Happy Pride Month, Alliance Fam!

Every June, we honor the history of the LGBTQ+ community, and their ongoing fight for equality and the freedom to live full lives unencumbered by discrimination. This year, amidst the Pride celebrations and parades, we have to recognize the tumultuous legislative year we’ve had. LGBTQ+ folks have faced a record number of threats and challenges from leaders at the local, state, and national levels. This year alone, over 500 anti-LGBTQ bills and anti-trans bills have been introduced across the country attacking various rights and freedoms like free speech and expression, access to healthcare, education, and more. 

While Pride can be a party, at its root Pride is a protest. Pride started as a fight for the right of LGBTQ+ people to live their lives in public, without apology. With that in mind, this Pride Month, we want to highlight the power of youth organizing when it comes to protecting LGBTQ+ rights and freedoms.

LGBTQ+ Organizing in the Alliance Network

New Hampshire Youth Movement

Forward Montana

Loud Light 

In Kansas, Loud Light has been fighting on the legislative front lines against several anti-trans bills including HB 2238, a bill that would ban transgender women and girls from competing on sports teams. The Kansas Legislature overrode the governor’s veto of this damaging bill . Loud Light is mobilizing their network while honoring the activists who fought before them through “Pride was a Riot”, an event dedicated to exploring the history, theory, and practice of civil disobedience in the LGBTQ+ movement. 

MOVE Texas

Among several actions MOVE Texas has hosted at their state capitol, in March they hosted a Youth Capitol Takeover that brought over 350 young voters and lifetime organizers together at the Texas capitol to demand progressive change from state lawmakers. 

Engage Miami

How the Alliance Network is Celebrating Pride Month

Find your state and see how you can tap into upcoming Pride events, or engage with one of our network orgs on social media!

More LGBTQ+ Content From the Alliance

How the Alliance Network Fights for Trans Youth

This year we’ve seen an influx in anti-trans rhetoric spreading across the nation. As more and more legislative attacks on trans folks arise, youth organizers in the Alliance Network have been fighting back to protect the rights and freedoms of trans youth. For International Day of Transgender Visibility in March, honored the contributions of trans people, and the youth organizers opposing these bills face-to-face with legislators determined to prohibit the rights and freedoms of the trans community, by showing some extra love to the Alliance Network orgs doing this work in their state legislative sessions this year.

Pride is a Battleground

For Pride 2022, Forward Montana organizer, Izzy Milch penned a powerful blog post on the importance of acknowledging the history of Pride Month and the necessity for LGBTQ+ organizing at the local level.

As the legislative session winds down, let’s continue to hold our heads high and remember that Pride is a continuous celebration of advocacy and action for LGBTQ+ freedom. Equality is made for all, and young people know it. Let’s keep fighting.

The month of May is all about celebrating the history and culture of the Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities. The Asian American community is the fastest growing racial demographic in the US. With that, Asian Americans also had the highest growth in voter turnout in 2020 when compared to 2016. In fact, in 2020 young Asian American voters overwhelmingly supported the Biden Harris campaign. Yet, AANHPI communities are still often overlooked when it comes to voter engagement. A national survey conducted by RUN (Represent Us Now) AAPI found that campaigns failed to reach 68% of young Asian Americans leading up to the 2022 midterms.

To celebrate AANHPI Heritage Month, we want to shine a light on the incredible power of the AANHPI organizers in our network who are not only working to engage the fastest growing racial demographic in the US in civic action, but are continuing to build AANHPI youth power all year long.

Say Hey 👋🏽 to the Organizers of North Carolina Asian Americans Together

Organizing the AANHPI Community in Nevada

In the Alliance Network, we are happy to have orgs like Asian Community Development Council (ACDC) and One APIA Nevada in our network working together to directly serve and engage their communities in political action. 

ACDC and One APIA Nevada work to build AANHPI power across the state of Nevada through year-round voter engagement, advocating for policies that further the interests of the community, and through grassroots engagement and coalition building around issues that matter most to the AANHPI community. On May 1st, ACDC and One APIA Nevada brought together over 100 community members to meet with legislators in Carson City, Nevada for their AANHPI Heritage Month Lobby Day!

