STAGE TUBE: Faith Leaders, Award-Winning Actors and Activists Challenge Congress to Obstruct Trump

Today, Humanity for Progress released a new video #StandUpForUS directed by Academy Award nominated and Emmy Award winning director Liz Garbus (What Happened, Miss Simone?), co-written by Humanity for Progress founder Laura Dawn and produced by Humanity for Progress co-founder Tanya Selvaratnam. The video stars faith leaders, activists, real estate developer Bruce Ratner, and award-winning actors including Sally Field, Jeffrey Wright, Lea DeLaria, Keegan Michael-Key, Rosie Perez, Steve Buscemi, Zoe Kazan and others.

In the video, the cast asks members of Congress to vigorously oppose Trump if/when the president-elect pursues racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, anti-union, anti-environmental policies. On behalf of the majority of the American people, the group implores the members to protect civil liberties and use congressional powers to oppose or obstruct anything that violates our core values as diverse Americans. The video ends with a call to action for viewers to tweet and email the video to members of Congress, and to sign and share a petition hosted on MoveOn.org.

Garbus said of the video, "After Trump's surprise victory in November, many of us were angry, scared, and searching for a path forward that would safeguard our collective values as diverse Americans. We need our elected officials to stand up for us and have our backs, and use their congressional powers to resist change that could reverse decades of progress and growth. We know the majority of the American people, regardless of who they voted for, do not want a regime that permits hate and monied interests to run rampant."

Bruce Ratner, New York City Developer, said, "This is not the time for political calculation, for sitting quietly on the sidelines as our friends and neighbors are threatened. The incoming administration has made it clear that it has little respect for many of the basic rights enshrined in our Constitution and Bill of Rights: equality under the law, religious tolerance, freedom of speech, press, and assembly. I worry about what will happen if the President-elect is allowed to run roughshod over these rights. I fear for the immigrants who will be deported, the Muslims who will suffer discrimination and surveillance, the sick people who will lose their health care, the women who will lose their right to choose, and the millions of young people who will grow up in a country without basic environmental protections. So, this is not a time for silence. This is a time for all of us to speak out -- and for our elected officials, in particular, to stand with us against the erosion of our rights, our values, and our principles."

Imam Khalid Latif, University Chaplain at New York University, said, "We've seen close to 1000 reported incidents of bias and hate crimes since the election, let alone all those occurrences that went unreported. Ranging from anti-black, anti-LGBTQ, anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, anti-woman, and more. The time is critical for our collective voices to speak out against each act of hatred and recognize that an attack on any of us is an attack on all of us. Our moving forward has to be together."

Humanity for Progress (formerly known as Humanity for Hillary and co-founded by Laura Dawn, Sarah Sophie Flicker, and Tanya Selvaratnam) is a social media campaign that within three months of its founding in July 2016 achieved an online audience reach of 275 million with videos and memes viewed more than 50 million times.