nom nom nom

May 19, 2009 2:51 PM

Is there a good online form which will allow me to contact my NY state senators and encourage them to vote in favor of the gay marriage bill that's coming up?

I found the NOM site and I guess I could try replacing their "marriage is about men and women!" form letter with one that basically says the opposite, but I'm not sure it would actually get through. I don't want to suggest that homophobes are necessarily also going to be sneaky bastards, but they are funding the site, and I doubt there are any kinds of laws about what sort of content they are obligated to pass on. I'm also worried that all the emails from the NOM site will go into a big "count these as anti-gay-marriage emails" bin, utterly defeating my purpose.

I guess I could shoot off an email directly, too, though I wonder if such things actually get read? I'd rather go into the "count these as pro-gay-marriage emails" bin, if possible. So, if anyone knows of a marriage equality site that's running a similar thing, please let me know.

posted by you're a kitty! to law & government (12 comments total)

Not precisely what you're looking for, but here are your Senators' contact pages:

http://schumer.senate.gov/new_website/contact.cfm
http://gillibrand.senate.gov/contact/
posted by box at 2:57 PM on May 19

From what I know, emailing them directly would, if anything, get a greater response than being one of thousands sending the exact same thing. Those online forms just automatically send the email for you, they don't go to some 'high-priority' address. Everything the senators get goes through their aides the same way. I'd say go for it.
posted by Hargrimm at 3:00 PM on May 19

Don't use a form. Sending a hand written message (via email or snail mail) will have a greater impact. The greatest impact will be from calling their office on the phone.
posted by Flood at 3:05 PM on May 19

Legislators have aides who tally up all of the "votes" for or against various issues. Phone calls and letters have the most weight, emails have less weight. I don't think it matters what is actually said. They absolutely use these tallies to help them decide how to vote. Our organization has standardized wording to use when contacting legislators. I looked and can't find it at the moment, but if I can dig it up I'll post it.
posted by emilyd22222 at 3:13 PM on May 19

Contact info for your representatives can be found here. I like this site because you can forward the link to anyone in the country and they can find theirs easily, too. Plus it gives address, fax & phone #'s as well as email address.
posted by torquemaniac at 3:23 PM on May 19

Here's the list of New York State senators. They have a handy senator lookup form if you don't know who represents you. Click on the senator's name/picture to be taken to the senator's page. From there you can access the senator's mailing address, phone number and email address.
posted by plastic_animals at 3:49 PM on May 19

Here's an electronic form from Empire State Pride Agenda's Action Center.
posted by kevin-o at 4:32 PM on May 19

The greatest impact will be from calling their office on the phone.

This is my understanding and it is pretty easy too. To some extent this is a numbers game, but having the phone ring off the hook seems to especially motivate the staffers.
posted by caddis at 5:02 PM on May 19

nthing writing a letter if it's an issue you really care about.
posted by betsybetsy at 5:04 PM on May 19

There's an old saying along the lines of, a phone call is worth 10 (or 100 or however many) emails, and a letter is worth 10 (or 100, etc.) phone calls. The more effort something requires, the more the recipient will assume you care, and therefore your intensity of preference will suggest that you speak for greater numbers of people.

Seconding torquemaniac's suggestion to use the NY State Senate website. It was just redesigned and is pretty easy to use. Contact info for your senator is very easy to find. (Note: Only contact your own senator. If you aren't a constituent, your communications will go to the very bottom of the pile, if they aren't disregarded entirely.)

Also, I don't think there is a gay marriage vote currently planned in the Senate. Majority Leader Malcolm Smith said he won't bring the bill up for a vote until he knows he can guarantee passage. Still, it's worth letting your senator know you support the bill would like to see it brought up for a vote.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 8:02 PM on May 19

I looked mine up using plastic_animals's link last week, and found out he was on the fence! Or at least he hadn't announced whether he'd support the bill. So I wrote him a brief note with my own reasons why I thought he should. Here's a list of possible swing senators.

(The senators box links to are, of course, the US Senators from New York, not the New York state senators).
posted by lampoil at 7:34 AM on May 20

Goodness, yeah they are. I somehow missed the word 'state' in there.
posted by box at 8:01 AM on May 20