We want to make it clear that we will continue to honor and celebrate AANHPI history and heritage not just in the month of May, but year-round. AANHPI youth will always have a home in the Alliance Network.

Happy Mental Health Awareness Month! Every issue has an impact on our mental wellness, so this week we are sharing messages from across the Alliance Network on how some of our key issues impact the mental health of young people. Check back throughout the week to see updates on topics ranging from abortion access to voter rights!

Abortion Access x Mental Health

Access to a safe abortion is healthcare.

Network Spotlight

How the Alliance Network is Organizing on Abortion Access:

Loud Light – Loud Light recently won the fight against a constitutional amendment that would remove the right to an abortion from the state constitution. The amendment would’ve given a majority of state legislators absolute control over abortion regulation including the ability to ban abortion without exception.

Mississippi Votes – The only abortion provider in Mississippi is at the center of the case that could overturn Roe v. Wade. If the Supreme Court overturns Roe, trigger laws that ban all abortions occurring in the state will likely be enacted. Mississippi Votes is part of the Mississippi Abortion Access Coalition assuring that Mississippians know that they still have access to abortion and contraception

Take Action

Learn from and Donate to these groups:

• abortionfunds.org
• liberateabortion.org
• reproductiverights.org
• prochoiceamerica.org
• sistersong.net/reproductive-justice

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Voter Access x Mental Health

Research has found that states with more voting access and greater civic participation levels are healthier overall. States with more exclusionary voting laws are less healthy. When people have more access to the ballot box, they can directly vote on issues that affect their health and build better social inclusion and belonging in their community.

When our democracy is healthy, people are healthy.

Network Spotlight

How the Alliance Network is organizing around Voting Rights

Chicago Votes – Chicago Votes is leading legislation that would restore voting rights to the roughly 30,000 people incarcerated in Illinois prisons.

Forward Montana – In 2021 Forward Montana sued the state over a last-minute anti-voter amendment to the constitution. When they are not fighting voter suppression efforts, they are organizing Student Voter Days and Candidate Forums to ensure our democracy is accessible to all.

Loud Light – Loud Light is continuously fighting back voter suppression efforts in Kansas. Now, they are battling it out in court and fighting gerrymandered maps that dilute minority votes.

Mississippi Votes – Mississippi Votes worked to defend against over 70 voter suppression bills in the 2021 Mississippi legislative session. They also supported 52 voter suffrage applications through the state legislature and are leading voting rights restoration efforts.

NextUp – Next Up is leading legislation that would restore voting rights to the roughly 13,000 people incarcerated in Oregon prisons.

Join the Democracy Done Right campaign and learn more about the Alliance Network’s work to protect, expand, and strengthen our democracy.

Take Action

Support Alliance orgs fighting for voting access

Read about more ways you can protect our freedom to vote

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Police in Schools x Mental Health

Network Spotlight

How the Alliance Network is organizing to divest from policing

Leaders Igniting Transformation – LIT is calling for Wisconsin universities to divest from policing on campuses and reinvest those funds to support BIPOC communities and students in their Dare to Divest campaign. LIT staff went to the capitol to provide testimonies to vote ‘no’ on a bill that would give the state grounds to put armed police back in public schools, an issue LIT fought for and successfully won in Milwaukee in 2020. 

Virginia Student Power Network – The Virginia Student Power Network is fighting for public safety without policing and building alternatives to the injustice system. This includes finding alternatives to policing in universities and K-12 schools in Virginia. 

Take Action

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Student Debt x Mental Health

We should be building our dreams without debt.

Network Spotlight

How the Alliance Network is organizing to cancel student debt.

New Era Colorado – In 2021, New Era was Colorado passed the Student Loan Equity Act which protects students from private student loan lenders. Most recently, they passed legislation that ends the punitive practice of withholding transcripts and diplomas!

Ohio Student Association – OSA is fighting to defeat  anti-critical race theory bills by holding teach-ins, collecting testimonies, and hosting a direct action opposing the bills. They’re also working to get debt navigation programs passed in state legislatures to end the Transcript Trap.

