2009 Legislative Session Brings Major Progress for LGBT North Carolinians

The big highlights of the session included:

• Blocking the proposed marriage discrimination constitutional amendment. This is the sixth year we have prevented an amendment denying same-sex couples marriage, civil union, or any other kind of relationship recognition from going on the ballot for voter approval. North Carolina remains the only state in the South that has not adopted such an amendment.
• Passing the School Violence Prevention Act to address bullying and harassment in schools, including acts targeting LGBT students. Not only does this create a safer environment for LGBT young people at a critical time in their development, it marks the first time sexual orientation and gender identity are included in North Carolina law and the first time gender identity is included in state law in the South.
• Passing the Healthy Youth Act to provide young people with life-saving information about disease prevention as part of a comprehensive sex education program in grades 7-9. While there are still significant problems with sex education policy in our state, particularly for LGBT youth, this bill marks a huge step forward.
• Fighting to keep HIV prevention and care services adequately funded in the state budget. Thanks to our efforts, there were no cuts to HIV prevention programs, and the AIDS Drug Assistance Program will continue to provide low-income patients with the medicine they need. While Medicaid HIV case management was cut, we prevented it from being completely eliminated, as had been proposed in both the House and Senate versions of the budget.
  

In addition we built strong relationships with both new and old legislative allies, and laid a foundation for future efforts with the introduction of bills on employment non-discrimination, hate crimes, and privacy rights. We also monitored the budget negotiations to ensure that the discriminatory "gift tax," which was repealed last year, was not restored as part of the revenue package.

We couldn't have done any of this without the amazing contributions of time, energy, and money that our supporters across the state gave.

All of these victories, and the strong activist base we built in the process of achieving them, put us in a strong position to keep building a state of equality in North Carolina. Here are some of the priorities on our plates going forward:

• Working with the State Board of Education and Department of Public Instruction to ensure that our anti-bullying and comprehensive sex education laws are fully implemented by local school districts, and that teachers get the training they need to keep all students safe and healthy.
• Preparing to address attacks on our community in the 2010 elections and ensure that LGBT and allied voters are engaged and voting.
• Building our grassroots power in strategically targeted areas to advance employment non-discrimination legislation in the 2011 session.

We're also planning for Equality NC Foundation's 2009 Equality Conference & Gala on Saturday, November 14. It's going to be a great chance for us to come together from across the state and build the skills and connections we need to keep building on our success.