Gay activist declares Alabama will become ‘new home for LGBT equality’

Chad Griffin of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is out today with an op-ed declaring that his organization’s “unprecedented, $8.5 million effort to advance equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people” in the south will lead to Alabama becoming a “new home for LGBT equality.”

The new initiative, which HRC has dubbed “Project One America,” will focus on “using chats and front-porch visits between relatives and friends to foster an environment more welcoming toward people of all sexual orientations,” according to the Associated Press.

“I’m especially proud to be launching the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) Project One America in Montgomery and Birmingham on Wednesday,” Griffin wrote today. “It will be the largest-ever coordinated campaign for equality in the history of the South. We’ve got to do more than we’ve ever done before, because no one in this state should have to wait a single day more for equality to reach them.”

The AP explains further:

The idea is simple, and it’s borne out in polls: People are less likely to oppose expanded rights and acceptance if they know and care for someone who’s gay. Activists hope that’s particularly true in a region that values hospitality.

The Human Rights Campaign… plans to open offices in each state and staff them with 20 people total, primarily residents.

Workers will meet with friends, allies, neighbors, business executives, faith leaders and community groups in an attempt to increase acceptance of LGBT people. The aim is to first change hearts and minds so that people hiding their sexual orientation will be more comfortable about coming out publicly. As that occurs, organizers believe, communities and states will be more likely to adopt laws to prevent discrimination.

News of the HRC’s new campaign comes on the heels of gay couples in Alabama filing married tax returns in defiance of state law.

The United States Supreme Court ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional in June of 2013, allowing gay couples to file a joint federal income tax return for the first time this year. But they are still not allowed by law to file jointly here on the state level because Alabama does not recognize same-sex marriage.

That has compelled some gay couples to defy state law and file jointly with The Alabama Department of Revenue. Their hope, one assumes, is that the state will come after them for breaking tax law and throw the issue into the courts, where gay rights activists have had the most success.

Only three states have approved a ballot measure allowing same-sex marriage, while many states, including liberal states like California, have rejected it at the ballot box. But judicial decisions in six states have legalized same-sex marriage, and several other court decisions in favor of gay marriage are pending appeal.

So while a multi-million dollar gay rights campaign may lead to some elevated tension over the same-sex marriage issue in Alabama, the real showdown will most likely end up in federal court, where the future of marriage in Alabama will rest in the hands of a judge.

Griffin said today that LGBT activists have allowed their opposition to “control the conversation,” which he believes has led to “two distinctly different Americas” — one in liberal hotbeds “on the coasts,” and another in the Bible belt and heartland. His organization is planning to spend millions of dollars to move Alabama toward becoming more like “the coasts.”

Here are three key paragraphs from Griffin’s op-ed:

Too long, the opponents of equality across the South have controlled the conversation. They’ve made the case that there’s simply nothing Southern about being gay. They’ve said that we want to destroy the family and attack faith. That we want to redefine marriage. That we want “special” rights and freedoms. And, despite the tireless work of local advocates who have spent decades here in Alabama and across the South working to change hearts and minds, they’ve largely succeeded.

The result is the creation of two distinctly different Americas. In one America, mostly on the coasts, with a few hopeful spots in the middle, full legal equality is darn near a reality. But in the other America, like right here in Alabama, even the most basic protections of the law are nonexistent. No nondiscrimination protections. No reliable access to affordable HIV care. No right to jointly adopt a child. And certainly no marriage equality.

This continued inequality is not just wrong, it doesn’t do Alabama justice. It doesn’t do the South justice. Today, too many around this country write off the South as the “finish line” for equality. I reject that characterization. It’s time that LGBT people in this state accessed the only freedom we’ve ever wanted—the freedom to say that the South is our home, too.

What do you think about the LGBT movement’s newly launched Alabama campaign? Will it work? Let us know in the comment section below or by tweeting @YHPolitics.

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