The Washington Bus – The Washington Bus team is continuously pushing to make bridge grants available to students, stronger equity and diversity initiatives on campuses, and more mental health resources a reality for more students across the state.

Student Debt Stories

Take Action

Join Our Dreams Not Debt Campaign:

• Sign the petition demanding Biden take bolder steps in canceling student debt, reform the student loan program, and make public colleges and universities free for all. 
• Submit your student debt story
• Share the actions with friends & family

Click here to join the Campaign

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Alliance Self-Care

The Alliance is building a strong community of young leaders, and to do that we have to care for ourselves inside and out. So, what are you doing to take care of yourself this month? Here’s what some of the Alliance staff are doing to practice self-care.

Showing up to the polls and casting a ballot in every election is essential to upholding a strong democracy. Today, we’re shining a light on how youth organizers also bring young people into the broad spectrum of civic participation activities through Lobby Days. 

The Alliance Network has brought young people directly to their legislators with lobbying and demonstrations this legislative session. While civic engagement doesn’t stop here, these events remind us just how powerful youth organizing is. Before the half-year mark, young people have shared their stories and testified nationwide for and against dozens of consequential bills.

Alliance Network youth organizers are here to show that young people are not backing down. We will show up. Every. Single. Time. Here’s a snapshot of lobbying and demonstrations the Alliance Network has held so far this year. 👇🏽

Asian Community Development Council & One APIA Nevada

Chicago Votes

Art Walk

At the Capitol, the advocacy kicked off with an art walk featuring work from local Chicago artist David Ellis (@ewrks) and a number of incarcerated folks. The artwork focused on the themes of inhumane prison conditions, the silencing of incarcerated people, and the importance of voter rights restoration to help lawmakers to understand the urgency of HB 39.

Rally

Chicago Votes also hosted a rally for the Voting in Prison bill that featured messages from Chicago Votes organizers, coalition members, and community leaders.

Subject Matter Hearing

Lastly, the House Ethics & Elections Committee held a subject matter hearing for HB39. Members heard testimony from Representative Lashawn Ford, Chicago Votes Co-Executive Director Stevie Valles, Political Science expert Dr. Christina Rivers, Avalon Betts-Gaston from the Illinois Alliance for Reentry & Justice, and Cliff Helm from the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights.

Detroit Action

Engage Miami

Florida Student Power Network

At the end of March, Florida Student Power Network hosted Youth Power at the Capitol, an event that invited young people from Miami, Palm Beach, Orlando, and Tampa to take action at Florida’s state capitol. These young people amplified their voices around HB 999 and SB 266, bills that would defund diversity, equity, and inclusion programs on college campuses, and wipe out the ability for higher education systems in Florida to have gender studies, race studies, and interdisciplinary studies majors.

Leaders Igniting Transformation

The Wisconsin state budget impacts several key issues for organizers at Leaders Igniting Transformation (LIT), including public education, racial justice, public health, and LGBTQ+ issues. On April 18th, LIT brought young people to Wisconsin’s Capitol for a Lobby Day with legislators to ensure young people’s priorities are represented in the state budget.

MOVE Texas

In March, MOVE Texas partnered with organizations from across their state to host a Youth Capitol Takeover— a historic event that brought young people from every region of Texas together to demand progressive change from lawmakers. Over 350 young voters and organizers from 12 different cities were able to travel to the Texas Capitol and participate in the event!

Next Up

The Next Up team hosted a Virtual Lobby Day with the ACLU of Oregon and stood up for youth power alongside dozens of attendees!

Next Up Executive Director, Elona Wilson, helped kick off the event by reminding attendees of the importance of vocalizing their collective concerns and advocating with the future in mind.

North Carolina Asian Americans Together

Ohio Student Association

On May 16th Ohio Student Association (OSA) brought 20 students from 6 different campuses to take part in Lobby Day hosted by the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. Along with their fellow activists, OSA met with council people to present their list of priorities that included funding K-12 and higher education, improving the healthcare system, supporting care workers, and more. OSA organizers presented these ideas to senators, representatives, and other council people to see change in Ohio bills and legislature.

