 Hands Off Washington logo featured on signs, stickers and posters | |
 U.S. State of Washington | |
| Formation | 1993 |
|---|---|
Washington Citizens for Fairness | Hands off Washington (H.O.W.) was created in 1993 to defeat Washington State ballot initiatives 608 and 610, [1] which threatened the civil rights of state and local public employees based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation. [2]
In 1993, The Oregon Citizens Alliance attempted to influence Washington politics by gathering signatures for a ballot initiative that would have restricted the civil rights of LGBTQ citizens in Washington State. The Citizens for Fairness/Hands Off Washington campaign was a grassroots gay rights effort that repelled this attempt, casting the OCA as an Oregonian organization trying to manipulate Washington State politics. During its brief history, the HOW campaign repelled a number of OCA attempts. In 1997, Washington's existing discrimination laws protected against many different classes, but not sexual orientation, [3] perceived or actual; the HOW campaign attempted to add both categories to the existing anti-discrimination laws via a ballot measure (Initiative 677), which failed to pass despite high profile support from Governor Gary Locke. [4]
However, this pro-LGBT rights initiative I-677 was the first-ever attempt to win statewide legal rights at the ballot box, a controversial strategy never before attempted. Until this ballot measure, conventional LGBT rights strategies focused on court precedents and legislative sponsored bills. In spite of this loss, HOW was significant in its track record of defeating every anti-LGBT measure brought forward and expanding strategies for LGBT rights.
Hands Off Washington lost momentum after this setback, and faded gradually over the following years. [5]
Hands Off Washington was founded as the first-ever statewide LGBT rights organization, with active chapters in 22 counties, including many in conservative Eastern Washington. This unprecedented strategy allowed HOW to tap local community activists in every corner of the State, in rural and suburban areas as well as urban ones. Until HOW, LGBT rights were headquartered and active only in large liberal cities, often overlooking small towns and rural LGBT people.
HOW was the forerunner of many Washingtonian LGBT civil rights organizations, including Equal Rights Washington, and Washington Families Standing Together. It was formed as an ad hoc grassroots effort consisting almost entirely of volunteers operating on a minimal budget, and achieved remarkable success given its lack of formal structure or funds. While other GLBT service groups predate the Washington Citizens for Fairness/Hands Off Washington campaign, they were mostly non-political in nature, and therefore the HOW can be seen as one of the first significant, statewide efforts at political involvement by GLBT people in Washington State. A documentary, We're Here to Stay: a Documentary About Hands Off Washington and the Politics of Washington State, was released in 1998 to chronicle the organization's rapid rise and equally rapid decline.[ citation needed ]
While the group has largely been forgotten, it appears quite frequently in news articles published during the period in which it was active, from about 1993 to the end of 1997.
HOW established the potential for LGBT political organizations to garner support far from the heavily urbanized parts of Western Washington, where prior misconceptions alleged the only real support base could exist. This laid the groundwork for the organizations that followed it, and many of the leaders of those organizations got their start in the HOW campaign. [6]
Oregon Ballot Measure 9 was a 1992 citizens' initiative concerning LGBT rights in the state of Oregon. It sought to amend the Oregon Constitution to prohibit anti-discrimination laws regarding sexual orientation and to declare homosexuality to be "abnormal, wrong, unnatural, and perverse". Listing homosexuality alongside pedophilia and sadism and masochism, it has been described as one of the harshest anti-gay measures presented to voters in American history.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is an American LGBTQ advocacy group. It is the largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization within the United States. Based in Washington, D.C., the organization focuses on protecting and expanding rights for LGBTQ individuals, including advocating for same-sex marriage, anti-discrimination and hate crimes legislation, and HIV/AIDS advocacy. The organization has a number of legislative initiatives as well as supporting resources for LGBTQ individuals.
PFLAG is the United States' largest organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people and those who love them. PFLAG National is the national organization, which provides support to the PFLAG network of local chapters. PFLAG has nearly 400 chapters across the United States, with more than 350,000 members and supporters.
