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Measuring the Impact of LGBT Advocacy on LGBT Protections: 2011-2020

January 17, 2024

The ability of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people to express who they are and to live as they are -- without fear -- is a fundamental human right. Unfortunately, history has taught us that societies have been especially slow to protect LGBT human rights, that it takes time to engender human rights protecting regimes and human rights respecting societies.Although we can document advances in LGBT human rights over a ten year period from 2011-2020, the unfortunate reality is that in the second decade of the twenty-first century the majority of countries worldwide continue to persecute LGBT people. Utilizing F&M Global Barometers data from the GBGR and the GBTR from 2011-2020, this analysis measures the extent to which the existence of LGBT NGOs and their advocacy has a positive impact on the realization of LGBT protections globally and more specifically in the four sub regions: Caribbean, Central America, East Africa and Southern Africa. This study includes both sexual orientation and gender identity in the analysis.We conducted a time-series panel data analysis to test the effect of LGBT NGO advocacy and structural indicators like state stability, GDP per capita, and globalization on LGBT rights. In doing so, we divided the analysis into two parts: a brief global analysis of LGBT rights between 2011 and 2020 and a more in-depth analysis of regions in which the Arcus Foundation is active.

LGBTQ Policy Spotlight: Mapping LGBTQ Equality in the U.S. South

April 30, 2020

More LGBTQ people live in the U.S. South than in any other region of the United States. But for the one in three LGBTQ adults who call the South home, the South is the most hostile LGBTQ state policy landscape in the country.  The Movement Advancement Project (MAP) released a new report, LGBTQ Policy Spotlight: Mapping LGBTQ Equality in the U.S. South, which details how a dearth of progressive laws and policies in 14 Southern states has led to distinct challenges along with unique opportunities for advancing legal equality for LGBTQ people in the region.This report is released in partnership with PRIDELAND, a new Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) digital series and television special that follows queer actor Dyllón Burnside on a journey across the South to meet diverse members of the LGBTQ community. From a lesbian rodeo champ in Texas to an African American mayor ally in Alabama, he discovers how LGBTQ Americans are finding ways to live authentically and with pride in the modern South.MAP's southern policy tally aggregates nearly 40 LGBTQ-related laws and policies into a concise yet comprehensive way to gauge the LGBTQ-related policy landscape in the region. Compared to the Northeast, West, and Midwest regions, the South has more harmful LGBTQ laws than any other region—whether in criminal justice, religious exemptions, or laws targeting transgender youth—and  fewer positive laws than any other as well.While these challenges show the significant work remaining in the South, Southern states have made progress over the last decade due to the intersectional and coalitional model of Southern LGBTQ advocacy. However, the findings presented in the report illustrate how an LGBTQ person's legal rights and protections in the South exist in extremely hostile policy climates at the state and local levels, even in 2020.  It is critical that advocates for Southern LGBTQ equality continue to work for progress in cities and counties, in state legislatures, and in the halls of Congress.

Social Justice Program Mid-course Evaluation (2016)

September 1, 2017

The report details the impact of the Social Justice Program strategy implemented in 2013. The program's framework included three discrete sub-program areas: International Human Rights (IHR), Global Religions, and U.S. Social Justice—as well as a cross-cutting area of Transgender Equality and Justice. For each of the three subprograms, Arcus articulated 10-year horizon goals, with fiveyear outcome objectives.

Russia Freedom Fund Evaluation (2017)

July 1, 2017

At the request of Arcus Foundation program staff and members of the Russia Freedom Fund (RFF) Advisory Committee, an evaluation was conducted to assess the effectiveness and impact of the activities and outcomes of the Fund from its inception in 2014 through its most recent grantmaking cycle in late 2016.

We Are Real: The Growing Movement Advancing the Rights of Intersex People

August 4, 2016

Intersex issues lie at the intersection of many human rights concerns. If your work touches on health rights, sexual and reproductive rights, social justice or civil rights, it is connected to the human rights of intersex people. If you are focused on the human rights of women, children, people with disabilities or LGBT people, you are already working on the issues that concern intersex people. It's time to explicitly recognize these connections and support intersex activists' struggles to affirm their rights.

The Report of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey

January 4, 2016

The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS) is the largest survey examining the experiences of transgender people in the United States, with 27,715 respondents from all fifty states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and U.S. military bases overseas. Conducted in the summer of 2015 by the National Center for Transgender Equality, the USTS was an anonymous, online survey for transgender adults (18 and older) in the United States, available in English and Spanish. The USTS serves as a follow-up to the groundbreaking 2008–09 National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS), which helped to shift how the public and policymakers view the lives of transgender people and the challenges they face. The report of the 2015 USTS provides a detailed look at the experiences of transgender people across a wide range of categories, such as education, employment, family life, health, housing, and interactions with the criminal justice system. The findings reveal disturbing patterns of mistreatment and discrimination and startling disparities between transgender people in the survey and the U.S. population when it comes to the most basic elements of life, such as finding a job, having a place to live, accessing medical care, and enjoying the support of family and community. Survey respondents also experienced harassment and violence at alarmingly high rates. Several themes emerge from the thousands of data points presented in the full survey report.

Coming Out for Racial Justice: An Anti-Facist Organizational Development Toolkit for LGBTQ Groups and Activits, Second Edition

October 1, 2015

This toolkit was originally created based on the experience of our work as a primarily white LGBTQ organization working in a primarily white state and region. After several years of intentional, internal organizational development and reflection, we came to recognize that racial justice is an important, broad and complex issue that cannot be ignored, and that racism impacts the LGBTQ community in deep and far reaching ways.There are many approaches to making our organizations more racially just, so our aim in the original toolkit and now with the revised second edition is to share best practices, identify potential challenges and provide tools and resources to support others on this journey.

