Media Release: Advancing Equality Day on the Hill

March 11, 2013                                                               

TEP’s 9^th annual Advancing Equality Day on the Hill highlights clergy support, new fronts in the battle for equality in Tennessee

Nashville, TN—The Tennessee Equality Project (TEP), a statewide organization advocating equal rights for Tennessee’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community, will hold its 9^th annual Advancing Equality Day on the Hill on Tuesday, March 12 in Nashville. 

This year’s events 

-feature a clergy prayer breakfast at Legislative Plaza and constituent meetings with 17 senators and 37 representatives followed by a press conference,

-highlight new fronts in the battle for equality in Tennessee,

-and are designed to address bills affecting the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community, which are up for key votes this week and the next. 

The Legislation

SB514/HB1185—This bill would allow students in counseling, psychology, and social work programs at Tennessee’s public universities to opt out of serving certain clients if they have a religious objection.  The examples cited by advocates for the bill and even mentioned during a recent Senate Education Committee hearing focus on opting out of serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community.  The bill is set for a vote by the full Senate on Monday evening (March 11).

SB234/HB1332—The new Don’t Say Gay bill includes provisions that would require school personnel to out students who come to them about issues of sexuality and gender.  A recent MTSU poll showed that a clear majority of people in Tennessee oppose the bill.  Rep. John Ragan, the House sponsor, has received over 1400 emails and hundreds of phone calls urging him to withdraw the bill.  His legislative assistant has told citizens calling his office that the bill is being rewritten.  

SB1241/HB1150—The bill is a new version of legislation designed to punish Vanderbilt University for its inclusive all-comers non-discrimination policy for student clubs.  It threatens Vanderbilt with removal of its police force.  The harms to public safety embodied in the bill are obvious, as is the animus toward gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.  The bill is up in the House Education Subcommittee on March 12 and up in the Senate Education Committee on March 13.

SB1241/HB927—For the first time legislation has been introduced to enhance the state’s anti-school bullying efforts by adding protections enumerating factors such as disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation since these factors are often the basis for bullying.  The bill should be up in committee in the next two weeks.

The Events

TEP Foundation and Clergy for Justice Anti-Bullying Prayer Breakfast—The event takes place Tuesday, March 12 from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in the Legislative Plaza cafeteria.  Clergy and other guests will hear presentations on school bullying issues to help them advocate for safe schools in Tennessee.

Constituent meetings with Legislators—Citizens from Memphis, Jackson, Nashville, Murfreesboro, Cookeville, Crossville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Maryville, and the Tri-Cities will meet with their senators and representatives throughout the day on March 12 to discuss bills important to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community.

Press conference—TEP will hold a press conference at 1:00 on March 12 at the top of the escalator in Legislative Plaza to discuss important legislation and to make public the Tennessee Human Rights Statement and the businesses, religious organizations, and community organizations that have endorsed it.  The Tennessee Human Rights Statement provides a stark contrast to the discriminatory legislation filed this session and shows the beginnings of a new inclusiveness emerging in Tennessee.  

For more information on the Tennessee Equality Project, go to http://www.tnequalityproject.org .

Contact us at chris@tnequalityproject.com .

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Sumner County residents present 3 anti-bullying proposals to School Board

Contact:  Kelly Fussman                                                                                PRESS RELEASE

Cell Phone: 615/513-4028                                                           FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

E-mail: kellyfussman@yahoo.com

SUMNER COUNTY CITIZENS MAKE 3 ANTI-BULLYING

PROPOSALS TO BOARD OF EDUCATION

March 19, 2012

Hendersonville, TN—On March 15, Sumner County residents delivered three anti-bullying proposals for consideration by the Sumner County Board of Education at its March meeting.  The proposals resulted from ongoing discussions of bullying by Sumner County residents and youth and equality advocates from Nashville after a series of youth suicides over the past three months.

Two of the proposals acknowledge steps taken by Sumner County Schools to address bullying, including efforts to provide teacher trainings.  In the first proposal, Dr. Ryan Footit of Hendersonville recommends that Sumner County Schools provide a monthly report to the public that would document the number of bullying cases per school and how they were resolved.  In the second proposal, Helenmary Hendrix of Gallatin proposes that copies of the curriculum used to train teachers on bullying issues be made available for public inspection and that the district provide information on how many teachers have been trained as well as reveal any plans for ongoing certification of school personnel. 