The Washington Bus

In February, The Washington Bus had an amazing week lobbying for progressive change in Olympia, WA. 35 young people from Washington Bus and Latino Community Fund were bussed to the Capitol to meet with 11 legislators.

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We are so proud of how the Alliance Network continues to show up and make change day in and day out, even when faced with adversity. Young people will continue to drive us forward to progressive change at every level.

As summer heats up, we’re not slowing down! The Alliance Network will continue to build youth power in their states through more action events and leadership development programming.

Get real-time updates from our network orgs by following them on social media!

Think back to your first experience participating in democracy. Was it casting your first vote? Testifying in front of your state legislators? Registering to vote for the first time? Joining a rally or protest in your community? The Alliance Network is building a world where young people across the country have the access, opportunity, and power to participate in our democracy. 

We launched our Democracy Debut campaign to celebrate new voters ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Now, we’re focusing the campaign on celebrating young people in the Alliance Network making their debut into our democracy in their state’s legislative session because there is no such thing as an off year when it comes to elections.

Meet Erin, Livia, and Ollie. Three youth organizers in the Alliance Network making their democracy debut this year by taking action in their own ways. Read their stories below.

Erin Lee (she/her/hers), North Carolina Asian Americans Together

Livia Benitez (she/her/hers), Engage Miami

Ollie Bandong (they/them/theirs), North Carolina Asian Americans Together

Read more Democracy Debut stories here.

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How did you make your democracy debut? No matter what your introduction to democracy looks like, your debut is worth celebrating! Let us cheer you on by submitting your story to the Alliance! What motivated you to take action for the first time? How did you get involved? Who encouraged you? We want to hear it all! 

Join us in celebrating young people making their Democracy Debut by sharing on social media!

Let’s take a look back at the 2022 midterms, where young people played a vital role in securing progressive wins across the country. In addition to seeing how the Alliance Network succeeded in 2022 with our Annual Report, new research from the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) gives us further insight into the impact of Alliance Network orgs in getting out the youth vote for the midterm elections.

We’ll dive into some highlights, but you can read the full report from CIRCLE, including the impact of Election laws in 2022 here.

Highlights from CIRCLE’s 2022 Youth Voting State Level Research

Michigan

“With core issues such as voter suppression, reproductive rights, gun reform, and climate change on the ballot, young people are disproportionately impacted by the political choices made today. Last fall, we had an election that had the potential to set us back years, but young Black and Brown Detroiters showed up and turned Michigan into one of the most progressive states in our country.”

Branden Snyder, Executive Director of Detroit Action

This is all thanks to the work by organizers like those at Detroit Action, who remained heavily involved throughout 2022 by mobilizing young people into victory on two ballot measure wins. Nine of their 11 endorsed candidates also saw victories in the elections last fall. 

Minnesota

In 2022, Minnesota Youth Collective (MNYC) celebrated its fifth anniversary and played a big part in these efforts. MNYC youth organizers distributed over 110,000 voter guides, knocked on doors for eight months before election day, and provided golf cart rides to the polls for University of Minnesota Twin Cities students.  

“In 2022, the future of our state was hanging in the balance, and it’s because of young voters that we saw positive election results.”

Rahhel Haile, Executive Director of MNYC

Oregon 

“Last fall, we had the chance to invest in our communities through declaring healthcare as a human right, removing slavery from our constitution, and reshaping our local government to be more equitable and inclusive. Our efforts contributed to an astounding 35.5% turnout rate among young people – a significant indicator of the importance of investing in electoral infrastructure, an organizing strategy that ties issues and candidates to material impacts, and supporting robust and inclusive civic engagement of young people.”

Elona Wilson, Executive Director of Next Up

Colorado

“One of every five voters in Colorado was under 35, and crucial to maintaining a trifecta of decision-makers who committed to the Youth Agenda in key offices. But we know that campaign promises only go so far and our work is just beginning to demand the future that young people dream of.”