Out In The South: LGBTQ Community Assets In The U.S. South, Part Two

September 29, 2014

This report is the second in a series of reports entitled Out in the South. This second report, Part Two: LGBTQ Community Assets in the U.S. South, identifies more than 750 LGBTQ community assets in the U.S. South and spotlights several funding strategies with potential for high impact. The report assesses the state of the LGBTQ movement in the U.S. South based on a comprehensive scan of the region's LGBTQ community assets, a survey of more than 200 organizers and service providers working in the South, and in-depth interviews with 30 LGBTQ leaders.Out in the South, Part Two, builds on the previous report Out in the South, Part One: Foundation Funding for LGBTQ Issues in the U.S. South. Both reports are a part of the LGBT Southern Funding Project at Funders for LGBTQ Issues. The goal of the LGBT Southern Funding Project is to expand the scale and impact of funding for LGBTQ communities in the U.S. South.

Born Suspect: Stop-and-Frisk Abuses and the Continued Fight to End Racial Profiling in America

September 25, 2014

The report provides a critical analysis of advocacy efforts to end racial profiling in New York, offering lessons learned and recommendations for advocates across the country. It also contains a review of every state racial profiling law, breaking each down to better understand the law's effectiveness and to identify where improvements are needed. The report concludes with several resources to help advocates build and manage campaigns to increase police accountability and enact community policing strategies that eliminate the practice of racial profiling by law enforcement.

The State of Diversity in Environmental Organizations

July 27, 2014

Environmental institutions have been working on diversity efforts for the better part of five decades. This report discusses the findings of a study of three types of environmental institutions: 191 conservation and preservation organizations, 74 government environmental agencies, and 28 environmental grantmaking foundations. It also reports the findings of interviews conducted with 21 environmental professionals who were asked to reflect on the state of diversity in environmental institutions. The study focuses primarily on gender, racial, and class diversity in these institutions as it pertains to the demographic characteristics of their boards and staff. It examines the recruitment and hiring of new workers as well as the types of diversity initiatives undertaken by the organizations. The report also discusses other kinds of diversities such as cultural, sexual orientation, intergenerational, and rural-urban.

Better Together in the South: Building Movements across Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

June 4, 2013

This briefing paper builds upon the research presented in Applied Research Center's 2010 "Better Together" report by looking specifically at the challenges and opportunities that arise when we connect movements, organizations, constituencies, and issues for racial justice with those for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) liberation in the U.S. South. As mainstream media has dedicated relatively little attention to covering the barriers encountered, and the progress made, by LGBT organizations and activists in southern "Bible Belt" states, this paper highlights trends and organizing initiatives affecting the lives of Southern LGBT people of color. Changes in racial composition and migration patterns contribute to both cultural and political change in the South, with significant implications for national policy change. Through a series of interviews, surveys, and convenings with Southern leaders, and through research on recent developments in the region, this paper identifies demographics changes, noteworthy trends, and successes and setbacks affecting the lives of LGBT people and people of color across twelve Southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Relative to most other regions in the nation, there is a clear dearth of progressive legislation in the South. Indeed, when it comes to LGBT and racial equity, the South looks like a progressive policy desert. But that's only one side of the story; a closer examination of on-the-ground community efforts reveals that, even amidst this policy desert, there are many flourishing oases of deep experience, courageous and creative organizing, and promising practices focused on activating and uniting marginalized communities into formidable forces for social change. Many of the insights and models developed in the South -- though often given little attention by the national media, mainstream LGBT, and traditional civil rights organizations and philanthropic institutions -- could substantively contribute to broader movement-building strategies for our nation. A surprising array of grassroots organizations are engaged in innovative and intersectional work across the South, fueling LGBT acceptance and cultural change. They incorporate strategies such as inclusionary and multi-issue framing; explicitly addressing race to build multi-racial cohesion and power; and creatively using cultural expressions such as storytelling, personal testimonies, and the arts to elevate the voices of LGBT people of color. Many of these efforts and strategies that centralize, rather than marginalize, communities of color in LGBT issues in the South have nationwide resonance and relevance and, given adequate resourcing as well as appropriate tools and channels for sharing best practices, they could continue to take transformative projects to a greater scale to expand their reach and impact

Overview: Gender Norms, School Bullying & Homophobic Harassment

November 1, 2012

More than a decade of research has established the strongest possible links between middle school violence and gender norms. Learning to enact masculinity and femininity and being publicly acknowledged as a young man or woman is a major rite of passage for nearly every adolescent or teen. This can be especially true during the "gender intensification" years of ages 9-13, when interest in traditional gender norms intensifies, and belief in them solidifies. Yet the language of school violence often obscures the importance of gender norms. "Bullying" sounds like a problem of individual acts by singular malefactors. "Sexual harassment" sounds like sexual coercion or pressure being applied, yet adolescent bullying is almost never about sex per se. "Homophobic harassment" addresses straight-on-gay attacks, and references common taunts like "That's so gay" and "You're a fag." Although straight harassment of LGBTQ students is serious and pervasive, most middle schooling harassment of this type is straight males victimizing peers. And not only because only a small minority of middle school students are (or are perceived to be) gay. Gendered Harassment -- Indeed, middle school bullying might be more accurately termed "gendered harassment"--which seeks to promote masculinity in boys and femininity in girls, keep girls in subordinate positions, regulate girls' bodies, and punish unmanliness in boys. Despite this, prominent school violence programs and policies largely ignore the role of gender norms. This overview report covers the basics of gender norms, and the links to school bullying, sexual and online harassment, and homophobic epithets.