HRC president visits Detroit 'On the Road to Equality'

DETROIT – New Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese was in Detroit April 14-15 as part of HRC's national "On the Road to Equality" tour, a project to help reintroduce gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans to the public.
The tour, which will continue throughout the year, started in Kansas April 13, a week after that state passed an anti-marriage amendment. Other stops included Dallas, Texas and Birmingham, Alabama.
When Solmonese came through Detroit April 14 it was his third day on the job.
He said that so far the tour had been exciting. "It's been incredibly energetic," he said. "We had a great two days in Kansas and we came here today and went to Ford and we're meeting with some religious leaders this afternoon and going to the Ruth Ellis House. So it's been exactly the sort of array of things that I was hoping to do."
For Solmonese, there are three roads to travel down when it comes to expanding HRC's work and the LGBT community's visibility: corporate America, in communities of faith, and with straight allies. "I've tried to incorporate a balanced mix of that" while on this tour, he said. The stops on the tour include town hall meetings, roundtables with religious leaders, meetings with corporate leaders and employees and conversations with the American people, including the LGBT community.
"I learned more from the religious leaders in Topeka Kansas the other day than I've learned from a whole range of pollsters in the last year," he said.
What he's learning, Solmonese said, is that where people live strongly impacts how they view LGBT issues. "So the regional slant to this [tour] has been incredibly informative to me," he said.
When asked what the next step was for states coming off of campaigns against anti-marriage ballot initiatives, Solmonese said the most important thing to do is to learn from the loss and take inventory of the gains.
"I think what you have to do, as you do in any losing campaign or any march toward social change, is take what happened and learn from it," he said. "Ask yourself what happened and what did we do well that we didn't think we'd do well? What did we learn about messages that worked and messages that didn't, always assuming that more didn't work than did because we didn't win, but it's just like any campaign, and what coalitions did we build? What infrastructure did we put in place? What else can we take from this moving forward? And then ask ourselves and what is the next fight before us and how do we take what we put together here and utilize that whether it's in the next political campaign, whether it's in the next referendum or whether it's in a local municipal race, what is the next thing that's before us and how do we take this movement forward?"
It's also important, he said, to keep in mind where each battle fits into the broader movement, both nationally and over the course of time. "So while we lost in a handful of states we're making some good gains in a handful of states," he said. "It never feels good when you're the person who's in one of the states that lost, but it is the natural ebb and flow of social change that we do well some places and not so well others."
The continuum is going in our direction, Solmonese said. "I still believe that the momentum is with us and we're moving in a direction that the other side is not comfortable with and that has a lot to do with the ferocity on their side of the fight."
It's important to remember, Solmonese pointed out, that the LGBT equality movement is still very young in the context of our nation's history. "So you've got to step out of what we're in today and say, 'What have we accomplished in 35 years and where are we today that we weren't even 10 years ago?'"
Remembering the movement's gains is only one way to keep the LGBT community engaged and active rather than fatigued and defeated by the passage of anti-marriage amendments across the country. Another way is by telling real stories about real lives of LGBT people.
"I think the way we immediately, I hope, eliminate that fatigue factor and we keep them engaged is by now talking about the outcome of what's happened," he said. "We say there's real danger and real harm potentially done to families as a result of what's happening in these states. Well, now we can show them the real life circumstances."
Solmonese relayed a story about two women he'd met with in Kansas who have two daughters. With only one of the women the children's legal parent, the couple fears that with the passage of the anti-marriage amendment in Kansas their family risks more discrimination than before, especially refusal of the non-legal parent.
"That reality has been exacerbated … because," he said, "there's been that licence given to say, 'Well, you know, this is a second class citizen and I can treat them as such,'"
He added, "The more it goes from the abstract to the real … it's going to fire even more people up and what I hope it does is kind of recommit our community and reenergize our base, but I also hope it brings in our straight allies in a much stronger way."
Bringing in allies is a big priority. The larger progressive community is ripe with potential allies, according to Solmonese, and they are paying closer attention than ever before.
"One of the things I keep hearing from people in that world, people I think of as our potential straight allies, is that this is a big marker for us in terms of the direction that the country is going."
It is also, of course, a big marker for the right who have been stepping up their anti-gay rhetoric. The LGBT community must fight this, Solmonese believes, with their own stories. "We have to advance our side of that argument with real people and real stories and the end goal of that is to counter the position … that they take with one that talks more about what I think of as core fundamental American values of equality, fairness, work place equity, safety, and I think that is how we're going to win, but the vehicle and the messenger that we use has got to be real people with real stories."
In an effort to get these stories heard, HRC is planning to expand its communications efforts. But individuals need to expand theirs as well.
"You've got to go and you've got to find … three people to bring into this process: a co-worker, a family member, a straight ally, anybody who you can get to listen and make it personal and get them to do more than they've ever done," he said. It is important that our allies are not just be supportive in concept but are supportive in action as well.
One story that inspired Solmonese was about a gay teenager in Tulsa, Oklahoma who had been featured in a Washington Post article about being gay in rural America. "It was so powerful to me because what happened on the heels of that story was that Fred Phelps actually came to his town to protest his church and it was that that changed the view of the entire community toward this kid. It was core fundamental American values like, 'I don't know how I feel about this issue, I don't know how I feel about a gay teen, but I know how I feel about that kid.' And, 'I don't know how I feel about that kid, but I know how I feel about somebody coming in here and going after that kid,'" he said. "To me those are the kind of core American values that we've got to really expand on."
Strengthening HRC's work with Republicans is another of Solmonese's goals.
"I think there's an element of Congress that's beholden to the right, but there are also a lot more moderate Republicans in Congress who I think we can move to our side and there are certainly some who are already there," he said. "But if we're going to grow, we're going to grow on the Republican side."
There is much work to do politically. "I think we just have to be prepared for the changing political landscape that this country always offers us but understand that we have to be in it for the long hall," he said. "Because the pendulum, as far as it swings one way, it always swings back the other."
The challenge for HRC, said Solmonese, is figuring out where the national organization fits into the good work each state is doing.
"I think if we are smart about how we do that, which I think we have been and will be, we'll figure out that in some states we're going to be playing much more of a supportive role and in other states we're going to play much more of a leadership role, but that we're going to do what makes sense and what works best with the good efforts that are being undertaken in states around the country," he said. "HRC has got to be out there all across America making sure that we really understand the broad spectrum of issues that our community faces in a variety of states around the country. Because as I've learned from the last two days, it's very different from place to place. People have different issues and different things that they're worried about and we've got to make sure that we are really tapped into all of it."