It’s been quite a year in the #LGBTSouth. This photo recap highlights the best of 2016.
In January, the Gender Benders and Campaign for Southern Equality held the first-ever trans employment clinic in Greenville, South Carolina.
Throughout the summer and fall we registered folks to vote at community events.
Britney Nesbitt, our Community Organizer and Tzedek Social Justice Fellow, tabling with voter reg info.
CSE was proud to help sponsor the Southeastern Transgender Health Summit conference, hosted by MAHEC in Asheville, NC.
Holiday Simmons from Lambda Legal had the room thinking, laughing and sharing their lived experience at the conference.
We challenged HB1523 in federal court.
“The statute that the State of Mississippi just enacted – HB 1523 – clearly violates the fundamental principle of equality before the law,” says lead counsel Roberta Kaplan. “It authorizes, even encourages, discrimination against LGBT people in Mississippi re-creating, only months after the Supreme Court clearly held it unconstitutional, another form of second-class citizenship for LGBT Mississippians.”
We said goodbye to CSE team member Felicia Blow (second from left).
We were sad, but also happy for Felicia to move on to Philadelphia and a great job at the Mazzoni Center.
The Campaign for Southern Equality offered trans resource pop-up clinics at Pride events this summer!
Resources we offered included Funding Your Transition resource guides, name change guides, peer to peer support, voter registration, and journals by trans people for trans people to support trans mental health.
It was very hot during Pride season this summer!
Second group today getting their name change paperwork taken care of. Huge thanks to Silas Thomson and the GenderBenders for making it all possible!! #lgbtsouth #transpride #charlestonpride
We released Trans in the South: A Guide to Resources and Services.
In the pages of this edition of Trans in the South you’ll find lists of trans-friendly service providers – from doctors to attorneys to counselors – across the South as well as resources to assist with funding medical transition. This information has been collected and vetted by Ivy Gibson-Hill, our LGBTQ Rights Toolkit Coordinator. We hope this resource guide helps people access the services they need to survive and to thrive.
We were thrilled to announce that Rachel Tuchman joined the Campaign for Southern Equality team as our Legal Fellow.
Rachel is a J.D. candidate in the Yale Law School Class of 2017. Rachel holds a B.A., magna cum laude, in Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought with a concentration in gender studies from Amherst College.
CSE launched our 2016-2017 Southern Equality Fund Advisory Council!
Back row, left to right, Daroneshia Duncan – Birmingham, Alabama; Dr. S. Nicole Cathey – Jackson, Mississippi; Mary Jamis – Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Front row, left to right, Femi Shittu – Greensboro, North Carolina; Cecilia Sáenz Becerra – Atlanta, Georgia; Carter West – Taylors, South Carolina.
The Southern Equality Fund is a grantmaking initiative designed to direct resources and training to Southern LGBTQ grassroots groups and leaders that are isolated or under-resourced due to geography or demographics.
In August, our legal challenge to SB2 was heard in federal court in Asheville, North Carolina.
On July 16th, CSE hosted the first ever Trans Employment Clinic in Asheville!
You can learn about what this free event looked like here -> www.facebook.com/events/
“Connecting with a trans-friendly employer improves our chances of gaining and maintaining employment. But we also know the needs in the trans community extend beyond jobs. This is why we’ve coupled the job fair with a resource bank to help folks find stop gap resources like local food pantries, screening for benefits like Low Income Energy Assistance Program crisis intervention and food and nutrition assistance programs, affordable local therapists, crisis intervention support, and more,” says Ivy Gibson-Hill, LGBTQ Rights Toolkit Coordinator for the Campaign for Southern Equality, lead sponsor of the events.
We fought against HB2.
“We are using the tools available to us in democracy — petitions, lobbying, public protests, civil disobedience — to say this law is wrong at its core, and it must be immediately repealed,” – Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, the executive director of the Campaign for Southern Equality, calling for the repeal of HB2 in North Carolina. (Photo credit: Leslie Boyd)
We offer thanks and support for these brave folks challenging HB2 in court.
Plaintiffs from the ACLU’s legal challenge to HB2 gathered on the the steps of the old Capitol in Raleigh to send a message to Governor Pat McCrory: “we’ll see you in court.”
Hundreds protested against HB2 at the North Carolina General Assembly.
Thank you to Rev. Barber and the NC NAACP for standing with the LGBTQ community at every turn.
