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.

First Week at Equality Ohio

So I definitely meant to write this much sooner, but my hectic schedule prevented that from happening.  I'll be sure to take full advantage of my free time when I have it so that I can write this blog more often.

Anyway, my first week at Equality Ohio was great!  Kim and Michele have been wonderful at showing me the ropes around here.  After going through my orientation last week (which involved a introduction to the issues, some paperwork, and watching a couple of documentaries), I started head on with my list of projects.  I wrote a paragraph for the Equality Ohio website, newsletter, and Facebook page about a custody case going on right now.  Currently, there is a custody case concerning two women who used to be romantically involved and their daughter.  The biological mother is trying to deny all custody rights from the non-biological mother, and the case has made it all the way to the Supreme Court.  This has the potential to change the way that non-biological parents in same-sex couples are viewed legally.

Besides writing that paragraph, I have been updating the contact list for Equality Ohio supporters, updating the list of current state legislators, and making a list of all of the LGBT groups in Ohio.  All of these are rather large projects that take a while to complete, so I have had my work cut out for me.  It's been really interesting, though, to see how many LGBT groups there really are, as well as how many state legislators would probably vote for the equal housing and employment act (a state bill that would make it so LGBT members could not be denied housing or employment based on their sexual orientation or gender identity).  Going against what I assumed, I discovered that there is a surprising number of Republicans who would or could be persuaded to vote for the act.  It is quite possible that this piece of legislation may be passed this time!

Well, that's enough for now I suspect.  I will try to get my next update in sooner.  Until next time!