Building Momentum for Change - How Local and Incremental Policy Campaigns Contribute to Statewide Victories
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Building Momentum for Change
How Local and Incremental Policy Campaigns Contribute to Statewide Victories
By Fran Hutchins, Ian Palmquist, and Jace WoodrumBuilding Momentum for Change
This report was produced by the Equality Federation Institute with funding
from the Gill Foundation.
ABOUT EQUALITY FEDERATION INSTITUTE
The Equality Federation Institute is the strategic partner and movement builder to state-
based organizations that are working on the ground to advance policies that improve the
lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Since 1997, we have worked
throughout the country—strengthening state-based LGBT organizations, building the
leaders of today and tomorrow, and making critical progress on the issues that matter most.
The greatest opportunities for policy wins are in the states, where the work is hard but the
impact is great. With our support, statewide LGBT advocacy organizations are building a
strong movement for equality in the communities we call home.
Learn more about the Equality Federation Institute at www.equalityfederation.org.
ABOUT THE GILL FOUNDATION
Based in Denver, Colorado, the Gill Foundation is one of the nation’s largest funders of
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender equal rights work. The foundation has invested more
than $220 million since its inception in organizations and programs to achieve its mission of
equal opportunity for all Americans, regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression.
Learn more about the Gill Foundation at www.gillfoundation.org.
Copyright © 2013
Equality Federation Institute
567 Sutter St., 3rd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
2Building Momentum for Change
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary......................................................................................4
Introduction..................................................................................................7
Educating the Public.....................................................................................9
Establishing Facts.........................................................................................12
Creating Political Momentum......................................................................15
Building Capacity..........................................................................................19
Gaining Real Protections..............................................................................25
Cautions.........................................................................................................27
Recommendations for Movement Leaders.................................................28
Recommendations for Funders....................................................................30
Conclusion.....................................................................................................31
Acknowledgments........................................................................................32
About the Authors........................................................................................33
3Building Momentum for Change
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Building Momentum for Change is about a movement: a movement that started with incredible acts
of courage outside a bar in New York City and has grown into an unstoppable force for fairness and
equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.
Without a doubt, this movement has secured unprecedented victories at a rapid pace. And we’ve
made this monumental progress working state by state. In fact, we are united in the belief that state-
level policy wins play an important role in achieving full justice and equality.
Although the LGBT movement firmly believes in the important role of state-by-state work, the
impact of local and incremental progress—of community-by-community work—has been less closely
examined.
Throughout our movement’s history, leaders have engaged in local advocacy with cities, counties,
and school districts—successfully making the case for equality with municipal lawmakers. Building
Momentum for Change considers the role these local and incremental campaigns have played in
securing comprehensive protections at the state level.
This report argues unequivocally that local and incremental campaigns are driving our movement
forward in several ways:
• Providing opportunities to engage in positive, productive public education
Every success our movement has celebrated—at the federal, state, and local level—has been
tied to our monumental gains with the public. Local and incremental campaigns create an
opportunity to spark the critical conversations that win people to our side. Specifically, these
efforts help educate the public and move public opinion by:
• Building understanding of the current lack of protections;
• Creating newsworthy events that draw attention to the issues;
• Establishing a frame for discussing LGBT issues; and
• Persuading voters to support our issues at all levels of government.
• Establishing facts that make creating a case for further legislation easier
In the face of increasingly savvy opposition messages that seek to undermine our
momentum, local and incremental campaigns provide movement leaders with a unique
opportunity to tell our community’s story, to establish the facts about who we are and why
we matter, and to elevate messages that unite us and move us forward. Local campaigns
build a strong case for laws protecting LGBT people by:
• Disproving negative consequences predicted by the opposition;
• Demonstrating need through utilization of policies; and
• Showing positive effects for the community.
4Building Momentum for Change
• Creating political momentum
Every victory we secure should put us one step closer to the next one, and that’s exactly
what local and incremental work does—it sets us up for what’s next. These campaigns allow
us to develop and implement political strategies that fuel the next big win by:
• Establishing that the issue is not politically damaging to elected officials;
• Creating institutional advocates;
• Creating advocates out of elected officials likely to run for higher office;
• Changing the narrative by winning in a symbolically significant municipality; and
• Creating a need for statewide uniformity and setting a high standard for policy
language.
• Building the capacity of our movement organizations and the skills of our leaders
Local and incremental campaigns are builders—they build political power, build bases of
support, build state and local leaders, and build momentum. In fact, they build a movement
by:
• Creating a rallying point for LGBT people and allies;
• Creating a sense of momentum and success;
• Branding organizations as truly statewide;
• Growing relationships with donors;
• Building an engaged base of volunteers;
• Developing strong, diverse coalitions;
• Giving state and local leaders valuable experience in campaign strategies and tactics; and
• Creating a leadership pipeline to the state and national movement.
• Enacting real protections for LGBT people
At the end of the day, this movement is about people: people who are struggling to earn
a living free from discrimination; people who face harassment in the communities they
call home; people who are too scared to go to school; people who can’t take care of their
families. Local and incremental campaigns provide protections to real people who need
them.
While this report primarily explores the power and positive impact of local and incremental work, we
also consider the limitations of advancing equality community by community. From the challenges
of implementation and enforcement to the risks of setting bad precedents, these campaigns are
not without their pitfalls. But when local and incremental efforts are pursued thoughtfully and
strategically, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.
