Story URL: http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=140611
Story Retrieval Date: 2/9/2010 8:53:45 PM CST
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Loop a donation-friendly zone for hate-crime legislation
by John Lund
Oct 01, 2009
Canvassing just downtown Chicago’s streets for the past four weeks, the group netted $75,000 for the largest organization in the country working to advance the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.
The canvassers work for the Fund for the Public Interest, which is contracted to canvass for the HRC with a goal to raise money, build membership for the organization and identify people who support the group’s efforts. Fund for the Public Interest will raise money for Environment Illinois next.
“We generally raise money for each organization until we reach our goal, but we reached our goal for HRC in half the time we predicted, which is uncommon,” said Brandi Beals, assistant canvass director for the Fund for the Public Interest. “It shows the people of Chicago are really behind this issue.”
According the most recent FBI statistics, hate crimes based on sexual orientation constituted the third-highest category reported.
Beals said donors come from all different backgrounds: gay and straight, old and young, and different religious faiths.
She said that the canvassers tend to focus on heterosexuals, because it is less likely that they have donated before.
“It sends a more compelling message to Congress when straight people donate money to HRC and that this is not just one group of people wanting rights,” Beals said. “Everyone can recognize the need for equality’”
Some of the money HRC raises goes toward paying lobbyists to lobby on behalf of the group’s interests.
“Sadly, that’s the way things get done in Congress these days,” Beals said.
Beals said HRC will begin to focus on the Respect for Marriage Act, introduced on Sept. 15 by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY).
The act would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, signed in 1996 by President Clinton, and restore the rights of all lawfully married couples—including same-sex couples—to receive the benefits of marriage under federal law. The bill also provides same-sex couples with certainty that federal benefits and protections would flow from a valid marriage celebrated in a state where such marriages are legal, even if a couple moves or travels to another state.
Although the HRC is seeing more support, it is facing a constant uphill battle, as they are outnumbered 7 to 1 by organizations against LGBT rights including Focus on the Family, Christian Coalition, Concerned Women for America, American Family Association, and Family Research Council
