Posted on July 1, 2019
Vote to fund Planned Parenthood Action Fund, She the People and Transgender Law Center this July
Every month, CREDO members vote to distribute our monthly donation among three great progressive organizations. This July, you can help groups fighting for reproductive freedom, empowering progressive women of color and protecting the rights of transgender people by casting your vote for Planned Parenthood Action Fund, She the People and Transgender Law Center.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund
Planned Parenthood was founded over 100 years ago on the idea that women have the right to access the information and care they need to live healthy lives. Today, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund fights to protect that right — no matter what.
With the constant attacks on reproductive rights and women’s health care by right-wing lawmakers across the country, support from CREDO members is more important than ever. A donation from CREDO members will be critical in helping the Action Fund employ tactics including lobbying and grassroots mobilization to ensure that Planned Parenthood’s health services remain available to those who need them most.
She the PeopleShe the People elevates the voice and power of women of color as leaders, strategists, organizers and voters. The organization is building an inclusive, multiracial coalition to realize the promise of American democracy.
Funding from CREDO members will help She the People keep women of color in the news and strengthen their organizing and progressive issues in the center of national media, and support gatherings of women of color in swing states.
Transgender Law CenterTransgender Law Center does what it takes to keep transgender people alive, thriving and fighting for liberation. Grounded in legal expertise and committed to racial justice, TLC is the largest national trans-led organization advocating self-determination for all.
The Trump administration is actively working to take steps that make survival harder for the most vulnerable in the transgender community. For example, in the first days of June, another transgender woman refugee died in ICE custody. Support from CREDO members would help to ensure TLC has the capacity to protect healthcare access, represent and assist vulnerable immigrants, litigate to hold ICE responsible for abuses and partner with immigration organizations to address the humanitarian crisis for all migrants at the border.
Your vote this month will determine how we divide our monthly donation among these three progressive groups. Be sure to cast your vote to support one, two or all three by July 31.
CREDO members who use our products and services everyday are the reason why we are able to make these donations each month. Learn more about CREDO Mobile and CREDO Energy and join our movement.
Posted on June 27, 2019
7 Tips for Eco-Friendly 4th of July Celebrations
Oh my, how time flies. With just a blink of the eye, 4th of July is upon us. Are you ready for an eco-friendly celebration?
Here are 7 ways you can paint the town red, white, and blue while still being green.
Cut Out One-time Use Plastics
Disposable plates, cups, and silverware are convenient for us but terrible for the environment. Instead, opt for using your regular washable dishes and cutlery.
If reusable dishes are just not an option, opt for compostable flatware made of corn, potato or bamboo. Be sure to look for these labels when purchasing:
Use Large Drink Dispensers
Plastic is not only bad for the environment, but it poses possible health risks as well. Have large water dispensers available and ask your guests to bring their own reusable water bottles. One of the added benefits of this is they’ll automatically know which one is theirs, removing the need to marker plastic cups with names. Also, a simple red (watermelon), white (coconut) and blue (blueberry) fruit water would taste great and look festive. And there are tons of alternative recipes for fruit-infused water online.
Instead of buying individual cans and bottles of beer, consider getting a keg from your favorite local brewery. This reduces waste and supports local businesses.
Go Green While Grilling
Nothing screams 4th of July celebration like barbeque. As the #1 grilling day of the year, backyard barbeques will fire up, and an estimated 60 million Americans will release 225,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the air. Not great for the environment.
Propane grills are somewhat cleaner than charcoal, but both produce carbon emissions. If the charcoal taste is what you crave, choose coal made from sustainably managed forest trees. And before you run out and buy starter fluid, consider using a charcoal chimney starter. You can also check out our own 5 ways to have a greener BBQ tip.
Barbeque the Vegan Way
When we think of barbeque, some of us think of meat like ribs, brisket, chicken or pork. But recent environmental studies show that a heavy meat-based diet has dire consequences for the environment and contributes to climate change. “A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use,” study leader and University of Oxford professor Joseph Poore told the Guardian.
The growth of the vegan market means barbecuing alternatives like these cauliflower steaks, sweet potato black bean burgers, portobello mushroom burgers, and vegan rib recipes could satiate even your most omnivorous friends.
Buy Green Fireworks
Fireworks, in general, aren’t great for the environment, but they are steeped in 4th of July tradition. If you plan to set off your own fireworks, ask for the kinds that are rich in nitrogen.
Better yet, save some money (and reduce pollution) by visiting your local municipal fireworks display.
Check out Just Energy for more great tips on green and safe alternatives to fireworks.
