There are many lessons from around the globe that inform how to approach LGBT rights in a global context, something I have been doing in countries like Albania, Serbia, Lithuania and Ukraine. Read more about this perspective and approach on Fighting for Equality.

Strategic approach

Kristina was on the front line of the first wave of anti-marriage equality ballot measures in 2004 and 2006 in the US. I was helping design and coordinate the campaign messages and strategies to utilize these as opportunities to build broader-based public support for long-term action, knowing we would lose the immediate ballot measure fight in front of us. And boy did we lose…13 one year, 11 the next, and so on. Of course these losses were devastating, but not surprising. Instead, we were thinking about the war, not the battle in front of us. We used these campaigns to build public support over time, which has resulted in a situation today where the the United State´s Supreme Court issued a ruling paving the way for the freedom to marry nationwide, following on the majority of states who passed freedom to marry laws. These lessons apply to other countries working to ensure equality and dignity for LGBT people.

Cool things

We were honored to be a featured guest speaker at a regional conference held in Serbia on Democracy for All: Political Participation of LGBTI persons in the Western Balkans. You can download the presentation and find out more about this work here.