The Human Rights Campaign released a video today highlighting the stories of LGBT Americans living in the South. (Watch it below.)
The video is part of HRC’s recently launched “One America” campaign, which seeks to fight discrimination against the LGBT community in three Southern States—Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas. According to HRC, these three states currently have no statewide or local anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people.
“People love their Southern roots, their families, and they don’t want to leave their homes. So they are choosing to boldly speak out to effect change,” said Brad Clark, director of Project One America. “The interviews in this video are a courageous testament to the strength of LGBT people in the South.”
HRC is investing $8.5 million to fund full-time staff and office space in each state. HRC President Chad Griffin, an Arkansas native himself, will spend the next three days at events in the Southern states.
According to research by LGBTQ Funders, a significant disparity exists in domestic funding in the South compared to the rest of the U.S. For example, while in Northeastern states LGBT funding averaged $10.10 per LGBT adult, in the South it averaged only $1.71 per LGBT adult.
Other LGBT organizations have recently turned their focus to the South as well. In February, Freedom to Marry launched its own multi-state campaign, “Southerners for the Freedom to Marry,” which invested $1 million to build public support for marriage equality in Southern states. “The South is home to hundreds of thousands of loving, committed same-sex couples—and to a majority of the nearly 50 federal marriage cases now underway in courts across the country,” said Freedom to Marry founder and president Evan Wolfson.
Also, the Williams Institute at UCLA has conducted several research projects in the region, including a February report on South Carolina that showed that about 66,000 LGBT workers living in the state are without protection from employment discrimination.