To increase the effectiveness of local and incremental campaigns, this report recommends
movement leaders give significant consideration to the following factors:
• Strategic impact of localities;
• Possibility of repeal ballot measures;
• Presence of local leaders; and
• Best practices for local or incremental campaigns.
5Building Momentum for Change
With strategic, thoughtful implementation, local and incremental campaigns offer advocates the
opportunity to build the strongest possible foundation for future victories—making them a vital tool
in the movement’s toolbox.
Especially in states where we are a long way off from statewide wins, this work is critical and
deserves support—even if it may not roll up neatly into a statewide win in the foreseeable future—
because it helps to build the LGBT movement in the places where it’s needed most.
Without a doubt, when we build a movement, we win.
6Building Momentum for Change
INTRODUCTION
Protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people from discrimination and
harassment in employment, housing, public accommodations, and education has long been at
the heart of the LGBT movement’s efforts for policy change at all levels of government. These
freedoms are critical to achieving justice and equality under the law and to ensuring full inclusion and
engagement in society.
We’ve advanced these freedoms through state-level policy victories that are widely believed to be
an important part of the strategy to secure federal protections through Congress or the courts.
Movement leaders frequently point to the experience of the African-American civil rights movement,
which secured historic victories in the U.S. Supreme Court (Loving vs. Virginia and Brown vs. Board
of Education) and in Congress (the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act) only after a critical
mass of states had addressed these issues.
“I would defy anyone to show me any movement for change that hasn’t proceeded
incrementally. There were the 1957, 1964, 1965, 1968, and 1972 Civil Rights Acts for race alone.
When the ‘64 act passed, half of the states had already passed employment nondiscrimination
on race,” asserts Matt Coles of the ACLU.
While the LGBT movement firmly believes in the important role of state-level policy victories in
achieving full justice and equality, the role of local and incremental policy wins has been less closely
examined.
And yet, throughout the LGBT movement’s history, state leaders have engaged in local advocacy
with cities, counties, and school districts, successfully making the case for equality with municipal
lawmakers. These incremental policy victories have built critical momentum for future state-level
work while providing LGBT people with vital protections now. In fact, no state has ever achieved
statewide nondiscrimination without first passing a policy in its major city.
This report explores the role of local and incremental work in our movement. In particular, we
examine how successful and ongoing statewide issue campaigns have been affected by local and
incremental wins such as:
• Municipal nondiscrimination ordinances in employment, housing, and/or public
accommodations;
• School district policies to address bullying, harassment, and discrimination with
enumerated protections; and
• Executive orders at the state or municipal level prohibiting discrimination in public
employment, public contracting, and/or delivery of public services.
7Building Momentum for Change
While we don’t focus on local and incremental relationship recognition policies, the pattern of
advocating for specific relationship protections (including domestic partner registries, visitation
rights, disposition of remains laws, and even civil unions laws) setting the stage for the freedom to
marry is well established. Likewise, most movement leaders believe that statewide nondiscrimination
protections have been a necessary precursor of inclusive marriage laws. This report argues that the
local incremental efforts studied here similarly contribute to broader victories.
The report also outlines how local and incremental work is driving our movement forward by:
• Providing opportunities to engage in positive, productive public education;
• Establishing facts that make creating a case for further legislation easier;
• Creating political momentum and allies;
• Building the capacity of our movement organizations and the skills of our leaders; and
• Enacting real protections for LGBT people.
While examining the experience of every state is beyond the scope of this report, Equality Federation
Institute staff interviewed a broad sampling of leaders who have worked at the local, state, and
national level to understand how local and incremental campaigns contribute to larger efforts for
statewide legislation (see acknowledgements for complete list of interviewees). In addition to
reviewing the benefits of local and incremental work, we also outline its limitations, including the
problem of implementation, and make a few recommendations for advocates and funders as they
engage in these efforts.
To be clear, when we refer to incremental work, we are not
speaking of adopting policies that provide protections based on
sexual orientation but not gender identity.
Time and again, the experiences of state organizations have
shown us that passing LGB-only legislation leaves the most
vulnerable part of the LGBT community out in the cold for years
that follow.
In any effort where the enumeration of protected classes is
required, including both sexual orientation and gender identity
should be nonnegotiable.
8Building Momentum for Change
EDUCATING THE PUBLIC
Local and incremental campaigns present unique opportunities to engage the public in a
conversation about LGBT people’s lives, about the impact of discrimination and bullying on
the community, and about the policy measures that can help mitigate these problems. These
conversations are a key driver of changes in public opinion—as people come to understand the
challenges facing LGBT people, support for pro-LGBT policies builds.
Specifically, local campaigns help educate the public and move public opinion by:
• Building understanding of the current lack of protections;
• Creating newsworthy events that draw attention to the issues;
• Establishing a frame for discussing LGBT issues; and
• Persuading voters to support our issues at all levels of government.
Building understanding of the current lack of protections Nine of out 10 voters
A recent poll by the Center for American Progress found that nine erroneously think that a
of out 10 voters erroneously think that a federal law is already in federal law is already in
place protecting LGBT people from workplace discrimination. A
place protecting LGBT
similar number of voters also did not know whether their state had a
workplace discrimination law.* people from workplace
discrimination.
One of our biggest obstacles in securing nondiscrimination
protections is that most people believe discrimination isn’t a real
problem in their communities because they think it’s already prohibited under law. Local campaigns
have become a vehicle for establishing broader community understanding that there is a real
problem to be addressed—laying an important foundation for future statewide efforts.
