California tries new tack to support LGBTQ+ inclusion

The road to hell is often paved with good intentions, at least according to Senate President pro Tempore and LGBTQ+ community leader Toni Atkins.

Which is why Atkins sponsored legislation this year (SB 447) to overturn a California bill adopted in 2016 (AB 1887) that prohibited state-funded travel to other states that had adopted anti-LGBTQ+ laws.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 447 in September. Among several things, the bill overturns the travel ban and replaces it with the Bridge Project, short for Building and Reinforcing Inclusive, Diverse, Gender-Supportive Equality Project.

Originally intended as a way to display California’s support and solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community and to protest discriminatory laws being adopted in other states, the travel ban also produced unexpectedly negative results, including isolating members of the LGBTQ+ community across the country, thwarting critical research by Californians in affected states and threatening to prevent student athletes from competing in out of state games.

While the travel ban originally applied to only four states, the rapid proliferation of anti-LGBTQ+ bills expanded the prohibition to close to half of the country. As more states enacted discriminatory legislation, Atkins said she began pondering other options.

“My staff and I began to hear stories of research that couldn’t be done, and people that weren’t able to travel to give their expertise on a particular subject that was about diversity, or, for instance, voting rights,” Atkins says. “Our Secretary of State couldn’t travel to other states to talk about policies that we’ve put in place in California to advance voting rights. As those stories continued to pile up, it was maybe two years ago that we really took a hard look at this and decided to move forward.”

As more states enacted discriminatory legislation, Atkins said she began pondering other options.

Atkins’ Bridge Project, not only rescinds what she views as a travel ban that isn’t working anymore, but in its place will create a non-partisan, inclusive marketing campaign to help foster a sense of connection among the LGBTQ+ community both in and out of California.

Her inspiration behind gravitating towards a marketing campaign as her method of outreach has roots well beyond politics.

“Today one of the people I really admire the most is Dolly Parton, who has started a kindness campaign,” she says. “You see her billboards in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and I can only assume that she’s doing that across the country. It basically says, ‘kindness matters,’ and I think that’s the kind of thing that people every day try to do in their lives. They just want acceptance; they don’t like polarization and hatred. I think the more we can do to send that message of support, inclusion, and diversity is a good thing.”

There is reason to believe that message could reach a receptive audience. As of 2022, Pew Research studies found that 61% of Americans are for the legalization of same-sex marriage.

The Bridge Project has also garnered strong support from various adult education organizations, from the California Council for Adult Education (CCAE) to the California Adult Education Administrators Association (CAEAA).

“As the state with the largest and most prominent adult education program, California has the opportunity to provide important guidance, support, and advocacy across the country in support of adult education programs that often are focused on the most marginalized in our communities.  Unfortunately, however, California’s restrictions on travel to specific states have left California’s Adult Education Program leaders and adult educators out of important dialogue, professional development opportunities and federal advocacy,” says Steve Curiel, President of the CAEAA & Principal of Huntington Beach Adult School.

In a similar sentiment, President of the CCAE & Principal of Berkeley Adult School, Thomas Reid applauds The Bridge Project, saying, “Our California adult schools create learning environments that are safe, inclusive and offer a sense of belonging to all in our communities, especially those of marginalized groups. CCAE and its members support S.B. 447 in its goal of fostering greater inclusivity, understanding and opportunity for all, not only in California, but across the country.”

While the unintended consequences of the travel ban may have initially spurred the drafting of The Bridge Project, Atkins’ own childhood experiences growing up in rural Virginia allowed her to witness firsthand the sense of isolation permeating the LGBTQ+ community, made worse in later years by the travel ban.

Thinking back on her roots, Atkins says “There were clearly more LGBTQ+ people in Virginia and in the community where I grew up, but we were just very quiet. We didn’t have the support to seek each other out 50 years ago. It reminds me, as we’ve seen the backlash against the LGBTQ+ community, of what it felt like as a 17-18 year old growing up in a pretty conservative community, with a very religious upbringing. It reminds me that there are folks still out there like me. It really did inspire this idea.”

Not everyone, however, is supportive.

Atkins has faced opposition against The Bridge Project from groups such as Our Duty, the international support network for parents hoping to protect their children from gender ideology and what they refer to as transgender ideation, who fear the messages that the legislation’s marketing campaign may propagate.

“California is trying to import a very dangerous ideology that tells children and vulnerable adults that they are born wrong — everything is wrong with them — the ultimate body shaming.”

“California is trying to import a very dangerous ideology that tells children and vulnerable adults that they are born wrong — everything is wrong with them — the ultimate body shaming,” says Erin Friday, Co-leader of Our Duty’s Western Regional for U.S.A.

Atkins is unfazed by that kind of criticism.

“I still think about it, and it’s still incredible that I’ve ended up in this wonderful position to be able to influence policy that impacts a broad range of people, including the LGBTQ+ community and women,” she says.

Looking forward, Atkins says her goal is to get The Bridge Project’s marketing campaign out as broadly as she can. The first steps will be creating “a council of 10 individuals that would help weigh in on what that marketing campaign would look like. That council will be formed and appointed within the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. I think there needs to be a broad list of individuals that have marketing experience, and who have experience related to communities that they represent — I think we need people with different life experiences.”

And hopefully, she says, help usher in a new era of “changing hearts and minds.”