In the past month, there have been dozens of amazing victories on Change.org — petitions that started with just one person grew into movements thanks to the support of folks like you. Read more below about stories of success from people who started these petitions.
We can’t wait to see what happens next month.
Thanks for making all this happen,
Michael and the Change.org team
For the first time ever, the Boy Scouts of America may allow openly gay scouts and leaders.
The Boy Scouts of America are notorious for their exclusionary anti-gay policies. But after Ohio mom Jennifer Tyrell was told she couldn’t be her son’s Cub Scout leader anymore because she was gay, she decided to fight back. She started a petition on Change.org signed by nearly 300,000 people. Eagle Scout Zach Walls (who has two moms himself) delivered those signatures to the Boy Scouts’ annual convention last week, and days later, news broke that the Boy Scouts will consider a resolution to allow openly gay scouts and leaders as soon as 2013. It’s huge progress, but there’s still a lot more to be done.
Michigan dad wins fight for his special needs son to play basketball.
Dean Dompierre’s son Eric is an awesome basketball player — but because he has Down Syndrome, he’s older than other kids at his high school. Michigan has a strict age limit for student athletes, so Eric was going to miss his senior season — until Dean got more than 90,000 signatures on a Change.org petition and convinced the Michigan legislature to make an exception for kids with special needs.
Honor student Diane Tran gets a clean record.
Diane Tran is a 17-year-old who works two jobs to support herself and her siblings since her parents moved away — and she was thrown in jail for a night because she was exhausted and missed school. But after a few days and more than 100,000 signatures supporting her on a petition on Change.org started by Samuel Oh, the judge in Diane’s case dropped all charges against her.
Safeway employee who was suspended for defending a pregnant woman comes back to work.
Ryan Young was working at Safeway when he saw a customer beating up his pregnant girlfriend — Ryan jumped in to defend the pregnant woman and was hailed as a hero by local police, but Safeway suspended him without pay to “investigate the altercation.” 185,000 people signed on to a petition on Change.org started by Douglas Castro, a security guard who shopped at Ryan’s Safeway, and now Ryan Young is back on the job, ready to support his wife, who is also about to have a baby.
Oklahoma mom saves her home from foreclosure.
Kathy Sontag’s two daughters have a rare bone marrow disorder, and after they both got life-saving transplants, Kathy stopped working to support them through their recovery. Wells Fargo refused to adjust Kathy’s mortgage payments, opting instead to foreclose — until Kathy got nearly 180,000 signatures on Change.org, and Wells Fargo backed down.
JC Penney stands by families with two moms.
“After the anti-gay group “One Million Moms” threatened to boycott JC Penney over a Mother’s Day ad that featured a real-life family with two moms, Laura Sumner (who has two moms herself) started a petition asking JC Penney to stand by its ad. Nearly 190,000 signatures later, JC Penney did Laura one better: Not only did they stand by their Mother’s Day ad featuring two moms; they ran a Father’s Day ad featuring two dads.
Ohio bans private ownership of exotic animals.
“Last autumn, 49 exotic animals were killed after their owner — who’d been repeatedly accused of animal cruelty — committed suicide. In response, an Ohio college student started a petition asking Ohio’s legislature to make it illegal for private citizens to own exotic animals, like lions and tigers. Her petition gained over 100,000 signatures, and the legislature just posted to pass a ban.
Plus dozens more amazing victories from around the globe, all in the past month!
- In Australia, a childcare worker convinced major chocolate companies Ferrero and Lindt to commit to using 100% fair trade chocolate — meaning no child labor.
- A New Jersey librarian got his job back after he says he was fired for fighting an unpopular decision by his supervisors to limit volunteers’ work at the library.
- In Lithuania, a petition convinced a university to pull out of a conference that was set to honor a major Lithuanian Nazi collaborator.
- Students at Boston University successfully petitioned their administration for a sexual assault crisis and prevention center.
- An Illinois woman got Comcast to train its employees on how to deal with bird nests after she saw her local cable guy fling baby birds to the ground.
- In Australia, koala bears have finally been listed as an endangered species, providing them with vital protections that could save them from going extinct.
- A gay student who won the Matthew Shepard Scholarship got to accept his award in public after his Catholic high school had initially said he could not.
- Security guards at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts will keep their jobs after museum patrons came to their defense.
- In Spain, a woman with cancer will receive the treatment she needs after her hospital said it couldn’t afford to give it to her.
- United Airlines dropped its “breed ban” that discriminated against some dogs because of how they look.
- Students at an Illinois high school and their community saved the school’s shop teacher, Mr. Shilkus, after the school cut the budget for its industrial arts program.
- In Russia, the government stopped persecuting bloggers who were reporting that the car of the vice president of a major bank hit a child.
- In Spain, two gay dads got the education authorities to take action against a school for discriminating against children with gay parents.
- Sotheby’s gave a fair contract to their union art handlers after an art blogger got a bunch of prominent artists to support their petition.
- After True Religion Jeans broke its promise to go fur free, a petition got them to stick to their word and stop selling fur.
- A student at UC Davis who has a tumor will get the radiation therapy she needs after her insurance company had refused to pay for it.
Is there something you personally want to change? Start your own petition. It takes about 3 minutes to create your own petition on Change.org.
Click here to get started.