Campaign for Southern Equality

Based in the South, the Campaign for Southern Equality (CSE) is a national effort to assert the full humanity and equality of LGBT people in American life and to increase public support for LGBT rights.

CSE will engage LGBT people and allies in:

(1) coordinated public actions to resist discriminatory laws and policies;

(2) providing support and crisis response services to LGBT people as they take such action and in times of need; and

(3) through a media campaign, telling a new story about LGBT lives to a national audience, including those who are conflicted about or oppose LGBT rights.

CSE will fully launch its work in Asheville, NC, in June 2011, with planned growth across the South in coming years.  CSE will also engage LGBT people and allies from Boston, MA, and San Francisco, CA, in this effort. CSE builds upon six years of The Progressive Project’s work in the areas of LGBT rights, electoral campaigns, community organizing innovations, and strategic analysis.

Ethical Basis
CSE’s work is based upon the ethic of Empathic Resistance, which calls for (1) resisting persecution by expressing the authentic self in persecuting environments and (2) expressing empathy toward those who oppose your rights.

Join the Campaign
If you or your organization would like to learn more about CSE , please email us at southernequality@gmail.com or call 828-761-1224.

Support the Campaign
Make a gift to CSE here.