With over 1,500 members and seven local affiliates, the Montana Human Rights Network is a force to be reckoned with in Montana’s political landscape. “Human rights” span a wide array of issues that affect people’s daily lives, and so the Network is active on a broad swath of issues that affect communities --- a strategy that’s key to their success while working on the state and local level simultaneously. “We’re able to keep local groups active because they’re able to work on issues that are important in their communities,” explains research director Travis McAdam. “So many of the issues that local groups and communities bring up fit under our mission.” Busy on the state level and busy on the local level, Montana Human Rights Network does it all.
Montana Human Rights Network has been a Social Justice Fund grantee for many years, with many victories to show for it. For example, they were a key member of the coalition that increased the state’s minimum wage via voter initiative in 2006. Fresh from that victory, Montana Human Rights Network brought the need for universal health care to the Montana legislature in 2007, with a proposal at the 2007 legislature that gained bi-partisan support, passed one of the two chambers, and got legislators talking about health care for all Montanans.
“We really can’t remember the Montana Legislature having a conversation about universal health care before,” said McAdam. “For us, this was a big step towards securing health care for everyone in Montana. We plan to follow it up with a proposal that we’ll put before voters this year.”
And they’re advancing other issues at the capitol in addition to health care. Their Human Rights Day at the capitol is a chance to get legislators talking about human rights issues with constituents from across the state. The 2007 Human Rights Day brought close to 150 people from across the state to the capitol, while legislative speakers -- who had their choice of topics -- addressed the “Indian Education for All” program, health care for all, and the need to end discrimination against gay, lesbian, bi and trans people.
Meanwhile, on the local level, some of the Network’s most unique and pressing work is supporting their local affiliates as they monitor and counter White supremacists. Their latest cultural grant, awarded as part of the December 2007 cultural grant cycle (LINK), evolved from an art exhibit featuring pieces crafted out of white supremacist reading materials such as the “White Man’s Bible.” The Network acquired the literature from a former white supremacist and partnered with a local museum to create the project.
The “Speaking Volumes, Transforming Hate” exhibit, which opens at the Holter Museum of Art in January 2008, includes a training for museum staff and local community members so that the exhibit and related activities focus on educating Montanans about hate groups; emphasizing the need for community responses to hate groups and discrimination; and making connections between organized white supremacy and more everyday discrimination. The “Speaking Volumes” exhibit will travel Montana and then, hopefully, the country, accompanied by local conversation and opportunities for action.
The Montana Human Rights Network does seem almost to be everywhere on every human rights issue that affects Montanans, engaging people and creating change. They are part of six separate statewide coalitions, including the Safe Schools Coalition, Montana Women Vote, and the Partnership for Sex Education. According to McAdam, “We’ve been willing to look around, take on new issues, and evolve. We continue to be relevant to what goes on in Montana and help communities with the problems they’re facing. We’ve been doing the work on the ground in Montana for over 15 years, and there is plenty left to do. We’re definitely in it for the long haul.”