinced to agree with us. In the next few sections we’ll look at some other options for creating political change that don’t involve working with your representatives. Let's start with referendums.
Referendums are when laws and other policy changes get put directly onto the ballot instead of going through legislative bodies, making it a useful backup when politicians aren’t willing to work with you. Not every country allows for referendums, and those that do have varying laws on the subject. In some nations referendums are very common and easily to accomplish, while in others they are almost unheard of. Some places require a certain number of signatures from registered voters before they’ll put an issue on the ballot, while others simply require the right paperwork. Most countries that allow for referendums also have different types of referendums. Make sure to research how referendums work where you live to see if they’re a viable course of action for your cause.
Referendums also take a lot of time and money to be effective. If you want to put your issue on the ballot then you’ll need to run a campaign to convince the general public to vote in your favor. Keep this in mind when deciding whether or not a referendum is something you want to pursue. Are people where you live more conservitave or liberal? Do you think they would really be willing to vote for your cause? What rhetoric will help convince people to vote the way you want them to? Remember that while winning a referendum can sometimes be an effective work around, losing a referendum indicates that the general public doesn't support your issue and can make progressing your cause more difficult.
The Court System and Activism
Another way to create political change is through federal court systems. Federal courts are typically responsible for establishing national legal precedents and interpreting constitutional law. As a result, winning a federal court case can result in widespread political change.
One example of this comes from Germany. In 2017, a German intersex person named Vanja tried to have the gender marker on their birth certificate changed to neither male nor female. When their request was denied, they took the issue to court, and with the help of an advocacy group called Dritte Option they were able to bring their case all the way to the German Federal Constitutional Court. There, they won the case and made gender neutral markers available for people nationwide.
One thing we can learn from Vanja is the importance of working with advocacy groups. While most individuals don’t have the time and resources to bring their case all the way up to the federal court system, an advocacy group who shares your concerns probably does. Advocacy groups tend to have lawyers, legal teams, and a much better understanding of the court system than the average individual. If you want to use federal courts for political purposes the best way to go about it is to find an advocacy group that will support your cause.
Protesting
Last, but certainly not least, let's talk about the one everyone gets excited about: protesting!
There are many different kinds of protests. Sit-ins, marches, rallies, pickets, vigils, and boycotts, for example, are all effective forms of group demonstration. More recently, with COVID-19 getting in the way, people have been creating new protest methods, like peopleless protesting. What all of these have in common is a showing of support from a large number of people. While there are certainly effective forms of individual protest, like direct action, when trying to change laws and policies it’s usually most effective to have a good number of protestors. The more people participate in a protest, the more public support your issue appears to have.
Unfortunately this also means that organizing and getting the word out to people is probably your biggest challenge when it comes to putting on a strong demonstration. Social media, flyers, and press releases are all effective ways to get the word out, but you shouldn’t stop there! Contact local activist organizations whose members may be interested in protesting, coordinate with religious communities that share your values, find clubs and community centers with politically active members and see if they’re willing to help, and if you know of groups outside your local community who would be interested in joining your protest bus them in. It can also be helpful to talk with more seasoned activists in your community to see what’s worked for them. Getting people to show up can be difficult, but it’s definitely not impossible. You just need to find the right strategies.
Effective protests also tend to coincide with the use of other political strategies we discussed above. For instance, in the 1980s and 1990s, protests orginized by the Argenitinan activist group Comunidad Homosexual Argentina made huge strides towards gay liberation and gay marriage in their country. But CHA did more than just protest, they also brought their issues to court, and participated in a lot of non-political activism like pushing for greater media visibility. Using a variety of different political and non-political strategies was highly effective, and today Argentina is considered to have some of the most advanced LGBTQIA+ rights in the world.
Working on a Wider Scale
Local activism is only the beginning. As aromantic activists begin to make change in their own cities, counties, and countries, we will eventually be able to connect with one another and work on more international pursuits. When one country changes their laws to include and protect more marginalized groups, other nations often follow.
Before we get there though, the aro community needs to put in the work of organizing and building up its activist skills. If you want to learn more about becoming an effective civic activist then talk to older, more experienced community organizers, study past activist movements to see what has worked and what hasn't, and most importantly, be willing to question things and learn from your own mistakes.
Other Resources for Learning About Activism:
Becoming a Citizen Activist by Nick Licata
When We Fight, We Win: Twenty-First-Century Social Movements and the Activists That Are Transforming Our World by Greg Jobin-Leeds
Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky