Amalia Skilton
Amalia Skilton
Recent Stories
SKILTON: Service and advocacy, one and inseparable
Yishai Schwartz ’13 (“Separate service and advocacy,” Jan. 27) contends that Yalies should divide community service from advocacy in Dwight Hall and within our organizations. Schwartz is correct to tell Yalies that we are morally obliged to give some time to service and to remind us that service and advocacy are not the same. Yet he is profoundly wrong to argue that our organizations should not improve people’s lives for the short term while we strive to improve our society for the long term.
SKILTON: Eidelson’s personal connection
Since 2009, I have spent thousands of hours organizing students on campus, doing community service in the city, and advocating for policy before New Haven’s administrative agencies and Board of Aldermen. These experiences – as a case manager and tax preparer for low-income people, as a leader and advocate in the LGBTQ community, as director of the Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project, and as a Democratic activist– have made me appreciate how serious the challenges facing Yale and New Haven are.
ANDREOZZI AND SKILTON: New Haven’s perpetual housing crisis
Three years ago this fall, New Haven faced a moral and economic crisis. The Cedar Street Overflow Shelter - the city’s largest emergency shelter - was about to close its doors.
SKILTON: Respect for transgender rights
In the last fifty years, we’ve made progress toward legal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people. These victories are important, but too many of them have been important only--or primarily--for gay men and lesbians. As the entire LGBTQ movement charts our political goals for the coming years, we should consider some of the wrong decisions we have made on the way to these victories. One of these is that we – queer people who are not transgender – have often shown little or no concern for the lives and political interests of transgender and gender non-conforming people.
Herring and Skilton: No primary for a fairer election
Current Ward 1 Alderman Mike Jones’ recent decision not to run for a second term means that the race for his seat on the board of alderman will soon begin. Before 2011’s aldermanic candidates begin to campaign, we wish to communicate with all potential Ward 1 voters about what is expected to occur in this race.
Herring and Skilton: A closed vote, a more open process
The News published a story Tuesday (“Democratic committee to endorse with closed vote,” Nov. 16) that omits several relevant factors in the Ward 1 Democratic Committee’s decision Sunday to use a closed-vote process to select its endorsed candidate for the 2011 aldermanic election. We write to clarify the processes available to the ward committee, and to explain the reasons that we support the closed endorsement vote process.
Skilton: A day to remember, and to hope
On September 9, Billy Lucas hung himself from a tree in Greensburg, Indiana. He was bullied in school, where classmates labeled him “fag” and told him he didn’t deserve to live – though Lucas never told anyone that he was gay. He was 15 years old when he died.
Payne and Skilton: Seeking to serve our ward
As co-chairs of the Ward Committee, we will confront the challenges that come with being the Yale Ward. Increasing voter registration and turnout will be our top priority, and we’re already making plans to work with campus political groups and other organizations to get Yale students registered in Connecticut and to the polls in New Haven.
Kraft and Skilton: An election for equality
In 1989, the term “marriage equality” had yet to enter the national vocabulary. No state recognized same-sex marriage — nor did any state constitution or federal law ban the practice. Now, near the end of 2009, same-sex marriage is legal in six states but banned by constitutional amendment in 30.
Kraft and Skilton: Stand for equality
Late in the night of Nov. 4, 2008, millions of Americans went to bed ecstatic at the election of their first black president.