By Daniel Ramos, Executive Director, One Colorado
So much has happened in 2018 that we thought we would take a moment to look back on all our work over the last 11 months. We started off with an especially busy legislative session in the Spring, from a contentious fight to save the Colorado Civil Rights Division to the defeat of a bill that would have permitted adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ parents.
Over the summer, our team visited Pride festivals in every corner of our state, from Durango to Fort Collins and during that time, over 10,000 Coloradans signed our petition to ban the harmful practice of conversion therapy. (If you haven’t signed it yet, you still can here!)
We launched a series of regional trainings to talk with LGBTQ Coloradans about their experiences with healthcare and arm them with the tools to become their own best advocates. Our team put on four Gay-Straight Alliance Leadership summits up and down the front range and on the Western Slope - attended by over 300 students, teachers and parents.
And then came the 2018 Election. The results of this election seem to indicate that a rainbow wave has truly come to the state, with the largest delegation of openly LGBTQ officials elected, including the state’s first transgender lawmaker and the nation’s first openly gay Governor!
Our incredible team of volunteers played a huge role in these succesess. We made 40,681 phone calls to talk to pro-equality voters and filled 294 volunteer shifts this Fall. We hit the pavement and knocked on 6,128 doors. And you, our supporters, turned out to vote in huge numbers - the highest of any mid-term election since One Colorado was founded - with 83% of our supporters voting this year.
You’ve been incredible this year. Help us build for 2019.
