Last Post

The past month has been pretty crazy.  At the beginning of April we had our CAUSE Conference.  After that was done, we had to take everything that we used for the conference and organize it based on how we planned to reuse it.  We also had to compile the evaluations from the conference, which included evaluation from the entire event as well as ones from each workshop.  After tallying up the ratings and copying the comments, we had to sort them into envelopes so that we could send them to the corresponding workshop presenters.

After the post-conference work was done, we immediately worked more on Lobby Day, which is only a little more than 2 weeks away.  Of course, this involved updating existing and making new e-mail blasts with reminders about trainings and Lobby Day registration.  However, that was the easy part.  The majority of this month has been making phone calls to legislative aids in order to set up appointments for Lobby Day.  The key is to make sure that no appointments within each senate district overlap.  For example, senate district 1 has representative districts 74, 75, and 76 in it.  Therefore, I need to make sure that Local Action Team Leaders have enough time to get to each of those 4 meetings. With 99 Representatives and 33 Senators, it was a rather daunting task.  So far, the phone calls have been pretty successful.  I already have a majority of the legislators properly scheduled, but there are still some that have proven to be rather difficult to get a hold of.   There are even a few legislators who outright refused to meet with the constituents, which was a bit surprising.  Besides these phone calls, though, the most recent Lobby Day task has been to set up Team Leaders' information folders, which will have everything they need for Lobby Day.  Furthermore, just today I looked up the Senate districts of each of the roughly 150 Lobby Day attendees.

Along with working for Lobby Day, Equality Ohio has been pretty busy with all of the safe schools legislation that is going through the House and Senate committees.  We are currently in the beginning stages of getting a grant for this type of work, so we had to quickly compile a lot of information for that.  This included finding all of the sponsors and co-sponsors for the legislation, estimating the likelihood of a "yes" vote for each of the legislators and organizing that information, collecting contact information from potential supporters of the bills, and making short summaries about each of the safe schools bills (There are currently 4 of them going through committees right now, although only one is enumerated).  We also had to make sure that we made a good impression when the people from the State Equality Fund came to interview members of Equality Ohio.

It's amazing that so much has happened in just this month, but it's even more amazing that this is my last week at Equality Ohio.  It has definitely been a rewarding experience, and I am so glad that I had this opportunity.

Weeks 10 and 11

With CAUSE conference this weekend, this week's top priority is to make sure everything is organized.  Luckily, since we've been keeping up on everything, there isn't a whole lot left for CAUSE besides some fine tuning.  However, that means that while we have a slight lag, now is the time to make sure we get as much as possible done for Pride event organization while we have a chance.  Soon, Lobby Day will be closer and we will be too busy with that.

Last week, we had another volunteer come in from a local high school.  She made a list of Cleveland business phone numbers and made phone calls to ask about their supportive policies.  These policies include EEO policies with sexual orientation and gender identity, domestic partner benefits, support for transgender hormones and/or surgery, family leave, and bereavement leave.  When I had free periods, I would continue the list while she made the phone calls.  We're going to use that data to give to other organizations in the state, as well as to keep track of which businesses have which policies.

Weeks 8 and 9

 We're definitely in the busy season now.  With the CAUSE conference coming up in little over 2 weeks and Lobby Day just around the corner, there are a lot of things that need to be done.  This mostly consists of making sure the newsletters are finalized, training date and times are updated, and making sure the Facebook page has reminders everyday for these events.  It's not too bad by itself, but when other projects come up, it is very important to remember to do those things along with everything else.

Besides this event preparation, last week was pretty crazy.  On Wednesday, we went to West Chester with a LGBT activist group called GetEQUAL to protest outside Speaker Boehner's office.  GetEQUAL had over 30,000 names for a petition against Speaker Boehner's decision to use taxpayers' money to support DOMA -- an act that the Justice Department had declared unconstitutional.  Kim and I went to West Chester to join the protest and support GetEQUAL.  While we were there, a person from Boehner's office came out to take the petitions but refused to let anyone inside the office.  Five people declared that they would not leave until they were granted access inside the office and could get on the phone with the Speaker.  Boehner's office locked the door, so the "Ohio 5" (as they now call themselves) sat outside the office and read the names outloud.  The police were called (actually, they were on the scene from the start) and said that whoever refuses to leave would be arrested for trespassing.  They then proceeded to ask every single person on the scene if they would leave.  I was off the grounds at the time, protesting with some other people on the street, so I wasn't asked.  However, Kim was and she said that she would in fact leave (we were told before we left to make sure we did not get arrested).  The five were arrested, and chanted "I am somebody. I deserve equal rights" as they were led to the police cars.  We were told that they were only held for a few hours.  Because of this protest, last week was largely filled with sending out newsletters, press releases, etc.  It was pretty crazy for a couple of days. 

This week, I have started finding information and reserving tables for Pride events over the summer.  I also have been researching and putting together a list of businesses that provide domestic partner benefits and discrimination policies for sexual orientation and/or gender identity.  Not quite as dramatic as last week, but still enough to keep me occupied!

Weeks 6 and 7

The past couple of weeks have been very busy with making more preparations for Local Action Team Trainings for Lobby Day 2011.  We have had a lot of areas respond with new information, meaning I have been updating the event pages and newsletters as this information has come in.  We have trainings located all over the state, all for preparation for Lobby Day in May.  Pretty soon, we will have a large amount of e-mails going out to update everyone about Lobby Day.  As I have mentioned before, we already have the templates fro these e-mails, but we will be updating those soon before they are sent.  We also have determined a location for our Lobby Day meeting place, which will be at the YWCA here in Columbus.  A couple of weeks ago, we went there to tour the ballroom.  It should be a good location for everyone to meet in the morning before the long day at the Statehouse.

