Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, HRC, and international advocate for LGBT equality in America, came to the University for an intimate talk about human rights.
Speaking to a packed Auburn Hotel and Dixon Conference Center, Griffin shared his views LGBT political victories, upholding marriage equality around the country and his own personal struggles with being gay in a conservative community.
The Human Rights Campaign is the largest LGBT civil rights organization in the world and the event Wednesday, Oct. 15, was the latest in a tour of southern college campuses to spearhead a campaign focused directly on fighting for equality in the south.
"(The organization) announced a massive $8.5 million investment in a new program that specifically focuses on Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama," Griffin said. "Today we've opened offices in Montgomery, Little Rock and Jackson and we have staff on the ground in all three of those states. We will increasingly make changing hearts and minds a priority in those three states and ultimately changing laws."
Griffin said statistics compiled by the HRC were the reasons for increasing their activity and campaigning on the Southeast.
According to Griffin, HRC researchers found the largest per capita number of same-sex couples raising children is in the south.
"Alabama is in the top 10 and Mississippi is No. 1," Griffin said. "That means that those families don't have a single legal protection. In the eyes of the state, that's a single person raising that child. During every decision, one parent is completely foreign in the eyes of the law."
The new HRC offices in Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas will work to lobby for local, state and federal rights for same-sex couples as well as increase community awareness to 'come out' in public.
HRC reports estimate at least 90 percent of Americans today know someone in their immediate family, friend circles or workplace who identifies as lesbian, gay, transsexual or questioning.
The event was moderated by Auburn engineering professor Gwen Thomas, the University's first openly LGBT faculty member, and featured Patricia Todd, Alabama's first openly LGBT state representative.
Sarah Jo Gomez-Lorraine and her wife LaReina said they drove from Phenix city to attend the event, partially to hear Griffin speak and partially to get more information about LGBT events in the area.
"It's hard living in a state where (LGBT events) are not easily accessible, or widely publicized," Sarah Jo Gomez-Lorraine said. "It's definitely not something that's out in the public view, because if it was we would be at more events. That's partially why we're, to figure out what's going on and how we can help."
A chaplain candidate for the military at seminary in Massachusetts, Gomez-Lorraine said religion is an integral part to opening up the LGBT community to the wider public, a statement echoed by Griffin in his talk.
Griffin said like the Civil Rights movements of the 1960s, religion plays an important part in contributing to the success of the Human Rights Campaign and spreading the message to the more conservative parts of the country.
Griffin also said many are known for being on the wrong side of history.
"Make no mistake about it, marriage equality will be to all 50 states very soon," Griffin said. "The state of Alabama will see marriage equality come to it very soon, within months or perhaps a year to a year and a half. It's coming."
In 1992 Griffin worked on the presidential campaign for Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and at 19 years old became the youngest person to ever work in the West Wing of the White House.
An Arkansas native, Griffin spoke about his experiences of being afraid to come out to his family and friends in a Baptist community where it wasn't uncommon to attend church three or more times a week.
Between working with the American Foundation for Equal Rights in defeating Propaganda 8, the same-sex marriage ban in California and politicking in Washington for LGBT equality, Griffin is one of the movement's most public leaders, said Michelle Gordon, senior in art and psychology and treasurer for Auburn Spectrum.
"This is like the first time we've gotten anyone actually famous from the LGBT community or a representation thereof to actually come here and speak," Gordon said. "The fact that he's here shows we're making great strides."
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