The LGBTQ movement for liberation has been long, evolving, and continues to ebb and flow with time. Equality NM is much like this. Founded in 1993, we have had multiple names, various priority projects, many different leaders and our share of good times and rough times. So when we say we are “rebuilding the movement” what do we mean?
We cannot ignore some of the realities of our movement over history, we cannot pretend we have not had problematic times or done harmful things. The larger LGBTQ “movement” has in times dropped the “T” when convenient, we have at times whitewashed our movement, we have sanitized our community for public consumption and political expediency - and all of those actions have at times been hurtful to many people. As with many social movements, the LGBTQ liberation movement is refocusing to repair previous damage and to build power for our entire community.
As with many organizations, EQNM has at times focused on policy work, other times our work focused on public education; we have worked “behind the scenes” and times when our work was on TV. And we are in transition and growth again now.
So when EQNM says we are rebuilding the movement, this is what we mean - it's a combination of being present in the social moment to repair damages previously done, and using our organization’s internal transition to refocus our work. We’ve always been an organization committed to public education, advocacy, and civic engagement that works toward the liberation of all New Mexicans from oppression by focusing on the liberation of LGBTQ people. So that's not changing, how we achieve that is what's shifting. That's the movement we are rebuilding.
We’re going to refocus on energy on community organizing first and foremost. We build power through our people. By identifying, engaging, and recruiting queer and trans leaders across the state, especially LGBTQ Black, Indigneous and people of color from rural communities, we will begin to weave a web of connected leaders who are building power in their own communities. Imagine a giant spiderweb of connected, trained, engaged queer and trans leaders across the state, who can “sound the alarm” when policies are being proposed that might harm us. Imagine the support we can give each other once we’ve connected that web, to help shift the culture in oru communities so that those policies aren’t even introduced.
We already know that Women of color (especially trans women of color) are most severely impacted when policies shift. We know that queer and trans people of color are most likely to experience violence in our communities driven by hatred or bias. And it is no surprise to many of us that LGBTQ Black and Indiginous people are most more likely to be impacted by systems of incarceration. So how will “rebuilding the movement” help with this?
By refocusing our work to center LGBTQ people of color, Black folx and Indigenous people; we will bring those most severely impacted by policy to the center of the conversation about policies. Weaving this web of leaders across the state will create spaces for our community to share powerful stories, to share experiences that can teach us, and to share practices that allow us to build our power and influence in society. It’s about rebuilding a movement of people, not about lifting up a logo. It’s about rebuilding the movement so it reflects all of our communities, not the version most publicly acceptable at the moment.
So when I say I am committed to rebuilding a movement at EQNM, I’m not saying that we won’t continue to celebrate our movement’s past victories, I’m not saying we haven’t come a long way - we certainly are a far cry further down the road of liberation that we were in 1993, or 2003, or even 2013. I’m saying we can take this moment to rebuild, to reshape our priorities, refocus our energies, and rebuild for the future of LGBTQ liberation. We will put resources into finding, recruiting and training leaders in all of our communities across the state, starting with our siblings in rural communities who are often isolated but still working on powerful solutions to serious problems in their hometowns. We will put time and intentional energy into making sure our movement is led by our siblings who have been historically left out or pushed to the side.
And we will rebuild our organization’s role in this movement. We will work to repair the relationships we’ve lost or broken in the past. We will work to uplift the work of our partners as equal to our own. We will be clear about when it is our time to lead, and when it's our time to follow and be supportive. And we will be intentional and intersectional in our approach. Our intersectional existences are our power; the intersectional oppressions that we face were built to keep us down. EQNM will speak out for reproductive rights, abortion, and paid sick leave because they are LGBTQ issues. And we will speak out about them with pride as we work side-by-side with our partners as we work towards liberation for all.
