Equality NC's Day of Action: 2/15/11

Register or sign up for this on-site TODAY/NOW at the NC Museum of History.

Call June Mabry, 704/985-3755, if you have questions.

Jake, You'll have a blast. You'll enjoy (hopefully) meeting with your elected officials and I'm more than sure you'll see a lot of folks you already know and make some new friends. I've always enjoyed ENC's lobby day. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it this year. Class is in session. I'll be calling and emailing and doing my usual thing, though.

As promised, I wanted to share how things went. First off I must say just how awesome and empowering it was to talk to elected officials and really see them listen and responding about how you're actions as a concerned citizen really can affect policy.

So the basic break down for the day, in addition to some interesting videos and speeches about LGBT equality, treatment of LGBT kids at schools, and a faith perspective on equality was the direct meetings with Senators and Representatives such that constituents got to speak to the people who represented their district.

Being from the part of Chapel Hill I'm from, I had Senator Kinnaird and Representative Insko to meet with. One concern I had was that I would be meeting only with some of the strongest supporters, so I wondered what good my participation in a Day of Action would do, turns out it was a lot!

For one thing I paired up with a local Raleigh high school student, Christine (who I believe has a bright future at any college of her choosing), since we were having trouble finding other Raleighites around at first. Going with her to meetings gave me the chance to expand the range of elected officials I got to talk to. And while not a Raleigh resident myself, I used to be not that long ago, I still leave nearby, and I'm a grad student at State, so I made a decent case for having an interest in Raleigh. Pairing up with Christine was wonderful too, just to hear how open and accepting some high schools in NC are today, compared with what I experienced back Mt. Airy in the early 2000s.

But on to my specific meetings. First I met with Senator Kinnaird. I've seen her at Pride, and know her track record of supporting equality, so I joked that I was preaching to the choir, and she came back with not only that, but I was preaching to the director of the choir. But it was still nice to give some support to someone who has done so much work on equality issues.

I must say though that the real treat of the day was the meeting with Representative Insko. Not that the other meetings weren't really positive experiences, but Rep. Insko as luck would have it had about half an hour to really sit down and engage in a real discussion.

Equality NC had provided some guidance and education on issues to all of us constituent-advocates on things like the marriage discrimination bill that is probably coming up, on employment & housing anti-discrimination efforts, and on saving AIDS prevention and care funds. Representative Insko was very supportive on all the issues we discussed, but she was the only one today to take out pen and paper and write down the ideas she was hearing and discuss how they would play out amongst her more conservative colleagues. Particular arguments that resonated were that a marriage discrimination ballot amendment would turn out a lot of religious republicans to vote republican whenever it went on the ballot, so conservative dems should consider that when voting. Also the idea of a legislative fiscal note from the General Assembly pointing out that it would cost 5 million or so to implement this ballot measure at a time when they were trying to balance the budget was a strong argument as well.

I also went off script some to talk about 2 issues I care about, that do have somewhat of a LGBT angle. One was Voter ID and how that would suppress votes. While it will disenfranchised many groups, students are key among them, and its that next generation that is most supportive of LGBT equality. I also discussed the vouchers thing and how I was worried that may funnel public tax payer funds to private/religious schools that discriminate against LGBT students.

Rep. Insko went further than the others I met with, who promised to keep fighting and educating people, to the point of committing to taking some specific actions.

1) She'll try to poll people and see where they stand on the marriage discrimination amendment which can help guide our advocacy efforts. She was even pulling out the pen and paper and doing the math on how many people the marriage discrimination amendment would need to make it onto the ballot. And seeing that it couldn't if the Dems stood together since the GOP doesn't have a supermajority in the House, she thought this discriminatory effort was defeatable.

2) She'll try to do an amendment saying that if Voter IDs come to pass, then Student IDs should count as valid voter IDs.

3) She'll try to do an amendment saying if vouchers are going to transfer funds away from public schools that have to be open to the public, that the schools receiving those moneys should admit LGBT students.

Given the control of the General Assembly it is hard to say how those amendments will fair, but it was very empowering to think that there are amendments that are going to happen now that might not have happened if not for my attending this event.

Another meeting I was pleased to have was with the NCSU GLBT Center Director. NCSU has become such a welcoming school now during grad school versus what I experienced in undergrad, and I am sure their worked helped on that front. Unfortunately with my MPA program being largely evening focused, I haven't been able to attend those meetings. But I learned about a lavender graduation for LGBTA students that I was invited to participate in when I graduate this year which would carry a lot of meaning for me just as a representative of how much change has occurred.

Overall, I met some inspiring people, I was able to push for concrete steps to be taken on issues I care about, and I learned a lot.

I'm very excited to do this again next year!

This just landed in my inbox from Equality NC, please sign!

Jake,

We have learned that Sen. Jim Forrester is circulating a bill to pass an anti-LGBT constitutional amendment and will be filing it in the coming days. Right now he's looking for other senators to sign on as co-sponsors.

Take action right now to ask your senator to oppose writing bigotry and discrimination into our state constitution.

We believe the proposed bill would not only deny same-sex couples access to marriage, but any kind of relationship recognition at all, including partner benefits from private companies! And imagine the message it sends to LGBT young people to learn that their state leaders want to single them out as unworthy of basic rights and dignity.

Your senator needs to hear from your. Let him or her know that they must stand against this harmful bill.

Together, we can fight for our values of freedom, family and fairness.

For Equality,

Ian

The nationwide valentines day of action: