Code of Civility

The Code of Civility covers our behavior as members of the Indivisible Austin community, in any public meeting, online forum, mailing list, website, or private correspondence.

  1. We Stand Indivisible. We are individual citizen activists coming together for the common cause of resisting authoritarianism, opposing Trump, and defending democracy. Our movement is one of individuals acting singly and in groups. We commit to recognizing, encouraging and supporting individuality, diversity, and inclusiveness among our members and our affiliate groups in order to ensure that all feel welcome to participate in the Indivisible Austin community.

  2. Indivisible Belongs to Everyone. Affiliate groups are autonomous. We may choose to work together on projects and to form coalitions to support the national, state, and local Indivisible brand; but groups are self-governed and participation in such coalitions is voluntary. We may not always agree on how things should be done, but we settle disagreements in a forthright and open manner, with civility, and where we cannot come together on a point, we agree to disagree and work at it from different angles. Indivisible Austin affiliates with groups and individuals who agree to support one another both publicly and privately;  who refrain from  disparaging or undermining another group’s efforts, membership, or leadership; and who speak and act in a way that reflects unity with and support of groups within our coalition.

  3. We Commit to Civility. We avoid offensive comments and actions related to things such as gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion; sexual images in public spaces, real or implied violence, intimidation, oppression, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention are not tolerated.  We embrace progressive values of kindness, respect, compassion, the equitable treatment of all human beings, and the empowerment of every individual to reach their highest good.

  4. We Respect Each Other’s Privacy. We do not share personal information about other participants without their consent. This includes posting photos of events on social media without consent of everyone identifiable in the photos, providing names of participants, or their contact info.

  5. We are Courteous to Elected Official Staff.  Our elected officials’ staff are doing their jobs and do not make decisions on their employers’ actions or positions. It is part of staff’s job to represent their representatives’ views. When communicating with elected official staff, we remain courteous and respectful even when their responses are not what we would prefer.