We partnered with Western North Carolina Community Health Services (WNCCHS) on Transgender Health Care.
Read all about it at: http://bit.ly/1QF752C
We were thrilled to present Western North Carolina AIDS Project with a $6,000 Southern Equality Fund grant for their harm reduction programs.
Thank you to WNCAP for their crucial work in Western NC.
The 2016 #LGBTsouth conference took place after months of organizing and planning. From March 18 to 20, more than 650 activists and organizers from across 26 states and D.C. gathered in Asheville, North Carolina for the 3rd annual 2016 LGBT* in the South conference.
We had All-Gender bathrooms at the conference venue because our community shouldn’t have to worry about safety or respect.
The amazing keynote panel on LGBT* Rights and Criminal Justice at the #LGBTsouth conference.
Thank you Nayely Pérez-Huerta, Shaena Johnson, Urvashi Vaid and Craig White!
A huge thank you to our conference photographer Keenon Walker for capturing a series of amazing images during the 3 days.
We stood with Transgender folks across NC in opposition to HB2.
The North Carolina General Assembly repealed protections for the transgender community that were voted in law by the Charlotte city council. The bill also bans all municipalities in North Carolina from passing similar protections for the LGBT community.
In Asheville we provided more than 200 All-Gender Restrooms signs to businesses, faith communities and non-profits.
The Soda Fountain at the Woolworths Walk in downtown Asheville is one of the terrific local businesses that put up All-Gender restroom signs!
Hundreds more businesses across North Carolina stood up to HB2 with DIY signs.
We supported LGBTQ organizers across the South through our Southern Equality Fund.
Since the launch of the fund, we’ve given away more than $35,000 in grants to more 41 organizers and groups across the South.
The Campaign for Southern Equality believes the work being done on the front lines, like the work these folks are doing, is crucial and will have the most long-lasting impact on what it means to be LGBTQ in the South.
We organized a rally against HB2 in Asheville with local partners.
We Trained the Trainers in Piedmont, South Carolina.
Eighteen grassroots organizers and professionals – the majority of them identifying as trans or gender non-conforming – came together over the weekend of December 2-4 to workshop their trainings on trans issues.
Selfie version of this rowdy crew of trainers.
BREAKING: At almost midnight on June 30th, U.S. District Court Judge Carlton W. Reeves struck down HB 1523 in Mississippi – just 30 minutes before it was scheduled to go into effect!!!
The full ruling can be read at: www.southernequality.org/
Participated in the first OUT in the High Country conference held in Vilas, North Carolina.
At the 2016 LGBT* in the South conference, the OUT in The High Country folks applied for a grant through the Southern Equality Fund. We were impressed by their ambition and, over the next six months, provided a variety of resources and support to the planning committee.
Supporting Southern Trans Organizers.
Through our Southern Equality Fund, we launched the Trans Leadership Initiative (TLI), a one-year pilot which will provide intensive support to an incredible group of trans leaders from across the South. The initiative will offer leadership coaching, funding, and technical assistance to grow their leadership and help strengthen their vital work in local communities. The four members of the TLI:
Suzy Geronimo, Fuerza y Unión Múltiple (FUM) – Henderson, North Carolina.
LB Bell, The Spectrum Center – Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
Daroneshia Duncan, TAKE (Transgender Advocates Knowledgeable Empowering)– Birmingham, Alabama.
Fletcher Page, Gender Benders – Greenville, South Carolina.
Love Won documentary film debuts.
Directed by Ryan Murdock, Love Won tells the story of the hundreds of same-sex couples from across the South who applied for marriage licenses as part of the WE DO Campaign. It debuted at the Fine Arts Theatre in Asheville on June 26th.
After the election CSE launched a series of free legal clinics in across the South, starting in North and South Carolina.
Led by attorneys and transgender leaders, the legal clinics are covering issues such as name changes for trans folks, health care power of attorney documents for LGBTQ youth, how to obtain a passport for gender marker changes and second parent adoptions to help protect LGBTQ families.
As the year came to a close, more than 150 people gathered in Asheville to talk about what’s next for LGBTQ rights and social justice as we move into 2017.
Community members representing the NC NAACP, Nuestro Centro, Democracy NC, Western NC Community Health Services and many other local organizations provided updates about how folks can get involved in their work.