Nicole Hensel, Executive Director of New Era Colorado

In the end, 60% of New Era’s membership turned out to vote, doubling the national youth voter turnout rate.

Arizona

“In partnership with many organizations, Poder has focused on expanding the electorate and increasing our power to govern, but our work is not about turning the state blue. It is about fighting for our right to live joyful and long lives, and young people have always been at the forefront of that fight and will continue to build our power as we head into 2024.”

Viridiana Hernandez, Director of Poder in Action 

Poder in Action knocked on 51,000 doors, distributed over 50,000 voter guides, and had over 1.2 million digital impressions for the 2022 election cycle. Poder was also successful in undoing a long history of anti-immigrant attacks by passing Proposition 308 to allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition and get state scholarships. 

Texas

Texas has had one of the most dramatic increases in youth voting in the past three midterm cycles. 22% of young people in Texas turned out to vote in the 2022 midterms.

“We faced incredible challenges during the 2022 midterm election cycle because the state passed anti-voting legislation the previous year that made it much more difficult for young people and first-time voters to participate in our elections. But young people showed up in defiance, despite them waiting hours in line, and voted for the freedom to decide when and if they want to start a family, the freedom to vote and determine their own futures, and the freedom to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and leave behind a livable planet.“

Claudia Yoli Ferla, Executive Director of MOVE Texas

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We are still riding the highs of the successes from last year’s elections, energized by the incredible efforts of youth organizers to engage young people and provide for their communities in distinct and meaningful ways. In 2022, young voters showed the nation exactly what we’re made of. When young people have support and resources, our democracy wins.  

Advocating for reproductive rights and abortion access has been and will continue to be a pillar of grassroots organizing across the Alliance Network. Since the Supreme Court eliminated the federal constitutional protection of abortion rights set by Roe v. Wade and gave the authority to decide abortion rights to individual states in June 2022, many attacks on reproductive freedom have been introduced to heavily restrict or completely ban abortion access.

On Friday, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas with ties to the anti-abortion movement ruled against the longstanding FDA approval of the abortion drug, mifepristone. On the same day, in an effort to keep mifepristone on the market, a Washington state judge issued a decision banning the FDA from pulling the abortion drug. Shortly after, the Department of Justice stepped in and issued an appeal to the Texas ruling, arguing that the judge’s ruling is “unprecedented.” 

The Alliance Network stands in solidarity with young people across the country and demands their reproductive rights be defended through federal action. Read our statement here.

Reproductive Rights Organizing at the Local Level

New Era Colorado

This year, New Era is focusing on engaging its base of young people and campus leaders to regulate the deceptive practices of anti-abortion centers that lurk near college campuses throughout the state. Anti-abortion centers, also known as “fake clinics,” “crisis pregnancy centers,” and “anti-abortion counseling centers,” are anti-abortion nonprofits that present themselves as licensed family planning and/or reproductive healthcare clinics, but in reality, these centers exist to dissuade pregnant people from seeking an abortion. They use deceptive advertising to get those looking for abortion services in the door, then proceed to provide patients with biased counseling and inaccurate, unfounded information about abortion and contraception to delay and make it even more difficult to schedule an abortion.

Don’t let them fool you: anti-abortion centers don’t give Coloradans the reproductive care they need. Read more about New Era Colorado’s work through The Brazen project from policy manager Arianna Morales here.

New Hampshire Youth Movement

Youth organizers with New Hampshire Youth Movement (NHYM) are playing offense and defense this legislative session, working to pass bills and an amendment that guarantees abortion access in New Hampshire while actively pushing back on bills that would restrict abortion access.

Another bill NHYM is supporting is HB 88. This is a bill that would make it so that the state of New Hampshire cannot restrict abortion further than it already has. HB 88 won’t overturn the 24-week abortion ban in the state, but it would prohibit the state from further interfering with an individual’s right to abortion care.

Lastly, NHYM is supporting HB 224, a bill that would eliminate the criminal and civil penalties that are currently part of the 24-week abortion ban. This is a bipartisan bill, giving it a higher chance of passing.

