Name: Josh Castle
Organization (if you work with one): Southend Indivisible (President), Neighborcare Health (Development Manager), WA Institute for a Democratic Future (Board)
Job Title or Self-Given Title: Community Advocate
When did you start getting involved with being an activist or advocate and why?
I started getting involved at Roosevelt High School after coming out at age 15 and founded the first LGBTQ support group. I got involved in the fight for LGBTQ+ freedom, safety and equality with Hands Off Washington and then Equal Rights Washington to fight discriminatory initiatives, pass civil rights protections, and ultimately to push through marriage equality.
What are the issues that you focus on?
Currently I’m focused on the survival of our republic, the saving of our democracy, and organizing with working folks, women, immigrants, refugees, trans, and other people and communities in fighting the un-American actions of this autocratic administration.
How does your work help build our community bigger and stronger?
It’s not my work, it’s the work of everyone I’m standing shoulder to shoulder with in the fight against hatred and bigotry in all its forms.
What is the greatest achievement you have had in the work you are doing?
Myself and millions of others working our tails off to pass marriage equality and to elect Barack Obama, our first Black American as president, who then passed the Affordable Care Act expanding health care to over 20 million Americans.
What is the biggest challenge you have faced in doing your work?
People who don’t know their power and agency and convincing them they have it.
How can others help you in the work you are doing?
It’s not about helping me, it’s about working in coalitions to push for progressive change locally and nationally. The key is to be involved in some way to make a difference, and that could just be as simple as consistently voting, to showing up at the meetings of the progressive group of your choice, joining a board, registering voters, making calls, knocking on doors and more. And there’s no need to go out and try to do this all on your own. There are local organizations who will plug you in right away to something meaningful. I can help with that!
Looking at the current climate, what words of hope do you have for our community and what should we be most concerned about?
We need to be honest – things are frightening at the national level and will be for a while. Out of the gate it is important to remember two things: One, it’s important to hold the line – you should never preemptively abdicate your power no matter what you’re hearing. And, two, each of us have agency to be involved in some way and to make a change. We are still a democracy and have to fight to keep it that way. Within this democracy, you each have a lot of power, especially locally. We are all but drops in an ocean, but if you didn’t have drops there would be no ocean! For example, get involved locally to push your city council to be bolder and more progressive, or run for city council yourself if they’re not doing the job. Register voters to get more people engaged in their democracy. Knock on doors or make calls and have those conversations, sometimes even uncomfortable ones – the single most powerful things you can do to influence an election is one-on-one conversations with complete strangers. An easy way to plug in is getting involved with your local Indivisible, Democrats, Working Families Party, or any other group pushing for progressive change – it’s as easy as just showing up! Bottom line – do something.
Who inspires you to keep fighting the good fight?
The people I see everyday when I show up at Southend Indivisible and there are 100 people staring at me, many never involved in politics before, but love their country and are not willing to give it up for this corrupt, morally depraved fool currently working to destroy the Great American Experiment. We are better than this, and working and organizing together, we will defeat these villains.
