In a recent interview with Richard L. Tso, Executive Director of TAP, we explored the motivation and driving force behind the organization’s newly launched campaign that is quickly gaining momentum.

TAP America, a non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening America and its citizens, launched a nationwide campaign to promote tolerance in America through education. TAPamerica.org presents resources to give people the tools necessary to learn about different cultures, races and ways of life through meeting new people, reading books and watching evocative movies. As part of their pledge, TAP America encourages people to practice an act of tolerance each week and this comes at a time when this is much needed within America.

“Growing up gay in America is not easy. While we have made tremendous strides towards equality, we must not forget that the rights we do have can easily be taken away at any moment due to the volatile political climate we live in. As a double-minority, a gay Chinese man born and raised in America, I have faced discrimination on many levels, but this does not extinguish my hope that we can build a country that is both tolerant and accepting of who I am as a person.”

Tso’s experiences were only amplified when he faced the occurrence of sheer hate based on fear and repulse of perceived “otherness” first hand.

“I was targeted in a hate crime last year while on a business trip to Baltimore representing a company as Vice President and this truly opened my eyes to just how far we need to go as a nation in order to eradicate homophobia. This and watching the LGBT suicides and bullying in school led me to say, ‘Okay, enough is enough. Now is time to act. I believe in the crazy notion that Tolerance IS patriotic. Do you?’
Not wanting to just be a victim, I decided to take action by helping to form TAP America, a non-political, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting tolerance in America.”

According to the 2009 annual Department of Justice report on Hate Crime, 48.4% of hate crimes were motivated by racial bias, followed by religious bias (19.7%) and sexual orientation bias (18.5%). Approximately 71.3% of racial bias was anti-black, while 17% were anti-white and about 71.4% of religious bias was anti-Jewish. Also, 55.7% of all sexual orientation bias were directed against homosexual males.

The tenets of TAP America are simple: Practice tolerance through educating yourself about different cultures, religions and ways of life. You can get started through visiting the website for suggestions on books, movies and ways to meet people ; America is only as strong as its citizens, it is time to get healthy by turning off the television and dedicating at least 5 minutes each day to exercise; Help stimulate our economy by starting to look at labels before you purchase products. If you buy American-made products, you are helping to create jobs in America.

“We do not want to simply work towards educating the same people who already support LGBT rights, and as such, we have aligned the ideals of Tolerance and Patriotism in order to reach a broader population. We would like to promote the idea that tolerance itself is patriotic in order to be more inclusive with the goal of helping all people have pride in who they are as Americans and as people.”

“Our community talks a lot about having pride in who we are, but many of us cringe at the idea of patriotism. I argue that having pride in yourself means having pride in every part of yourself, including your nationality.”

TAP America has witnessed phenomenal growth since its launch in January 2011, experiencing 120% week over week growth in website traffic and has been well received by the public. Already, people are following TAP on facebook and twitter from across the entire spectrum, from HRC supporters to Tea-Party members.

According to the 2009 annual Department of Justice report on Hate Crime, 48.4% of hate crimes were motivated by racial bias, followed by religious bias (19.7%) and sexual orientation bias (18.5%). Approximately 71.3% of racial bias was anti-black, while 17% were anti-white and about 71.4% of religious bias was anti-Jewish. Also, 55.7% of all sexual orientation bias were directed against homosexual males.

“These figures are indeed startling but we also must remember that these numbers are under-representative of hate crimes in America because only one-third of victims report hate crimes to the authorities,” said Richard L. Tso, Executive Director of TAP America. “While it takes courage to stand-up and admit you were a victim, our main mission with this tolerance campaign is to prevent these violent acts from occurring in the first place by educating people about our differences and highlighting what unites us as a collective.”

The United Nations defines tolerance as the following: Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world’s cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human. It is fostered by knowledge, openness, communication, and freedom of thought, conscience and belief. Tolerance is harmony in difference. It is not only a moral duty, it is also a political and legal requirement. Tolerance, the virtue that makes peace possible, contributes to the replacement of the culture of war by a culture of peace.

“With this, tolerance is about respecting someone based on character rather than race, gender, sexual identity, religion, politics, and economics. It is about understanding the humanity and differences of our people,” said Stephanie Adams, COO of TAP America. “This is what makes America strong.”

As part of this tolerance campaign, TAP America has begun to solicit feedback and support from national organizations like The Trevor Project and Campus Tolerance. The TAP America website features famous quotes about tolerance from celebrities like Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, Michael Franti, Dave Matthews, Alex Rodriguez and others. If you would like to participate in this campaign, please send your quotes, videos and ideas to info@tapamerica.org.

“As a nation, we have become divided and this distracts us from other issues both foreign and domestic,” said Mark Bloome, Founder of TAP America. “As the famous saying goes, 'Every Kingdom against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.' We, as a country have been in a fit of intolerance and this weakens us. At the citizen-level, all too often, we as Americans associate the word tolerance with having to endure something or someone but in actuality, it means to accept and appreciate people as individuals, communities and states. We encourage people to practice tolerance each day to understand that we are all more similar than we are different.”

For more information about TAP America, to volunteer or to make a donation, please visit www.tapamerica.org.