For the first time in more than 20 years, hundreds of LGBTQ people came together from across New Mexico from a dozen+ counties to learn about policy, movement values and share dialogue about what's next. We helped build new relationships across our state,so that we can continue to grow our movement for years to come!
Because of our larger staff and influx of volunteers, we were able to attend more Prides across New Mexico than ever before. This meant more community conversations, more new members and more volunteers!
We worked over the last two years alongside some phenomenal partners to research rural and community-of-color attitudes about trans New Mexicans. This year we released the research, which includes key messaging on how to win over New Mexicans on issues facing trans and nonbinary folks!
We convened our LGBTQ Roundtable to map out the access, barriers, and issues facing queer and trans people seeking behavioral healthcare! This report will be released soon, and provides a policy roadmap for legislators and government officials for improving access.
In a year where the entire New Mexico State Legislature was up for election, we had a thorough, values-driven, community-centered endorsement process. Plus, we worked to turn out voters for the candidates we endorsed: texting, calling, and mailing across the state in both the primary election and the general. Over 80% of our endorsed candidates won!
As we begin 2025, we are so excited that in 2024 we developed, sourced funding, and kicked off our new leadership development program, called the Legislative Fellowship! We will be teaching, mentoring and developing the next policy leaders for LGBTQ liberation.
Our annual Resilience event was a huge success! Thanks so much to our performers, donors, staff and volunteers who made this the event of the Pride season. Don't forget to mark your calendar for the first Saturday of June in 2025.
We are so proud to have defeated all the bad bills throughout the 2024 legislative session, including the special session on public safety, that would have harmed LGBTQ people. We worked with partners to make sure there were no successful attempts to attack trans New Mexicans, and to beat back the harmful "tough-on-crime" proposals that only would have attempted to incarcerate our way out of an addiction, behavioral health, and homelessness crisis. (That won't work, as we know!)
In January of 2024, we were a team of 3 employees. Now, as we wrap up 2024, we have 6 staff and 2 ongoing contractors working to ensure we are leading the movement for LGBTQ liberation in New Mexico!
We were honored by the New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs! We are so grateful that they selected us as a Community Partner at their annual conference and can't wait to work alongside them this upcoming legislative session.