The Human Rights Campaign kicked off its “American Dreams Tour” on Wednesday in Columbus. The tour aims to highlight stories from LGBTQ+ people who live in red states, and advocate for the preservation and advancement of LGBTQ+ rights.
Despite Ohio's historical status as a swing state, in the past decade, the state has shifted to the right. With that shift, a wave of new laws targeting LGBTQ+ people have been enacted, particularly against transgender individuals.
Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said that the choice to start the tour in Columbus was deliberate, based on the city’s and Ohio’s past queer activism.
“Ohio tells the story of our country, the story, a place where equality felt almost inevitable for a time. I mean, it's the home of Jim Obergefell, right?” Robinson said. "And yet now, there's a historic backlash taking place with forcible outing bills that are being passed around schools, people feeling less safe, even in the three Cs.”
Robinson said there is currently a nationwide backslide of LGBTQ+ rights. The ACLU is currently tracking a record number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills in the US, with nearly 600 bills this year, already exceeding last year's count.
“These laws that are being passed, I actually believe that the laws that are being cast right now, they're not about our kids. They're actually about grading fear and building political power for folks that pushes some of us under the bus and we're not going to let it happen,” Robinson said.
The tour’s focus on red states is also deliberate. The tour is set to stop in 12 cities across the country, including visits to Texas, Nevada, Georgia, Tennessee and Washington D.C.
“It's important that we don't only share the stories of what's happening in places like California and New York and even Washington D.C., but that we go to the heart of it all, to the heartland,” Robinson said. “I think this is one of those places that shows that queer people and trans people are everywhere fighting for not only our survival, but also fighting to build the power that we need to shift the trajectory of the state.”
Robinson and other campaign organizers met with local leaders and activists for a roundtable on Wednesday. The Columbus visit also included a community celebration with Congresswoman Joyce Beatty and a “Voices for Equality” storytelling training session.
The start in Columbus also emphasized longer fought battles in the LGBTQ+ community, including inaccessibility to care for HIV and examining how recent budget cuts have affected the LGBTQ+ community.
“We are seeing just devastating impacts already of these tremendous cuts,” Robinson said. “Federally, we've actually seen $3 billion in federal funds slashed towards things like HIV prevention to work toward the 988 hotline that was a crisis line for LGBTQ+ youth. We are seeing a tremendous impact on the infrastructure that's been created for our communities to survive and to thrive.”
However, Robinson remains hopeful. She said the campaign hopes to gather 1 million pledges in support of LGBTQ+ rights.
“The majority of Americans, the majority of Ohioans, are not inherently anti-trans or anti-LGBTQ+, but we do have to engage with them and tell our stories so they know who we are,” Robinson said. “There's a real opportunity here, even in the midst of this tremendous political backslide that we're seeing.”
