Out Like a Lion

12.10.09

At NCLR we are ending 2009 with a roar. In the past week, we won a landmark Title IX case, secured asylum for a transgender client from Guatemala, helped launch a White House family visibility campaign and played a key role in mobilizing our community to fight for passage of ENDA.

This past year has been filled with gut wrenching highs and lows. We began 2009 with a new administration that has given us unprecedented access and an ability to help move and shape policies that affect our lives. We saw the California Supreme Court uphold Prop 8, in a tortured and deeply regrettable ruling. We rejoiced as legal rulings and legislative wins made marriage a reality in four more states.

We lived through the stutter-steps of the Obama administration on our most important issues, all the while proclaiming his abiding support for our equality. We endured the kick-in-the-gut ballot loss in Maine, reversing the legislature’s vote on marriage (for the time being), even as we saw voters support transgender rights in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Gainesville, Florida, and domestic partner protections in Washington state. We held our breath and felt that same sucker punch again when a marriage equality bill was voted down in New York, and those brave Senators who stood with us reignited our hope and belief that equality may be a dream deferred, but never denied.

In short, we went through the normal roller coaster ride that is part of any active, dynamic, and expanding civil rights movement. For every step forward, it can appear that there is a counter-step backward. But after 14 years at NCLR, and with the perspective of our thirty-two years to draw on, it is clear to me that our arc of history is indeed bending to justice. We are in a particularly perilous moment now precisely because we are so close to achieving our goal of equality. Our opposition has ramped up as never before, and on every issue of social justice, inclusion, and individual liberty, we see the rancor and intolerance of those who want to deny all progress and turn back the clock on all the gains every movement for justice has made.

But we know how the story ends, if we continue to hold up our end and push with all our might for the basic dignity and equality that we all deserve. Justice, truth, and love will win out. Yes, it has been a hard year. That is the point. Fighting for what is right, standing up and telling the truth to power, struggling to win equality and to change hearts and minds is never easy work.

All of us at NCLR wish you and those you love a safe, joyous, and peaceful holiday season. We will do the same. We will then begin 2010 resolved to keep doing all we can to propel our movement forward. We are deeply grateful for the opportunity we have to do this work. To be a part of this inspiring human rights movement is privilege. We will not rest so long as any person in our community is denied safety, equality, and basic rights. Our commitment is to get to that final chapter sooner rather than later.

In Solidarity,

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