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Campaign-in-a-Box: The Complete Toolkit for LGBT Nondiscrimination

Freedom for All Americans is proud to present the Campaign-in-a-Box, an innovative toolkit dedicated to equipping state organizations, campaigns, and coalitions with the best resources available when it comes to propelling LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination protections forward and beating back damaging anti-LGBT legislation. From training the strongest spokespeople to helping more Americans understand why nondiscrimination matters to creating powerful digital content, we want to help move LGBT non-discrimination forward – in your local community, throughout your state, and across the country. If you have questions about the Campaign-in-a-Box, email us at [email protected]. Special thanks to our partners: Equality Federation, Movement Advancement Project, and National Center for Transgender Equality.

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Social Media Toolkit: Sharing Support for LGBTQ Equal Treatment for Small Business Week

During National Small Business Week, April 29–May 5, members of Small Businesses Against LGBTQ Discrimination are taking to social media to share their support for LGBTQ–inclusive nondiscrimination protections.

Writing Letters to the Editor for Small Business Week

Writing a Letter to the Editor (LTE) is an important way to communicate your support for LGBTQ –inclusive nondiscrimination protections.

Nondiscrimination Background Information: Why Everyone Should Be Treated Equally

Get a basic overview and understanding of why LGBT-inclusive non-discrimination protections are so vital, and what they mean to LGBT Americans.

Public Education Messaging and Framing Considerations

LGBT public education campaigns help build awareness and support for nondiscrimination protections. Here are some tips and strategies from the Movement Advancement Project on positioning LGBT people but particularly transgender people in campaign materials and collateral.

Religious Exemption Bills: Real Consequences for All Americans

Religious exemption bills appearing in state legislatures across the country could allow individuals to use their religious beliefs to harm others, paving the way for challenges to virtually any law, including laws designed to protect all of us from various forms of discrimination.

Digital 101: The Theory of Change

A powerful digital program is rooted in the same organizing principles that your organization is already likely using to guide your other programs: Intentional, strategic organizing with a focus on relationship building—and results.

Email Strategy: Driving Digital Action

Your email list is the best way to mobilize your supporters to take concrete actions, such as contacting a lawmaker, signing up for an event, or making a contribution. Email gives us the opportunity to reach our supporters where they are and inform and activate them through messaging that we control.

Your Online Megaphone: Social Media Strategy

When you consider any piece of external communication from your campaign, be sure to put thought into how you’re blasting this information on your social media channels.

Spokesperson Recruitment Guide

From publishing an op-ed to delivering testimony at a committee hearing, spokespeople can be powerful voices in building public support or winning over specific legislators. Spokespeople should be encouraged to use messages that suit their background or expertise.

Story Collection for Campaigns

An important component of any LGBT nondiscrimination campaign is demonstrating again and again why these protections are important – and that they already have broad support from a wide array of community members. Here's how to do it:

Spokesperson Coaching and Media Interview Guide

Spokespeople help campaigns validate their support among community members, experts, and elected officials. When they are properly prepared, they can be some of the most effective people to reach new audiences and win public support.

Interviewing Subjects for LGBT Nondiscrimination Stories

After identifying subjects for online profiles – including LGBT people who have faced discrimination, business leaders, and other allies – the next step is completing a brief interview and then compiling everything into a written profile.

Trans 101: Information for Trans Public Education Campaigns

The success of campaigns for nondiscrimination protections hinges on the effectiveness of efforts to build familiarity with, and understanding of, transgender people. Misrepresentations of transgender people have been used to stop nondiscrimination protections and even repeal existing laws that protect LGBT people.

The Importance of Public Accommodations Protections

If we are to ensure all Americans are treated with respect and free from discrimination in public places, we must work harder than ever to update our nondiscrimination laws to include public accommodations.

Overview of Earned Media Tactics

Having a solid understanding of the kinds of earned media tactics that are available to your campaign is so important. Using earned media tactics appropriately could result in accurate and consistent coverage of your campaign, which can contribute to a legislative or ballot victory.

Responding to “Reasonable Accommodations” Provisions in School Gender Inspection Bills

Using the restroom is a basic human need, regardless of whether you are transgender, and everyone should be able to use the restroom without fear or discrimination. But our opposition hopes to make these discriminatory restroom restrictions more amenable under the guise of “reasonable accommodations” language in school gender inspection bills.

School “Gender Inspection” Bill Talking Points

As we continue to defeat invasive gender inspection bills, our opposition is deploying new ways to limit transgender people’s access to restrooms. From limiting access based on birth certificates, chromosomes, or by limiting the definition of “sex,” your messaging will require individualized talking points based on the content of your bill(s).

Religious Exemptions Talking Points

These talking points can be used for broad religious exemptions laws, often called RFRAs

Combatting “Bathroom Bill” Attacks in Public Accommodations Protections

Comprehensive nondiscrimination laws are about more than just restrooms. Dismissing them as a "bathroom bill" is misleading and ignores the important protections they provide in other areas of life.

Public Accommodations: Myth Busters

When it comes to protecting transgender people in public accommodations, the truth is more boring than fiction. Here are common myths about LGBT-inclusive non-discrimination protections.

Developing an Earned Media Strategy in Legislative or Ballot Campaigns

Your communications plan should open with a short landscape analysis that highlights either the opportunity or the need for a particular campaign. It’s one to two paragraphs and tees up the need for the communications work of the campaign.

Planning Testimony for a Hearing

When we present the lives and stories of everyday LGBT people, our allies, and other key voices, it is possible to shape their views — and ultimately their vote — in hearings.

Opposition Research & Tracking

The more you know about your opposition, the more effective and efficient your campaign can be. In this post-Obergefell landscape, opponents of equality have become better at hiding the anti-LGBT motives behind their legal, legislative and political efforts.

Terms to Avoid

Make sure you're using the most up-to-date terminology in a campaign for LGBT non-discrimination, rather than antiquated, problematic, or harmful language.

School “Gender Inspection” Bills

Every student needs to use the restroom, and every student should expect safety and privacy when using them. However, state lawmakers are attempting to pass laws that would invade everyone’s personal and medical privacy by requiring all students to prove that their anatomy matches either the sex on their birth certificate or the sign at the door of a restroom.

Key Terminology

Learn basic vocabulary, acronyms, and explanations of common terms you'll hear when discussing LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination protections.