One Colorado: January 8,9

Well, after the (relatively short compared to other Alt Breakers) drive we finally arrived in Denver. Sunday we had a day off to roam the city and we had a blast getting to know each other better and exploring downtown Denver. The Denver Art Museum helped us connect with historic art and, most importantly, our childhood. We’re bringing dress-up back.

We also got to explore some cute local coffee shops (since we luckily are all caffeine addicts), and catch the tail end of the Denver Broncos win at a downtown restaurant. According to our waitress, Denver is excited because they are going to win “a big, silver trophy of a football,” so we are all on the edge of our seats with anticipation for the upcoming matches.

Today was our first day meeting with our volunteer organization, One Colorado, and I feel exhausted and inspired and 100 times more educated than at 10 this morning. Technically we didn’t do any hands on volunteering today—instead we focused on the mission, vision, and logistics of the organization. I learned that it is actually three different organizations: One Colorado, One Colorado Education Fund, and One Colorado PAC. The reason they have to separate into three organizations is so that they can file taxes as 501c3, 501c4 and as a PAC which gives them flexibility to spend their money to actually influence public policy and then endorse candidates in the legislative branch, which a 501c3 non-profit organization cannot do.

Anyways, on to the vision: Working together for a fair and just Colorado focusing on four key areas: relationship recognition, health, safe schools, and inclusivity. From the get-go I could tell that the discussions we would be having would expand far beyond the LGBT community… and I was right. Shannon Masden, who works for One CO and led our discussion, immediately launched into different types of oppression and had us do various exercises to confront racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, heterosexism, nationalism, classism, and religious oppression. Obviously pretty heavy discussions took place but it was so great because it allowed our group to bond on a level far beyond what I would have expected within the first few days together.

Shannon also spent a fair amount of time explaining why the organization is focusing on civil unions rather than marriage and what exactly that means. From these conversations I discovered how the process of passing a bill in Colorado actually works. She discussed how the civil union bill failed last year in the house judiciary committee since the committee voted along party lines (6 republican and 5 democrat). This year they are starting in the Senate and hope to have better results. The politics behind passing their bill seemed like it could become so frustrating, yet the work they were doing to learn about every single legislator and to try to rally support from every constituent they could was inspiring.

One Colorado has several specific programs that we will be working on to help them with their various initiatives and advancements for LGBT rights. Those include gathering postcards from constituents to send to each representative, a “Chain of Love,” (little cutout people with signatures on them that will hopefully connect around the capitol building), and ‘baseball cards’ that have basic information about each legislator spanning from their affiliated party to everyday activities they enjoy. The Adopt a Legislator program made me realize that I hardly know anything about my representatives in Kansas or about the specific process of getting a bill passed here and I am excited to take the time to actually learn this information and be more educated about our local government.

"I believe in commitment, responsibility, and taking care of the ones you love."

Basically I am so, so pumped to start work and can already tell that I am going to learn and challenge myself here everyday. Also, I would like to end with this statement: MY GROUP IS THE BOMB!

Anna Hurst