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National + State LGBTQ Orgs To Go Up With Quarter Million Ad Blitz To Fight Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Ahead of Midterms
Groups Are Launching National Digital Ads + Local TV In TX & Florida to highlight attacks on LGBTQ Freedoms
Washington D.C. – Leading national and state-based LGBTQ groups, the National LGBTQ Task Force, Equality Texas, and Equality Florida are joining forces to make national, Texas and Florida-based ad buys that highlight extremist attacks against our communities and our freedoms. As the nation reels from the overturning of Roe v. Wade, anti-gay rhetoric and calls to roll back LGBTQ rights have also grown bolder among extremist elected officials and candidates.
The National LGBTQ Task Force will raise awareness around the increasingly aggressive attacks on the LGBTQ community and communities of color, including legislation that bans hundreds of books and censors curriculum covering slavery or mentioning LGBTQ people. As extreme politicians strip away freedoms by banning abortions–even in cases of rape and incest–they’re also working to criminalize and charge parents with child abuse simply for supporting their transgender child.
Kierra Johnson, executive director of The National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund said the following: “Our community is paying attention to the extremism of politicians who would take away our freedoms and the freedoms of other marginalized and vulnerable communities. We will hold accountable any elected official willing to destroy the civil rights advancements that have put LGBTQ people closer to not just equality, but equity. We are proud to partner with our Texas and Florida colleagues in launching a national digital ad campaign to put extremist politicians on notice; we are watching and will hold them accountable.”
Equality Florida will target Ron Desantis for his repeated attacks against the LGBTQ community. In particular, highlighting his signing of the vicious “Don’t say gay” legislation and his repeated attempts to censor school curriculums and ban books:
Nadine Smith, Equality Florida’s executive director, said: “Florida is on the front lines of the fight for the future of this country. Governor DeSantis’ extremism has fueled book banning, curriculum censorship, rainbow Safe Space stickers being peeled from classroom windows, and refusals to recognize LGBTQ History Month. He believes that his administration – not parents or doctors – get to make medical decisions for children and he is commandeering every state agency to propel his own political ambitions. Freedom itself is under assault in Ron DeSantis’ Florida and we must defeat him here if we are going to stop his extremism from spreading. To the teachers who’ve been vilified by this governor for doing your jobs and the parents, fearful of how your family will be treated in the classroom — those who never thought they would need to be political activists to protect their children, now forced to defend their family’s existence at school board meetings: we see you. We won’t stop fighting to ensure you get the respect you deserve. And to the students, who bravely demand a better, more equal future: we stand with you. We will fight for a world that protects you all.”
Equality Texas will be focusing their efforts onTexas Attorney General Ken Paxton for his anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and promises to defend at the Supreme Court any law criminalizing sodomy enacted by the Legislature. The ads will be in English markets and also target Latino audiences with Spanish subtitles.
Ricardo Martinez, Equality Texas’s executive director, said the following: “Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton spends more time running from the law than seeking Justice. When he decides to clock in, he spends his time harassing trans kids and their families. His bogus legal arguments launched CPS investigations into parents who support and affirm their trans kids. Texans on the ground didn’t put up with it, and after hundreds of state employees have quit there is now a critical shortage of child welfare workers. True Texans have heart and compassion, things Paxton seems to have lost.”
The ads are adapted with permission from an innovative ad campaign developed by Wide Angle Research which spans abortion, LGBTQ equality and democracy issues–and invites voters to fight extremism and fight for our freedoms.
The National LGBTQ Task Force The National LGBTQ Task Force builds power, takes action, and creates change to achieve freedom, justice, and equity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. As the progressive voice of the LGBTQ movement and the LGBTQ voice of the progressive movement, the Task Force organizes people and money in pursuit of liberation for all.
Equality Florida is the largest civil rights organization dedicated to securing full equality for Florida’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. Through lobbying, grassroots organizing, education, and coalition building, we are changing Florida so that no one suffers harassment or discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity, or expression.
Equality Texas is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, serving as the largest nonpartisan statewide political advocacy organization working for the elimination of discrimination targeting the LGTBQ+ community. Equality Texas works to secure full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Texans through political action, education, community organizing, and collaboration. We envision a Texas where lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Texans and their families have full equality in the hearts and minds of our fellow Texans and in all areas of the law.
Wide Angle Research (WAR) is a nonprofit research team focused on reaching and moving conflicted audiences through deep listening and innovative policy and persuasion research. WAR’s recent campaign, found at RepublicanRule.org, asks all Americans–Democrat, Independent and Republican–to join together to fight against a government-controlled future where abortion is banned nationwide, the parents of transgender children are charged with child abuse, books are banned and election workers are terrorized and the will of the people no longer matters.