In the last two Gluten Free Self-Advocacy Tools we talked about advocacy in your personal life, and advocacy in regards to meeting your shopping and dining needs. These might have seemed more about spreading awareness than self-advocacy, but I assure you advocating at a personal level is still advocacy.

The broader areas of legislative and political action is often more of what individuals think of when they hear the term advocacy. They think of standing up for, or advocating for, larger policies which form the world in which we live. For Celiac Disease and gluten free living there area many areas, and ways in which we can politically advocate for our needs. Below are just a few examples of Legislative and Political areas for advocacy in mainly the United States.

General Methods of Legislative and Political Advocacy
Petitions, Online advocacy, and contacting your local and national political figures are all great means of legislative and political action. Here are a few general places to start for legislative or political advocacy.

• Change.org and iPetitions.com are two examples of online petition sites with which you can advocate for and gain support for your movements. Doing a simple search for gluten free reveals a ton of petitions. Typically the petition is then presented to either the entity it is addressed towards, or someone in political office.
• In the USA, our government actually makes it easy to find the contact details for those in political office. Here are a few sites which you can use find your Senators and Representatives.
• USA.Gov: Resources to find both national and local politicians. 
• Find your Representative site for the House of Representatives.
• List of Senators
• For local representatives of smaller areas, consider contacting your Mayor or town hall. 
• In Britain, you can find your Member of Parliament by putting your post code in on their homepage.
• When contacting your political figures it is often best to have talking points on hand that are clear, quick, and specific. This will make it easier to get your thoughts out in a memorable way. Here is a tool on how to write talking points.

Below are a few areas of Celiac Disease and Gluten Free living which might require legislative and political advocacy. 

Gluten Free Food Labeling Laws

As of now, gluten free labeling has no standardized procedure. In 2004 the development of the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) tasked the FDA to finalize such labeling, yet the task has not yet been fulfilled. Currently, the regulation has made it to the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), and hopefully the FDA and government will be completed with their review and editing of the regulation by September. 

The best way to advocate for this is by contacting those who represent you and political office, as discussed above, and encouraging them to support the enactment of these labeling laws. The 1in133 Organization organization is a great tool to use to develop your talking points.

Access to Gluten-free foods on Campus 

The American’s with Disabilities act was recently used in a case to determine that Colleges must offer gluten free menu items in a safe way if a meal plan is required. I wrote about this previously, but below are several tools which explain this in further detail. To advocate for yourself on a college campus it is best to work with the campus food services, and possibly the Dean of the school or other higher ups. Depending on the situation, assistance from a lawyer might also be necessary.

• ADA’S “Questions and Answers About the Lesley University Agreement and Potential Impacts for Those with Food Allergies” 
• Full Americans with  Disabilities Act of 1990, As Amended

Gluten Free Medicine Labeling

Medicine is another area in which gluten ingredient labeling is not standardized. However, earlier this month new legislation was presented which would ensure that labeling would include whether gluten (in any form) was present in a medication. The Gluten in Medicine Disclosure Act is in it’s early stages, and is a great place to advocate for your gluten free needs in the medical field. Again, consider contacting your political offices and encouraging them to support this act!

That brings us to the conclusion of my Gluten Free Self Advocacy Tools series. I hope you find these tools helpful, and remember to advocate for yourself at all levels!