Speaking of the Statehouse, Kim and I went to the protest there last Tuesday.  There were thousands of people, both union workers and supporters, rallying against SB 5.  We were there to make sure that collective bargaining for domestic partner benefits would be preserved.  Also, SB 5 has a section - 3101.01 -  which reiterates that "marriage is between one man and one woman."  Bands were playing, people were chanting, signs were held - all makings for a successful protest.  Unfortunately, the doors were locked to us for at least an hour and a half.  About a thousand people finally were allowed inside, but everyone else had to go to the Ohio Theater across the street if they wanted to listen to the hearings.  However, it was very cold out and I had to get to my part-time job, so Kim and I left around 3:00.  It was a great experience, though, to witness such an event and to see so many people come together for a common cause.

Weeks 4 and 5

 The past week has been pretty crazy.  Our new Executive Director, Ed, just arrived last week, so we have been busy setting everything up for him.  Also, we have begun to prepare for Lobby Day and the Cause Conference, both of which have provided a lot of assignments.  Last week, I set up all of the e-mails for both of these events, which have to be sent out at various times throughout the next few weeks.  This makes is so we at least have a template in place, and all we will have to do is possibly make minor changes before they are sent.  I also had to set up registration pages for each of the events, as well as for the training events that will take place throughout the state. 

So far this week, I have had to set a few things up for Ed in order to make sure he has the most current information.  This includes my current assignment, where I have to find the information about the groups who opposed the EHEA when it was in the House.  I also had to set up a memorization game about the state legislators in which a picture of the legislator will pop up and you must give his or her name and Senate or House district number.  The game is designed to not only help Ed but everyone in the office remember the old and new legislators by face.

I am going to try my best to make sure I remember to update the blog next week.

Week 3

 This past week, I have been pretty busy working on my legislator list some more.  This time I am adding personal information to the spreadsheet, including universities and churches attended and current and former affiliated organizations.  With this information, it will be easier to predict how they will vote, what issues they are passionate about, and if there are any potential connections we already have with them due to common affiliations.  Furthermore, this information gives us an idea about who the legislators are listening to.  By knowing that, we have the next best thing to speaking directly to the senator or representative themselves.  This project is taking more time than any of the other ones did, mostly because not all of the information is always in the same place.  However, it has been good for me to learn how to do this type of research, especially since I have become more efficient at it the more that I do it.

Last Tuesday, I also went on another couple of field trips with Kim.  The first one was to the America Votes meeting, where various progressive organizations throughout the state came to discuss current labor and human rights conditions in Ohio.  It was pretty cool to see all of these diverse organizations in one place and listening to them debate what was going on and what the future actions should be.  The setting of the meeting actually reminded me a bit of Dr. Fairfield's class, in that everyone sat in a circle and, after each presentation, discussed and debated what they just heard.  Later that day, Kim and I went to OSU for a LGBT world-cafe for a couple of hours.  I had never been to a world cafe before, so it was an interesting experience.  We sat in tables of 3 to 5 people and answered questions about what we expected from a community, and then switched to a new table with new people to answer a different question.  Although most of the people there were LGBT students and faculty from OSU, it was a good experience to be able to listen and talk to such a variety of people.  I believe that I added a unique perspective as well, speaking as a "straight ally" from a small private school like Xavier.

This coming week, Kim will be out of the office so I will be working more independently most of the week.  However, I still have plenty of work to keep me busy.   

Week 2

The second week at Equality Ohio was busy as usual, but was pretty fun!  I was able to finish the legislator list and the LGBT list for now, and all I have to do for those two projects is wait for updates.  It is a great feeling knowing that those two massive lists finished.  To replace that work, I have started a new project concerning particular LGBT rights and protections in different counties and cities.  Kim sent me data that showed which cities and counties protected LGBT citizens from employment, housing, and/or public accommodation discrimination, along with which ones had laws that prohibited LGBT hate crimes.  Based on this information, along with other selected characteristics, Equality Ohio was able to give the communities ratings about how LGBT friendly they were.  What I had to do was find the contact information in the city or county government for individuals who might need to report discrimination or a hate crime.  It sounds like it would be easy enough, but a lot of the cities' websites (especially the smaller cities) were very disorganized.  Some of them did not have any information on the web, in which case I had to call the city and ask them personally.  A web-design major would have plenty of work for them as a city employer in Ohio. :-)  Anyway, as of now, I have most of this information collected.  Just a few more phone calls and I'll be done.

Last week wasn't all office work, though.  On Tuesday, Kim and I went to the law school on the Ohio State campus for a talk concerning the history of gay-marriage legislation.  It was really quite interesting, especially since there were two speakers giving their own personal opinions.  What was fascinating was the emphasis on gender roles during the talk.  I have heard the gay-marriage issue described in terms in gender equality before (i.e. the fact that a man can marry a woman but a woman cannot marry a woman makes the issue a sexist one), but usually it was in the context of a Women's Studies class.  Apparently, there are some legal cases that have taken that stance!  This Tuesday (tomorrow) Kim and I will be taking another "field trip" and will be out of the office again.  I imagine it will be just as informative.

Then on Friday, Kim and I spent the day preparing for her phone banking training session that took place on Saturday.  I made the flip chart for her presentation, helped her edit the script, and helped her rehearse the introduction to the phone banking.  From what Kim said, the training was a success!  Hopefully, it is an indication for the future, since the goal is to get more Ohioans to be comfortable with phone banking.  If we can do that, then it will be a great resource for political advocacy and promoting awareness within Ohio.