Date: Mon, 4 Oct 99 17:04:40 -0500 From: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Subject: [NGLTF PRESS] OP-ED: The Struggle At Home ********************************************* NATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN TASK FORCE OPINION-EDITORIAL Contact: David Elliot, Communications Director 202-332-6483 ext. 3303 800-757-6476 pager delliot@ngltf.org http://www.ngltf.org 1700 Kalorama Road NW, Washington, DC ********************************************* Attention editors: The following is an opinion/commentary written by Kerry Lobel, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. For mug shots, please contact the NGLTF communications department. The Struggle at Home By Kerry Lobel Recently a candidate for public office made a comment that reflects the sentiments of a lot of us these days. "I abhor the rancorous bickering in Washington, D.C.," the pol said upon declaring his candidacy. "Civility must be restored in the nation's capital." The phrase "inside the Beltway" has become a term of derision in our political lexicon. Democrats, Republicans, lawyers, lobbyists and - let's be honest - national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender groups in Washington, D.C. are accused of being out of touch with the concerns and needs of ordinary Americans. Although I live in the District of Columbia, I clearly understand and appreciate the sentiment. On issues of importance to so many of us, such as passing hate crimes legislation or protecting our civil rights, the current Congress is stuck in neutral. Even on issues that dominate today's headlines - gun violence, tobacco regulation, campaign finance reform - Congress refuses to significantly address fundamental problems that cry out for solutions. Nero fiddles while Rome burns. Add to this the fact that we have seen a fundamental shift, or devolution, of power from the federal government to the states, and one quickly determines that these days, the home front is where the action is. Municipal ordinances, state legislative battles and occasional referendums are where our rights are being debated - and sometimes granted, sometimes denied. Unfortunately, this is not the case in my own city. While Congress makes decisions over our day-to-day lives, we have no power to elect our own Congress members and senators and we have limited self-governance. While the outlook sometimes seems gloomy in Washington, D.C., both for D.C. residents and for people in all 50 states who expect a more responsive Congress, we have seen important progress on the local and state level. For example, in California, legislators just completed the most GLBT-positive session in memory. Among the measures they passed and Gov. Gray Davis signed: * AB26, providing a statewide registry for same-sex couples and making health insurance available for same-sex partners of state employees. * AB1001, adding sexual orientation to the list of causes under the state Fair Employment and Housing Act for which people cannot be discriminated against. * AB537, offering public school students some protection against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Did we get everything we wanted? No - some of the bills could have been broader and more inclusive. For example, AB 26 does not appear to cover transgender people and it does not cover opposite-sex couples who choose not to marry. And AB1001 includes sexual orientation, but not gender identity. But compared with Congress, California legislators moved swiftly - and in the process demonstrated that the state level is often where the action is. At the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, we've always worked on local organizing and training, but lately we've taken steps to make sure our work is even more effective and successful. We've launched a "legislative lawyering" project that will help local and state advocates for GLBT equality win battles. Last month, for example, GLBT advocates from a dozen states participated in a conference call with our strategists to discuss how to reconcile a commitment to religious liberty in the states with maintaining our hard-won GLBT civil rights. The call was in response to "religious liberty protection acts" that were proposed in 15 states this year and in Congress. Future conference calls will focus on hate crimes legislation, civil rights laws and safe-schools legislation. Of course, this exciting new project is only part of our activity on the home front. We also help coordinate the Federation of LGBT Statewide Political Groups, which meets twice a year. We continuously train and organize, a trademark of our 26 years of existence. Our think tank, the NGLTF Policy Institute, develops tools and materials that keep activists informed of the latest research and information that affect our day-to-day lives as GLBT people. And last but never least, we host Creating Change, an annual conference that attracts more than 2,000 participants. This year, Creating Change will be in Oakland, Cal., Nov. 10-14. A key program in the conference will be to train activists to defeat the Knight Initiative, an anti-gay measure that would prohibit California from recognizing same-sex marriages that are performed in other states. Maybe some day the "rancorous bickering" will come to an end in Washington, D.C., and civility will be restored to our nation's capital. But in the meantime, we're continuing the struggle at home - and growing stronger with each passing day. _____________________________________________________________________ Founded in 1973, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force works to eliminate prejudice, violence and injustice against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people at the local, state and national level. As part of a broader social justice movement for freedom, justice and equality, NGLTF is creating a world that respects and celebrates the diversity of human expression and identity where all people may fully participate in society. _________________________________________________________________ The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force presents the Creating Change conference - the nation's premier conference for activists and organizers in the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender movement. November 10-14 * Oakland, CA * http://www.creatingchange.org _________________________________________ This message was issued by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Communications Department. If you have a question regarding this post, please direct it to the contact at the top of this message. To reach the NGLTF Communications Department at NGLTF, please call David Elliot, Communications Director, at 202-332-6483 x3303 or pager 800-757-6476. If you wish to UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, please send an email with "UNSUBSCRIBE PRESSLIST" in the subject and body of your email message to . You may also unsubscribe by visiting http://www.ngltf.org.