Focus on Diversity
The Human Rights Campaign’s diversity mission has two important and related components. The first is to ensure that diversity is an intrinsic value of HRC’s organizational culture, not just a set of statistics or numbers.
The second part of HRC’s diversity mission is to be one of the most successful organizations in the country at uniting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and straight supporters with people of all races and backgrounds to ensure equality for all.
HRC’s Diversity Department, the first such program for a LGBT advocacy organization, is responsible for driving this diversity mission. In 2007, the organization created a chief diversity officer position that reports directly to HRC’s president. In addition to building partnerships and strategic alliances, supporting pride events for people of color and conducting diversity trainings for the organization’s volunteers and members, HRC’s Diversity Department is focused on four major initiatives:
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¡Ya Es Hora!
HRC has joined ¡Ya Es Hora!, a coalition of faith, labor, media, and community-based organizations, to host volunteer citizenship workshops around the country as part of a civic engagement campaign aimed at providing immigrants with resources to apply for citizenship and to become active participants in U.S. democracy.
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Historically Black Colleges and Universities Program
In response to a swell of violence against LGBT students on Historically Black College and University campuses, in 2002 HRC launched its HBCU program to educate and organize students, faculty and administrators in creating safe and welcoming campuses black LGBT youth.
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Partnership with California Faith for Equality
A key finding of “At the Intersection” is the impact religiously motivated prejudice has on LGBT people of color. This year HRC formed a strategic partnership with California Faith for Equality, a statewide group of 6,000 faith leaders established to educate, support and mobilize California's faith communities on LGBT equality. The partnership not only expands CFE's impressive work, but also ensures that California voters know that many people of faith support same-sex marriage.
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Resources for Coming Out in Communities of Color
Many people of color face challenges when they come out as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. To address these issues, the National Coming Out Project has developed resources on coming out in the African-American and Latino/a communities.