LGBTQ Voters Can Begin Casting Our Ballots

by EQNM staff

Like many Americans, you’ve probably been imagining Nov. 5, 2024 in your head since you saw live footage of insurrectionists descending on the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. After years of wondering what could possibly come next for the nation and here at home in New Mexico—we’ll know soon enough. If you want to ensure that your voice is heard before the madness of Election Day, here’s another important date for you: Today! 

Early voting begins in New Mexico on Oct. 8. You can learn more about your regional options through your County Clerk’s office. For example, here in Bernalillo County where Equality New Mexico is based in Albuquerque, we have the option to vote early at the Clerk’s Annex from Oct. 8-18, and at 20 Early Vote Convenience Centers from Oct. 19 thru Election Day. 

While the importance of the presidential race is front-and-center, there are high stakes for us here. 

“Our votes for president matter, but the votes we cast for state legislators can be so much more powerful sometimes when local legislative races are often decided by less than 100 votes,” says Marshall Martinez, EQNM’s Executive Director. 

Early voting opportunities have increased in recent elections, as more states embrace the importance of making the process more accessible. According to the Brennan Center, a well-known authority on voting rights, early voting reduces stress on the whole system on Election Day, increases participation among groups that are often overlooked or disenfranchised, means shorter lines, improves poll worker performance, allows for the early detection of glitches, and increases voter satisfaction. Early voting results can also impact media coverage, helping to shape the story going into Election Day. 

“Early voting is the easiest way to ensure that nothing takes your power away,” Marshall says. “Voting early on a Saturday after hitting the farmer's market is more fun than waiting in long lines on a Tuesday. It also means that a flat tire, being caught late at work, or evening traffic don't prevent you from getting to the polls on Election Day. It’s the best way to be certain you get your vote cast.”

There are 112 seats up for election in the New Mexico legislature, and a pro-LGBTQ majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives is at stake. 

As LGBTQ voters, we’ll be impacted by who is in power. The incoming legislators will determine important issues like paid family and medical leave (which protects our chosen families), access to abortion and gender-affirming health care, access to behavioral health care, creating affordable housing (which serves a large population of homeless LGBTQ youth), and making real progress on public safety at the root level. 

With so much hanging in the balance, we understand why many of us want to race to the polls as soon as possible. Visit NMvote.org to find information about how you can vote early—and vote for LGBTQ rights!  

Hi From the Folx Behind Equality New Mexico

by EQNM Staff

We love when we get a chance to know you, our supporters, at our events and on social media. So we wanted to take a moment and give you a chance to get to know us. Consider this a big hello and a hug from the Equality New Mexico team. If you have any questions for us, reach out to info@eqnm.org and Michelle will get back to you.

MARSHALL, Executive Director

Hi, I’m Marshall! I lead the EQNM team, coordinating our Staff and Board of Directors along with our partner organizations. Together we work to ensure that LGBTQ New Mexicans are represented wherever people in power are making decisions that impact us. 

I love that this job lets me be with our community all over the state and bring their voices into the halls of power. This job is about demanding a space at the table for LGBTQ people and I love using the tools we have to carve out that space. 

Our team, along with our champions, fights for an intersectional movement that recognizes all issues can impact the LGBTQ community.

NATHAN, Program Manager

Hi, I’m Nathan! As Program Manager, I work on EQNM’s advocacy efforts, as well as on the education and organizing sides. I support Marshall, our Executive Director, in developing short- and long-term strategies in areas like elections and policy. Additionally, I train and support the organizing staff, providing direction and assistance based on needs and organization-wide goals. Special projects, such as the recent New Mexico LGBTQ Statewide Summit, are some of the cooler things I get to do when they come up. After the 2024 elections, I will be part of the EQNM team participating in the 2025 Legislative sessions, providing support to our priority bills in any and all possible ways. I’m also honored to oversee the New Mexico LGBTQ Roundtable, with the assistance of the Roundtable administrator Aurelia Martinez. 

I love that my role is flexible and that my responsibilities vary. Well, love it and hate it. JK! I mostly love it. I’m always excited about what’s coming next. Since I can be a bit of a hermit, it’s good that I am required to get out there in New Mexico’s queer and trans communities. I appreciate building those relationships and connections.