In Utah, local ordinance campaigns became powerful public education tools. According to Equality
Utah Executive Director Brandie Balken:
“People don’t know that [discrimination] is legal. Most people think it shouldn’t be legal. Often
the public education is about the fact that a law is even needed.”
Creating newsworthy events that draw attention to the issues
With the constant shrinking of traditional media, it is more difficult than ever to attract the attention
of reporters and editors. Press releases and pitches often reach swamped inboxes. But events,
particularly ones tied to a campaign, still attract coverage. Local campaigns provide the fuel that’s
* Krehely, Jeff, Center for American Progress, “Polls Show Huge Public Support for Gay and Transgender Workplace
Protections” http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/lgbt/news/2011/06/02/9716/polls-show-huge-public-support-for-gay-
and-transgender-workplace-protections/
9Building Momentum for Change
needed to spark media attention. From a rally on the steps of city hall to a hearing before the school
board, campaign events generate coverage that draws attention to issues—like nondiscrimination
and bullying prevention—that could be easily lost to other headlines.
The public education impact of these local campaigns is not limited to the city or county that’s
considering a specific policy, since the coverage may permeate the entire media market. For
example, a local campaign to win nondiscrimination protections in Houston would reach far beyond
the 718,000 households within the city limits to the 1.9 million households in the media market and,
to some extent, other media markets in the state.
Establishing a frame for discussing LGBT issues
In addition to educating the public about the need for laws, local and incremental campaigns provide
the opportunity to shape the conversation about LGBT issues. With our opposition spreading
so much misinformation and encouraging the use of disrespectful and hurtful language, these
campaigns provide an important platform for setting the tone and the example for talking about
LGBT people in a community.
“In Utah, two out of three times, when we came in for a council meeting, it was probably the
first time they had used the words ‘lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender’ in a serious and
thoughtful conversation. The process gets people talking and increases empathy for LGBT
people. That’s a win,” said Balken.
Persuading voters to support our issues at all levels of government
Local campaigns demand in-depth public education to win voters to our side, but the time and
energy invested aren’t lost once a victory is achieved.
State leaders report that a supporter gained for a local ordinance is directly transferable to a
future statewide or even federal effort on the issue. The public is persuaded on the underlying
issue of nondiscrimination or safe schools, not the level of government at which the problem will
be addressed. Once community members have been persuaded and identified in a local campaign,
organizations can reengage them on statewide efforts with minimal effort.
According to Lynne Bowman, regional field director at Human Rights Campaign:
“When we persuade a voter on nondiscrimination, we’ve persuaded them on the issue itself, not
a particular policy at the local, state, or national level. Once they’re persuaded, we have them
for all levels—and may even have moved them in our direction on other issues, like marriage.”
10Building Momentum for Change
Campaign visibility matters
The approach an issue campaign uses has a major effect on its public education value. Some
organizations have run very public campaigns—in some cases even when they already had
the necessary votes on a city council—to force a community conversation on the issue. Other
organizations have taken a more “stealth” approach, quietly conducting grasstops lobbying and only
pulling the trigger on a policy when the votes are already secure.
Organizations that favor a stealth approach seem to fear provoking a backlash that could make
passage of legislation more difficult—a fear that is not unfounded, particularly in conservative, rural
areas. However, opportunities to educate the public and raise awareness are significantly diminished
in stealth campaigns. The ACLU’s Matt Coles puts it directly:
“You can’t do it quietly. If you do it quietly, you’re cutting off your nose to spite your face. The
whole point is to get people thinking about nondiscrimination laws…You won’t win statewide
unless you get the public engaged. In California, we did them all in public ways, with really big,
noisy public hearings...You’ll stumble some, you’ll lose some, but you do it in a visible way.”
Fairness Campaign Director Chris Hartman identifies other risks of stealth campaigns:
“If a fairness ordinance passes swiftly and quietly, you have two problems: first, no one knows
it exists, so people don’t take advantage of it, and second, when it does become public, there’s
much greater backlash if people feel their buy-in wasn’t sought ahead of time.”
Although advocacy campaigns for executive orders don’t always lend themselves to engaging
the general public, the rollout of these orders can be used to heighten awareness of the issue.
Organizations should seize on these ready-made media moments to establish a strong frame for an
issue, providing some inoculation against opposition messaging in later efforts.
Speaking of their work on gender identity nondiscrimination protections, MassEquality Executive
Director Kara Coredini said:
“The announcement of the executive order helped shift the conversation from bathrooms
to the experience of trans people. These are vehicles for winning the messaging debate, and
lawmakers feel like they are just following the mainstream, not sticking their necks out.”
Without a doubt, the LGBT movement has celebrated historic achievements over the past decade,
and these successes—at the federal, state, and local level—have all been tied to our monumental
gains with the public. We are changing the hearts and minds of our families, our friends, our
coworkers, and our neighbors—and that’s why we’re winning. Local and incremental campaigns
create an opportunity to continue that critical work, to continue having the conversations that win
people to our side.
11Building Momentum for Change
ESTABLISHING FACTS
Opponents of equality often use misinformation, myths, and scare tactics to erode support for
pro-LGBT policies. Local campaigns, and the ordinances and incremental policies they advance, are
critical to establishing facts in the face of increasingly savvy opposition.
In the midst of campaigns, local and statewide, opponents often claim that small businesses will be
harmed by a flood of lawsuits, that gender-segregated spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms
will become dangerous places, or that the ordinances in question will be abused. Or, they simply
claim that there is not a problem and that such laws are unnecessary.
