OutFront Minnesota

OutFront Minnesota

U.S. State of Minnesota
Motto Leading Minnesota Toward LGBT Equality[1]
Formation 1987
Location
Area served
Minnesota
Key people
 Monica Meyer, executive director Phil Duran, legal director, Aaron Zimmerman, development director, Eva Wood, Anti-Violence program director, Jim Larsen, finance/administration director, Chris Stinson, policy director [3]
Website outfront.org

OutFront Minnesota is a LGBT rights organization in the state of Minnesota in the United States

The organization is community-based, and uses paid memberships and other fundraising to support its activities, as well as receiving support from foundations and corporations.

OutFront Minnesota is a member of United ENDA, a national campaign to ensure transgender persons are included in national employment nondiscrimination legislation. OutFront Minnesota was one of the first organizations in the country to include transgender people in its mission statement. The organization works in coalition with approximately 30 state and national partners in the GLBT and progressive movements.[4]

OutFront Minnesota has a professional staff, is overseen by a board of directors, and works with hundreds of volunteers every year. The organization is a member of the Equality Federation.[5]

In early 2008, OutFront Minnesota experienced the departure of its longtime founding executive director, Ann DeGroot, a visionary leader respected and admired statewide and nationally. Monica Meyer is the current executive director.

Mission

OutFront Minnesota updated their mission statement in 2014 from their former mission statement, “to create a state where lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are free to be who they are, love who they love, and live without fear of violence, harassment or discrimination.“ to their current mission statement, “to create a state where lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people are free to be who they are, love who they love, and live without fear of violence, harassment or discrimination.”[6]

They added the word queer to the mission statement for three main reasons 1) queer being an umbrella term 2) the term queer challenges essentialist understanding of gender and reject notions of heteronormative 3) queer has historical been used as a derogatory term that they have reclaimed to challenge hegemonic structures.[6]

Programs

OutFront Minnesota provides a host of unique programs to support the LGBTQIA and allied community including Anti-Violence, Community Organizing, Legal, Education and Training, and Public Policy which includes lobbying the state legislature

Anti-Violence Program

OutFront Minnesota has one of the leading anti-violence programs with in the state. The goal of the Anti-Violence Programs (AVP) is to end violence LGBTQIA+ community in the state of Minnesota. The AVP use an intersectional lens to honor and understand survivor’s experiences. They hope to create a safe environment for all individual but specifics they focus on issues relative to sexual orientation or gender performance. They AVP works to increase anti-violence education within the LGBTQIA+ community. Additionally, the AVP gives survivor’s the capabilities to file and report instances of violence.

Lobby Day & Youth Summit

a sponsors a lobby day in the state capitol in St. Paul, called "justFair Lobby Day". OutFront also tries to empower youth to get involved with in their community by hosting a Youth Summit. The Youth Summit is organized and run by adolescent activists. Students gave lectures about the LGBTQIA+ community and activism examples of past lecture topic where; Mental Health, LGBTQ Movement beyond Marriage, Intersections of Identity, Black Lives Matter, and etc.[7]

Minnesota GSA Network

In 2015, OutFront Minnesota launched their "Minnesota School Pride GSA Network". The "Minnesota School Pride GSA Network" is a statewide GSA program created to connect queer youth within the state of Minnesota. The Minnesota School Pride GSA is run by OutFront Minnesota Associate Director for Youth Organizing and School Outreach, Katrina Plotz.[8]

Notable Movement and Actions

Marriage

OutFront Minnesota, with the support of Sen. Allan Spear and Rep. Karen Clark, led the historic effort to amend the state's Human Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity, a change which was finally achieved in 1993.[9] OutFront Minnesota also led a successful three-year campaign to defeat an anti-equality constitutional amendment to bar Minnesota's same-sex couples from marrying. On May 14, 2013, there was a 37-30 bipartisan vote to allow same-sex couples to marry Executive Director Monica Meyer stated on the matter, “We want to thank House Speaker Thissen, Senate Majority Leader Bakk and all of the legislators who voted yes -- and, of course, Governor Dayton who has been so supportive of LGBT equality. We also want to thank each and every person who dedicated their time and energy to make this happen.” [10]

OutFront Minnesota got individual to use personal stories to lobby the Minnesota legislature. OutFront Minnesota help Minnesota become the twelfth state to legalize same-sex marriage.[11]

Safe Schools

Youth at Mark Daton Safe Schools Act signing

Before the Safe School Act was signed into law 2014, Minnesota has one of the weakest anti-bullying policies within the United States. The “Safe and Supportive school Act” was passed on April 4, 2014 with a 36-31 vote after hours of long debate in the Minnesota Senate.[12] OutFront Minnesota lobbied the state of Minnesota legislature for education reform. Anti-bullying legislation became a larger issue within the state of Minnesota, as a result of a string of bullying incidents within Anoka Country. The bullying incidents became so severe within the county that the United States Judicial department had to get involved. The Safe and Support School Act protected from; religious, racial, gender identity, and sexual orientation discrimination.[13] The act does not mandate private or home school to follow the law. After many hours of debate the Safe and Supportive Act was passed, but a compromise that occurred was that the law no longer required school to report and collect date about these bullying cases, additionally school districts do not have train volunteers. Much of the opposition toward the legislation came from the Minnesota Republican Party this contention spurred from the cost of the law, and inclusion of sexual orientation. The estimated cost of the Safe and Support Schools Act was to around 19 billion.[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Home". OutFront Minnesota. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
  2. ↑ "Contact Us". OutFront Minnesota. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
  3. ↑ "Home". OutFront Minnesota. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  4. ↑ "Coalitions | OutFront Minnesota". www.outfront.org. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  5. ↑ "About Us | OutFront Minnesota". www.outfront.org. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  6. 1 2 "About Us | OutFront Minnesota". www.outfront.org. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  7. ↑ "Youth Summit 2015 | OutFront Minnesota". www.outfront.org. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  8. ↑ "MNGSA | OutFront Minnesota". outfront.org. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  9. ↑ Preston, Joshua. "Allan Spear and the Minnesota Human Rights Act." Minnesota History 65 (2016): 76-87.
  10. ↑ "Marriage | OutFront Minnesota". outfront.org. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  11. ↑ "Marriage | OutFront Minnesota". outfront.org. Retrieved 2015-12-04.
  12. ↑ "Bullying crackdown passes Minnesota Senate". Star Tribune. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  13. ↑ "Safe Schools | OutFront Minnesota". www.outfront.org. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  14. ↑ "Anti-bullying bill passes Minn. Senate". KARE. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
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