Our EQNM work culture is very warm. It’s never peaceful since we’re so busy, but it’s comfortable. Employees come first here when they need something, whether that be more time on a project or time off for a crisis. We are constantly encouraged to become better versions of ourselves just via the work that we do every day. 

I want for everyone—-regardless of and especially because of their geographic location—to feel the pride that comes along with being involved in the LGBTQ community. Even though it's easily one of the more-stressful times of the year, Pride month provides glimpses into what a liberated future for queer and trans folks looks like. Thanks to EQNM, I have seen this pride in metro and rural communities alike. Even if the crowds are vastly different, the community aspect is the same.

HAZEL, Community Organizer

Hi, I’m Hazel! I’m mostly working on the ground to engage with the EQNM community. I organize volunteers to participate in actions like texting and phone banking.

I really love that this role allows me to engage with the community. I’m constantly talking with new people who have different experiences and perspectives, which really opens my eyes.

My dream for queer and trans New Mexicans is that all kids can be themselves unapologetically and experience love and joy without discrimination and pain. I hope that the trans kids of the future don’t have to face the backlash I had to face growing up.

RUDY, Brand and Marketing Manager

Hi, I’m Rudy! I design the EQNM brand, including our presence on digital, web, and print. I work with staff and partners to develop and implement social media, ad, and campaign strategies while maintaining the integrity and growth of the EQNM brand.

I love that this role allows me to create designs and plans for important issues that impact the lives of LGBTQ New Mexicans. It allows me to participate in giving back to my community using my design and marketing skills.

I want us to live safe and healthy lives without fear of being controlled and punished simply for being true to who we are as whole individuals.

GAUGE, Development Associate

Hi, I’m Gauge! I plan and implement EQNM's fundraising strategy. This includes writing grants, connecting with donors, organizing events, and reporting on our work. Right now, I'm working on our end-of-year giving campaign, where we share our victories from the past year with donors. 

I love the story-telling aspect of this work! Grant reports, especially, are a lot of fun because I get to share EQNM's work with people who otherwise wouldn't get to be involved. I always learn something new about our programming in the process. I love seeing how my efforts immediately impact the rest of the organization and allow others to do their work without worrying about the finances.

In my utopia, QT New Mexicans will have the choice of when, how, and with whom we share our identities. When I first came out, I felt pressure to be visible and public about my transition to help shift public perception and make coming out easier for future generations. In a future where people are accepting, care is accessible, and laws everywhere are protective, we'll be able to live as people rather than as examples or political tools.

MICHELLE, Administrative Assistant

Hi, I’m Michelle! I provide administrative support to the EQNM team, ensuring smooth operations for all. You’ll find me scheduling meetings, planning strategy retreats, coordinating all the chaos behind-the-scenes of our events, and being there to help our people succeed in whatever way I am needed.  

I love helping to create an inclusive environment for all people, and my role at EQNM allows me to build connections within the LGBTQ community. I am so proud to support initiatives that promote visibility and equality.

I dream of a state where everyone can live authentically without fear of discrimination. I want to see increased access to resources, support services, and safe spaces. I want us to build a vibrant community that celebrates diversity and fosters acceptance.

LAYLA, Communication Associate, Social Media

Hi, I’m Layla! When I’m not doing my school work at New Mexico State University, where I study justice, political philosophy, and law, I’m the one posting on our social media channels. 

I love being able to reach so many people through social media and provide  easy access to resources and information. 

My dream for queer and trans New Mexicans is complete and unwavering liberation, healthcare access and resources, and safety from discrimination and violence.

MAEGAN, Copywriter

Hi, I’m Maegan! I manage EQNM’s blog and anything else that needs wordsmithing. If you have an idea about something we should post about on the blog, please hit me up. 

I moved to Albuquerque in 2023 to get my PhD in Communication at the University of New Mexico, where I’m studying how activists, specifically trans folx, can ensure that we are fairly and accurately represented in the artificial intelligence systems that will define the communications of the future. I love being of service to my community in my new home. Our EQNM volunteers and champions inspire me to embody and bring my non-binary perspective to all that I do.  

I want people of all genders and orientations to incorporate queer and trans perspectives into their own mentality, work, advocacy, and joy.

