Do enough LGBT Hoosiers know our rights are at stake this November?

Note: This guest editorial was written by Christopher Daley, an attorney in Indianapolis and a supporter of Indiana Stonewall Democrats.

As you know, the Republican controlled Indiana Senate overwhelming passed a resolution to write discrimination against our community into our Constitution (SJR-13) once again this year. The only thing that stopped the bill's advance was Democratic control of the House. For the 4th year in a row, Democrats killed the bill by preventing it from moving out of committee.

This fall, House seats are up for election. The Democratic majority, and our community's ability to protect ourselves from harmful legislation, is precarious. Currently Democrats hold a 52-48 majority in the House. The loss of even two seats compromises our ability to stop a constitutional amendment from advancing. The loss of three or more seats will guarantee that the Indiana Legislature will pass a resolution to write our families out of our own Constitution.

We can prevent this from happening by spreading the word to our community that we must get involved in local House races to ensure a Democratic House majority for the next two years. Over the coming weeks, ISD will provide recommendations for getting our voices, bodies, and money into this fight. Right now, though, is it important that our members throughout the state are talking to LGBT community members and allies about how important November's election will be to our safety and wellbeing.

Some community members simply won't understand why these local elections are so important. After all, Indiana already denies our families legal recognition, right? Why would a constitutional amendment be any worse? And, I don't want to get married so why do I care?

All of these are common questions we've gotten over the years. What we've found is that folks who are asking these questions just haven't been informed about what a popular vote for a constitutional marriage amendment does to the LGBT people in that state. It is clear that the legislators who are proposing such an amendment, and the hate groups backing them, aren't concerned about Indiana recognizing marriage equality anytime soon. Instead, they are using the proposed amendment as red meat to socially conservative voters and to increase social condemnation of us and our families.

Along the way, they will put our dignity as equal citizens up for popular vote and support their position with the most hateful, dangerous rhetoric imaginable. The recent campaigns in California and Maine offer more than enough evidence of how low the other side will stoop to convince voters that LGBT people and our families are unfit to fully participate in our own communities. After months of anti-gay campaign ads blanketing television and radio, straight voters in California and Maine weren't left to decide the narrow question of marriage equality. Instead, the other side escalated the vote to one of the basic humanity of LGBT people. As we all know, unfortunately, voters in both states were persuaded (by narrow margins) that LGBT people weren't worthy of full recognition as equal citizens.

Beyond the harm of the vote itself, some people have speculated about a rise in hate crimes in states where marriage equality is on the ballot. Whether there is a definable correlation, we do know that these campaigns allow a very large stage for every wacko, some of whom are very message savvy, to sound off on how horrible LGBT people are. Negative stereotypes about our community that had seemed on their way out of popular culture (that we are pedophiles, anti-religious, and recruiters of young people) are given new and vigorous leases on life by these campaigns and may, as a result, be with us for the next generation.

Finally, given the perception of Indiana voters, it is unlikely that we'll be able to count on the national resources that were deployed in California and Maine. If a marriage equality ballot initiative is able to pass the legislature, most people will take it as a foregone conclusion that it will secure enough votes to pass. Therefore, few people outside of the state will see the point in helping us to wage a counter-campaign.

ISD strongly believes that these negative outcomes can be prevented by keeping our allies in leadership roles in the House. To be clear, it is not enough to keep the individual House members who helped to kill this resolution in their seats. These individual legislators were only able to kill it because, as the majority party, they hold power in the House. This is why it is so important to get the word out now about November's elections. Check back for more information on how to get involved. In the meantime, submit your strategies, success stories, and challenges in getting the word out below so that all of our members can benefit from your experiences and ideas.