‘More work’ for LGBT backers
Efforts continue even in ‘high equality’ states
Even in states with LGBT protections on the books, activists say there is more work to be done in the quest for equal rights.
Fifteen states and Washington, D.C., are ranked as “high equality” by the Movement Advancement Project, a think tank that researches state and federal laws with LGBT implications. These states have laws with LGBT protections that cover areas such as employment, housing, public accommodations, schools, health care access and hate crimes.
Lisa Cisneros lives in one of those states: California. Cisneros is the LGBT program director for California Rural Legal Assistance, a program she helped launch in 2007 that provides legal advocacy for rural, low-in- come members of the LGBT community.
“It’s not simply a matter of establishing a new statute or winning at the Supreme Court,” she said. “We are making sure communities are aware of what legal rights there are and that they have access to affordable legal services.”
Advocacy organizations, policymakers and elected officials have been committed to establishing legal protections and recourse for LGBT people in the state, Cisneros said. And there is a greater awareness in California “that LGBT people are part of the community,” she said.
Cisneros is not complacent: “I am proud of our state, but there is more work to do.”
Nate Monson is working to create secure environments for LGBT youths as executive director of Iowa Safe Schools.
Iowa was an early pioneer for marriage equality. Since 2007, Iowa law prohibited discrimination based on gender identity, and many schools had already made accommodations for transgender students. Even though the state has turned “red,” Monson said the LGBT community had no “direct hit” from the Legislature this year, unlike many other states.
Monson works in the most rural corners of the state. “Our priority right now is making sure if you are LGBT and living in a rural community, you are not alone,” he said.
The LGBT bias he has witnessed has often been at local levels. Last year, the issue of transgender school policy came to a head in Fairfield, he recalls, and there were protesters “like a mob with a pitchfork.”
One thing Monson learned: When someone actually knows someone who is LGBT, it is a different story. “It’s a lot harder to go after your neighbor if they are just your neighbor. It’s easier to get riled up at a school board level.”