Inside EQNM’s Candidate Endorsement Process

When it comes to putting champions for our queer and trans communities into public office, we take our role in vetting candidates very seriously. The 2024 elections are just weeks away, so we wanted to take a moment and share what that endorsement process looks like for the Equality New Mexico team. You can expect our official endorsements this week. 

As an LGBTQ advocacy organization, we obviously want to ensure that our elected officials hold inclusive values and support policy positions on the issues that impact us. When we think about queer and trans issues, though, it’s easy to focus solely on the ones that center gender and sexuality—like working locally to protect marriage rights from being overturned by a conservative Supreme Court. In reality things are more complex. For example, housing is a LGBTQ issue because 40 percent of homeless youth are queer and trans. We don’t exist in an identity bubble.

“Members of the LGBTQ Community across New Mexico and our allies rely on us to inform them about elections and candidates and how they can be part of our fight for liberation,” says EQNM’s Executive Director Marshall Martinez. “We conduct a thorough, community-based process that honors and incorporates the realities of queer and trans people everywhere. They need nondiscrimination policies, but they also need access to healthcare, a more just criminal system, and better education. Our lives are multi-issue as queer and trans people, and our candidate endorsements must consider multi-issue frameworks.”

This is why EQNM’s endorsement process is intentionally intersectional.

Our work at EQNM happens in coordination with other progressive advocacy organizations, including OLE, NM Native Vote, and Center for Civic Action. During election seasons, we collaborate with our partners to produce a wide-ranging candidate questionnaire that covers issues like climate change, workers rights, abortion access, and criminal justice. Candidates receive the questionnaire immediately after their filing date using information available from the Secretary of State, where all candidates must file. Our organizations also reach out to them individually throughout the process: letting them know it is coming, confirming receipt, and due date reminders. Candidates who want our endorsement complete the questionnaire through a process of written responses. When their answers have been submitted, anyone who holds a position that would be considered harmful to the communities within our coalition is disqualified. This could look like a candidate being against bodily autonomy, which negatively impacts gender-affirming care and abortion access, or a candidate being anti-minimum wage increases, which harms low-income workers. Candidates whose positions could empower our communities are then sent to a committee for deeper review. The review committee is composed of 12 people who work in different sectors from various geographic locations around the state. The committee evaluates candidate responses and then conducts individual interviews. Based on how these interviews proceed, the committee makes a recommendation to Equality New Mexico’s Board of Directors regarding who should be considered for endorsement. Our Board members make the final decision. 

Check our social media accounts and our blog to stay up to date on 2024 candidate endorsements.

Taking Time to Invest in Real Solutions Isn’t ‘Doing Nothing’

This week New Mexico legislators will gather at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe for a Special Legislative Session dedicated to several bills that purport to address public safety. The bills under consideration center around involuntary commitment, establishing firearm possession as a second degree felony, and criminalizing homelessness under the guise of “pedestrian safety”  (like panhandling) in high speed areas. Instead of making the public safer, however, these bills are rooted in an approach that relies on coercion and punishment. These types of strategies have long been proven ineffective.

Along with 40 other community groups and experts, Equality New Mexico sent a letter to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham asking that this session be canceled. The Governor dismissed our request, stating that we have proposed “doing nothing” in a time of urgency. This is a disingenuous characterization of what we want. What we know is that policies developed by the governor’s staff in the vacuum of her office without community input are far worse than doing nothing, especially when we have been championing effective policy proposals for years that her team has failed to move forward. Our organizations have worked alongside legislators on the causes of homelessness, including the lack of affordable housing and the ways families are priced out of “developing” neighborhoods to make way for more expensive housing. We have proposed creating Behavioral Health Centers across the state, and creating statewide resources for our mental health care and addiction treatment providers to scale up their capacity to help more patients rapidly. 

The Governor is right that the situation is urgent, but this isn’t just about effectively addressing the problems of behavioral health, housing, poverty, and crime. It’s about what kind of community we want to be, and how we want to treat our people. For folks experiencing hardship in these areas, life is already extremely difficult. The root causes of these problems are extremely complex, and usually stem from oppressive structures, social failings, trauma, and lack of adequate resources and support. Even when someone struggling or living beyond mistakes takes on the path to healing and recovery, it is a long process that is never a straight line. We need to recognize this in a broader context and adopt a long view, which is what should always inform any immediate actions we decide to take. 