NHYM is also opposing several bills being introduced in the state legislature. HB 562 would require a provider to receive “informed consent” from an individual seeking an abortion. This is just a roundabout way of enforcing intimidation and scare tactics to push people away from getting abortions. It would mandate false information about medical abortion and impose a 24 hour waiting period. These scare tactics and waiting periods are used as methods to urge people away from abortion care. HB 591, the second bill NHYM is opposing, would ban abortion at the detection of a fetal heartbeat. This bill would essentially impose a six- week abortion ban.

2023 is also a budget year for New Hampshire, so NHYM organizers are also advocating for a progressive state budget after an abortion ban was passed through last year’s state budget process.

For more on New Hampshire Youth Movement’s advocacy in their legislative session, check out their Weekly Bill Cheat Sheet, where you can find more information and sign in links for all of the abortion bills above.

Loud Light

Next Up

This year, Next Up is organizing with the Fair Shot for All coalition, a group championing an agenda that prioritizes racial, gender, and economic justice during the 2023 Oregon State Legislative Session. The coalition is currently collecting signatures and stories to support reproductive & gender justice for all. You can read more about the coalition’s 2023 agenda, sign the petition, and submit your stories here.

Ohio Student Association

Abortion access is one of the most important issues for students throughout Ohio, especially following the repeal of Roe v. Wade last summer. The Ohio Student Association (OSA) has officially endorsed the Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom ballot measure, and is ready to shape their state’s future to ensure Ohio is on the right side of history when it comes to reproductive freedom. In order to appear on the ballot, OSA plans to collect at least 700,000 signatures from Ohio voters by July 5th. OSA chapters at four campuses across Ohio have already begun collecting signatures and more are set to begin in the coming weeks!

ICYMI: 3 Ways to Protect Abortion Access (and more!)

The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the protections set by Roe v. Wade threatens the lives of millions who will seek an abortion, especially Black, Indigenous, people of color, and people working to make ends meet. Here’s how we can keep fighting back:

• Call your senator and demand they take action to protect abortion access
• Support abortion funds and reproductive justice orgs
• Support Alliance Network orgs doing reproductive justice work

After the Supreme Court decision last year, we highlighted stories from the network about how the threat to abortion rights could mobilize young voters and explained how abortion access impacts mental health. 

Together, we can continue to put pressure on our elected officials to side with the majority of Americans who believe that abortion access is a human right. We won’t stop until every person, regardless of race, class, or zip code, is guaranteed that right. Let us not forget that young people will continue to be an influential voting bloc at the ballot box in 2024 and beyond. Call your senator, support youth organizers, and donate to abortion funds. This fight is far from over, but we are stronger together. Let’s keep fighting back.

Join us in celebrating a year of success where youth organizers faced historical odds against them yet continued to build community, strengthen our movement, and transform the electoral landscape. 

Highlights from Our 2022 Report

One of the Alliance Network’s most significant challenges this year was returning to traditional on-the-ground organizing after adapting to adjusted tactics in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even while navigating this challenge, the Alliance Network built one of the country’s most effective youth-led civic engagement movements. 

Let’s take a look at 2022 by the numbers. 

Youth Organizing Made Headlines

Starting this year with new leadership, a strategic plan, and a midterm election on the horizon, it was imperative to continue building relationships with the press and media to strengthen the argument that youth organizing is the key to the youth vote. Here are just some of our biggest hits from the press recognizing the Alliance Network’s local youth-led organizing as essential to significant historical moments at the national level:

Building Strong and Sustainable Organizations

Network Program Retreat – In June, we hosted the Alliance Network Program Retreat in New Mexico to bring together senior staff from the network who are hard at work leading local youth vote efforts. Staff, whose roles primarily focus on on-the-ground electoral and issue organizing in their communities, came together in-person to strengthen their 2022 program plans ahead of election season. Topics ranged from how to set realistic field goals and how to run a digital ad program to how to level up your communications strategy.