The third proposal offered by Kelly Fussman of Hendersonville suggests a revision of the district’s anti-bullying and anti-harassment policies to include the categories “gender expression, gender identity, and sexual orientation” in their enumerated classes to improve protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students or those who are perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.

The Tennessee Equality Project provided assistance in drafting the proposals and advice in navigating the Sumner County Board of Education’s policy process.

 

The next meeting of the Sumner County Board of Education is March 27.

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TEP partners with Friends for Life for HIV/AIDS Advocacy program

Tennessee Equality Project has partnered with Friends for Life in Memphis to teach advocacy skills to people living with and affected by HIV. Friends for Life launched an eight-week Advocacy Academy on May 19 funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation. Approximately 20 people enrolled in the class.

TEP will provide training on how to contact and speak to elected officials and research information on local and state government. TEP will also consult with graduates of the Advocacy Academy to develop a field plan focused on the advancement of HIV/AIDS public policy.

TEP has offered training in advocacy for several years to its members and allies for many years to prepare citizens for Advancing Equality Day on the Hill in Nashville and other local legislative initiatives. The advocacy skills taught in TEP workshops are not only useful for LGBT people and their allies. Such skills are valuable for anyone willing to advocate for public policy. Friends for Life approached TEP because of its strong track record for empowering the voices of sexual minorities in Shelby County and Tennessee.

TEP looks forward to empowering the voices of those living with HIV.

-Jonathan Cole

Nonprofit civic engagement up despite few resources

A recent Johns Hopkins University Center for Civil Society Studies-Institute for Policy Studies survey indicates that nonprofits are becoming increasingly active in policy advocacy, particularly at the State and local level. But sustainability of their efforts is a living question since resources for policy advocacy and lobbying in this sector are few.

872 nonprofits were surveyed. Almost 75 percent of the respondents were involved in policy advocacy or lobbying. Of those, about 60% did so once a month or more. 85% of responding organizations said they devoted less than 2 percent of their resources to policy work. Typically, the executive director of the organization was the key policy representative. The vast majority of the work was done in the State and local arenas.

The piece sees the growing policy work as a positive trend and suggests ways to support advocacy:
• Strengthen the policy advocacy and lobbying capacity of field-specific nonprofit intermediary organizations. These organizations have assumed a crucial role in backstopping
the policy involvement of local service organizations but often lack the resources to support this functionas effectively as is needed.

• Expand foundation support for nonprofit involvement in policy advocacy and civic engagement. Many foundations take at best a “hands-off” posture, and at times an actively negative one, toward nonprofit policy involvement and civic engagement. This puts an unnecessary damper on what should be a major function of the nation’s nonprofit institutions—giving voice to the voiceless and raising unaddressed issues to national policy attention. More than that, since the major impediment to more thoroughgoing nonprofit engagement in the policy process is the lack of resources, and therefore the lack oftime, that even the large organizations have available for this function, foundations need to re-think their hands-off
position toward nonprofit advocacy and increase their financial support for this important function. To be sure, the constraints under which foundations operate put limits
on such support, but those limits are often far less severe than many overly cautious foundations may assume. As government policy has become increasingly central to the
fiscal health of the sector and to the well-being of the people the sector is serving, foundations need to recognize the important role they must play in helping organizations participate in the shaping of this policy.

• Encourage and equip nonprofi t organizations to engage their boards and the publics they serve in their advocacy and lobbying activities. Nonprofit executives need help in performing the advocacy and lobbying responsibilities of their organizations. These responsibilities therefore need to become a bigger part of the responsibilities of nonprofit
boards, integrated into board mission statements and board training. In addition, organizations need to be encouraged, and trained, to engage the citizen base of their operations in their advocacy activities. This will require training and support for staff to perform this function.

• Strengthen the sector’s capacity to equip small and mid-sized organizations to operate in the policy arena. Smaller organizations clearly have special challenges in
operating in the policy arena. From the data presented here, these organizations tend to be less well-informed about the existing laws and regulations in this field. What is more, they are less likely to be members of advocacy coalitions and have fewer staff resources to devote to this function. Since these organizations are far more numerous than the large organizations, ensuring a voice for them in the advocacy arena is thus especially important. Expanded programs specially targeted at this segment of the sector thus seem needed.