When we put our values first, we can start to develop effective policies. There are many reasons why the policies under consideration in the Special Session fall short of the mark. You don’t even have to be a policy expert, it’s just common sense.

Many of us have loved ones with behavioral health diagnoses or who are struggling with addiction, or we have experienced those things but have not been able to access those treatments. We know that our communities are crying out for help, crying out for access to the healthcare we need, physical, medical, and mental healthcare. Proper care led by experienced professionals and a strong support system create the conditions that allow someone to heal and define their own future. Imagine having your traumatized child sobered up just enough to stand trial for an incident some Karen decided was a “harm to others,” facing being institutionalized instead of getting real help. Or imagine trying to help your child get the help they need, being put on waiting list after waiting list, and then eventually being thrown in jail because of a mistake they made while waiting for that treatment that you both begged for.  Widely accessible voluntary treatment is the answer. Coercion is not care.

Our neighborhoods, our state, and our country have been devastated by gun violence, and it’s understandable that people want to see something, anything done about it. We have to take a step back, however, and recognize that ‘perpetrators’ are almost always victimized long before they cycle through the judicial system. Creating a mandatory minimum sentence for people with past felony convictions in possession of a firearm is ineffectual. Research shows that additional prison time doesn’t have a deterrent effect, and feeds the destructive system of mass incarceration and recidivism. Community violence intervention programs are more effective at preventing and interrupting gun violence.

We’ve all been traveling in our cars, on public transit, cycling, or walking when we’ve encountered folks who need our help immediately. Whether it's a scorching hot day in July or a freezing day in January, can you imagine it being illegal for people suffering right in front of our faces to stand in the easiest place for passers by to provide a bottle of water or an extra jacket? Homelessness can’t be solved by punishing, fining, and pushing unhoused people out of sight and into jail. Housing solves homelessness.

As New Mexicans, our parents, children, friends, colleagues, and neighbors are dealing with these issues in our communities. Our community organizations, including the experts in mental health, homelessness, addiction, civil liberties, and LGBTQ+ rights who asked for this session to be nixed, are handling the impact of these problems daily. Does the Governor think she can tell all of us that we don’t know what’s best or viable?

We asked the Governor to work with us and revisit these issues more comprehensively in the legislature’s full 2025 session. We have to work together to understand why the meaningful policy proposals in these areas that have been previously proposed were not passed, and how we can create winning legislation that will actually work and endure. We are ready whenever the Governor is prepared to seek input and advice from those of us doing the work on the ground, rather than trying to score quick political points on the back of New Mexican families. In the meantime, we will keep working to address these very real problems. We aren’t —and we won’t be— “doing nothing.” New Mexicans deserve more than a frantic scramble to achieve so-called public safety.

Statement on House District 18, Primary Elections, and EQNM Messaging

Statement on House District 18, Primary Elections, and EQNM Messaging

Recently, Equality New Mexico sent out text messages related to the 2024 election, and we have received feedback from folks who are taking issue with our stance. This blog post provides additional context for our statements. It further underscores why the race in House District 18 is of enormous significance to the future of the LGBTQ movement in New Mexico.  

HD18 has played an important role in New Mexico’s LGBTQ history and will soon be vacated by one of our biggest champions, Rep. Gail Chasey. Queer and Trans New Mexicans have been able to rely on this district for 25 years, and it is essential that whoever wins this seat has our backs so that we can maintain the protections we’ve won and expand on them. That is why we endorsed Marianna Anaya so quickly. We know her work, we know her values, and we trust her to be the fierce fighter that we need for our LGBTQ communities. 

Our organization, acting independently of the candidates we support and as an independent expenditure, recently sent text messages that drew a contrast between the candidates running to represent HD18. The messages referred to one candidate, Dr. Anjali Taneja, as being “deeply involved with the corporate medical establishment.” We hear those of you who have told us that this statement feels like an attack, and not an honest conversation about what is at stake in this election. We apologize for over-simplifying this crucial message. We understand that a single phrase in a text cannot sufficiently substantiate such a claim, so it is our intention that this statement will serve as better background. 

One of the hardest parts of participating in a primary election is that folks who are typically values-aligned have to draw distinctions between each other. That means we sometimes wind up hurting or upsetting people we would, in other circumstances, be uplifting. However, just because something makes some people uncomfortable doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to be said—we just should have said it differently.  