Alliance Network Cohort Spaces – The Alliance cohorts provide a space for

communications, program, operations, data, and development peers to build community, work through challenges, learn from one another, and be trained by experts. In 2022, the Alliance hosted more than 30 different cohort events, trainings, and workshops for network staff to attend and learn from. Here are just a few examples of the trainings and sessions offered last year:

• The Communications Cohort hosted a press and media panel of journalists and producers to teach communications staffers the most effective tactics for pitching stories and building relationships with the press.
• The Program Cohort discussed upcoming election plans, such as how to keep canvassers safe in the field, assess risk, and support field teams to succeed in meeting their goals.
• The Development Cohort talked about event planning. Network organizations presented their most successful fundraising events including happy hours, astrology and cocktail workshops, cookie classes, and annual celebrations. Putting the fun in fundraising.
• The Operations Cohort reviewed and discussed topics such as business insurance, brought in outside legal counsel to go over employment law basics, and worked with our Finance and Development departments to go over budgeting and fundraising.
• The Data Cohort hosted a VAN Audit workshop where teams from across the network came and worked through a set of record-cleaning and organizing steps on their EveryAction and VAN committees to improve their data infrastructure and have their databases better reflect their organizing.

Monthly Member Competition – At the Alliance, grassroots and sustainable funding is our jam. The network Monthly Member Competition made a return for an eighth year, and of course, the network killed it! This program encourages the growth of monthly donor programs, which results in a sustainable source of funding that organizations can count on. Network organizations gained monthly dollars and unlocked grants from the Alliance for reaching important benchmarks and being standouts in parts of the competition.

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These successes would not have been possible without the efforts of youth organizers, staff, Board members, and a wide range of supporters, partners, and friends. Together, we will continue to build a world in which young people have the power to effect change and create a better future where we can all thrive.

Stay connected with the Alliance Network by joining one of our email lists, and following us on social media. 

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter

Friday, March 31st is International Transgender Day of Visibility, a day dedicated to celebrating transgender people while also examining the discrimination that trans folks face daily. This year especially, we have seen an influx in anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ bills brought to legislature nationwide. As more of these hateful bills arise, the Alliance Network continues to fight against the attacks on trans youth and their freedoms.

While we know it can be tiring facing off against hate, young people continue to show determination and resilience. To honor the contributions of trans people, and the youth organizers opposing these bills face-to-face with legislators determined to prohibit the rights and freedoms of the trans community, we want to show some extra love to the Alliance Network orgs doing this work in their state legislative sessions this year. 

Trans Advocacy in the Alliance Network

MNYC organizers are working to show that young people in their state want Minnesota to be a place of healing, and a place where anyone can be themselves, safely and authentically. MNYC is submitting a letter of support along with over 1500 petition signatures to the Chief Author in the Minnesota Senate to help shape the conversation and demonstrate the power of Minnesota youth.

Meanwhile, Montana is facing a heavy slate of anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ bills this legislative session. Here are just a few of the discriminatory bills Forward Montana organizers are actively opposing:

SB 99– a bill that would prohibit gender-affirming medical care for minors and prevent public employees from supporting a minor’s social transition. 

HB 359–Representative Braxton Mitchell’s bill to ban minors from attending drag shows. 

HB 361, a bill that would allow students to misgender and dead-name other students with no disciplinary repercussions.

This month, New Hampshire Youth Movement (NHYM) has opposed some of the most harmful bills for trans youth they’ve seen hit the State House this year. 

If passed, HB 10 would allow parents to object to a broad range of LGBTQ+ materials in public schools, and require teachers to immediately notify parents or guardians if their child desires to use new pronouns or a new name in class. 

HB 619 would ban gender-affirming care for minors, ban teaching of gender identity in public schools, and would re-legalize conversion therapy by changing its legal definition.

HB 417– this bill would designate gender affirming care for minors as “abuse” under New Hampshire state law. 

SB 272 would force schools into a surveillance and reporting role–it requires teachers to notify parents or guardians if their child joins a club, sees a counselor, or modifies their gender expression. 

HB 2263, another bill Loud Light is actively opposing, would allow individuals who receive gender-affirming health care to sue the physician who provided the care and revoke medical licenses of physicians who provide medically necessary, life-saving care to Kansas youth.