To make opposition messaging less effective, it’s critical that advocates establish facts that tell the
story of our community and the laws we need to protect us. Local campaigns set a clear track record
and help build a strong case for laws protecting LGBT people by:
• Disproving negative consequences predicted by the opposition;
• Demonstrating need through utilization of policies; and
• Showing positive effects for the community.
To make opposition
messaging less
Disproving negative consequences predicted by the opposition effective, it’s critical that
Incremental advances, in the form of executive orders or local laws, advocates establish facts
have proven quite effective at disapproving the opposition’s claims. that tell the story of our
When these policies are implemented, lawmakers and the public community and the laws
quickly see that the consequences promised by the opposition simply we need to protect us.
do not come to pass.
In the Bay State, an executive order protected state employees from discrimination and established
key facts to allow for more effective legislative advocacy. According to Gunner Scott, former
executive director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC):
“Executive orders can be a valuable tool for establishing that the negative consequences
opponents suggest will happen with the passage of gender identity nondiscrimination laws are
simply not real. The state government is often the largest employer in the state.”
Kara Coredini explains that in subsequent legislative endeavors:
“We’d say to legislators that the State House itself is in a protected jurisdiction. ‘Did you have
any problems in bathrooms here?’”
As pro-LGBT laws stay on the books for longer periods of time, facts continue to become more firmly
established and fears are further undermined in case after case.
12Building Momentum for Change
In 2001, when San Francisco began providing transgender-related health care to its employees,
actuaries feared that the new benefit would cost millions over five years. But a review of costs in
2006 showed that the city and county had spent only $386,417. The Human Rights Commission
reported in 2007:
“Unlike the fears expressed, none of the concerns came to pass. A preliminary analysis indicates
that there has been appropriate utilization (the number of claims compared to the number of
eligible members) and the growing surplus indicates that the benefit costs much less to provide
than the rates that have been charged to cover this specific benefit.”*
Often the opposition claims that nondiscrimination laws will have high implementation costs. Having
policies in place at a local level can help prove these claims to be false. Kim Abbott, codirector of
the Montana Human Rights Network, which has worked to pass nondiscrimination ordinances in
two major Montana cities, says that because the enforcement mechanism for these ordinances
is a private right of action in municipal court, they have been able to show that these laws can be
handled within a city’s current budget.
Demonstrating need through utilization of policies
Although the parade of promised negative consequences does not materialize, incremental and local
policies do have an impact. The ability of LGBT people to file complaints under the new ordinances
proves to lawmakers that discrimination does occur.
Utilization of the laws affirms that these policies have addressed a real problem by providing
real protections for real people—a fact that, once established, strengthens the case for further
protections. According to Scott:
“I used Boston’s local ordinance like nobody’s business. It empowers people to actually file
a complaint. If no one’s talking about it, it’s not a problem, so why would we pass a law?
That ordinance gave us, as advocates, the ability to make those complaints, which provides
documentation that shows the problem is real.”
Showing positive effects for the community
Local and incremental campaigns don’t just allow us to disprove our opponents’ lies; they also give
us a unique opportunity to establish the far-reaching positive impact that pro-LGBT policies have on
our communities.
* City and County of San Francisco Human Relations Commission, “San Francisco City and County Transgender
Health Benefit,” http://www.hrc.org/files/assets/resources/San_Francisco_City_and_County_Transgender_Health_
Benefit_-_2007-08-10.pdf
13Building Momentum for Change
In Florida, more than 67 percent of students attend schools with enumerated bullying prevention
policies, and more than half of the state’s population lives in a municipality with a nondiscrimination
ordinance. According to Executive Director Nadine Smith, Equality Florida has made such incredible
gains because local work “creates a tipping point, builds momentum, and leverages competition
between cities.”
Across the Sunshine State, cities have come to understand the importance of establishing their
identity as a welcoming community. Smith explains that local leaders know their reputation for
inclusion is “a proxy for the creative class for what kind of community” they are. That’s why many
of them are working with Equality Florida to improve their rankings in the Municipal Equality Index
(MEI). The MEI, produced by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation in partnership with the
Equality Federation Institute and the Victory Institute, scores cities based on a broad range of LGBT-
supportive policies and other activities.
Smith reports that the business sector is as invested as the general community, if not more so, in
Florida’s image as a welcoming state. Equality Florida’s “Equality Means Business” project organizes
leading businesses—like CSX, Tech Data, Florida Blue, Wells Fargo, and Morgan Stanley—that
“understand that having Florida be known as a welcoming state helps them draw talent.”
Florida businesses and community members know that a bad reputation can cost jobs. In one case, a
company looking to relocate to Jacksonville very publicly withdrew its interest when the city failed to
pass a human rights ordinance. According to Smith:
“Businesses don’t write press releases about the talent that is lost, but they do talk to each
other. The conversation is growing, and that’s why Equality Means Business resonates as an
important call to action.”
Our movement wins when we firmly establish what’s true: LGBT people are members of our
community; they face countless challenges to living their lives free from discrimination and
harassment; they need critical protections under the law; and these necessary protections help build
a more inclusive, welcoming community for all of us. In the face of increasingly savvy opposition
messages that seek to undermine our momentum, local and incremental campaigns provide
movement leaders with a unique opportunity to tell our community’s story, to establish the facts
about who we are and why we matter, to elevate messages that unite us and move us forward.
14Building Momentum for Change
CREATING POLITICAL MOMENTUM
Local and incremental policy campaigns allow advocates to reshape the political environment for
present and future success. From building allies out of lawmakers who may run for higher office
to creating a need for further legislation that ensures statewide uniformity, local and incremental
victories create powerful political momentum.
