Over the next couple of weeks, the Asheville-based Campaign for Southern Equality is traveling across seven Southern states – Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia – and Washington, D.C. for the next stage of its WE DO Campaign. The effort represents a major expansion for the local nonprofit group, which advocates for LGBT equality. The WE DO Campaign involves LGBT couples in the Southern communities where they live requesting – and being denied – marriage licenses in order to call for full equality under federal law and state laws.
Here’s the latest update from the campaign, including video culled from its most recent action in Hattiesburg, Miss:
The full schedule is:
January 2 – Hattiesburg, Mississippi
January 4 – Mobile, Alabama
January 7 – Decatur, Georgia
January 9 – Morristown, Tennessee
January 11 – Greenville, South Carolina and Asheville, North Carolina
January 14 – Wilson, North Carolina and Winston-Salem, North Carolina
January 17 – Arlington, Virginia and Washington D.C.
On January 17, couples will be denied licenses in Arlington and we will begin a 4.5 mile march into Washington, DC. We will end at the Jefferson Memorial in an action that includes a blessing honoring the legal marriage under D.C. law of one couple from North Carolina, Mark and Tim. The final day of action is an expression of resistance to current laws and celebration of our community. The actions on January 17 are intended to highlight the lives and stories of LGBT people from across the South; the powerful reality that in our nation’s capital LGBT people have the right to marry; and the injustice that legal marriages between same-sex couples are not recognized in the South.
To date, 38 couples in 10 cities across North and South Carolina have sought marriage licenses as part of the WE DO Campaign, with over 500 friends, family members and clergy standing with them in support.
The WE DO Campaign will continue to grow across the South until LGBT people achieve full equality under federal law.
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