The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) envisions a world where every member of the LGBTQ+ family has the freedom to live their truth without fear, and with equality; it is the largest LGBTQ+ political lobbying organization within the US.
HRC approached Blue State in the early stages of coalition-building. The goal was to compose an intersectional group of organizations whose missions could be better served by fighting back against hateful rhetoric and policy that could potentially hurt historically excluded and/or harmed communities, including queer and transgender people, women, people of color, and people with disabilities, as well as those individuals bearing the weight of recent discriminatory legislation, including children, parents, and teachers.
Recognizing that extremists have empowered voters with hateful and dangerous rhetoric, leading to the passage of dangerous legislation and inspiring acts of hostility and violence — not only online but in communities — HRC felt it was the right time to bring these like-minded organizations together and take action for collective impact.
From a notion to a name and identity – in a matter of weeks
Our role was to help name and brand the coalition, develop a design identity and website, craft a messaging framework, and launch a communications plan complete with media activations, coordinated demonstrations, and out-of-home (OOH) signage and graphics for in-person activations.
We worked in partnership with all eight of the coalition’s founding members including HRC, Everytown for Gun Safety, National Center for Transgender Equality, NAACP, National Education Association, Asians Fighting Injustice, National Women’s Law Center, and the Equality Federation.
The coalition’s biggest asset was also its biggest challenge: How could we leverage the collective power to inspire supporters to take action on one overarching cause? How could we show the impact extremist lawmakers have on various communities and identities? How could we identify and hold bad actors accountable?
Hate underscores legislation that limits access to potentially lifesaving health care for women and transgender people; hate informs bans of books and curricula that uplifts the voices and experiences of marginalized communities; hate fuels gun violence that disproportionately impacts queer people and people of color, and some politicians refuse to do anything about it — and even try to make it worse.
With all of this in mind, we landed on an impactful identity to act as the coalition’s introductory message:
