The Inspiration Behind Our Logo
In order to understand the inspiration for our logo, it is helpful to learn about the inspiration for our organization itself. Ever since our core organizers became committed to advocating for animal liberation using the ballot initiative process, we developed deep admiration for the woman's suffrage movement—which similarly used statewide ballot measures to secure the right to vote. In just the state of Oregon alone, the suffrage movement forced the vote on enfranchisement in six election cycles before it finally passed. Nationwide they forced the vote 54 times, with 15 initiatives ultimately passing prior to the 19th amendment. They were persistent, and we knew that we'd have to embody that same perseverance if we wanted to create a world in which the life and liberty of all sentient beings were protected.
To express our admiration for the suffrage movement, and to intentionally position our struggle for animal life and liberty as being part of the heritage of progressivism, we wanted our logo to be inspired by the logo for the National American Woman Suffrage Movement. At the center of their logo sits a sunflower, the state flower of Kansas—the very first state in the country to vote on suffrage in 1867. Ultimately that initiative didn't pass, with 31.35% voting in favor and 68.65% voting against, but they chose nonetheless to adopt a sunflower as their logo to celebrate part of their history. This is where their statewide campaigns began, and that beginning was worth celebrating.
Although the initiatives previously put forward by our founders have yet to qualify for the Oregon ballot, we still wanted to commemorate the origin of where we began. To this end, we could have chosen to use the Oregon Grape for our logo, but we went with a white rose for two reasons. The first reason is that our very first initiative, known as IP13, truly began in Portland—the City of Roses. While our reach certainly expanded over time, even our most recent initiative for the 2026 election collected a whopping 66% of signatures within the Portland Metro. Our hope is to continue to reach people all across the state, and yet we still believe it is worth celebrating that the city of Portland is where we began. The second reason we went with a white rose is to honor another group of people, outside of the suffrage movement, from whom we take inspiration. Founded in June of 1942, a small nonviolent resistance group led by five students and one professor began to circulate anonymous leaflets attempting to wake people up to the mass killing of Jews happening—openly and in secret—as Germans went about their daily lives. This group, called the White Rose (Weiße Rose), spoke out against what they saw as a violent system despite the risks. Many were ultimately imprisoned and executed. We are incredibly fortunate to live in a time when speaking out against violence and advocating for change doesn't automatically come with a death sentence. While it can still be vulnerable and fill us with dread to speak out, particularly when so few others are, we believe it may be inspiring to remember those who spoke out under much more dangerous circumstances. Let's make the most of the conditions we have in the present moment.
I expect that a few readers, particularly those already dissatisfied by our advocacy, may find themselves feeling disgust or discomfort seeing the suffrage movement and a holocaust-resistance group mentioned anywhere on our website. When I have shared about the inspiration we take from the suffrage movement in the past, occasionally others will comment online claiming that I am comparing women to non-human animals. I believe a key distinction is being missed in these comments, and to understand that distinction I believe the following analogy can be helpful. In the 16th century, Galileo was famously said to have dropped two spheres of different masses from the Leaning Tower of Pisa in order to demonstrate how gravity acts equally upon all objects. The objects dropped doesn’t matter—if instead of two spheres you were to drop a baby chick from one hand, and a human child from the other, gravity would pull both to the ground at the same rate with indifference. That statement does not claim that a child and a chick are equivalent in all or even any respects, it is simply an illustration of gravity. What's being compared is the force itself, not the objects the force is acting on. I believe that oppression, similarly, can be seen as a force acting on others regardless of their similarity or differences—the only distinction here is that oppression is not a force purely of nature. Gas chambers can kill equally Jews as they do pigs (nearly 90% of pigs in the US are killed in gas chambers). A bullet to the lungs sentences both humans and deer to the same death. These statements are comparing similar forces, and how they can act on all sentient beings in equally violent ways.
I also believe that compassion can be seen as a force—and one that does not have to be limited to benefiting human beings. When I claim to take inspiration from social change advocates of the past, what I am claiming is that the same compassion that animated their actions can help animate our actions as well. And, I'm comparing the ways in which we choose to live that compassionate nature. This does not require comparing the recipients of that compassion.
So, as a way of inspiring us to take action, connecting us to a progressive heritage, and celebrating where we began, we have chosen a white rose as the centerpiece for our logo.
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