Use safer sunscreens
Before you head to the beach this July 4th, check your sunscreen. According to NPR, more than 3,500 sun-protection products contain oxybenzone and octinoxate, which are chemicals known to bleach coral reefs, effectively killing them. And with an estimated 14,000 tons of sunscreen going into the ocean each year, choosing reef-safe products is crucial for the environment.
Additionally, many sunscreens are either ineffective or contain chemicals that are unsafe for use. Check out the Environmental Working Group’s 2019 Sunscreen Guide for more information.
Reuse and Repurpose Your Decorations
Avoid buying one-time-use decorations like paper streamers, balloons, and plastic tablecloths. Choose red, white and blue foods to help create a festive July 4th, ambiance. Use food coloring to produce red and blue drinks. And repurpose your red, white, and blue holiday lights by stringing them up for your party.
Follow these seven simple tips and you’ll be throwing a fun, eco-friendly celebration that will have your friends begging you to host once again next year.
Posted on June 26, 2019
On the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, how far have we really come?
This Pride month marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion. I wish I could celebrate how far we’ve come from the days when we were killed and rounded up by the police because of who we are.
But I can’t, because – at least for transgender people of color – it’s not true.
This Pride Month has been one of the deadliest and devastating Pride Months of my life. Since May, at least seven Black transgender women have been murdered across the United States. One, Layleen Polanco Xtravaganza, died in New York City Department of Corrections custody. On the very first day of Pride Month, Johana Medina Leon, a transgender woman from El Salvador who was held for weeks by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, died shortly after being released to a hospital. She died almost exactly one year after Roxsana Hernandez, a transgender woman from Honduras, was killed by the inhumane policies of U.S. Customs & Border Protection and ICE.
These murders are not happening in a vacuum. State legislatures and the federal government launched several concerted attacks on the survival of Black transgender women, transgender migrants, people living with HIV, transgender southerners, transgender people with disabilities, and so many more in our community. Bills that would criminalize transgender people for using the bathroom continue to plague legislatures. The Department of Health and Human Services proposed a new regulation that would encourage discrimination against transgender people in health care (you can take action against that rule here). The Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed new regulations to make it harder for transgender people to access homeless shelters.
Through its policies and rhetoric, the United States government is responsible for the violence against us. There is no Pride in our country killing and caging us. 50 years ago, transgender people of color rose up against state violence. But the truth is Stonewall never ended. Stonewall is now.
We at the Transgender Law Center have partnered with Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement, the Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project, Mijente and other groups to demand accountability under the banner #StonewallIsNow. We need real, concrete investment in transgender communities and trans-led organizations. We need to end discriminatory policing that profiles transgender women and Black communities for arrest and abuse. We need to close migrant prisons that are torturing and killing trans people simply seeking safety.
From our lawsuit seeking justice for Roxsana to our work building the leadership of trans people of color across the country, we at the TLC are doing all we can to keep trans folks alive, thriving and fighting for liberation. Join us with a donation, by mobilizing through #StonewallIsNow and showing up for trans people of color this Pride Month.
Kris Hayashi, Executive Director of the Transgender Law Center.
Posted on June 20, 2019
5 Progressive LGBTQ Groups to Follow this Pride Month
It’s June and that means it’s Pride Month, a month-long celebration to honor and recognize the incredible impact that the LGBTQ community has had throughout history. Chosen to commemorate the Stonewall riots in June 1969 as a watershed moment in the LGBTQ equality movement, Pride Month symbolizes the resistance to the conservative ideologies that continue to harm LGBTQ people across the country and the globe.
Here at CREDO, we understand the importance of resistance more than ever – to Trump and his hateful administration, policies that still oppress the LGTBQ community and inequality in all its ugly forms. We’re proud that our members have voted to donate more than $5.9 million to progressive LGBTQ groups and of the victories we’ve helped to secure, like marriage equality and more protections for transgender people, because of our members’ activism.
Today, we thought we’d share five organizations we follow on Twitter that fight for LGBTQ equality every day. Here’s a little bit about them.
GLSEN
GLSEN (pronounced “glisten”) is the leading national organization working to ensure a safe learning environment for LGBTQ students in K-12 education. GLSEN works to improve school environments for LGBTQ students through original research, influencing lawmakers and empowering students to ensure schools become and remain safe for students regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
Follow @GLSEN
OutRight Action International
OutRight Action is an international nonprofit fighting for the human rights of LGBTQ people across the globe. OurRight has staff in six countries and is the only LGBTQ organization with a permanent presence at the United Nations Headquarters to advocate for the rights of LGBTQ communities in countries across the world.
