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If you’ve never spent time in the Gold Dome during the legislative session, you should know it’s a circus. As someone who’s spent quite some time stalking the halls of the Legislature and who’s testified before committees — I have served as an advocate for LGBTQ rights in past years — here are some of my tips for how to make your voice heard during the session.The Georgia State Capitol, located at 206 Washington St. and accessible via the MARTA Five Points or Georgia State stations, is open to the public year round. Unless you have a special pass (you don’t) you’ll enter by ascending the grand steps on Washington Street. After showing the Capitol Police a photo ID, you’ll walk through the metal detector. From there you can head to the second floor right. The Senate is on the right and the House is on the left. The entrances to the galleries are on the fourth floor. Be careful, however, as the Senate doesn’t allow phones or cameras in its gallery.When bills are first proposed they’re (usually) read and discussed at committee hearings. These meetings are almost always open to the public. The House livestreams most of its meetings, the Senate doesn’t. You can find the schedule for committee meetings online at house.ga.gov or senate.ga.gov. Meetings listed as “CAP” take place in the Capitol and meetings listed as “CLOB” take place in the Coverdell Legislative Office Building, directly across the street from the Capitol, on Mitchell Street. You’ll show your ID and go through a metal detector at CLOB, too, but once you’re inside you can go to any of the floors, rooms, or legislator offices.These individual hearings are where most of the changes to a bill get made. This is usually the only chance for lawmakers to hear from people with direct knowledge of who and what the proposed law will impact. Phone calls and emails are great, but a face-to-face discussion will always carry more weight.Arrive at the meeting early to stake out a good spot, especially if it’s a contentious issue, but don’t sit in the front row. Legislators who are not members of the committee will sit there and/or kick you out if you’re there. Anyone is welcome to sign up to speak. Add your name to the sign-up sheet on the podium. From there, the head of the committee will announce the business of the day and how long speakers will have. The sponsor of the bill will present the bill and hold a discussion. If you’re lucky, they’ll call you up to speak after that happens. If you’re unlucky, you’ll spend the whole afternoon waiting to speak before the committee chair announces they’re not taking any testimony at all.If you’d prefer to get some one-on-one time with your elected official, try calling them out when they’re in the chamber. Walk up to the person sitting at a desk outside the House or Senate and fill out a request form. A page will deliver it and will let you know whether your representative or senator is available. If they come out, tell them you are a constituent. Be respectful, brief, and direct about what you’d like to see them do.
We often think the worst of legislators, but they tend to follow their constituents’ wishes. If we don’t let them know what our wishes are, we can’t expect them to vote the way we’d prefer. We have a responsibility as citizens to show up and make ourselves heard.