Lobby Day
Outfront’s JustFair Lobby Day 2007
I attended Lobby Day with my partner, Dana, and my parents. My parents actually reminded me of the event this year. This was their second time at the Capitol, and their increased support and outspoken excitement of gay rights efforts makes me feel proud and grateful that they stand behind me (as many parents of GLBT do not).
Lobby Day is an event organized by Outfront Minnesota, an organization that assists in community-building and political lobbying for GLBT Minnesotans. Every April they organize a Lobby Day to connect GLBT and allied constituents with their legislators in an attempt to expose the needs and power of the GLBT voting base.
The day opens up with a rally. This year there were multiple speakers. After the rally is followed by individual appointments with Senators and Representatives. Dependent on your district or precinct, Outfront helps set you up with the appropriate legislator and schedules the appointments ahead of time.
In the past, I have had a difficult time getting my views “through” to my legislators. I am originally from Minnetonka and anyone who knows the suburb could guess that it has solely Republican representation in the Senate and House. This year my Representative met with my district and spoke with us about his views on GLBT issues. This mainly focused on marriage or “civil unions”, along with adoption, hospital, insurance laws lacking representation and equality in the law. The conversation went better than expected and I left feeling that there was somewhat of a chance of change.
However, there were some major problems that I see with Lobby Day. First of all the GLBT community represented and spoken for at Lobby Day is the privileged middle to upper class white and older couples; for the most part. I saw less than 5 people of color at the Lobby. There was a speaker of color, but he didn’t speak about the fact that he is well represented in the GLBT community. The GLBT aspect of Lobby Day is also ridiculous because the Transgender community is rarely talked about and laws do not include them. The Bisexual community isn’t acknowledged what so ever, and they are shamed out of the gay and lesbian community. So, while Lobby Day was a great event for starting community development and a “bridge” between people and government, they failed to address many pressing issues. Women were not spoken about, nor were transgender individuals. Power systems were not talked about, they were reinforced. The speakers spoke about equality, but they themselves are not treated equally by the GLbt community. There is only the use of the common equality for all speeches, equal rights, equal voice, and while this is a nice thought, it isn’t reasonable because it fails to acknowledge who is left out and who is negatively affected by the work of Lobby Day and organizations associated with GLbt organizing for equality and heteronormativity within the GLbt communities.