\t\t\t\tThe realities of day-to-day life for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered Oregonians has changed a lot since ROP first organized rural communities to defeat Measure 9 – the anti-gay ballot measure which sought to define homosexuality as \u2018abnormal and perverse\u2019 and enjoin state agencies from doing anything to \u2018promote the homosexual agenda.\u2019<\/p>\n
“[New laws] have given us a marginal success in areas where we didn’t have protections before,” says Allison Elise Cleveland, director of The Gender Center Inc. in Lane County.\u00a0 “Before laws enacted in 2008, there were… only a few zip codes that offered protection from discrimination in the workplace, in housing and in some civil matters.\u00a0 With the advent of these laws we’ve been able to advocate for people around the state in areas that beforehand would have been hopeless.\u00a0 We’ve achieved some very important milestones, but we need to strengthen language in existing laws and continue outreach and education into municipalities and corporate worlds.”\u00a0 Discrimination against gender and sexual minorities is still very real and present.\u00a0 In fact, Allison is filing her own discrimination suit today.<\/p>\n
The good news is that across rural Oregon, new people and new groups are stepping up and standing up for gender justice.<\/p>\n
Suzann Chapman from Union County is organizing a new PFLAG chapter in Union County<\/strong> that will meet for the first time later this month:\u00a0 “Now is the perfect time to start these conversations in our community.\u00a0 I have a lot of concerns in my heart for the youth, especially, with the prejudice they encounter, especially in the highschools.\u00a0 I want to be available as a resource to help families and youth.\u00a0 I want to make a difference in a positive way.”<\/p>\n
Columbia County Citizens for Human Dignity member Kevin W. is bringing a group of seven youth from the Scappoose high school’s newly formed Gay Straight Alliance<\/strong> to Basic Rights Oregon’s Stand Out! For Equality lobby day and rally in Salem this Friday to strengthen Oregon’s anti-bullying law to protect LGBT youth who are bullied just for being who they are.\u00a0 “As a gay man living in Warren, I think it’s important that Columbia County catches up with the times.\u00a0 Formation of the GSA in the high school is a good example of how progressive our community has become and that it does not discriminate.\u00a0 By supporting students’ participation in the Stand Out! event, we are showing our community support for the GSA group and our community’s youth.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
At Basic Rights Oregon’s Stand Out! For Equality lobby day<\/strong>, participants will learn all the ins and outs of the Oregon Safe Schools Act (HB 2599) and hear from elected officials like Secretary of State Kate Brown and Representative Tina Kotek.\u00a0 BRO has also set up visits with the lawmakers who will vote on the Oregon Safe Schools Act.\u00a0 Please consider joining ROP’s partners at BRO for this important event.\u00a0 There are just 24 hours left to register!<\/p>\n
And then join other rural activists committed to human dignity for all at the ROP Rural Caucus and Strategy Session on March 15th & 16th in Salem, OR.\u00a0 At the Gender Justice workshop we will take stock of how the LGBT rights movement has evolved since ROP began in 1991.\u00a0 We’ll look at the changes in language, the new alliances that have been formed, and the experiences of rural Oregonians – as well as what’s happening this year and how you can be involved.\u00a0Register today\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The realities of day-to-day life for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered Oregonians has changed a lot since ROP first organized rural communities to defeat Measure 9 – the anti-gay ballot measure which sought to define homosexuality as \u2018abnormal and perverse\u2019 and enjoin state agencies from doing anything to \u2018promote the homosexual agenda.\u2019 “[New laws] have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"template":"","areaofwork":[],"class_list":["post-252","update","type-update","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rop.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/update\/252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rop.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/update"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rop.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/update"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rop.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rop.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/update\/252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rop.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"areaofwork","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rop.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/areaofwork?post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}