EQUALITY WARS: COMING TO A STATE NEAR YOU: From The Advocate

...Election coverage focused on the antigay constitutional amendments that passed in various states around the country. These losses are certainly disheartening and are a reason for analysis of how to do better in the future. But what both the national and queer press failed to report is that in 14 states, statewide advocacy groups successfully prevented passage of these amendments in their legislatures, keeping them off the ballot this fall. Half of those states are so-called red states.

Stopping amendments legislatively is the smart way to go, and this is where Equality Federation organizations have the most experience to get the job done. To date, our community has yet to win when an anti-LGBT marriage amendment goes before voters statewide, but we do have a record of legislative success. Moreover, an effective legislative campaign costs a fraction of the millions it costs to run a statewide ballot campaign.

Statewide organizations are also succeeding in advancing proactive legislation: ...

More and more local governments and even states are passing some form of relationship recognition, from a domestic partner registry in Carrboro, N.C., to statewide recognition in Vermont and California.

Even in conservative states, progress is being made through local policies and executive regulations. All of these victories have been made possible by the hard work of statewide advocacy groups. ...

Our national groups are each critical to our movement. We count on them to fight for us in an unfriendly Congress, to monitor and shape the national media, to conduct strategic research, to fight in the courts, and much more. But our movement cannot succeed if we invest all our hope and all our resources in federal work. As statewide organizers, we've learned time and again that a top-down, one-size-fits-all model of organizing doesn't work.

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posted by Eve at 1:44 PM | link

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