These efforts advance political strategy by:
• Establishing that the issue is not politically damaging to elected officials;
• Creating institutional advocates;
• Creating advocates out of elected officials likely to run for higher office;
• Changing the narrative by winning in a symbolically significant municipality; and
• Creating a need for statewide uniformity and setting a high standard for policy language.
Establishing that the issue is not politically damaging to elected officials
In order to gain support from lawmakers, we must be able to convince them of two primary facts:
that their constituents will not turn against them for supporting pro-LGBT policies, and that the
LGBT community will support them in their reelection efforts through electoral organizing and PAC
contributions. Local and incremental work allows movement organizations to create a proven track
record in both cases.
In Utah, for example, a cosponsor of the nondiscrimination bill in the 2012 session was a Mormon
conservative, Rep. Derek Brown. Although the legislation ultimately did not pass in that session, his
vocal support did not spoil his reelection effort that year. The Equality Utah PAC supported him, his
constituents voted for him, and he was reelected by a comfortable margin. Brown’s reelection will
now serve as an example going forward; other conservative, Mormon legislators will know they
are safe supporting future legislation. And possibly more importantly, says Equality Utah’s Brandie
Balken, Brown’s support and subsequent reelection serves as important evidence that “you will not
be perceived as an unfaithful LDS [Mormon] person” if you support nondiscrimination.
Creating institutional advocates
Winning local ordinances creates a network of elected officials and institutional advocates who
are able to serve as spokespeople and make the case that the policies have a positive effect on
communities. Elevating these voices can win support from the public and from other lawmakers.
According to Balken, the existence of this network allows Equality Utah to say to legislators:
“Call the mayor in Cedar City and ask about his ordinance. Don’t take our word for it, ask the
people who did this.”
15Building Momentum for Change
In Massachusetts, the presence of an executive order on gender identity nondiscrimination helped
make the state’s human relations commission a powerful “neutral” advocate for the statewide
legislation. Because the commission had drafted the guidelines for implementation of the executive
order, it was well prepared to testify in support of the legislation and directly address concerns
about implementation.
MTPC’s work to secure the Boston nondiscrimination ordinance also paid off. MassEquality’s Kara
Coredini observed:
“The Boston ordinance allowed us to leverage relationships. The Boston mayor is one of the four
most powerful people in the state and was able to meet with his friends in the legislature and
say ‘You’re stupid for not doing this.’ It took working locally to get him there.”
Likewise, when Equality North Carolina was working for passage of comprehensive, enumerated
antibullying legislation, local education leaders who worked in school districts with existing
enumerated policies became key spokespeople.
Ian Palmquist, the group’s former executive director, observed:
“The superintendent of the Iredell-Statesville Schools, a rural community in the foothills, was
one of the most effective messengers in making the case that enumeration works and hasn’t
caused the problems the opposition predicted.”
The district had adopted the policy on its own without pressure from advocates, which was
fortunate, because targeting districts for advocacy based on their size and influence would
likely have not included the small district. However, it was precisely because the district was an
unexpected ally that its superintendent’s support was so powerful.
Creating advocates out of elected officials likely to run for higher office
Many of the local politicians who are engaged in our campaigns have ambition to move up to a
higher level. Working locally creates a pool of elected officials who are better prepared to advocate
on LGBT issues and assuage the fears of their colleagues.
The ACLU’s Matt Coles notes:
“Even if it turns out that it’s not going to be a heavy lift, it doesn’t matter; do it in a big, flashy
way anyway. People own it then. If the city council thinks they are working on something
important, that it matters, they get emotionally invested. You’ve got the people who become
state politicians later, and that’s a big help.”
16Building Momentum for Change
The religious right has long used a similar strategy of supporting and building relationships with
local elected officials to build a pipeline of like-minded candidates for higher office. This strategy is
beginning to serve LGBT movement organizations just as well.
Utah’s first LGBT-inclusive ordinance was in Salt Lake City. The city attorney at the time, Ben
McAdams, not only did the drafting but, as a Mormon, helped to get the LDS church to the table.
McAdams went on to become a state senator, and he was the main sponsor of the nondiscrimination
bill in the Senate in 2011 and 2012. Now the mayor of Salt Lake County, he led the successful effort to
pass a mutual commitment registry in the county.
In Pennsylvania, it wasn’t an elected official moving up that captured headlines—it was an activist
who was inspired to run for office after working on local campaigns. In 2012, Philadelphia voters
elected their first openly gay legislator in Rep. Brian Sims, who started as an activist with Equality
Pennsylvania and is now championing both nondiscrimination and marriage equality in his new role.
According to Equality Pennsylvania Executive Director Ted Martin:
“One ‘unintended consequence’ of our local ordinance work that I love, but perhaps many
legislators don’t love as much, is that this has helped develop a field team of potential legislators
out there, people who think, ‘Maybe I should step up and run,’ and that makes current
legislators nervous. It has definitely caused people to want ‘fly up’ to the legislature.”
Even when they don’t become champions for equality, local elected officials who vote in support of
LGBT-inclusive policies create a voting record that makes it more difficult for them to oppose similar
laws when they move up to the state level, even if their new districts make our issues more politically
challenging for them.
Changing the narrative by winning in a symbolically important municipality
In some states, certain regions or municipalities carry heightened significance with state legislators.