Follow @OutRightIntl
SONG
Southerners On New Ground is an inclusive queer liberation organization working on multiple social justice issues in the southern United States. Made up of Black people, people of color, immigrants, undocumented people, people with disabilities, working class, and rural and small town LGBTQ people, SONG fights oppression and lifts up communities through leadership development, grassroots organizing, and direct action.
Follow @ignitekindred
National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund
The National LGBTQ Task Force is the country’s oldest national LGBTQ civil rights organization. It is building a future where everyone is free to be themselves in every aspect of their lives. The Task Force is a close ally of CREDO, and our members have helped us donate more than $460,000 to the organization, including a recent donation that will enable the Task Force to help ensure that all LGBTQ people are counted on the 2020 census.
Follow @LGBTQTaskForce
Transgender Law Center
Grounded in legal expertise and committed to racial justice, Transgender Law Center is the largest national trans-led organization advocating self-determination for all. A recent donation from CREDO members helped TLC rapidly move forward with impact litigation by providing technical assistance to communities needing trans organizing or Trans Immigration Defense Effort support in response to urgent threats facing immigrants.
Last summer, Transgender Law Center Executive Director Kris Hayashi, and Deputy Director Isa Noyola visited CREDO headquarters to discuss how transgender people are building community and power to protect and defend each other in a hostile and dangerous environment.
Follow @TransLawCenter.
Posted on June 18, 2019
Green New Deal – the best video you’ll watch explaining why we need it
What would the future look like if we passed a Green New Deal? Will we help stem the most horrible effects of climate change, reduce extreme weather events, lower emissions, protect vulnerable communities, keep global temperatures in check and transform our economy?
In partnership with The Intercept, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez narrates an incredible video set a few decades in the future to let us see.
In the short film, she explains the history of the climate crisis and the fossil fuel industry’s attempts to block climate science and sow skepticism and tells us that if lawmakers have the political will to tackle the most dire challenge facing us today, we still have time to slow climate change, grow our green economy, protect workers and communities, and save our planet.
Posted on June 17, 2019
Why doesn’t CREDO change our logo for Pride Month? Because we don’t need to.
You see it every June – brands across America slap rainbow colors across their logos in hopes of attracting a lucrative demographic through their support of Pride.
Here at CREDO, we don’t change our logo in June. That’s because we don’t need to.
Our brand stands for LGBTQ equality all year, not just when other companies are co-opting a movement for a month-long marketing campaign.
Since our founding more than 30 years ago, CREDO and our members have been standing with the LGBTQ community as a core part of our company’s mission. We not only speak out when we see discrimination, we actively campaign against it and work to create a country and a world where everyone is free to be who they are. And with our monthly donations program, our members have voted to donate more than $5.9 million to progressive organizations fighting for LGBTQ rights, like the National LGBTQ Task Force and the Transgender Law Center.
If brands want to support the LGBTQ community, they should do so authentically and all year-round, starting with the understanding that Pride Month was founded on resistance, and it isn’t a once-a-year party that corporate America can crash.
And companies who support LGBTQ rights – not just the rainbow logos and cash that follows – should stop donating to the Republican party and lawmakers who are relentless in their attacks on LGBTQ equality. Instead, they should follow the lead of Salesforce and Angie’s List who announced boycotts of Indiana when then-Gov. Mike Pence signed anti-LGBTQ legislation into law. Or IBM, PayPal, and Google when they did the same in 2016 after North Carolina passed anti-trans legislation. Or CREDO, by directly funding LGBTQ rights groups and mobilizing customers to take action.
With the constant attacks by the Trump administration and right-wing conservatives on their civil rights, the LGBTQ community needs allies all year, not just in June. We hope other brands who are cashing in this month remember that.
Posted on June 13, 2019
Victory: Gov. Newsom pardons Cambodian Americans facing deportation
Together, we stopped two California families from being ripped apart by ICE, but there’s still more to do.
Thanks to the relentless activism of our friends at Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, Asian Prisoner Support Committee, Southeast Asian Resource Action Center, DailyKos and nearly 10,000 CREDO members in California who signed our petition, Gov. Gavin Newsom pardoned two Cambodian-American refugees, Hay Hov and Kang Hen, who were facing deportation.
ICE is tearing apart California families by deporting Cambodian-Americans with past convictions of any kind at an alarming rate. A majority of the Cambodian-Americans that ICE is targeting arrived in the country as refugees during the Vietnam War era when the United States military secretly bombed Cambodia with 2.7 million tons of explosives.
