HRC Blog

The Mark Dayton for a Better Minnesota campaign is kicking off the fall in true style. Senator Mark Dayton and Broadway superstar Gavin Creel will be starring in a fundraiser geared towards the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community this Friday, September 24th at the Women’s Club in Minneapolis. Come join HRC and Outfront Minnesota for a night of music and community bonding as we ramp up our activities before November 2nd.

Terry and I arrived in Minneapolis on Monday evening and in the ensuing 36 hours have settled into our roles with the Democratic Farmer Labor Party (DFL) campaign here in Minnesota. We’re working with Spencer Cronk from the DFL to mobilize the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to vote for fair-minded candidates up and down the ballot. In a year when our friends are likely to have difficult challenges, it’s important for us to turn out the LGBT community to put them over the top.

Despite the six hour time difference between the HRC offices in Washington and the final primary election of the year in Hawaii, emails were flying and phone calls were being made. At 5pm Hawaii time on Saturday, voting closed in the contentious Democratic primary for Governor in Hawaii and advocates for equality have reason to cheer!

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), which has a history of trying to defeat pro-equality state candidates in Iowa, this week reported spending more than $235,000 on a television ad that targets three justices on the Iowa Supreme Court who were part of a unanimous 2009 decision ruling that the equal protection provision of the Iowa Constitution guarantees gay and lesbian couples the same right to marry as heterosexual couples.

This past week I met with One Bowling Green campaign manager Kim Welter, who is heading up the effort to defend two non-discrimination ordinances passed by Bowling Green city councilors in 2009. The ordinances amended the city’s existing anti-discrimination laws to protect individuals from arbitrary discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and veterans status in housing, public accommodations, employment, and public education. With no state law in Ohio against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, city ordinances are important bulwarks against discrimination in the workplace.