Sometimes it’s a large municipality with strategic significance; other times it’s an area of the state
perceived to be the most conservative. State organizations often target these “unexpected”
localities precisely for their strategic value.
In Missouri, PROMO Executive Director A.J. Bockelman reports that securing local nondiscrimination
ordinances in towns like rural Kirksville sends a powerful signal to legislators and the public that the
whole state is inevitably moving to support these protections, not just urban centers like St. Louis
and Kansas City. Likewise, in the Keystone State, towns in central and western Pennsylvania are
more meaningful to legislators than “gay Philly” and its neighbors.
Policy wins in municipalities known for a religious bent can also have symbolic power. That’s one
reason advocates are working toward nondiscrimination ordinances in Jacksonville, Florida—the
“buckle of the Bible Belt”—and Pocatello, Idaho, which is known for its strong Mormon population.
17Building Momentum for Change
Creating a need for statewide uniformity and setting a high standard for policy language
Local work is creating a new problem that requires state intervention: a lack of uniformity in
nondiscrimination laws from city to city and county to county. This lack of uniformity works well
for advocates because it drives state lawmakers to action, in large part to address the compliance
burden on businesses with employees in multiple locations.
While this strategic approach risks the state legislature creating uniformity by passing negative
preemption laws, states like California and Massachusetts were able to successfully advocate for
positive laws by engaging business leaders and organizations in the push.
According to Matt Coles of the ACLU, in California:
“The plan was to pass a municipal ordinance with significant California organizations
enforcement potential in all of the state’s major cities, purposely put different
recognizing at the start that if we got them, we’d have requirements in different
80 percent of the state’s employees covered already, and
we’d be able to say to the business community, ‘We got you
local ordinances, which
covered.’” helped motivate business
leaders to advocate for a
In the Beaver State, Basic Rights Oregon (BRO) used its work statewide standard.
on local nondiscrimination ordinances not just to push for a
statewide standard but also to set forth strong language. By
working with legislative bodies that were more supportive than the state legislature, BRO was able
to get the strongest possible language in local ordinances—language that included gender identity
and kept low the minimum number of employees who would be covered. This approach allowed the
organization to leverage those policies when lobbying the legislature.
Roey Thorpe, Basic Rights Oregon’s former executive director, said:
“When we got to the state, we were able to argue that we didn’t want to offer less at the
state level than we had at the local level. That was one of the main reasons we were able to get
gender identity included.”
Every victory we secure should put us one step closer to the next one, and that’s exactly what local
and incremental work does—it sets us up for what’s next. From building powerful allies to making
issues more politically palatable to creating the need for more legislation, these campaigns allow us
to develop and implement political strategies that fuel the next big win. And the one after that.
18Building Momentum for Change
BUILDING CAPACITY
Speaking of his work to secure statewide gender identity protections, Gunner Scott, formerly of the
Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC), put it bluntly:
“I wouldn’t support a state doing a statewide campaign without laying groundwork locally
first...You have to invest in local work to get the capacity and power to do statewide work
effectively.”
Local and incremental campaigns create opportunities for public education, establish a positive
case for LGBT legislation, and create political will and momentum. But perhaps most importantly,
this work helps build movement organizations strong enough to translate the previously outlined
benefits of smaller wins into successful statewide campaigns.
Local and incremental policy work builds capacity by:
• Creating a rallying point for LGBT people and allies;
• Creating a sense of momentum and success;
• Branding organizations as truly statewide;
• Growing relationships with donors;
• Building an engaged base of volunteers;
• Developing strong, diverse coalitions;
• Giving state and local leaders valuable experience in campaign strategies and tactics; and
• Creating a leadership pipeline to the state and national movement.
Creating a rallying point for LGBT people and allies
In conservative states that lack basic protections for LGBT people, even the most committed activists
feel that big wins are so far in the future that working for equality in their home state is not a priority.
In fact, organizations often complain that LGBT people in their states only engage around federal
issues, such as the repeals of the Defense of Marriage Act or Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. This engagement
on federal priorities often drains energy from state-based work, and national groups sometimes even
develop a stronger presence in those states than the state groups themselves.
Local ordinance and incremental policy work provides an important opportunity for LGBT people
and allies to come together and work for change in the communities they call home. South Carolina
Equality Executive Director Ryan Wilson said:
“The community is not used to seeing much positive momentum in a state like this, so any time
there is a forward step at the municipal level, it shows that South Carolina isn’t off the map. It
creates excitement and hope, and we’ve seen new levels of engagement with our work after
each of these wins.”
19Building Momentum for Change
In another conservative state far from South Carolina, Equality Utah’s Balken believes that local
work has outcomes that reach beyond the passage of laws. This work, she says, “empowers our
community in a way that is impossible to measure but is huge for our quality of life. We do our
people a disservice when we forget that.” Balken goes on to say:
“Grassroots organizing shows community members that they have the ability to reach out
to elected officials, discover and build their own power, and realize that that they are part of
something bigger.”
Sarah Reece, academy for leadership and action director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force,
agrees. These campaigns allow people to “exercise agency and take action on their own behalf,
which leads to personal transformation. This in turn leads to community transformation.”
Creating a sense of momentum and success
In the most conservative states, even small wins help organizations overcome a sense of being left
behind or a belief that engaging on LGBT issues is a waste of time. For example: While statewide
policy wins are certainly years away in South Carolina, local victories in Columbia, Charleston, and
other communities have given a new sense of possibility to a community that is still wounded by the
experience of 78 percent of their neighbors voting against them when an anti-LGBT constitutional
amendment was on the ballot in 2006.
