By April Barton
Boston, Massachusetts
Note: The original, full text of this
piece, which includes in-depth analysis and recommendations, can be
found below the fold.
Last week, my wife, Adrienne, and I had a two-hour layover in
Milwaukee, WI, on a trip between Boston, where we live, and Iowa, where
I grew up and my family still lives. Adrienne spent our layover buried
in her law books, and I took the time to read Star Magazine, order a
Bloody Mary, and contemplate the state of the LGBT movement.
Adrienne
and I were married when we took off from Boston, and we would be
married again when we landed in Des Moines, thanks to the recent ruling
by the Iowa Supreme Court. But for the two hours and fourteen minutes
that we spent in the Milwaukee airport, Adrienne was a legal stranger
to me. Like Iowa, Wisconsin is often characterized as a “fly over”
state by East and West Coasters. I asked myself, “what exactly is the
status of same-sex marriage and other LGBT rights in Wisconsin?” The
answer: I have no idea. Would you?
In contrast, I know the
status of the same-sex marriage in California, Vermont, Oregon,
Washington, and New Jersey and other coastal states. I travel through
Wisconsin three or four times a year but only have been to these
coastal states a handful of times in my life. So why do I know so much
about my rights as a gay woman in places I rarely go, but know so
little about them in a place I regularly visit?
The answer can be
traced to something I call “trickle down civil rights,” which has
shaped the national strategy of the LGBT movement for too long now. The
movement has been operating under assumption that progress must first
happen in progressive enclaves along the coasts and then spread to the
rest of the country.
An example of this is that the national
LGBT community was heavily encouraged to give to the No on 8 campaign
in California this fall but there was little national support for
campaigns happening simultaneously in Arizona, Florida or Arkansas. And
it’s the reason why, on April 7, 2009, Alan Van Capelle, the Executive
Director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, wrote an email to the
organization’s subscribers titled, “I'm embarrassed for New York
State.” He expressed his concern that New York was “falling behind”
after Iowa and Vermont legalized gay marriage before New York. Two
days later, in an opinion piece in the New York Times, Susan Dominus wrote that Iowa legalizing gay marriage before New York was a blow to the self-regard of many New Yorkers.
These
pieces highlight a mistaken assumption: that the people living on the
coast set the tone for the country in everything, from fashion to civil
rights, and that somehow a “conservative” state beat places like New
York to the LGBT equality punch.
But the Iowa decision
demonstrates we should not assume that our country will or can only
progress by making gains in states located on the coast first, for
example, winning gay marriage in every New England state and waiting
for this to somehow percolate down and turn into hate crimes
legislation in Alabama.
Like its economic counterpart, this
trickle-down approach to civil rights has proven to be flawed and
dangerous. It is flawed because it fails to recognize where real and
substantial progress can be made when messaged and delivered in the
right way; it is dangerous because it risks leaving part of our country
(and LGBT folks who live and travel there) without satisfactory legal
rights. Seeing the limitations of this approach, we should change
course.
Sitting unmarried in Wisconsin on my way to a Midwestern
state that has legalized same-sex marriage, I was hit with the
following thoughts: 1) we, the LGBT movement, need to change the way we
are doing work in this country by believing that change can happen
everywhere and put energy and resources into making progress, even if
in small increments, across the country; and 2) in order to do this, we
need to plug into the resources that already exist and give people from
every state, not just the coasts, a seat at the table to determine how
best to make progress across this country. In short, we need a 50 State
Strategy that entails thinking broadly -- what can be accomplished
across the country -- and acting locally -- what makes sense to do in
my community to gain equality.
Contributor's Bio: April Barton currently lives Boston, MA with her wife. She was born and raised in Iowa and visits her family in Des Moines often. She
is an
Organizational Development and Adult Learning specialist. She
is also a community organizer in the LGBT community, and helped to lead
TPP's efforts to engage the Boston community in the No on 8 campaign in 2008.
She
has an M.A. in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University,
Teacher's College.
The original, full text of this piece, which includes in-depth analysis and recommendations, can be found below the fold.
