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November 13, 2006
Dear Friends:
By now, you all know that the Minnesota House of Representatives and
Minnesota Senate are in the hands of elected officials who have proven
themselves to be fair-minded. Because of it, we feel very hopeful about
the future of GLBT rights in Minnesota. OutFront Minnesota and OutFront
Minnesota Action played key leadership roles in the 2006 elections and
are pleased that together with our allies we’ve created a more friendly
legislative climate for our community and our issues.
As we move into the new legislative calendar, I wanted to write to
you to let you know what we at OutFront Minnesota are doing to secure
full legal rights for GLBT people including legal recognition of same
sex relationships.
Before finalizing and publicizing our plans we are engaged in
discussions with legislative and other allies to get some agreement
about what exact form that legislation will take. We will continually
communicate with our community about any bills we plan to promote in the
2007 legislative session, which begins January 3rd.
We fully intend to take advantage of the current opportunities while
being strategic about long term goals and mindful of the wide ranging
implications of our actions.
So, to those ends, here is what we are doing - - -
1. Prior to the election last Tuesday Monica Meyer - our Public
Policy Director, C. Scott Cooper – our Lobbyist, Phil Duran – our Legal
and Policy Analyst and I met with Minnesota State Senator Scott Dibble
and Minnesota State Representative Karen Clark to lay out a strategy for
the next legislative biennium. We also talked about a vision which we
think we can accomplish over the next 5 years. We have some great plans
which we think are workable and smart.
Now that the elections have happened and we know the lay of the land,
we will be meeting again to talk about specific strategies and a
timeline.
2. We (C. Scott Cooper, Monica Meyer, Karen Clark and Scott Dibble)
will be meeting with other elected officials with whom we have a good
working relationship to talk with them about our plans allowing us an
opportunity for broader feedback and buy in.
Our central question here is – how do we get something done on behalf
of the GLBT community in Minnesota when we have a fair-minded House and
Senate but a Governor who has proven himself to be an obstacle when it
comes to GLBT rights.
3. Monica Meyer and I are scheduled to meet with the Faith, Family
Fairness Alliance later this month to talk about our legislative agenda
and the alliance’s role in a successful session. The Workplace Alliance,
a steering committee of individuals representing GLBT Employee Resource
Groups, has resurrected their Power Breakfast series to help bring
companies into the effort to further GLBT rights. We will be talking
with The Workplace Alliance at their January meeting about our
legislative plans. In addition, Monica and I are talking with leaders
from Rainbow Families, the Minnesota AIDS Project, District 202, the
campus organizations, PFund, the Minnesota School OUTreach Coalition and
others to get their perspectives on our plan. Monica Meyer and C. Scott
Cooper are talking with allied groups such as Planned Parenthood, Clean
Water Action, TakeAction Minnesota, the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits,
America Votes, labor unions, and others.
4. Becky Smith (OutFront Minnesota Community Organizer), Monica
Meyer, Rebecca Waggoner-Kloek (OutFront Minnesota Anti-Violence Program
Manager) and I just returned from the annual National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force Creating Change conference where we led sessions on how to
organize a successful lobby day, organizing in rural areas, and how to
work in coalition with others. Monica Meyer and Becky Smith were
actively involved in conversations during the Equality Federation (the
organization of statewide GLBT groups) meetings about strategies to gain
marriage equality, to increase statewide civil rights protections and to
build the power of the GLBT community nationally. Monica is a board
member of the Federation. Monica Meyer and I presented information
during the National Association of LGBT Community Centers Institute
about how to mobilize your community center for political action in
which we talked about a nationally coordinated Get Out the Vote Campaign
led by the National Association. I am the board co-chair of the National
Association of LGBT Community Centers. Finally, I was invited to and did
attend a meeting of nationally recognized GLBT leaders in which we
debriefed the Tuesday elections and talked about strategies for this
year and beyond.
In addition, leaders from national groups including the Task Force,
Freedom to Marry and Human Rights Campaign sought us out to find out why
what we do here in Minnesota is so successful. They are all enthusiastic
about coming here this winter to lend their organizational clout to our
plans.
5. Monica Meyer and Becky Smith are getting ready to embark on our
second statewide Community Action Training tour in December. Last year’s
tour which reached 1,000 individuals across the state was pivotal in our
success on Lobby Day and throughout the legislative session and election
season. Monica and Becky will go to 30 communities this year beginning
with Alexandria, Detroit Lakes, Park Rapids, Hibbing, Duluth, Willmar,
Winona, Rochester, Austin, and Mankato.
6. And finally, I want to hear from you about what you think. After
we have completed our assessment with elected officials and community
leaders, we will be convening a community meeting – sometime in early
January – to let you know what we have in mind. But in the meantime,
please send me your ideas via email. We learn so much by listening to
you.
Thanks for all of your work today and over the last few years.
Instead of having to defend ourselves against extremists trying to force
discrimination upon us, I look forward to working with all of you again
as we promote a positive agenda for GLBT rights.
Ann DeGroot
OutFront Minnesota Executive Director
P.S Mark your calendars – Lobby Day 2007 is set for Thursday April 19!
OutFront Minnesota Executive
Director Ann DeGroot
Photo by Sophie Hantzes |