In HD18, four candidates are running in the Democratic Primary: Marianna Anaya, Dr. Anjali Taneja, Gloria Doherty, and Juan Larranaga. EQNM Endorsed Marianna Anaya before the filing deadline because of her long history of working to protect LGBTQ people. 

Dr. Taneja is a board-certified family physician with almost 20 years of experience. She provides healthcare to low-income patients and their families, and has also been providing gender-affirming healthcare for trans and non-binary New Mexicans for quite some time.

When we sent out messages referring to a corporate medicine connection, we intended to draw attention to Dr. Taneja’s donors and supporters, who we believe are supporting her because of their interest in protecting corporate medicine. For those of us who have been in the fight a long time, we know that we have had to work against these establishment institutions to advance people- and patient-centered public policy in New Mexico. 

We don’t know whether these corporate donations and support will impact Dr. Taneja’s votes if she wins, but the voters in HD18 deserve to know about the connections.

Attacks on LGBTQ people are at a peak, more dangerous and harmful than they have been in decades. While the fight is often about nondiscrimination laws or gender-affirming care, we know our work is intersectional, and we know that LGBTQ people are workers. We are parents and families. We fight daily to protect ourselves and our communities. This is not the time for us to sit back and watch a race of this significance be boiled down to “a doctor vs. a lobbyist” without a deeper understanding of our communities and the types of champions we need in the NM legislature.

We understand that supporters of other candidates are drawing distinctions around Marianna Ayana’s role in reforming the Medical Malpractice Law. This law was archaic and outdated; reform was critical to changing a system that benefitted corporate hospitals and out-of-state players over patients. We created a more patient-centered healthcare system in New Mexico, and we believe Marianna helped protect patients from the profit-focused, big-business healthcare providers. The medical establishment in New Mexico hasn't been shy about its feelings about this, and we will not be shy in affirming Marianna’s and others’ efforts.

Equality New Mexico endorsed Marianna Anaya for this position because we have worked with her and know her values. We also know her ability to get things done. Marianna led alongside us to create a strategy that made New Mexico one of the most legally protected states in the nation for LGBTQ people. 

Let’s be clear; we endorsed Marianna Anaya, a Queer woman of color who has worked tirelessly for the causes and community-driven, values-based organizations like EQNM. 

There is no doubt that there is a healthcare crisis in New Mexico, and it impacts LGBTQ people in unique ways because of the layers of systemic discrimination we face every day of our lives.  We are grateful to Dr Taneja for her work in providing healthcare to folks who otherwise would not have this access.  

However, we can’t ignore the fact that attempts to make healthcare more accessible in New Mexico, ranging from making prescription drugs more affordable to creating a healthcare infrastructure that benefits everyone, have often been stymied by these corporate healthcare industries.

This race for House District 18 is critical to the movement for LGBTQ Liberation in New Mexico.  We will continue to fight to elect legislators we can trust to represent the voices of LGBTQ New Mexicans across New Mexico. Fighting for liberation in systems that were created for oppression never feels as good as it should, and the work is always challenging. We will continue to take this work seriously and aspire to do it in the best interests of Queer and Trans New Mexicans everywhere, even if we fall short at times.  Moving forward, we will only uplift the reasons we have endorsed and are supporting Marianna Anaya, and are making a commitment not to attack or draw distinctions about other candidates in this race. 

More about our reasons for supporting Marianna:

Marianna Anaya is a queer woman of color with a track record of working to uplift our communities, from being an organizer with a local Teachers’ Union and marching on picket lines with nurses to being the leader as our Legislative Advocate working to protect access to Gender-Affirming Care and Reproductive healthcare and strengthening our non-discriminatory laws.  Marianna led the fight to pass our Affirmative Consent Law in New Mexico to help prevent sexual violence on campuses across New Mexico and teach a whole new generation about what consent is and what it is not when it comes to physical relationships.  She was the lead lobbyist on the New Mexico Voting Rights Act, working to protect democracy when New Mexico was the first state to propose and seriously consider this bold step to enfranchise voters across the state in meaningful ways.

Marianna is also the voice of everyday New Mexicans, as evidenced by her endorsements ranging from Planned Parenthood Votes New Mexico and Voices for Children Action Fund to Organizers in the Land of Enchantment.  Even NM Native Vote and leaders in the LGBTQ movement like Bunnie Cruse, a Trans Latina who has advocated for the statewide LGBTQ community for decades.  

