The national LGBT rights organization Lambda Legal, on June 18, reached its goal of raising $1 million for a $1 million matching grant.
The funds were raised after the organization launched its #IDo initiative this spring. Lambda board co-chair Karen K. Dixon, along with her wife Nan Schaffer, former Chicagoans who now reside in Washington, D.C., issued the challenge at the organization's Bon Foster fundraiser in Chicago April 22.
"We issued this challenge in April because we knew that the entire LGBT community and our allies were riveted by the possibility of nationwide marriage equality and we didn't want this 'marriage moment' to be mistaken for 'mission accomplished,'" said Dixon in a June 19 statement. "Indeed, as exciting as a victory in the Supreme Court would be, it won't change the fact that 40 percent of Americans still do not support our right to marry the person we love. Sadly, the people who still stand against us could be our neighbors, our co-workers, our doctors, or our children's teachers at school—people we see every day, who help us make serious life decisions and who influence the beliefs of our nation's youth."
The money raised is intended to help ensure the organization's relevancy even after the United States Supreme Court issues its expected decision on marriage equality, said James Bennett, Lambda Legal's Midwest regional director, noting that about $180,000 came from donors in the Midwest.
"The focus here is a lot of work beyond marriage," Bennett added. "What happened in Indiana was kind of a touch point, and now we are seeing battles like that in other parts of the country. There are still places where it is legal to marry someone of the same-sex, but it's not illegal to be fired after your boss has seen the wedding announcement in the paper. Then there's Michigan, where the governor and legislature have cited junk science to pass adoption laws that are both harmful to same-sex couples and not in the best interest of children."
Lambda Legal will continue to work on employment protections for LGBT persons, as well as protections for transgender individuals, among other areas.
"I was frankly nervous," Bennett said of Dixon and Schaffer's challenge, which only took about two months to reach. "We never have had that big a challenge before."
[Note: Nan Schaffer is a minority shareholder in Windy City Times].
