UltraViolet (formally UltraViolet Education Fund) is a social-progressive nonprofit that advocates for LGBT and expanded abortion access, usually using social media campaigns, petitions, and small protests, oftentimes alongside or in conjunction with other left-of-center groups. UltraViolet Action is the organization’s lobbying arm.

High-profile figures against whom the organization has led campaigns include controversial right-of-center news commentator Bill O’Reilly, entertainment journalist Billy Bush, singer Celo Green, rap musician Rick Ross, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and President Donald Trump.

Background

UltraViolet was founded in February 2012 by Nita Chaudhary, formerly the national campaigns and organizing director at MoveOn.org Political Action, a left-progressive political action committee (PAC), and Shaunna Thomas, formerly the executive director of the P Street Project, a 501(c)(4)  advocacy organization which works to elect liberal candidates to state and federal government. The organization was funded by the Citizen Engagement Lab, a social welfare and political consulting group that organizes left-of-center organizations that advocate for a wide range of liberal policies and demographic groups. ¹

The organization was recognized as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit in August 2015 under the name “UltraViolet Education Fund.” ² The group’s 501(c)(4) lobbying arm is UltraViolet Action, which was formed in September 2016. ³

Activities

The activities of UltraViolet largely consist of public awareness campaigns using both traditional mediums like petitions and social media to generate social pressure intended to influence various organizations to make decisions in accord with the group’s left-progressive perspective. ⁴

The group’s first campaign was generated in February 2012 in response to a decision by Susan G Komen for the Cure (a healthcare organization focused on curing breast cancer) to discontinue its funding of Planned Parenthood because it performs abortions. After a brief but intense media campaign, the Komen reversed its decision and Karen Handel, a Georgia Republican politician then working as Komen’s vice president of public policy, the decision’s chief supporter, stepped down. ⁵⁶

In March 2012, the group followed up by pressuring advertisers of conservative media personality Rush Limbaugh’s radio program to pull their ads from his show in response to comments that Limbaugh made regarding a then-Georgetown undergraduate and later unsuccessful Democratic politician Sandra Fluke who had testified in favor of mandating insurance coverage of contraception without co-payments. ⁷⁸

In April 2013, UltraViolet generated a petition demanding that Reebok, the footwear company, end its relationship with Rick Ross, a celebrity rapper and record executive, for encouraging, according to ultraviolet’s website, “rape culture.” Additionally, the group organized a Twitter campaign against Reebok and a small protest in front of its New York City flagship retail store. Reebok ended its relationship with Ross. ⁹¹⁰

In July 2014, UltraViolet, along with NARAL Pro Choice America, a pro-abortion advocacy organization, produced a petition to lobby Yahoo, the internet and media company, to remove paid advertisements on its service from crisis pregnancy centers that oppose abortion. ¹¹¹²

In September 2014, UltraViolet produced a media campaign targeting TBS, the television network, demanding that they cancel rapper and actor Celo Green’s show because he made comments, according to UltraViolet, which “trivialized rape.” The network cancelled Green’s show within the month. ¹³¹⁴

In July 2016, UltraViolet led a social media campaign of its members to pressure the National Basketball Association and its biggest sponsor PepsiCo to relocate the 2017 All Stars Game out of Charlotte, North Carolina in response to the passage of The Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act. The North Carolina state bill, commonly known as “HB2,” compels schools, and other public facilities with single-gender bathrooms to only allow people of the corresponding sex (as listed on their birth certificate) to use them. During the same month, UltraViolet also led a social media campaign advocating for the resignation of Roger Ailes, then the CEO of Fox News, in response to reports alleging that he cultivated an inappropriate workplace culture. ¹⁵¹⁶

In October 2016, following the Washington Post’s reporting on audio tapes of Donald Trump and Billy Bush of NBC’s The Today Show, UltraViolet led a social media campaign demanding that the latter be fired. A few weeks following news coverage of the story, NBC fired Bush. ¹⁷¹⁸