Marianna was born and raised in the North Valley of Albuquerque and was the first in her family to attend college. She knocked on doors and made phone calls, talked to Legislators, and wrote Op-Eds to support our movement and all of our intersections. Marianna isn’t running to represent the voices of the disenfranchised in the Roundhouse. She is the voice of the disenfranchised in our communities.  

Pride Month 2024: Volunteer Opportunities and Organizing Events

Pride Month is just around the corner and EQNM will be showing up and showing out in events all over the state! We need volunteers. Have you been looking for a dedicated organization that does amazing work to donate some of your extra time to? You’ve found the right place!

We need you for several events throughout the month in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Farmington, and Portales.

Click the links to sign up to volunteer or come by and say hello if you’re planning on attending these events!

We hope to see you this summer! — Nathan & Elijah, EQNM organizers

EQNM’s 2024 Resilience Fundraiser, June 1

What is your FIGHT song? Come to the Albuquerque Social Club to volunteer, hang out with other queer & trans folks, and help fundraise money to help EQNM continue doing what it does best — advocating for our community! SIGN UP

Albuquerque PrideFest, June 7-8 SIGN UP

Albuquerque Pride Parade, June 8 SIGN UP

Santa Fe Pride on the Plaza, June 29 SIGN UP

Santa Fe Pride Parade, June SIGN UP

Farmington Pride in the Park, June 15 SIGN UP

Eastern NM Family PrideFest, June 29 SIGN UP

EQNM Endorsements for State Legislative Races

Equality New Mexico is PROUD to announce our second wave of endorsements for this years Primary Elections.

The reality is that LGBTQ people are still under attack across our country, and while New Mexico has the strongest protections in the country - we aren’t immune to these attacks. Protecting our Queer and Trans siblings means always fighting to elect people who will champion them!

At EQNM we have a thorough vetting process for these candidates, they fill out questionnaires about a multitude of intersectional issues to outline their beliefs and values, and then they are interviewed by our Endorsement Committee made up of LGBTQ leaders from across the state. Then our Board of Directors makes final decisions based on the recommendations of this Endorsements Committee.

These candidates all made promises to stand by EQNMs values, to approach policy from an intersectional framework and to help us continue to engage in our fight for liberation through their work in the Roundhouse in Santa Fe!

The Primary Election is June 4 - our LGBTQ communities need you to vote for these amazing Candidates and Champions!

EQNM's 2024 Early Endorsementsfor State Legislative Races

Equality New Mexic is PROUD to endorse these LGBTQ Fighters!!!

These candidates were selected for early endorsement because they have collectively been proactively leading our fight for intersectional LGBTQ Liberation!

These folks are the real deal. They work for queer and trans New Mexicans—and for all New Mexicans —year round, not just during the Legislative Session.

THE END: 2024 Legislative Session Was a Mixed Bag for LGBTQ+ New Mexicans

It’s been more than a month of competing priorities, behind-the-scenes politicking, and constant committee hearings at the Roundhouse. In the end, the 2024 legislative session will be remembered as a mixed bag for our community. We had some big wins, heartbreaking losses, and we quashed harmful initiatives wherever we saw them developing. Let’s recap what happened, and get energized for the work that lies ahead!

Session began with Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s State of the State address, where she outlined an ambitious public safety agenda. Public safety is, of course, a priority for us all, but the governor’s approach was often less about safety and more about establishing the appearance of punishment. Along with our partner organizations, we managed to slow things down enough that really bad ideas didn't get anywhere. The legislature did pass a seven-day waiting period to purchase firearms and banned guns in polling places, taking a couple of steps toward a safer state. Not enough was done, but it's a good start for curbing the epidemic of gun violence in New Mexico. We can now focus on real solutions that involve all the stakeholders and voices from our communities.

EQNM worked alongside the New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Providers to pass HB 151, the Benjamin Higher Education Sexual Violence Prevention and Intervention Act. New Mexico universities and colleges will now have to use the affirmative consent standard rather than making up their own ideas of what is and isn't sexual violence. Students will also receive training on affirmative consent, because we can't be expected to follow the same rules if we don't all know the rules to begin with. This victory was five years in the making, and we are so proud of NMCSAP and all whose dedication and persistence codified affirmative consent on New Mexico campuses.