Hov and Hen are two Cambodian refugees who came to the United States as children. ICE targeted them for deportation based on crimes they committed as young adults. Both completed their sentences, turned around their lives, started families and became important parts of their communities.
Thanks to massive grassroots pressure on Gov. Newsom to grant them pardons, Hov and Hen will likely be able to remain with their families in California. But our work is not done yet. ICE is still detaining more than 50 Cambodian Americans and could deport them to a country they barely know as soon as this summer.
Speak out now to keep the pressure on the governor to intervene. Add your name today to urge Gov. Newsom to continue to grant pardons to Cambodian-Americans who face imminent deportation.
Posted on June 13, 2019
CREDO Tip: 6 Facebook changes to make now to protect your privacy
Facebook has a long and troubling history with privacy and user data.
From recent reports that Facebook gave away users’ private communications, without permission or notification, to more than 150 other companies, to how the company failed to act when the Trump campaign and Cambridge Analytica accessed the private personal data of 50 million people without their knowledge, the company has shown again and again that it will exploit its 2.2 billion users for profit in any way possible, even if it means violating its own privacy policies – or the law.
In the face of these breaches, many decide to delete their profiles on Facebook and Instagram. Others continue to use Facebook products. If that’s you, here are six steps you should take now if you use Facebook and want to keep your personal information as private as possible.
Editor’s note: The below instructions are current as of June 2019 and are easier to follow on your computer than on your phone.
1. Delete your personal details
When you first joined, Facebook prompted you to provide personal details like your hometown, your phone number and where you went to school. At the time, you probably didn’t think twice about it. You might have thought it would help friends find you.
It does. But it also helps hackers impersonate you and access your online accounts – like your bank account. Because, if you’re like a lot of people, you use details from your personal life to create your passwords, like your college mascot, perhaps, or the year you were born. This makes your passwords easier to remember. But if these details are visible at your Facebook profile, it also makes your passwords easier for hackers to guess.
Never entered your personal details? No matter. Facebook may well have entered them without your knowledge, using the information you’ve shared on your account. Here’s how to delete them.
Go to your Profile page and click About. You’ll see a list of information about you, from Overview to Places You’ve Lived to Life Events. Click on each of these and you can edit or delete these personal details. Make sure to change your settings so that your email can be seen by only friends or only you and that it’s hidden from your Timeline.
2.Block access by third-party apps and websites
A lot of apps offer you the option of creating an account and logging in via Facebook. It’s quick and convenient. But when you do this, you automatically give these apps access to your private information. Worse, you may be giving these apps access to your friends’ private information.
To see what apps and websites have access to your Facebook account, go to Settings, then Apps and Websites. Here you can remove any apps and websites you don’t use or whose security you think is suspect. You can also turn off access altogether under Preferences.
3.Limit who can see what you share
Unless you’re aiming for a career as a social media influencer, set your default sharing option to Friends – not Public – so that only your friends can see what you post.
Go to Settings, then Privacy. Under Privacy Settings and Tools, Your Activity, find Who can see your future posts? Click Edit and set the option to Friends.
You can also choose who you want to see your past posts. Find Limit the audience for posts you’ve shared with friends of friends or Public?, click Limit Past Posts and then Limit Past Posts again. Do this, and posts that you’ve shared with friends of friends and with the public will be visible only to your friends, anyone tagged in those posts and their friends.
See the line that says Review all your posts and things your tagged in? Click it and you can review all the posts and photos that others have tagged you in. You can remove tags by clicking on the three dots at the top right of a post and selecting Remove tag.
Also, you can change your Timeline and Tagging settings to control your visibility. Go to Settings, then Timeline and Tagging. At Who can post on your timeline? select Friends. Do the same at Who can see what others post on your Timeline?. Below, in the Review section, change the settings so that you can review posts you’re tagged in and remove the tags if you want.
4.Opt out of targeted ads
Facebook watches your activity online and serves you ads based on that activity. So if you want to buy a unicycle and you spend time researching the topic, you’re likely to see a lot of unicycle ads on your Facebook feed and other places online.
Some people appreciate this sort of targeting. Others find it troubling or invasive. To see what Facebook knows about your interests, go to Settings, then Ads. Under Your interests, you can opt out of any categories Facebook thinks you’re interested in. Under Your information, you can choose to withhold from advertisers personal details like your relationship status and employer. So if you’ve got, say, a 55th birthday coming up, you’re less likely to get a barrage of ads for retirement homes, fiber supplements and bladder-control medications. You can also make changes to your Ad settings so that you see fewer ads based on your online activity.
