Friendfactor Foster Gay Rights Through Friendship
Friends of the gay community are being used to promote marriage equality a through the inception of a new website, Friendfactor.org.
(CBS/What's Trending) - Social media is playing an increasingly important role in politics and social report. Brian Elliot saw the potential of sites like Facebook and Twitter to facilitate the change he hopes for and created his own site: Friendfactor.
Friendfactor is a site in which gay Americans can create a fan site encouraging their straight friends to be a voice for them and cause more rapid social change. The site is getting national attention with an increasing amount of celebrity endorsements and traffic thanks to the addition of funny ladies Chelsea Handler and Sarah Silverman . Both comedianstweeted the site on their personal accounts employing their 3.6 million and 1.7 million followers respectively to stand up for equality through Friendfactor.
The site is asking users to call in to their New York senators advocating marriage equality. The site places the call for you and provides a script for convenience. Both celebrities set a June 20th deadline for the calls in hopes of receiving an immediate response from participants.
The initiative is receiving a great response with hundreds of calls being made on behalf ofSilverman and Handler's Friendfactor accounts.
In a Q & A with What's Trending, Elliot outlines his cause and why it's so important to take a stand:
Q: What inspired you to create Friendfactor?
A: When I share basic facts with my friends about my life as a gay American, they're floored. In 2011, I can still be legally fired in 29 states and legally evicted in over 30 states, just for being gay. It will be much harder for me to raise a family than it will be for my straight friends because I can't legally get married in 45 states. I saw some data in 2009 that suggested it could be decades before I will be a full and free citizen of this country with the same rights as my straight brother. Friendfactor was born out of the idea that we can mobilize a movement of friends helping their gay and transgender friends achieve full legal freedoms, faster.
Q: Why do you think your Facebook project struck such a nerve?
A: We know that 77% of Americans know someone who is gay and 60% have a close gay friend or relative. I created a group on Facebook called "Give Brian Equality," to see if my friends would help me become an equal citizen. The group went viral because I personalized the inequalities that gay and transgender Americans face. When it was personal, of course my friends felt compelled to help.
Q: Who are some of Friendfactor's supporters and how did they get involved?
A: We've been lucky to have an amazing group of people help us get off the ground. Most recently, Friendfactor launched its New York campaigns with an event co-hosted by Chelsea Clinton and Ken Melhman, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee. We've had people like Kristen Bell Chelsea Handler and Sarah Silverman set up Friend-setter pages, and Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson made a funny PSA to help us kick off our work in New York. Our advisory board includes former Google execs, the founder of Bing.com, and a co-founder of Facebook. Most all of these people have gotten involved because friends of theirs did the very thing that I believe will help gay and transgender Americans achieve equal rights faster--they said, "This issue is important to me. Would you help me be an equal citizen faster by joining me and getting involved?" They added their Friendfactor.
Get involved on Friendfactor.org
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