In fact, it’s not just volunteers who may need the morale boost—staff need to feel a sense of
progress as well. According to one state leader: “It’s kept me motivated. Given the frustration of
working with a dysfunctional legislature, at least I’m getting victories out in the field.”
Local campaigns can also provide an outlet for political work when the makeup of the state
legislature precludes passing LGBT legislation. Equality Pennsylvania’s Ted Martin reports:
“At a time when our legislature is pretty tough, the local work has provided us with a chance to
create and demonstrate momentum.”
To date, Pennsylvania has passed 33 municipal ordinances. Each recent victory has provided Equality
Pennsylvania an opportunity to push messaging to members and donors about the success and
momentum for LGBT equality in the state.
Branding organizations as truly statewide
Many state-based advocacy organizations are based in state capitals or major metropolitan areas
with large concentrations of LGBT people. And although their mission is statewide, it can be difficult
to build a base of support in other areas of the state.
20Building Momentum for Change
Local or incremental campaigns provide state-based groups with the impetus they need to get out
into communities statewide. Especially in states with large rural areas or multiple population centers,
local ordinance work can help combat the perception that the statewide organization’s work is too
focused in the capital or one particular city. Thorpe observed:
“People often said Basic Rights Oregon only cared about Portland, but once we started talking
about passing a nondiscrimination ordinance this place and that place in rural Oregon, it let
people know we were truly statewide. We started to be able to bring people from more rural
areas to the Capitol, because we had relationships with them and because they believed that we
cared about them.”
Georgia Equality Executive Director Jeff Graham concurs:
“Our work to pass local ordinances and safe school policies on a district-by-district level has
taken us around the entire state of Georgia. This work has been critical in proving to our
supporters that our work is truly statewide in scope.”
Growing relationships with donors
Local and incremental campaigns give organizations the time and Development is about
opportunity to build critical donor relationships that will last far relationships, and
beyond the next municipal-level win. relationships take time.
The money organizations raise during local campaigns is important,
but far more important is the culture of giving that evolves through these efforts. Spending time
with donors throughout local campaigns allows state leaders to build sustainable relationships
that are critical to fundraising success in statewide campaigns, when donors are needed at more
significant levels.
Building an engaged base of volunteers
The success and momentum of local wins don’t simply create feelings of hope and enthusiasm; they
also serve to build a committed base of volunteers.
Grassroots work creates a culture of volunteering that becomes increasingly important as the scope
and reach of campaigns grow. Lisa Mottet, deputy director of the National Center for Transgender
Equality, has seen this happen time and time again:
“Local work builds a team, including lots of people who are new to activism. Through this work,
someone becomes a ‘person who works on this kind of thing.’ This can begin to happen even on
a micro-local level. Not even only at the city level, but starting at the homeless shelter level or
starting at a school that leads to a school district and on up.”
21Building Momentum for Change
Following local organizing and wins, state groups are able to leverage their statewide support when
it comes time to pass laws at a statewide level. Jamee Greer, director of organizing for the Montana
Human Rights Network, remembers a time when it was difficult to get people to hearings at the
Capitol. Since the group began working on local ordinances, he reports, getting people to turn out
for hearings has become much easier.
For example, not long after Helena passed a nondiscrimination ordinance, a statewide bill came up
for a hearing. With only 24 hours’ notice, Greer was able to call on people who had been engaged in
the Helena campaign, and they participated in the hearing at the Capitol.
With an engaged donor and volunteer base, incremental victories along the way to a big statewide
win are critical to keeping up morale and sustaining commitment. Says Scott of his work in
Massachusetts:
“Without making wins achievable in a medium term, you just can’t sustain a long-term
campaign. It gives people the training and motivation to stick with a five-year-plus campaign
[for a statewide win].”
In Kentucky, local efforts have helped build leaders who continue working beyond the immediate
campaign and even beyond LGBT issues. According to Chris Hartman at Fairness Campaign:
“The strength of these grassroots movements shouldn’t ever be ignored. What we’ve helped
create in these communities—even the ones that haven’t yet seen success in policy change—are
really engaged civic leaders who are taking vocal stands on all issues of social justice now, and
working to build and strengthen relationships in these communities across lines of race, religion,
and economic status.”
Developing strong, diverse coalitions
The LGBT movement relies on partnerships with Democrats, labor unions, and progressive groups.
But local and incremental campaigns demand the development of strong, diverse coalitions that
draw buy-in from outside the circle of usual suspects.
In Utah, local ordinance work has given Equality Utah time and opportunity to build a remarkable
relationship with the LDS church. Engaging the leadership of the church on a local level made it much
easier to work with them later on the current statewide campaign, reports Balken.
Similarly, local work has helped organizations build unlikely partnerships with Republicans, law
enforcement, and business groups. Nadine Smith of Equality Florida reports that the Equality
Means Business campaign has brought together truly bipartisan support for pro-LGBT legislation.
And in Montana, when the opposition claimed that nondiscrimination ordinances would hurt
22Building Momentum for Change
women and children, the Montana Human Rights Network was able to partner with women’s and
children’s advocates. Together, they held a community meeting to refute these claims using trusted
messengers on the issue.
The successful 2009 fight for a transgender nondiscrimination policy in Cleveland provided
advocates with unique opportunities to build a broad, racially diverse movement for equality in the
city. According to David Caldwell, who worked with Ask Cleveland, grassroots organizing in local
communities ensures representation:
“If you do local recruitment, you necessarily will engage the community inside the community
and will begin having the ability to build a team that represents the community. A side effect is
not only do you end up with a team that looks more like the community, but the existing team
(even if it does not resemble the community) necessarily gains additional cultural competency,
by being inside the community.”
