Why We're Supporting the ACLU, EFF and Planned Parenthood at BADCamp

Every year we attend the Bay Area Drupal Camp (BADCamp,) an open source technology conference in Berkeley, California. It’s an opportunity to see colleagues, meet new ones, and learn from attendees’ sessions. This year we’re using our sponsor booth to raise awareness of (and send our swag budget to) three nonprofits chosen by our staff. Check out these perhaps little-known facts about these organizations and the issues they represent.

Why We’re Supporting the American Civil Liberties Union

We like civil rights.

1. For almost 100 years, the ACLU has worked to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
2. The ACLU brought the first case in which the U.S. Supreme Court declared speech on the Internet equally worthy of the First Amendment’s historical protections.
3. In 2017, a federal court granted the ACLU’s request for a complete halt to implementation of the president’s directive banning transgender service members from serving in the military.
4. The day after Trump issued his Muslim Ban, the ACLU enjoined it in court. When he revised it, they again shot it down.
5. In 2005 the ACLU challenged a Pennsylvania requirement that high school biology classes teach "intelligent design" alongside evolution. 

Why We’re Supporting Planned Parenthood

Kalamuna supports reproductive freedom and health care.

1. Study after study show that access to reproductive services and information increases the prospect of economic security for women.
2. Planned Parenthood is the United States’ largest provider of sex education. Their programs reached 1.5 million people through education and outreach in FY ‘16-’17.
3. In addition to running clinics in the US, Planned Parenthood delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of people worldwide.
4. The World Health Organization has found that 214 million women of reproductive age in developing countries who want to avoid pregnancy are not using a modern contraceptive method. Reasons for this include:
   • limited access to contraception, particularly among young people, poorer segments of populations, or unmarried people;
   • limited choice of methods;
   • fear or experience of side-effects;
   • cultural or religious opposition;
   • poor quality of available services;
   • users and providers bias
   • gender-based barriers. On May 29, 2018, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced abstinence-only advocate Diane Foley as head of Title X, the nation’s only program for affordable birth control. In this climate, Planned Parenthood’s services are even more important.
5. Every year we attend the Bay Area Drupal Camp (BADCamp,) an open source technology conference in Berkeley, California. It’s an opportunity to see colleagues, meet new ones, and learn from attendees’ sessions. This year we’re using our sponsor booth to raise awareness of (and send our swag budget to) three nonprofits chosen by our staff. Check out these perhaps little-known facts about these organizations and the issues they represent.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation

As our lives become more intertwined with technology, digital rights and privacy become more important.

1. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world.
2. Partly due to the support of the EFF in California, local police departments must publish their training, policies, practices, and operating procedures on their websites.
3. The EFF believes that protecting access to developing technology is central to advancing freedom for all.
4. Due in part to EFF’s support, police in the state of New York may not use a GPS device to track the movements of your vehicle without first getting a warrant.
5. The EFF supported The California Reader Privacy Act, which protects your e-book reading records from government surveillance.

These are just 15 reasons why our staff chose to support these organizations. There are many, many more. If you’re going to BADCamp, we hope you’ll join us at UC Berkeley’s Pauley Hall to let us know which of these organizations you’d like us to donate our swag budget to. All you have to do is write a postcard (we’ll have them at our sponsor booth) to an elected official about one of the issues these three groups represent and pin it to our booth wall. Hope to see you there!