Health Promo 03 (Getty) | Advocate.com
||  News  ||
 
June 11, 2008

ACLU Unveils Big Expansion Plans for Heartland

The American Civil Liberties Union announced by far the largest fundraising campaign in its 88-year history Monday, eyeing a dramatic expansion of its work on social justice issues in relatively conservative states such as Texas and Florida.

The campaign's goal is $335 million, with $258 million already raised through behind-the-scenes solicitations over the past year, ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said.

Major donors include billionaire financier George Soros, who gave $12 million through his Open Society Institute.

''The purpose is to build a civil liberties infrastructure in the middle of the country -- where battleground states are often underresourced and our efforts are most needed,'' Romero said.

He cited issues such as immigrants' rights, gay rights, police brutality and opposition to the death penalty as causes that would be pursued vigorously as the ACLU expanded in heartland states. At present, the ACLU's biggest offices are in the Northeast, the Pacific states, and Illinois; targets for expansion include Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, and Tennessee, with even the smallest ACLU affiliates in line to get extra funding to hire new attorneys and launch new advocacy programs.

Romero said the ACLU envisions more than doubling the staffs of its Texas and Florida operations, and its full-time work force nationwide -- including its headquarters and state affiliates -- would increase from roughly 800 to about 1,000. Numerous new satellite offices would be opened.

''We're going to build these offices into vibrant, muscular civil liberties machines, in places where our issues matter most,'' he said. ''We've done great work in those states, but we've always been the David to the government's Goliath.''

Romero said the fund-raising campaign was designed to capitalize on a favorable climate for the ACLU. Since he became executive director in 2001, its annual budget has tripled to $107 million, and its membership has nearly doubled to more than 550,000, Romero said.

''It's patently evident that the best fund-raiser for the ACLU has been George Bush and his cadre of cronies,'' Romero said. ''If the Republicans loses control of Congress and the White House, we can be sure religious right will be much more active on the state level -- our work will be critical there.''

Officials of two conservative legal groups often at odds with the ACLU were not pleased by the fund-raising announcement, which came during the ACLU's annual membership conference in Washington.

''The most dangerous organization in America is trying to become more dangerous,'' said Mike Johnson, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund.

Mathew Staver, founder of the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, said the ACLU ''already has been an antifamily and in some cases anti-religious liberty and anti-life organization.''

''Any future expansion would simply increase its destructive presence and be concerning to people of conservative, moral values,'' Staver said.

The ACLU said its biggest previous fund-raising campaign, to expand its endowment, ended in 2002 with a haul of about $52 million. (David Crary, AP)

© 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

Be the first to comment on this story.

Back to top

Submit a comment for this story:

*Type your comment here (Required, 1000 characters max.):

*Name (Required): 

*Hometown (Required): 

*E-mail address: (Required, but will not be displayed)

Is this comment for publication? 
Yes   No

Daytime phone number: (Required for print publication only and will not be displayed)

Please enter the words you see in the box, in order and separated by a space. Doing so helps prevent automated programs from abusing this service.

  

If you would like to submit a comment for posting, please fill out the form above. 

All comments submitted via this form are subject to posting or publication. (To send a private letter to an Advocate editor or writer, please use the e-mail button at the top of the page, or use snail mail.) If you would like your comment considered for publication in The Advocate magazine, please include your full name, your city of residence, and a phone number where you can be reached during business hours so that we can confirm your identity. Your e-mail address and telephone number are strictly confidential and will not be shared or used for any purpose other than to contact you about your comment.

See the Contact page for sending comments for reasons other than responding to Advocate editorial and news stories.

Please note that comments sent by fax or snail mail are unlikely to be posted, although they will be considered for publication along with all letters received via e-mail or via this Web page. Comments that chiefly concern Advocate.com content will be considered for posting only on the Web site. The Advocate reserves the right to edit submitted comments for grammar, spelling, obscenities, or libel; we will, however, do our best to preserve the original comment's style and intent. Comments considered for publication in The Advocate magazine may also be edited for length.

More Exclusives
  • Letter From the Editor
    We’d like to unveil a big change: after nearly four decades as a biweekly magazine, we’re going monthly.
  • Parental Control
    San Francisco State researcher Caitlin Ryan explains the importance behind a study linking suicide and drug use among gay children to parental rejection.
  • Austerity Chic
    How novelist and performance artist Mike Albo gets by in lean times.
  • Hoping to "Wu" Michelle
    Dressing Michelle Obama in November was a game changer for designer Jason Wu. Now he has his sights set on the future first lady’s most high-profile event: Inauguration Day.
  • Boi From Troy Signs Off
    After five years of raising eyebrows on the Web, Boi From Troy blogger -- and gay Republican -- Scott Schmidt is signing off.
  • A Desert Journey
    The Mii Amo spa in Sedona, Ariz., is famous for packages designed to lead people through a spiritual as well as physical transformation. One writer relinquishes herself to the journey and recounts her days in one of the world's most beautiful destination resorts.
  • A List: Chris Evans
    Chris Evans is a serious actor but that doesn’t mean he wants you to stop objectifying him.
  • Great American Couple
    In an exclusive excerpt from his new book, Hollywood Bohemians: Transgressive Sexuality and the Selling of the Movieland Dream, Brett L. Abrams explores the relationship between Cary Grant and Randolph Scott, who led homosexual lives right under everyone's nose.
  • Mormons Gone Wild
    After one man undresses missionaries for his calendar, LDS Church–owned Brigham Young University strips him of his degree.
  • Constructive Impatience
    Stung by the Warren decision, GLAAD's former executive director Joan Garry offers the Obama transition team some sage advice.
  • Boxer Goes Trans for Eli Stone
    Often perceived as male by confused casting agents, boxer-body builder turned actor Dallas Malloy felt a deep connection to the trans minister she plays on Eli Stone.
  • Mamma Mia! Rises Again
    Meryl Streep and company managed to top Harry Potter and Titanic at the U.K. box office, and now Mamma Mia! is poised to break similar records on DVD. Director Phyllida Lloyd talked to Advocate.com about bringing one of the biggest musicals of all time to the big screen.
  • The Other White Meat
    As one of the subjects of the documentary about the drag pageant circuit, Pageant, opening in select theaters, and one of the contestants on RuPaul's Drag Race, premiering next month on Logo, Victoria "Porkchop" Parker may not look or act like your typical female impersonator, but make no mistake, she is one of the best.
  • The Religious Defense
    In an excerpt from her new book, Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians, author Candace Chellew-Hodge incorporates the wisdom of Xena: Warrior Princess to illustrate her theories as to how gay and lesbian people of faith can protect themselves from those who attack their views.
  • Photo Finish
    Did Prop. 8 backlash cause art censorship -- or its reversal -- at Brigham Young University? Could be, as BYU photography student J. Michael Wiltbank found when his contribution to a two-week-long art exhibition -- eight pairs of benign portraits, each depicting an LGBT-identified BYU student alongside a supportive friend -- had been removed.
  • The Divine Miss M.
    Since the death of performer Wayland Flowers in 1988, his over-the-top puppet creation Madame has been seen only sporadically. But with the launch of her new casino tour, Madame is back.
  • Whither NLGJA?
    The leading professional organization for LGBT journalists is facing a crisis that threatens its very survival. In a changing media landscape and a tough economy, how does a small nonprofit live up to its mission and retain members?
  • The Road to Equality
    Barbara Boxer, the U.S. senator from California, understands why her gay constituents are furious over Rick Warren's role in the inauguration -- it feels like Proposition 8 redux.