Director of Organizing
by Melissa Moore on Jun 17, 2022
I’m honored and humbled to announce my new position as Director of Organizing, a role that draws on my 15+ years of experience advancing gender justice in South Carolina. This is a brand new position at WREN that solidifies a commitment to growing our grassroots power!
I started my career in 2005 as Executive Assistant at Alliance For Full Acceptance, moved to Field Director then Interim Director at SC Equality, fought for abortion access with Provide, Inc, built a social enterprise as Executive Director at We Are Family, and promoted housing justice through Housing For All- Mount Pleasant. It’s been a beautiful and complicated journey to this place, and I couldn’t be more grateful to serve you!
The last two years amount to one of the toughest legislative sessions I’ve experienced in South Carolina, and as you can tell from my humble brag, I’ve been around a long time. I’m proud of our solidarity across movements as we got two proactive bills across the finish line while fighting anti-LGBTQ_, racist, white supremacist, and anti-abortion bigotry in our state. None of our successes would have been possible without you!
We hit the ground running this Spring with an incredible rapid response team, Kenya Cummings and Timicia Grant. Together, we generated thousands of legislator phone calls, tens of thousands of text messages, and countless sweaty rallies and press conferences at the statehouse.
The coming months will test us all, and I look forward to traveling the state to build relationships with you. Relationships must come before the work, but you can bet there will be opportunities to build our collective power through grassroots outreach, phone and text banking, neighborhood canvassing, tabling, rallies, legislator outreach, skillshares, art, dance (always), and healing spaces. I intend to co-create opportunities for meaningful engagement that center the needs and lived experiences of the people most impacted by gender injustice in our state. If I fall short of serving you, especially my BIPOC siblings, poor and working people, LGBTQ+ (especially my QTs), all women, disabled comrades, and gender justice warriors, I promise to hold myself accountable and listen to your feedback!
I invite you to join our outreach team by telling us your skills and interests! We may not contact you right away, but we will touch base in the months to come. https://forms.gle/VwQcBXbZPuHs111P6
Thank you for this opportunity to build with you! Let’s do this!
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- Image Description: A group photo of seven white/white-passing people standing outside the SC statehouse, wearing face masks and white lab coats. Together, they are all holding up a long, white banner with aqua lettering that reads “Abortion is Healthcare.”
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- Image Description: A wide-shot group photo of people of various, ethnicities, genders, disabilities, and masked status standing outside on the front steps of the SC statehouse.Two people crouching in the center of the photo are holding a white banner with aqua lettering that reads “Abortion is Healthcare.” Folks throughout the crowd are holding various handwritten and printed signs rallying for abortion justice.
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- Image Description: A selfie photo of Melissa, and Meredith. Melissa is a white trans person wearing glasses, a black face mask, and a gray, white, and red sock monkey hat, and Meredith is a Black person with long, dark brown locs, round tortoiseshell glasses, and a burgundy suede-texture jacket. Meredith is holding a bright pink sign reading “Together we fight for all” that is partially cut off by the edge of the frame. Melissa is holding a white flyer reading: JANE: AN ABORTION SERVICE. Film screening and panel discussion about how to protect abortion access in S.C; to the left-center of the page is a picture of a greycale banner reading “JANE CHICAGO WOMENS ABORTION SERVICE.”
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- Image Description: A candid photo taken by Timicia Grant of people of varying age, ethnicities, and genders participating in a phone bank hosted at Pridelink in the Upstate. Seated around an informal, office-like space, folks are typing or talking into their phones while seated at a couch and at a table. Laid on the table in the foreground is a dark gray laptop, and some small, fanned out trans pride flags.
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- Image Description: A wide-shot group photo of people of varying ages, ethnicities, genders, and masked status standing outside on the front steps of the SC statehouse. Three people in the center of the group are holding up a trans pride flag, with symmetrical stripes of blue, pink, and white. Other folks in the group are holding up various, colorful signs by SC United for Justice & Equality reading: “SC 🧡 LGBTQ+ YOUTH,” “WE SUPPORT Trans Youth #SupportTransYouthSC,” “LOS JÓVENES TRANS Y QUEER PERTENECEN EN Carolina del Sur,” and “STOP ATTACKING LGBTQ+ YOUTH.”
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- Image Description: A group photo of three white, masked College of Charleston students doing campus outreach, each holding a different protest sign. From left to right, the signs are: 1) A picture of the SC statehouse dome on top of a blue background. There is an arrow pointing to the statehouse dome, with bold, white text reading: “THIS IS NOT A CHURCH.” The bottom reads: “American Atheists, atheists(dot)org. 2) The second sign is handwritten in various shades of red, yellow, and hot pink, with orange flames drawn up around the bottom of the sign. It reads: “ASSAULTS ON REPRODUCTIVE HEALTHCARE ARE FASCIST.” 3) The last sign is red with bold, white lettering that reads: “KEEP YOUR THEOCRACY OFF MY DEMOCRACY.”
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- Image Description: A photo of two white students from Planned Parenthood Generation Action wearing black face masks sitting at a folding table. The table is set up on the College of Charleston Campus on a patterned, brick walk-way, with trees and greenery around park benches. The table has a banner reading: “WREN, Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network,” featuring the WREN logo of an illustrated, multicolor bird’s nest. There is material and signage relating to the abortion justice rally on the table. Propped on the bench the folks are sitting on, there is a hand-painted sign in hot pink and navy reading: “I am not an incubator.” Symmetrically framing the words are abstract shapes resembling pregnant bellies.
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- Image Description: A selfie photo of Melissa and Matt. Melissa is a white trans person wearing glasses, a black face mask, and a gray, white, and red sock monkey hat; Matt is a white person with a buzzed haircut and wearing a white face mask. Matt appears to be reaching up to a bulletin board, which is covered in various flyers, stickers and business cards. Both Melissa and Matt are looking over their shoulders and smiling with their eyes.
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- Image Description: A wide-shot group photo of people of varying ages, ethnicities, genders, and masked status standing outside on the front steps of the SC statehouse. Three people in the center of the group are holding up a trans pride flag, with symmetrical stripes of blue, pink, and white. Other folks in the group are holding up various, colorful signs by SC United for Justice & Equality reading: “SC 🧡 LGBTQ+ YOUTH,” “WE SUPPORT Trans Youth #SupportTransYouthSC,” “LOS JÓVENES TRANS Y QUEER PERTENECEN EN Carolina del Sur,” and “STOP ATTACKING LGBTQ+ YOUTH.”