Looking toward the future

In keeping with its newly expanded mission, MassEquality has laid out an ambitious 2008 legislative agenda that aims to increase state funding for several LGBT and HIV/AIDS organizations in addition to passing key pieces of legislation.

Crafting the agenda boiled down to the question of what MassEquality "can do to make Massachusetts a fully equal place not just for some in the ... LGBT community but for everyone in LGBT community," said MassEquality Campaign Director Marc Solomon. "And we think that the aspects of this agenda put us pretty strongly in that direction."

The organization's staff determined its priorities based on feedback received from its membership, major donors, LGBT community members and leaders, and legislators during a three-month strategic planning process that concluded last November. MassEquality staffers also developed an internal screening process that took into consideration whether their help was requested on a specific issue, whether they could bring unique resources to the table, and how big of an impact a given issue would have on the LGBT community.

With the Fiscal Year 2009 budget season descending on Beacon Hill, MassEquality will likely first have to give much of its attention to the budgetary items on its agenda, which were developed in partnership with the organizations that receive the funding. It is looking to help the LGBT Aging Project boost its funding from its FY 2008 allocation of $60,000 to $125,000, in order to allow the Aging Project to train more elder service providers about the special needs of LGBT elders. In the area of LGBT domestic violence prevention, MassEquality will ask the legislature to increase funding from the current allocation of $258,000 to $658,000. The organization says the extra dollars will enable crisis housing centers like the Gay Men's Domestic Violence Project and The Network/LaRed to increase their supervision hours from just 54 hours per week to around-the-clock supervision, expand bed capacity for LGBT domestic violence victims statewide from five to 12 beds and increase the victim's length of stay in those beds from two weeks to 90 days. In the area of LGBT youth services, which were gutted by successive cuts beginning in 2001, MassEquality aims to put $2.9 million in the budget, up from its current level of $600,000. The money will go toward increasing the Mass. Commission on GLBT Youth's capacity to reach out to LGBT youth and cover administration costs of operating the commission. MassEquality is also partnering with AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts and Fenway Community Health to boost HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention funding. The organization did not yet have a specific allocation request in that area as Bay Windows went to press.

As for specific pieces of legislation, there are no surprises on MassEquality's agenda. As part of the organization's continued focus on protecting marriage equality in Massachusetts, it will work to repeal the 1913 law, which prevents most nonresident same-sex couples from marrying in the Bay State and to pass the Equal Access to Civil Marriage Bill, which would codify the right of same-sex couples to marry in the state's marriage laws. Additionally, MassEquality will put its muscle behind the MassHealth Equality Bill, which would give marriage same-sex couples the same access to Medicaid benefits as their heterosexual peers.

H.B. 1722, a bill to expand existing non-discrimination and hate crime statutes to provide protections based on gender identity and expression, is also getting high priority from MassEquality, which is working with a coalition of other organizations to pass the bill, among them Mass. Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) the Mass. Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, the ACLU and the Mass. Lesbian and Gay Bar Association.

To achieve its new legislative priorities, Solomon said that MassEquality will utilize a strategy similar to the one that proved so successful during the battle to prevent the passage of anti-gay marriage constitutional amendments during the past three years by leveraging their relationships with legislative allies and mobilizing grassroots support through their 11 affiliate organizations across the state. The organization has scheduled a series of community meetings across the state, Solomon noted, "to re-energize our affiliates, get them focused on these priorities and help them target which legislators they really are going to focus on" with regard to the budget items. A Greater Boston organizing meeting is slated for Jan. 29 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at St. Paul's Cathedral on Tremont Street.

Solomon said that he and MassEquality Political Director Matt McTighe will be doing much of the work to advance the agenda on Beacon Hill. The organization may hire lobbyists, he added. "We want to have the strongest voice for the LGBT community that we can," said Solomon.

MassEquality's expanded agenda marks the first time in years that an LGBT organization other than the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus (MGLPC), which for decades has played a leading role on lobbying LGBT issues, will wield influence at the State House. And MGLPC Co-Chair Arline Isaacson, a former MassEquality board member, did not support MassEquality's expansion. Will the two groups be able to work together? "Of course, said Solomon. "We're going to work together with the Caucus, absolutely."

Isaacson expressed similar sentiments. "We hope that MassEquality will work with the Caucus because we know the State House inside and out. We have 30 years of connections, of course. We welcome anyone and any group that wants to help us," she said. Though she acknowledged past disagreements between the groups, she added, "We hope they do choose to work with us."

On H.B. 1722, at least, they already are. Solomon and MGLPC lobbyist Bill Conley both spoke at a recent legislative briefing on the bill at the State House; both said their organizations were ready to work with MTPC to pass the bill.

Regardless of who's working with whom, Solomon acknowledged that there are hurdles to getting MassEquality's agenda through the legislature. For one, he said, "we're up against a tight budget this year." Secondly, coming on the heels of three years of wrangling over marriage equality, legislators this session, said Solomon, "are all sort of gayed out." But either way, there will be a budget and MassEqualilty wants the LGBT community's priorities included within it, said Solomon. Additionally, he noted that on the issue of trans rights, 13 states already have legislated protections similar to the ones Massachusetts advocates are seeking. "For marriage we were cutting edge ... right now we're behind Iowa and Colorado, we're not cutting edge, we're playing catch up," said Solomon.

Policy making on Beacon Hill is more often than not a multi-year process - it took 18 years to pass the LGBT civil rights bill, for instance. But Solomon refused to concede that the bills MassEquality is supporting might not be signed into law by the end of 2008 and that smaller gains - a legislative hearing or a favorable committee report, for example - may be the only marks of progress. "I think a good year is to pass some of these [bills] into law," he said.

How realistic is that? "The answer I give you is that how realistic was it to get a 151 votes to defeat a constitutional amendment? I'm not making promises," Solomon responds. "But if we start setting the bar at too low of a place - 'Well, if we just get it through this committee, if we just have a really great hearing, it's going to take five years, 10 years to educate [legislators].' That's not what this organization is about. We're about moving things as quickly as possible. So I don't want to set a bar that's too low."