Equality NC Celebrates 2005 Achievements

Legislation

• First and foremost, we are proud of our successful effort to prevent an anti-LGBT, anti-marriage state constitutional amendment from passing in the legislature. Thanks to the work of Equality NC and our allies, North Carolina is the only state in the South that has faced such an amendment and killed it in the legislature for the second year in a row.
• Our grassroots and professional lobbying secured a record number of sponsors on pro-equality bills that would address critical issues such as anti-LGBT employment discrimination and hate crime.
• In January, Senator Julia Boseman (D-New Hanover) took office as our state's first openly gay legislator. Her presence has made a remarkable change in the tone of the Senate when LGBT issues are discussed.
• A bill to correct most of the medical and legal inaccuracies in the state's "Abstinence Until Marriage" sex education law passed the House with only two representatives opposing it. Thanks to Equality NC's advocacy, the bill will remove one of the two homophobic inaccuracies in the existing law. We expect the bill to pass the Senate in the 2006 session.

Executive Policy

• When the anti-LGBT Family Policy Council called for the State Board of Education to remove a requirement that school counselors understand sexual orientation and gender identity issues from their professional training standards, Equality NC swung into action. In just two weeks we gathered more than 1600 signatures on a petition calling on the board to keep the inclusive policy. Although we didn't get the lanaguage we wanted, we did identify several chapions for equality on the Board.

Community Organizing

• In March Equality NC and NC GALA convened a statewide LGBT leadership summit, bringing together more than 70 leaders from 50 LGBT organizations from across the state.
• Equality NC Foundation launched our Document Discrimination initiative in August. The program collects stories of anti-LGBT discrimination and violence in our state, which will provide powerful testimony for decision makers and the press.

Electoral Organizing

• Equality NC PAC kicked off the 2006 election cycle with our largest fundraiser ever. The December event in Charlotte drew more than 150 people and raised over $32,000 to support pro-fairness candidates in the upcoming elections. Highlights included NC House Speaker Jim Black speaking of his commitment to equality and moving words from openly gay elected officials from around the nation.
• With Equality NC PAC's support, openly gay Chapel Hill Councilmember Mark Kleinschmidt handily won re-election in his November race.

Local Policy

• Thanks to the leadership of MeckPAC, the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners voted 6-3 to add sexual orientation to the county's anti-discrimination policy, becoming the seventh local government in the state to adopt such a policy. Equality NC is proud to have supported this local effort.

Organizational

• Thanks to hardworking board members, staff and volunteers, we increased our fundraising by 73% from 2004 to 2005, allowing us to expand our programs and build a strong foundation for growth.
• The Equality NC Action Network, our email alert list and action center, grew by 44% to include more than 3200 subscribers.

Awards & Leadership

• Equality NC was honored to recieve the Wake County Civil Liberties Award from the ACLU of Wake County in recognition of our efforts to fight the anti-LGBT amendment and other contributions to equality and civil liberties.
• Our Executive Director-Programs, Ian Palmquist was unanimously re-elected this August to a second term as Co-Chair of the Equality Federation, the national association of statewide LGBT advocacy organizations. In his first term, Ian led the group through hiring its first Executive Director and expanding its services to member organizations like Equality NC.

Equality North Carolina is the statewide organization dedicated to securing equal rights and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender North Carolinians. For more information, please visit www.equalitync.org.