SB 180 – Legally defines “biological sex” in terms related to the ability to procreate, and excludes transgender and intersex individuals from the ability to access sex-segregated spaces such as bathrooms, domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers and more.

Loud Light organizers are continuing the fight to allow trans youth in Kansas the freedom to be who they are by hosting statewide virtual phone banks to protect trans rights with their community partners. 

Other Alliance Network orgs working on transgender and LGBTQ+ issues in their legislative sessions are Engage Miami and Virginia Student Power Network.

Engage Miami just sent some of their team down to Tallahassee to participate in their Dade Days event which allows young people in Miami-Dade county to meet and bring their needs directly to their state’s decision-makers. This week they attended hearings, spoke with legislators, and worked with partners to fight for equity in education, reproductive rights, gun safety, voting rights, renter protections, and protection of trans and queer youth.

Virginia Student Power Network (VSPN) also did some trans advocacy work before the Virginia legislative session wrapped up in February. VSPN strongly opposed HB1387, which would amend a section of the Code of Virginia that would prevent transgender student athletes in K-12 schools and higher education institutions from participating in team sports based on their gender identity.

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If you’re looking for ways to support Alliance Network organizations doing trans advocacy this year, see what Minnesota Youth Collective, Forward Montana, New Hampshire Youth Movement, Loud Light, Engage Miami, and Virginia Student Power Network are up to on social media!

Student debt is once again proving to be a hot-button issue for young people in this country. This week the US Supreme Court began hearing arguments on Biden’s blocked federal student loan forgiveness plan.

If you’re just now catching up on the latest in federal student debt forgiveness, here’s a quick refresher on what’s happening: 

• On Wednesday, August 24th, 2022, President Biden announced his plans for canceling student debt. The program included $20,000 of federal student loan forgiveness for Pell Grant recipients and $10,000 for non-recipients. 
• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (led by six Republican-led states) has issued an injunction that is currently blocking the student loan forgiveness program from being carried out. Many applicants who have already been approved still have yet to see a dollar of forgiveness through Biden’s plan. 
• In response to this injunction, the student loan payment pause will extend until the U.S. Department of Education is permitted to implement the debt relief program or the litigation is resolved–payments will restart 60 days later. Suppose the debt relief program has not been implemented and the litigation has not been resolved by June 30th. In that case, payments will resume 60 days after that. 

For any questions you may have, or actions you can take now, check out these resources from our friends and allies at Student Debt Crisis Center and the Student Borrower Protection Center.

People’s Rally for Student Debt Cancellation

On Tuesday, February 28th, hundreds of student debt activists from across the country gathered outside the United States Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The Alliance team joined around 30 students from Ohio Student Association at the Supreme Court to rally in support of Biden’s plan to cancel up to $20K in federal student loan debt.

Check out highlights from the rally on the Alliance Twitter!

Student Debt Work in the Alliance Network

Student loan borrowers hold $1.7 trillion in student loan debt in this country. This is a student debt crisis. While we continue fighting for debt relief, we must remember that the fight does not end here. We need a massive reset and sweeping reform to ensure our young people are not buried under unconquerable debt that holds them back simply because they chose to seek higher education. This means transforming the student loan program to mitigate future student debt and making public colleges and universities free and accessible to all students. 

Advocating for education debt relief has been a pillar of Alliance Affiliate, Ohio Student Association’s work since day one. Some of their recent efforts include a roundtable with Sherrod Brown where members shared their student debt stories, and traveling to DC to take on roles in the “Pick Up the Pen, Joe!” protest in the spring of 2022! 

In addition to their work around debt relief, OSA has been advocating to help build a vehicle for people impacted by the crumbling public education system so they can get the power to transform that system to fit their needs. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, they petitioned and won a refund of housing and meal plan costs for the Spring 2020 semester for their Central State University chapter and an extra $1,000 from the CARES Act. Some of their other education work includes working with Honesty for Ohio Education to hold testimony workshops that empower young people to advocate for a fair and honest presentation of history and concepts in school in the state legislature. 

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