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Equality Mississippi

U.S. State of Mississippi
Formation	March 15, 2000
Founder	Jody Renaldo

Equality Mississippi (originally known as Mississippi Gay Lobby) was a statewide LGBT civil rights organization founded March 2000 in Mississippi. The organization closed in December 2008.

History

Equality Mississippi (EM) was founded in response to the murder of Jamie Ray Tolbert, a Laurel, Mississippi native and referred to as a friend by EM founder and executive director Jody Renaldo. Tolbert was a gay man visiting the now defunct gay nightclub Joey's On The Beach in Biloxi, Mississippi on New Year's Eve 1999. He was abducted from the bar's parking lot. His body was later found in the woods in Alabama, having been beaten and strangled. His killers, Brent David Kabat and Jeremy Shawn Bentley, were arrested two weeks later after being stopped at a roadblock in California. They were still driving Tolbert's Nissan Xterra. It's not clear if the crime was in any way related to the victim's sexuality.

The organization's original name was Mississippi Gay Lobby as it was the first chapter of the now defunct National Gay Lobby (NGL). NGL's approach to activism was that of being an Internet-only gay rights organization using its membership to send activism e-mails, letters to the editor and forum postings. After a year of being a chapter of NGL, the state chapter became independent, still keeping their name, because it felt the need to be active beyond Internet activism, felt the $25 membership dues should not be sent for nation-wide activities and disagreed with a recent protest action discouraging users from using AOL.

Notable events

In 2001 the group ran a television advertisement campaign designed to bring attention to LGBT issues in Mississippi. The advertisements were aired on local cable channels MTV, VH1 and Lifetime.

Also, in 2002, Equality Mississippi partnered with the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi to publish the Mississippi Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Series, a three booklet series covering how Mississippi law affected the lives of gay and lesbian Mississippians.

Amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court

In 2003, Equality Mississippi wrote an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court ahead of the judgment of the Lawrence v. Texas case. In the case, the court struck down laws in that state banning private consensual sex between adults of the same sex in a decision gay rights groups hail as historic. The ruling invalidated other anti-sodomy laws in the remaining states that had them, including Mississippi. Equality Mississippi wrote an amicus brief to the court ahead of the judgment.

Hurricane Katrina efforts

Following the destruction brought to the Mississippi Gulf Coast by the Hurricane Katrina, EM began providing emergency relief to gay and lesbian Mississippians who were uncomfortable in seeking help from religious organizations providing aid. Incidents of discrimination and harassment of LGBT hurricane evacuees were present and reported. The Union for Reform Judaism recommended and later provided $10,000 to EM to support their relief efforts.

Public criticism of the American Family Association

Equality Mississippi has issued several press releases critical of the American Family Association (AFA), whose world headquarters is also based in Mississippi.

In August 2000, the organization (then known as the Mississauga Gay Lobby) issued a press release calling on federal authorities to investigate the AFA and its director Donald Wildmon, claiming the AFA sent out emails and letters calling for the arrest of openly gay Arizona Republican United States House of Representatives member Jim Kolbe.

In August 2001, the organization issued another release critical of the AFA for what they perceived as a boycott against the Girl Scouts of America (purportedly because the GSA does not ban lesbian scouts or lesbian scout leaders). Equality Mississippi felt the AFA's actions of promoting American Heritage Girls as the "Christian alternative" to the GSA was because of the gay community's still-ongoing boycott against the Boy Scouts of America for their still-ongoing actions of banning gay scouts and gay scout leaders.

In 2005, Equality Mississippi issued a press release criticizing the AFA for the use of copyrighted images in its boycott against Kraft Foods, and encouraged the copyright holder of the photos to file suit against the AFA.

Closing

Equality Mississippi posted a bulletin on MySpace stating that as of December 3, 2008, the Board of Directors decided, due to financial hardships, the organization was to be closed.

See also

• LGBT rights in the United States
• LGBT social movements
• List of LGBT rights organizations
• Marriage Equality USA

References

On June 18, 2009, this article incorporated verbatim content from Equality Mississippi press releases, which have been licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License and GNU Free Documentation License.

1. ^ "An all-too-familiar tragedy". The Advocate. 2000-02-29. Archived from the original on 2009-05-03. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
2. ^ Kentucky Equality Federation official blog: Mississippi's only LGBT rights organization closes
3. ^ Jeremy Shawn Bentley v. State of Alabama. Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. 2004-03-26. Retrieved 2009-06-15.
4. Southern Voice via Archive.org: Statewide gay group in Miss. splits from national affiliate over direction
5. The Advocate via Archive.org: Mississippi gay group runs TV ads
6. Associated Press via The SunHerald via Archive.org: Gay group to air ads on homosexuality
7. Southern Voice via Archive.org: Statewide gay lobby in MS adds to board, expands TV campaign
8. Mississippi ACLU via archive.org: ACLU of Mississippi Reading Room
9. ^ "Equality Mississippi Submits Amicus Brief in Historic U.S. Supreme Court Case Brought By Lambda Legal". SodomyLaws.org. 2003-01-16. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
10. "Supreme Court strikes down Texas sodomy law". CNN. 2003-11-18. Archived from the original on 2008-03-09. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
11. ^ "Equality Mississippi - $10,000". Union for Reform Judaism. 2005. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
12. Keegan, Andrew (2005-09-16). "Trans, gay evacuees face harassment as waters recede: Gay groups raise thousands for Katrina relief effort". The Washington Blade. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
13. "North America's Reform Jewish Community Continues to Support NewOrleansSupport Now Totals More than $4.2 Million in Cash, Millions More Given in In-Kind Donations" (PDF) (Press release). Union for Reform Judaism Disaster Relief Fund. June 7, 2006. Retrieved 10 March 2010.
14. Renaldo, Jody (2000-08-02). "Mississippi Gay Lobby calls for an investigation into the Mississippi based American Family Association and Donald Wildmon" (PDF). Equality Mississippi originally as Mississippi Gay Lobby. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-07-30. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
15. Sholhen, James (2001-08-21). "American Family Association A Sore Loser, Takes Out Its Anger On The Girl Scouts" (PDF). Equality Mississippi originally as Mississippi Gay Lobby. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-07-30. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
16. American Family Association: Action Alert - August 20, 2001 America Heritage Girls (AHG) Moms form new scouts with focus on God, family and country
17. Renaldo, Jody (2005-06-08). "American Family Association steals and uses copyrighted pictures as part of its boycott against Kraft Foods" (PDF). Equality Mississippi. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-07-30. Retrieved 2007-10-12. It's time these right-wing zealot organizations who are the true perpetuators of the supposed gay agenda learn that the law applies to them too...

• LGBT political advocacy groups in the United States
• Mississippi culture
• LGBT organizations in the United States
• Defunct LGBT organizations in the United States
• Organizations based in Mississippi
• LGBT in Mississippi