Legislative Short Session Ends Well
7/17/2010 - Last Saturday morning at 5:32 am, the North Carolina General Assembly adjourned sine die for 2010. Because this was the even-year short session, many of Equality North Carolina's issue priorities weren't eligible to come up, but we found plenty to keep us busy. We're pleased to report success this year on our major legislative priorities, thanks to you.
We asked supporters like you to step up and push, and you responded.
Stopping negative legislation is always a top priority for us, and we're glad to say that no anti-LGBT legislation was successful this year. For the seventh year in a row, Equality North Carolina again worked with legislative allies to block the marriage discrimination constitutional amendment. We're proud to remain the only Southern state that has not written anti-LGBT discrimination into our constitution.
It was a tough budget year as the state faced an $800 million shortfall, but we and our partners in the North Carolina AIDS Action Network fought hard to win additional support for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, to help get life-saving medication to more low-income North Carolinians living with HIV. Securing an additional $14.1 million for ADAP – more than doubling the state's contribution to this program – is a huge victory. This will allow the state to begin serving the most vulnerable people on the waiting list, though additional funding is still needed to fully restore the program.
We're also proud that funding for HIV prevention programs was not reduced amid significant cuts to other programs.
How'd we do it? We mobilized our supporters to send emails, make phone calls, and even come to Raleigh and meet with their legislators on our successful Day of Action. We built strong coalitions with non-LGBT-focused organizations. We reached out to the media to engage fellow North Carolinians on our issues. And we continued to have a strong professional lobbying presence in the Legislative Building throughout the session.
As this session ends, we look forward to the elections this fall and the start of the long session in January, when we'll be working hard to build support for anti-discrimination legislation. The legislature may have gone home, but our work is far from over. We'll be organizing advocates and building our programs to go into the next session in the strongest possible position.
Thanks again for being a part of our success. If you'd like to make a donation to help us keep pushing our state closer to full equality, click here.
