• Student group calls Indiana residents to change minds on HJR-3 Sunday.
• Freedom Indiana leader says college students are integral to change.
• Legislatures vote today to decide if HJR-3 goes to public vote.
Despite jobs, large course loads and making rent, a few Ball State students are devoting as many as 10 hours a week calling strangers to oppose HJR-3.
At 5 p.m. Sunday and Wednesday, as well as during several impromptu sessions in the week, Sam Itkin calls Indiana residents. The sophomore creative writing major urges them to contact state representatives in their area to oppose the HJR-3 amendment.
Armed with laptops and smart phones Itkin and 34 others prepared for a last ditch effort to make an impact on Indiana legislators, before today’s deciding vote. They hope to stop the amendment, which could strip away benefits for same sex couples, from continuing past Indiana’s House of Representatives and onto a statewide referendum this November.
So far, the amendment has passed through the Indiana House Elections and Apportionment committee in a 9-to-3 vote Wednesday.
Itkin first heard of Freedom Indiana, a statewide organization in opposition of HJR-3, when a student approached him with a clipboard, asking if he supported rights for gays and lesbians.
“I showed up [to the phone bank] for the first time, loved it and have been coming back ever since,” he said.
Matt Marko is the lead campus organizer for Freedom Indiana at Ball State, which began last semester. Marko dropped everything and moved to Indianapolis from Maine to help with Freedom Indiana’s efforts. Since arriving, he has worked at both Ball State and Indiana University Bloomington campuses.
Marko said he believes college students are an integral demographic when dealing with important social issues.
“They are the future of this state,” he said. “They care about what this state is going to look like down the road.”
He said HJR-3 is harmful not just to gay and lesbian families, but Indiana’s image as a whole.
Itkin agrees, his cousin has already left Indiana because of its laws regarding same sex marriage.
“I like it here, and I’d like to have the option not to flee the state the second after I graduate,” he said. “If bills like this pass, I’m just going to be out of here so quickly. I’m just trying to protect my own future and make the community better for everyone down the line.”
Marko said college students recognize the impact HJR-3 and other such legislation will have on their friends and families.
“This generation of younger folks—this is an important issue to them,” Marko said. “It’s a no-brainer to them that this is the wrong thing to do.”
Marko hopes Freedom Indiana’s activities, like the phone banks, will have a profound effect on the way Indiana representatives vote.
“This shows community, this shows what the grassroots movements are about,” he said. “You show up and you’re surrounded by 30 to 40 other people who care about this as deeply as you do. … Just being there, in one space together, in solidarity, just shows the power of grassroots.”
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