5.Opt out of facial recognition
Have you ever received a notification telling you that someone just added “a photo you might be in” and asking if you want to tag yourself? This facial recognition feature is fairly new, and it’s on by default. Facebook says the goal is to “make Facebook better.”
There are some disconcerting privacy implications to Facebook’s facial recognition technology, and if you believe this violates your privacy, you can turn it off.
To opt out of facial recognition, select Settings, then Face Recognition and turn it off.
6.Delete your payment information
Facebook once allowed advertisers to target you by your spending habits. Facebook stopped sharing this information with advertisers, but it’s not clear whether Facebook still profiles you internally by your spending habits.
To prevent Facebook profiling you by your spending, open Settings, then go to Payments. Under Account Settings, you’ll see all the payment information you share with Facebook. To ensure your privacy, delete all your payment methods and shipping addresses.
Here at CREDO, we take customer privacy very seriously. In fact, respecting our customers’ privacy rights is a core mission of our company, and we have a long history of fighting for it. Click here to learn more about our record fighting for privacy.
Posted on June 13, 2019
AT&T fired workers after raking in billions from Trump’s tax scam
AT&T is at it yet again: The company cozied up to Donald Trump and Republicans – and this time, its workers paid the price.
Recent news reports reveal that after the company lobbied Republican lawmakers to push through Trump’s massive Tax Scam, AT&T laid off more than 23,000 employees, despite promises to create more jobs.
In 2017, AT&T announced it would invest $1 billion the following year in telecom infrastructure resulting in the creation of “7,000 good jobs for the middle class” if Congress slashed tax rates for corporate America.
Congress rammed through Trump’s Tax Scam, but AT&T didn’t deliver on its promise. Instead, it cut capital spending, continued to lay off workers and pocketed $3 billion in a massive tax windfall. AT&T executive pay soared after the Tax Scam went into effect: CEO Randall Stephenson reportedly made $29 million in total compensation last year. Not a bad payout for going back on your word.
This isn’t the first time AT&T’s cozy relationship with Republicans and Trump administration helped its bottom line. In 2017, the company donated $2 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration and paid Michael Cohen, Trump’s long-time fixer and personal lawyer who is now serving time in federal prison, $600,000 to advise the telecom giant on “regulatory policy development,” although he has no experience in policy or the telecom sector.
The payments seemed to have paid off: the FCC repealed net neutrality regulations, and the telecom giant was awarded a secret $3.3 billion contract with the National Security Agency, which is in addition to AT&T’s partnership with the NSA to spy on Americans.
At CREDO, we’re not spending millions to influence Republican lawmakers or making massive donations to Donald Trump like other big mobile companies. In fact, we’re doing just the opposite. Through our members, we’re funding the progressive resistance to the Trump administration’s corrupt and dangerous policies and mobilizing our members to stand with the communities Trump attacks and work together to create the world we all deserve.
If you’d like to learn more about how you can help fund progressive organizations and activism through your mobile company, click here to find out how you can join CREDO Mobile.
Posted on June 10, 2019
Don’t Ban Equality
CREDO CEO Ray Morris signs letter of support for reproductive health care with other corporate leaders of Ben & Jerry’s, Eileen Fisher, Amalgamated Bank and Hint, Inc.
At CREDO, we believe that companies have a fundamental responsibility to support unfettered access to comprehensive reproductive care. And let there be no question: Abortion is health care. Policies that reduce access to health care hurt workplace productivity and have a disproportionate negative effect on lower-income workers, people of color and women.
When we were asked to join a coalition formed by Planned Parenthood, NARAL, the ACLU and the Center for Reproductive Rights, there was no hesitation. We eagerly signed a letter of support for reproductive health care.
I consider it an honor to stand with our progressive partners like Planned Parenthood, NARAL, the ACLU and the Center for Reproductive Rights. CREDO members with their CREDO Mobile phones, CREDO Energy offsetting their homes’ dirty electricity, longstanding CREDO Long Distance accounts and Working Assets Credit Cards have all enabled CREDO to donate millions of dollars to these amazing organizations fighting on the front lines to protect what should be basic freedoms.
As CEO, I’m happy to represent our employees, our members and our company, by signing my name.
You can learn more at DontBanEquality.com.
Please join me in sharing this message with your friends, family and coworkers today.
In solidarity,
Ray Morris, CEO, CREDO