In April 2017, UIltraViolet produced a petition demanding that Fox News fire one its leading pundits, Bill O’Reilly, due to allegations that he had engaged in inappropriate workplace behavior with his female colleagues. Additionally, UltraViolet organized a small protest outside of the Network’s headquarters. Within the month, Fox fired O’Reilly. ¹⁹²⁰

In July 2017, UltraViolet unsuccessfully demanded that the U.S. Golf Association relocate its women’s golf tournament from Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, a golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey owned by President Donald Trump’s companies. The USGA did not relocate the tournament, and UltraViolet staged a small protest near the course as the event was taking place. ²¹²²

In the summer of 2018, following President Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, UltraViolet organized a series of campaigns and protests intended to negatively affect Kavanaugh’s confirmation during the hearings that followed. Aside from conventional social media activity and petitions, two UltraViolet Members confronted Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) in a Senate office elevator. In that vein, directly before the final vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation, the organization trained and sent 300 volunteers to walk the halls of the Senate and confront Senators. Additionally, during this time, the organization situated a jumbotron in front of the Capitol Building, which played a controversial Access Hollywood tape featuring President Trump and Billy Bush on loop for 12 hours. On October 6, 2018, the Senate voted 50—48 to confirm Kavanaugh’s nomination. ²³²⁴²⁵

2018 Google Protest

In May 2018, CREDO Action joined the left-wing LGBT advocacy group UltraViolet to protest at the Google I/O Conference, citing the number of crisis pregnancy centers and pro-life resources that appear in Google’s search results for “abortion clinics.” Protesters also planned to deliver a petition to change search results to Google’s headquarters at the end of the conference after gaining signatures from conference attendees.²⁶

UltraViolet Action

UltraViolet Action, registered in 2014, is the lobbying arm of UltraViolet. Legislation that the organization has advocated for includes, the Violence Against Women Act, federal legislation which provides funding for programs investigating and prosecuting violent crimes against woman, and a July 2014 Obama administration Executive Order requiring prospective federal contractors to disclose labor law violations. The group has advocated heavily against several legislative attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (popularly known as “ObamaCare”). ²⁷²⁸

People

Shaunna Thomas

Shaunna Thomas is the cofounder and executive director of UltraViolet. She was previously the executive director of the P Street Project, an advocacy and lobbying group which supports the candidacies of left-progressives to federal and state political offices. Shaunna was also the COO of Progressive Congress, the 501 (c)(3) nonprofit arm of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a caucus within the House Democratic Caucus consisting and supporting the aims of the most politically left-wing members. ²⁹

Nita Chaudhary

Prior to co-founding UltraViolet, Nita Chaudhary was the national campaigns and organizing director at MoveOn.org Political Action, a progressive Political Action Committee, where she oversaw the fundraising program for the 2008 presidential election. Chaudhary was also the Democratic National Committee’s first “Director of Online” during the 2004 election cycle. ³⁰

Kat Barr

Prior to working as chief operating officer of UltraViolet, Kat Barr worked as a campaign director at MoveOn.org and as the communications director and then the director of political outreach at Rock the Vote, a liberal-leaning voter engagement group. ³¹

Anathea Chino

Prior to joining UltraViolet as its advancement director, Anathea Chino was an investment advisor at Democracy Alliance, a network of wealthy left-leaning donors who coordinate their donations to organizations that the Alliance endorses. Chino was also the development director at NARAL New Mexico, a nonprofit advocacy group which advocates for abortion on demand, and a regional field director for the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Party of New Mexico. Chino sits on the board of directors or advisory boards of left-of-center groups including Inclusv and PowerPac. ³²

Kathy Plate

Prior to working as communications director for UltraViolet, Kathy Plate was Digital Strategies Director at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the online communications manager for the Alliance for Justice, a progressive judicial advocacy group. ³³

Katie Reilly

Priot to joining UltraViolet as campaign director, Katie Reilly was a volunteer with Obama for America and a part of the digital team for the People’s Climate Marches, a series of environmentalist protests. ³⁴

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    https://weareultraviolet.org/about-us/

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