This section is about using events or making things happen to get the board and the public to think seriously (or more seriously) about the need for a policy. This is often a good way to start the public phase of a policy campaign. Most of the strategies covered here can also be used to support your arguments during a campaign.

To use events effectively, you’ll usually have to use one or more of the tactics covered in other parts of this guide. This section will refer specifically to some of them. The last part of this section covers a few public campaigning techniques that are not covered elsewhere.

Using Galvanizing Events to Get Public Attention

A galvanizing event is an event which illustrates some of the problems your policy is designed to remedy. It could be prejudice against LGBT people, neglect of the LGBT community in policy making generally, or the specific kinds of discrimination a civil rights policy will cover. It could involve the specific kind of recognition a domestic partnership policy will provide.

The campaign for Raleigh’s nondiscrimination policy began when a church which had allowed the predominately gay Metropolitan Community Church to meet in its building got bomb threats. The threats lead one of the church’s heterosexual members to organize a meeting, which in turn led to a church organized public hearing on anti-gay prejudice and discrimination.    

The first step in using a galvanizing event is to develop an explanation of how the event ties to your policy proposal; for example, how it illustrates the need. It's even better if this can be done using one of your basic themes.

Next, make the connection for the audience you want to work on—the LGBT community, the board or the public—using the techniques for lobbying that audience.

If you want to use an event to get the process of adoption of the policy started, you can approach members of the board and ask them to introduce the policy because of the event.

The stage may have been set for Saginaw’s nondiscrimination policy by a violent attack on the patrons of a gay bar. People went to the bar with clubs and crow bars and physically assaulted people leaving the bar.

But the policy was actually introduced in response to an eviction. A member of the city council proposed the amendment after a landlord evicted a gay man because, as the landlord admitted to the local papers, he disapproved of gay people.

While many campaigns have either been sparked or significantly advanced by anti-LGBT violence, sometimes more mundane examples of discrimination work well also. People are often able to better identify with LGBT people who suffer discrimination in situations most people are familiar with, and the connection between the incident and a policy is often easier to get people to see if the event is something the policy would directly address.

You can also use events which show LGBT people being left out of community processes when they ought to be included.

Making Things that Get Public Attention Happen

Boards or their committees usually hold public hearings when they have specific policy proposals before them. But other organizations, like Human Rights Commissions and like church groups often hold more general hearings on community problems. See the section on Public Hearings. Policy campaigns have begun with public hearings on discrimination generally, with public hearings on the LGBT community generally, and with hearings on related issues.

In Irvine, the mayor appointed a special commission to investigate all forms of discrimination in the city. The commission spent five months doing research and holding hearings with twelve community groups. At the end, it recommended that the city adopt a comprehensive civil rights law. Orange County, N.C., went through a similar process.

In Greensboro, the City’s Human Rights Commission was persuaded to hold a series of hearings over a two month period, covering anti-gay violence, police abuse, medical and psychological facts about being gay, discrimination, religious views about being gay, and the legal aspects of a nondiscrimination policy. At the end, the Commission made a detailed set of recommendations to the city council.

You can start a policy campaign with a “little policy” campaign, an effort to get a policy passed by a small sub-unit of your institution. For example, if you ultimately want to get a university to adopt a nondiscrimination policy, you might start by asking a few carefully selected campus organizations to adopt one. If you ultimately want to get a policy from a city, you could ask its parks department first.

One of the advantages of a “little policy” campaign is that if you succeed, you will usually get people from the organization that adopts it committed to nondiscrimination policies. They may then be strong allies when you move on to the next level.

You also may be able to create events which will illustrate some aspect of the problem at which the policy is aimed. Think about marches, pride rallies, proclamations in support of the Stonewall anniversary, petitions to a government, etc.

Speakers Bureaus, Information Tables and Knocking on Doors

There are at least three techniques, borrowed from political campaigns, which you can use to build public support for your proposal.

First, set up a speakers bureau, and aggressively market it. All you need to do is train a group of volunteers to speak about LGBT people and why the policy is important. Put together a list of all the civic organizations you can think of, from garden clubs to churches, to political clubs and committees, to schools, to business clubs. Call them, find out who is in charge of programs, and offer to send a speaker. You can send speakers to organizations you might ask to endorse later. You can also send them to groups which either can not or would not endorse your proposal.

Second, set up public information tables on street corners, in shopping centers, etc. First, check any local rules on where such tables are allowed, and whether you need to get a permit. From a table you can distribute information about events and the policy itself, and you can ask people to sign endorsements, petitions, and postcards to the board.

One of the great things about public information tables is that they put supporters of the policy in direct contact with the public. While a single short encounter with an LGBT person may not change the mind of a confirmed homophobe, it can begin the process of getting many people to reexamine their ideas about LGBT people. It can also help destroy some common stereotypes.

Finally, if you have a large number of volunteers, you should consider informational precinct walking in carefully selected places. Precinct walking simply means going door to door in a certain area, ringing bells and knocking on doors, and asking people you encounter to support the policy.

Precinct walking can bring you support because you’ll find supporters whom you wouldn’t find any other way, and because people will often agree to do things that they might not otherwise do when asked face to face. It can also win you new supporters, particularly among people who don’t have strong feelings on the issue. A personal request for support is often critical with people who are undecided. The drawbacks to walking are that it requires a lot of effort, and some of your volunteers are bound to have unpleasant experiences.

If you do walk, make sure you have literature to give people who ask for more information. Also, be sure to have some device for getting a commitment on paper, like a support post card or a petition. Do a little careful research when you decide where to walk. Try to pick areas likely to have a high proportion of fence sitters, weak supporters and weak opponents. Try to pick areas where statements of support will do you the most good (for example, statements of support from voters might have the greatest impact on a board member who is not in a safe seat, one who is undecided about the policy).