The Campaign for Southern Equality (CSE) is based in Asheville, North Carolina, and works across the South to promote full LGBTQ equality – both legal and lived.  Their work is rooted in commitments to equity in race, gender and class.

More than one third of all LGBTQ Americans live in the South. Yet across the region, LGBTQ people lack basic legal protections, face robust opposition to our rights and have limited resources for advocacy and direct services. LGBTQ people in our region are also at an elevated risk of poverty and health disparities. Our community meets every definition of political powerlessness, evidenced most recently by the wave of anti-LGBTQ bills sweeping the South and by a lack of elected representation in local, state and federal offices. While funding to the LGBTQ South is increasing (it has grown from less than 8% to 25% in recent years), the majority goes to large metro areas and large organizations.

At the same time, LGBTQ Southerners live each day with courage and strength and grassroots organizers across the region are doing heroic work to create equality. And every day, we hear powerful stories about how the South is changing and support for equality is growing.

Their work starts by asking what a LGBTQ Southerner needs when they are ready to lead transformative equality efforts in their hometown, or are ready to access services and support. Responding to this mix of urgent needs and entrenched structural issues requires a new approach. CSE was designed with an understanding of these challenges and is thus built to navigate them. Tactically, this requires that they use a range of tools in their work, including direct services, direct action, litigation, grant-making, and long-term organizing strategies to support a new generation of LGBTQ leaders and to build political power over the long term.