All Grown Up

A lot has changed over the past 11 years. Through session after session of tireless legislative work and two hard-fought ballot campaigns, Equal Rights Washington led in the winning fight for marriage equality in our state in 2012. In 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States joined the people of the State of Washington in expressing the profound understanding that marriage is an institution for all of us, and thus made equal marriage the law of the land nationwide. 

While well-paid extremists use fear to divide our towns and cities with cynical, headline-grabbing attacks on loving same-sex couples, by and large marriage equality is, from a legal and social standpoint, a settled issue. As a result, while we will remain vigilant in defending the community from attacks on the progress we’ve already accomplished together, Equal Rights Washington has shifted our focus to applying this winning record to tackling the myriad other issues facing the LGBTQ community.

Because our work has changed, in June of 2015, ERW introduced a new brand package. We call it Together for Justice & Equity. Our mission remains the same, but this new approach represents a broader, more inclusive effort toward organizing and advocating for the things that make our community, and each of us as individuals, stronger. It represents a new chapter in our organization, led by a new team of people energized for change.

This ideology is the underpinning of our approach to our mission. It is central to the changes we have made and will make to the ways that you interact with and recognize our organization. Front and center is, of course, our new look.

It’s a look updated for the world we live in. The colorful palate and humanized brush strokes pair iconic rainbow iconography, the tireless energy and the take-all-comers diversity that the LGBTQ movement has always striven for with a mature, modern palate that speaks to ERW’s professionalized approach and which also specifically includes human flesh tones. This represents our dedication to the understanding that the fight for LGBTQ justice and equity is forever interlocked with fights for justice along racial, gender, ability, cultural, and age lines, as well.

Over the upcoming months, you’ll see this new look and new voice for ERW reflected here on our new blog (keep an eye out for much more frequent updates and ideas), as well as in our social media posts, and more broadly in the work we do across the state.

We wanted our new brand to help us tell the story of who Equal Rights Washington is in 2015, and who we will be through our growth into the future. Together we will bring dedicated, professional advocacy and activism to the halls of power in Olympia and every corner of our state, and amplify the voices of a broadly defined LGBTQ community to bring about the change we need. We’re so excited for this new look, and this next chapter, and we think you will be too.