November & December Birthday Card Sign Up

Dear community,

Join us for these important ways to show solidarity with our incarcerated LGBTQ+ and HIV+ community members in California!

****SEND NOVEMBER & DECEMBER BIRTHDAY CARDS****
Prison visitation remains shut down and our inside folks are more isolated than usual. Even though we can't meet in person, we still want to get cards sent in. This month, we will send both Nov & Dec birthday cards, because in December we will focus on holiday cards!

If you can sign up to send a card or two from home, please fill out this form. We will send you the address(es) - and some tips if it’s your first time. You will need to provide your own stamps and supplies, but we have plenty of both and can coordinate to get you some, if needed. RSVP and spread the word on fb here.


***BECOME A PENPAL****
It is always a great time to become a penpal. If you want to start a penpal relationship, you can learn more and sign-up here anytime. It's a brand new system, so be patient as it gets ironed out. If you want us to match you with a penpal, just reach out to us! Or check out our instagram page where we highlight potential penpals (@FlyingOverWalls). Once you become a penpal, we encourage you to join this group to stay connected to other outside penpals for support and resources.

****DEMAND DECARCERATION*****
Instead of releasing people, CDCR puts people in solitary confinement and in unsanitary and unsafe conditions, and punishes them for sharing crucial information with the public. This is a public health crisis, and Governor Newsom, CDCR, and the California State Legislature are failing to address it. The ONLY way that incarcerated people will be safe is if the state releases people NOW! 

In the October 22nd Von Staich ruling by the 9th Appellate Court, Justice Kline ordered that San Quentin reduce its population by 50%, without ruling how the reductions should be accomplished - whether through releases or transfers. We join the call from Sistas’ With Voices, and many other organizations, to demand MASS RELEASES, NOT MASS TRANSFERS. We cannot afford another Mass Transfer - that is how the situation at San Quentin started. Today more than 15,000 individuals have contracted this deadly virus in California’s prisons, and 77 families have been broken forever by the deaths of loved ones.

Between the wildfires and COVID-19, now is a critical time to fight to get our people safe and free. There are many campaigns currently to decarcerate our folks from jails, prisons and detention centers. Please find a campaign or an organization and support it! Search #StopSanQuentinOutbreak and #BringThemHome or follow @nojusticeundercapitalism or @c_c_w_p on social media to connect to more info.


****EVEN MORE EVENTS AND RESOURCES****
Check out the new organizers' toolkit from Critical Resistance - Our Communities, Our Solutions: An Organizer’s Toolkit to Developing Campaigns to Abolish Policing—now available for download here.

November 12th, 6:00pm: Join the No New SF Jail Coalition for celebratory Zoom happy hour. The first 50 people to RSVP will receive a commemorative t-shirt! Register here.

The Drop LWOP Coalition has been working hard to end Life Without Parole in California and beyond. If you would like to get involved, fill out their member survey. They have a growing coalition and you can join them to support people with LWOP, plan legislative meetings, and do community outreach.

Check out the Prop 17 Panel from Initiate Justice. "Following up on our win for the Prop 17 campaign, we hosted a panel of activists and impacted people who worked on the Prop 17 campaign. Our panel included 3 of Prop 17’s communications fellows - Niki Martinez, John Windham and Ms. Betty McKay; our Inside Organizing Manager - Lee Gibson, who also just had his right to vote restored and can vote for the first time in his life; and an Outside Organizer with Initiate Justice - Zakiya Prince, who is now working on a ballot campaign to repeal 3 Strikes in 2022! We heard from the panel about their reflections on the journey and the win, the work that they invested in this campaign and advice for our members and organizers for working on future campaigns. If you missed the live meeting, Watch it on Our YouTube Channel Here!"

Our partner collective, ABO Comix, publishes the work of incarcerated queer and trans people with profits going back to them and their families. They have comic anthologies written and drawn by LGBTQ+ prisoners, including the most recent Confined Before COVID-19, as well as zines, artwork and merch. You can support the artists and buy copies for yourself or your penpals here.

Prisoner Advocacy Network has put together step by step guides to #prison #release and #decarceration for #covid19 here. PAN is also seeking administrative and communications interns! If interested please email PAN@nlgsf.org for more information.


****SENDING MONEY INSIDE****
Thank you to everyone who has joined us these past few months in sending money to hundreds of folks in CA prisons, both directly through FoW and in coalition with the Transgender Advocacy Group (TAG). To date, we have sent money to all of our local chapter's study group members and inside leaders, supported TAG’s work to send money to about 300 trans folks in CA, and most recently sent funds to each to our B&P members in San Quentin SP, where there has been one of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks on record. We are deeply concerned for the lives and wellbeing of our loved ones inside prisons, who aren't able to practice social distancing and who don't have access to basic hygiene supplies unless they are able to purchase them. You can donate here to support our local chapter, and we will continue to prioritize using funds to support our incarcerated members as well as any support we can offer to our formerly incarcerated community.