Building Momentum for Change: How Local and Incremental Policy Campaigns Contribute to Statewide Victories

October 30, 2015

Here at the Equality Federation Institute, we know that local and incremental work matters. That’s why we began an investigation into the impact these campaigns have on our movement.

We interviewed state and national leaders who have been engaged with efforts to secure municipal nondiscrimination ordinances, LGBT-inclusive school district policies, and executive orders protecting our community. We talked to them about why and how they did this work, and we asked about the effect it had on their organizations, their communities, and their states.

Click here to read what we learned -- detailed in our new report, Building Momentum for Change: How Local and Incremental Policy Campaigns Contribute to Statewide Victories.

During all of our conversations, one message became increasingly clear: local and incremental work drives our movement forward.

It provides opportunities to engage in positive, productive public education; to establish facts that make creating a case for further legislation easier; to create political momentum; and to build the capacity of our movement organizations. And most importantly, this work helps us to enact real protections for LGBT people who need them.

Made possible by support from Gill Foundation and written by three Federation staff members -- Fran Hutchins, Ian Palmquist, and Jace Woodrum -- Building Momentum for Change carefully considers the power of local and incremental campaigns, making a strong case for doing and funding this work. The report also offers recommendations for movement leaders to ensure that these efforts avoid a number of common pitfalls.

Download Building Momentum for Change now.

At the end of the day, Building Momentum for Change is about a movement: a movement that started with incredible acts of courage outside a bar in New York City and has grown into an unstoppable force for fairness and equality.

I hope you’ll read it and share it with others who are interested in understanding how our movement became what it is today.

More You might like

Black & LGBTQ+ Organizations Mobilize in High-Stakes Supreme Court Battle

We joined The Center for HIV Law and Policy (CHLP), PrEP in Black America (PIBA), Afiya Center (Dallas), Women with a Vision (New Orleans), SisterLove (Atlanta), and BlaqOut (Kansas City, Missouri) in filing an amicus, or “friend of the court,” brief in the Braidwood v Kennedy case on appeal in the Supreme Court in order to take a stand defending access to preventative health care nationally and to protect the Black and brown lives that will be lost should this access be overturned.

March 19, 2025
Leading Doesn’t Have to Be Lonely

Last month, we hosted our New Executive Director Intensive, one of our longest-running leadership programs. For over a decade, this program has brought together Executive Directors who are new in their role to foster healthy, sustainable organizations and leadership practices. Here are inspiring takeaways we got out of this year’s intensive!

March 19, 2025
Spotlight Interview featuring Ronnie, Advocacy, Policy, & Partnerships Director at FreeState Justice

In recognition of HIV is Not a Crime Day and Maryland's recent groundbreaking progress toward HIV law reform, we sat down for a conversation with Ronnie at FreeState Justice, one of our state partners. We discuss Maryland’s historic progress, its significance in the current landscape of HIV criminalization across the United States, and the importance of Black LGBTQ+ leadership in shaping HIV justice.

March 19, 2025
A young man looking up, smilingA young man smiling straight at the camera
Confident young woman standing with crossed arms.

Want To Make A Difference? Support Our Work

With your support, we'll be able to continue our work to build the leaders of today and tomorrow, strengthen state-based LGBTQ+ organizations, and make critical progress on the issues that matter most—like protecting transgender people, ending HIV criminalization and ensuring access to care, and banning conversion therapy across the country.