The National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) is a U.S. not-for-profit advocacy group that aims to expand the economic opportunities and advancement of the LGBT business community. Its headquarters are in NW in Washington, D.C. NGLCC is the exclusive certifying body for LGBT-owned businesses known as LGBT Business Enterprises (LGBTBEs), and advocates for LGBT business inclusion in corporate and government supplier diversity programs. In October 2017, the organization changed its name from the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce to National LGBT Chamber of Commerce to better reflect the entire LGBT business community it serves.
Basic Rights Oregon is an American nonprofit LGBT rights organization based in Portland, Oregon. It is the largest advocacy, education, and political organization working in Oregon to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Basic Rights Oregon has a full-time staff, a contract lobbyist, and more than 10,000 contributors, and 5,000 volunteers. It is a 501(c)(4) organization that maintains a 501(c)(3) education fund, a state candidate PAC and a ballot measure PAC. The organization is a member of the Equality Federation.
California Proposition 6, informally known as the Briggs Initiative, was an unsuccessful ballot initiative put to a referendum on the California state ballot in the November 7, 1978 election. It was sponsored by John Briggs, a conservative state legislator from Orange County. The failed initiative sought to ban gays and lesbians from working in California's public schools.
The Oregon Citizens Alliance (OCA) was a conservative Christian political activist organization, founded by Lon Mabon in the U.S. state of Oregon. It was founded in 1986 as a vehicle to challenge then–U.S. Senator Bob Packwood in the Republican primaries, and was involved in Oregon politics from the late 1980s into the 1990s.
Equal Rights Washington (ERW) is Washington’s largest statewide LGBTQ advocacy and community outreach organization. ERW's mission is to ensure and promote dignity, safety, and equality for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Washingtonians.
Equality Maryland (EQMD) was a non-profit organization formerly headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, now based in Baltimore. It was at the time, the largest organization in Maryland whose activities focused on advocacy and education with regard to LGBT social and political movements. Its mission included: the passage of laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender expression, and gender identity; the expansion of Maryland's hate-crimes statute; the increase of domestic partner benefits; the legal recognition of same-sex marriage in Maryland and laws banning the practice of conversion therapy on minors. In 2016, the organization merged with FreeState Legal Project, to form FreeState Justice.
The Greater Seattle Business Association(GSBA) is an LGBTQ+ chamber of commerce based in Seattle, Washington. The majority of the organization's membership are small businesses located throughout the Puget Sound area. The association's stated mission is "to combine business development, leadership and social action to expand economic opportunities for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community and those who support equality for all."
The 2009 Washington Referendum 71 (R-71) legalized domestic partnership in Washington state, the first statewide referendum in the United States that extended to LGBT people the rights and responsibility of domestic partnership. The bill had passed State Legislature, and it was signed into law by the Governor in May 2009, but opponents gathered enough signatures to put the measure before the voters, who returned ballots by mail over three weeks ending on November 3, 2009, approving the measure 53% to 47%. The new law went into effect 30 days later, on December 3, 2009.
KnowThyNeighbor.org is a non-profit grass roots coalition co-founded in September 2005 by Tom Lang and Aaron Toleos for the purpose of publishing a fully searchable list of the names of people who signed the petition to end same sex marriage in Massachusetts that was sponsored by VoteOnMarriage.org. Knowthyneighbor.org was the first lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) group to pioneer this type of activism.
Washington Families Standing Together (WAFST) was founded in 2009 to preserve domestic partnerships in Washington State by urging voters to approve Referendum 71.
Referendum 74 was a Washington state referendum to approve or reject the February 2012 bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in the state. On June 12, 2012, state officials announced that enough signatures in favor of the referendum had been submitted and scheduled the referendum to appear on the ballot in the November 6 general election. The law was upheld by voters in the November 6, 2012 election by a final margin of 7.4% and the result was certified on December 5.
The Center for Artistic Revolution (CAR) is the statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization for the U.S. state of Arkansas. Founded in 2003 by Sabrina Zarco and Randi Romo, the organization is currently headed by Romo and is headquartered in downtown Little Rock.
Equality Illinois (EI) was founded in 1991 to work towards building a better Illinois by advancing equal treatment and social justice through education, advocacy, and protection of the rights of the LGBTQ community.
The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) is an American civil rights organization serving primarily Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) people. Since 2003, NBJC has collaborated with national civil rights groups and LGBT organizations, advocating for the unique challenges and needs of the African American LGBT community in the United States.
