The human rights campaign, the largest LGBTQ rights organization in the country, is taking its LGBTQ equality message along the way with a multicunction tour focused on changing more hearts and minds, particularly in the red states.
The “American Dreams Tour” will begin on Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio, and will travel to cities in states predominantly led by Republicans until November. The objective of the tour, according to HRC, is to amplify the stories of LGBTQ people “in a moment of growing political attacks and cultural erase” and “celebrate communities that support hate and fight for a future of equality for all.”
“For half a century, our movement has changed hearts and minds with our stories: Harvey Milk in Castro, Pedro Zamora about the real world, trans young people and parents who present themselves in state cases throughout the country. When people know who we are, everything changes. This tour is about claiming that legacy,” said Kelleon, president of the Human Rights campaign, in a statement. “We travel to the places where damage is happening, and where hope is increasing. We are presenting communities to whom they have been told that they do not belong to them and remind them of them, and the country, that they are The American dream “.
The “anchor” tour in six important cities: Columbus; Las Vegas; Washington, DC; Dallas; Atlanta; and Nashville, Tennessee, with other stops that will be announced in the coming weeks, according to HRC. Each stop will adapt to the problems faced by queer people in those particular places. The Columbus stop, for example, will focus on the “Ohio legacy of LGBTQ+ activism while facing the political setback and today barriers for HIV care”, according to HRC, while the Atlanta stop will be associated with Atlanta Pride and will concentrate on “black leadership leadership models+ black leadership.”
The “American Dreams Tour” arrives at a precarious moment for LGBTQ rights, and particularly transgender rights. So far this year, almost 600 Anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state cases in the United States, according to a count of the American Union of Civil Liberties. And a report published last week by the LGBTQ Glaad defense group said that 300 Anti-LGBTQ actions had caused Trump administration since January. An NBC news analysis published in February discovered that legislators in at least nine states had recently introduced measures to try to keep the right of same -sex couples to marry.
“For the first time in decades, we are actually seeing a setback in LGBTQ+ rights in this country, and we have to do something,” Robinson said Monday in an interview with MSNBC. “We have to return to the basic concepts to tell our stories and meet people where they are, because we know that when we tell our stories, we not only change hearts and minds, we change the way people behave, who vote, who advocate in their communities.”
