| The Soulforce Equality Ride is a two month social justice bus tour that confronts political and spiritual oppression of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) people. The ride began in 2006 and has visited hundreds of cities, colleges, universities, and other institutions. The 2012 ride will be the fifth tour. This year a large emphasis is being placed on intersectional justice (or the desire to practice social justice in a way that ends all oppression against all people) and community involvement. The participants of the Equality Ride are provided top notch training, transportation, housing, and food throughout the tour. Support from Hit the Road campaign virtual rider pages like this one helps to make the Soulforce Equality Ride possible. Visit www.equalityride.com to learn more or set up your own virtual rider page! Apply to Hit The Road here! |
Brian Murphy
Brian Gerald Murphy is a filmmaker, media consultant, and social activist. Brian participated in Soulforce's 2007 Equality Ride, co-created Legalize Trans*, and is the online strategies manager for GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network. Brian documented numerous Soulforce actions including the 2007 Equality Ride, Ex-Gay Survivors Conference, and Right to Marry Campaign in New York state. From 2009 to 2011 he served as Soulforce's Director of Web & Media, relaunching the Soulforce website, developing a coordinated social media strategy, and producing online video.
Brian publishes daily to his website briangerald.com on activism and social change, theology, LGBT/queer issues, and more.
In Brian's own words
I will forever be indebted to the Equality Ride. In 2006, I was about to graduate college and pursue a career in entertainment news when a conversation with my family forced me to realize that I had been silent for too long. Before the Equality Ride, I had never even been to an LGBT Assembly meeting at my college, much less participated in any form of activism. The Equality Ride co-directors believed in me, met me right where I was, and empowered me to grow and flourish.
I will never forget my experiences on the Equality Ride: students coming out for the first time, professors risking everything to show support, gay-straight alliances popping up across the country. I am participating in Hit The Road because I have seen first-hand the power of Equality Ride to foster liberation in some of the most oppressive and repressive places in this country.
Equality Riders are a group of strangers, bound only by their outrageous belief that every person and every institution can be transformed for good. And then they go and create that reality, community by community, across the country.
I cannot wait for the bus to roll again and to watch as another round of fierce and fearless young activists spread liberation, justice, and inclusion.
Support Brian by donating to Hit The Road and Equality Ride »
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