Giving state and local leaders valuable experience in campaign strategies and tactics
Participating in local and incremental work helps state leaders learn best practices for effective
campaigns, from strategic planning to data collection to volunteer management.
According to Reece, whose division at the Task Force focuses on training and leadership
development:
“Our two biggest jobs in building capacity are to build ‘muscle memory’ and to create urgency.
Long-term programming has its place and space, but through campaigns, you do work that does
both of those, plus gets us short-term policy wins. I don’t know of a better way to incite people
to take action on their own behalf than to have a campaign.”
In addition to creating “muscle memory”—an almost instinctive sense of how to handle different
organizing challenges—smaller campaigns can help create data that, if stored and analyzed properly,
can be of great use in later, statewide efforts. For example, campaigns give organizations the
opportunity to refine and track voter IDs, donor information, and volunteer data. And working on
smaller campaigns helps state leaders understand the value of such data.
These campaigns don’t just help state-based movement leaders gain experience—they also help
build local grassroots advocates. In the past, national and even statewide groups have sometimes
used a boots-on-the-ground approach to providing assistance to local activists. But more and more,
local groups are taking the lead. Connecting grassroots efforts to the broader movement through
partnership with a statewide or national organization makes it easier to train local activists to deploy
time-tested strategies, tactics, and messaging, while still allowing them to drive the efforts.
According to the ACLU’s Matt Coles:
23Building Momentum for Change
“The more you give power to the amateurs, the more movement I think you build. If you come
in with a plan, people feel less ownership. Some mistakes will get made, although you can
usually prevent it from being critical ones. But if you do it right, you get people who don’t learn
to take orders but learn retail politics and stick with it.”
Creating a leadership pipeline to the state and national movement
Local and incremental policy work can be a proving ground for leaders, many of whom go on to
lead statewide efforts and work in the national movement. Because the scale of local or incremental
campaigns is smaller than a statewide or national campaign, they feel like more approachable
points of entry to advocacy work for new activists and advocates, who can then rise to greater
responsibility.
For example, Scott got his start as a trans activist volunteering with the effort to pass a local
ordinance in Boston. Proving himself there, he went on to serve as executive director of MTPC and
led its successful efforts to pass gender identity protections in housing and employment. Masen
Davis worked with FTM Alliance Los Angeles and went on to be a national leader on transgender
issues as executive director of the Transgender Law Center. And the Equality Federation’s own Roey
Thorpe got her start as a volunteer working on a nondiscrimination ordinance in Tompkins County,
New York, before being elected to local office and rising to significant positions of LGBT movement
leadership in New York, Oregon, and nationally. Through local efforts, these and other leaders have
been identified, trained, and promoted—proving that local efforts can be a valuable portal into the
leadership pipeline for the state and national movement.
Local and incremental campaigns are builders—they build political power, build bases of support,
build state and local leaders, and build momentum. In fact, they built a movement. What started
locally, as an act of courage outside a bar in New York City, has grown into an unstoppable
movement for equality. Today, even as statewide and federal successes add up, local and
incremental work remains the foundation upon which all our victories are built.
24Building Momentum for Change
GAINING REAL PROTECTIONS
This report has focused on the broader strategic implications of local and incremental efforts.
But that’s not the only reason they matter—these wins provide critical protections that make a
difference in the lives of thousands of LGBT Americans.
Indeed, in states with politically difficult legislatures, local ordinances
may be the only mechanism for providing protections. According Even in states that are
to the Movement Advancement Project, a majority of people in often considered among
Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Pennsylvania the least LGBT supportive,
live in jurisdictions with nondiscrimination protections that cover pockets of protection
both sexual orientation and gender identity, although these states
covering a significant
do not yet have statewide protections. Even in states that are often
considered among the least LGBT supportive, pockets of protection portion of their population
covering a significant portion of their population have emerged, such have emerged, such
as Kansas (3 percent), Louisiana (8 percent), and South Carolina (7 as Kansas (3 percent),
percent). Passing local ordinances in the largest cities in some states Louisiana (8 percent), and
actually protects more people than the statewide laws in smaller South Carolina (7 percent).
states like Rhode Island, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
Kara Coredini of MassEquality noted how critical it was for the transgender community to have
protections based on gender identity on the books in Boston and other cities in the years before
statewide protections were enacted. These local policies gave the transgender community real tools
for addressing the pervasive discrimination they experienced and helped make it safer for them to
become advocates at the State House.
Local policies aren’t just important for adults seeking to live and thrive in our communities; they’re
also critical for young people who face bullying and harassment in school at alarming rates. Research
from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network has shown:
“Comprehensive policies and laws—those that specifically enumerate personal characteristics
including sexual orientation and gender identity/expression, among others—are most effective
at combating anti-LGBT bullying and harassment.”*
Knowing the importance of enumeration, Georgia Equality faced a big challenge when the Georgia
legislature passed a nonenumerated antibullying law in 2010. The organization responded by
building a campaign to pass enumerated policies through local school boards, prioritizing the largest
districts. Three years later, thanks to its organizing with local community advocates, 56 percent of
students in the state have protections based on sexual orientation and 40 percent based on gender
identity. Waiting for the possibility of a statewide policy would have left hundreds of thousands
* Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, “2011 National School Climate Survey,” http://glsen.org/nscs
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