Although the Paid Family and Medical Leave and Dignity Without Detention bills died, we will not give up on fighting for progress on both fronts. The Paid Family and Medical Leave bill brought forth in 2024 was both pro-business and pro-worker—a rarity. It was developed by experts for the past three years to provide New Mexico families with basic protections and help businesses work to keep employees even when they face crises, illness or created families. It included us. It is shameful that a handful of self-professed champions of LGBTQ people and families turned their back at the urging of conservatives who weren't telling the truth about this bill. The Dignity Without Detention loss was a blow to LGBTQ people seeking assylum in the US. We are severely disappointed in the legislators who support LGBTQ Americans, but don't see the reality of how ICE and private prison companies are treating our international siblings when they flee from homophobic and transphobic violence in other countries. We vow to work hard to help our partners who lead this cause get this done next year.

It’s hard to get many things done in a short legislative session; in even years sessions are only 30 days while they are 60 days in odd years. A number of bills we liked simply died for lack of time. We will continue to work through our organizing programs, our upcoming statewide LGBTQ summit, and through interim committee hearings to ensure that these are brought back and passed. 

We thank our EQNM community for staying informed and taking action during the legislative session. Your voices matter. It is essential that our elected officials begin to understand that LGBTQ people and our issues are truly intersectional. They need to see us as whole humans in need of physical and mental healthcare, jobs and employment security, and an effective community-based public safety strategy. For the rest of this year and in 2025 and beyond, we will advocate for legislative sessions driven by communities across the state and our lived experiences—not a top-down approach based on one person's "big ideas." 

We look forward to fighting with you for a legislative agenda that is bold, big, and ambitious.

Legislative Session: Week Four

It’s hard to believe that there is less than a week left in the 2024 legislative session! The tough-on-crime bills that dominated early discussions in the Roundhouse are slowing down amidst skepticism that they will work, although we still anticipate movement on gun safety measures. Until the action ends on Thursday February 15 at noon, we can expect marathon committee floor sessions every day, including this weekend. We’re optimistic that the key agenda items we’ve been supporting along with our partner organizations have a chance to pass. Be on alert for ways you can help let our legislators know that the affirmative consent and Paid Family Leave bills are essential progress for New Mexicans! If you have a minute right now, sign our petition in support of HB151 The Benjamin Higher Education Sexual Violence Prevention Act.

Our EQNM team is immersed in all things legislative. Shoutout to Nathan Saavedra and Michelle Najera (and her boyfriend Hector!) for joining Executive Director Marshall Martinez in Santa Fe today to support our community.

If you’re not following Haley Lynn’s epic EQNM TikToks, fix that now! Haley is covering the last week of the session in her posts.

Affirmative Consent passed the Senate Education Committee unanimously. The bill must now be addressed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The more noise we make, the better the chance that The Benjamin Higher Education Sexual Violence Prevention Act will become law. Let the Judiciary Committee know where you stand by signing EQNM’s petition. The link is available here and on all our social media platforms if you want to share it.

Thanks to the many champions who helped to push Affirmative Consent through the Senate! We see you working hard for us. 

Paid Family Medical Leave is still in play. In great news, it passed the Senate late last night!

Sadly, the Dignity Not Detention bill we supported died on the Senate floor. As it works now, ICE contracts with local New Mexico jails and private prisons to house immigrants that they solely can decide to detain. These local facilities are not subject to significant federal regulation, making them sites of gross abuses like harassment, hunger, sexual assault and other physical harms. The Dignity Not Detention bill would have prevented the state from contracting with ICE to use these facilities. New Mexico had a chance to put values before economics to ensure that we aren’t part of the torture of asylum seekers held by ICE, but members of the Senate killed that opportunity. Be sure to look up how your representatives voted on this bill, and remember it during the next election.

STAY TUNED

In the frantic final days of the session there will be an onslaught of meetings and news to keep up with about our bills and others. Legislators are continuing to take a thoughtful and deliberate approach to protecting our communities from gun violence, which will surely dominate much of the docket. Keep up with us on Twitter/X for the immediate stuff, and check back next week for our wrap up post. After you SIGN THE PETITION FOR HB151, of course. We’ll finally have answers soon!