We all know that LGBTQ people are everywhere, which is why NCLR launched our #RuralPride Campaign, which includes holding day-long summits in rural regions across the country to help LGBTQ folks connect with federal agencies, national organizations, and one another.

For the past two years, we have worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the True Colors Fund to bring 13 summits to towns across the country, listening to the stories, hopes, fears, and needs of families, individuals, and rural LGBTQ advocates. These summits have been a huge hit. Last month, more than 250 people attended a summit in Visalia, CA—our biggest yet—to connect with information, resources, and each other.

Great, right? Apparently, not if you are a right wing anti-LGBTQ hate monger.

Our most recent summit in Des Moines, Iowa last week—with a keynote address by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack—ignited a firestorm of protest from some of the most odious anti-LGBTQ media in the nation. Media Matters catalogued the hysterical, toxic, and unintentionally amusing reactions. You can read it all here. 

We don’t care what Rush Limbaugh and the rest of them think, but we DO care about LGBTQ people who are living outside of our urban centers, and we will continue to reach out and support them. So whether it’s “lesbian farmers,” transgender, gay or bisexual ranchers, or any LGBTQ person living in a rural community without full support and embrace, we will be there.

Will you stand with us in this important work? 

The Obama Administration has been a strong and unflinching partner in #RuralPride. But now our work is on the radar of very powerful opponents. We need your support to fight back and show up for LGBTQ people wherever they live. We want to be able to keep doing this important work. And to do that we need YOUR help.

If we’ve upset the powerful then we are doing something right. Support NCLR today and champion this groundbreaking work despite, and in fact because of, the haters who would shut us down.

Onward,

Kate