What is Causes in Common?
Causes in Common is an organizing initiative of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center (the Center) in New York. The Center is creating a working alliance between LGBT activists and those fighting to maintain and expand reproductive justice.

What is the connection between reproductive justice and LGBT liberation?
The Center has published an entire booklet expounding upon these linkages entitled Causes in Common: Reproductive Justice and LGBT Liberation. For detailed analysis, please refer to this booklet. In the interest of brevity, we will include some of the highlights here.

•  Historical connections
The common ground for our movements has a long and rich history even though we have often been strategically divided. Reproductive freedom was a lynchpin of the modern Feminist Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The advent and easier availability of more advanced reproductive technologies liberated women from unwanted pregnancy as a consequence of heterosexual sex. When women could take control of their reproductive destinies, they also had more control over their own sexual pleasure. The freedom and legitimacy of sexual activity without reproduction as an outcome is as fundamental to the liberation of LGBT people as it is to heterosexual women and their male partners.

• Legal underpinnings
Legal advocates are perhaps the most aware of the intersections between our movements, for they can clearly see the connections in the work they do fighting for LGBT liberation and/or Reproductive Justice every day.  The decisions in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) and Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972) held first that criminal prohibition of contraceptive devices for married couples, and later for any individual, violated a fundamental right of privacy. These cases helped lay the groundwork for an argument that the individual has a right to decide how and when to engage in consensual sexual activity. Furthermore, the fact that the 2003 Supreme Court Lawrence v. Texas decision decriminalizing same-sex relations between consenting adults relied upon two of the most influential reproductive rights cases—Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey—emphasizes that attacks on either of our struggles can no longer be separated.   

• Shared enemies
There is a right-wing political agenda that targets both reproductive freedom and LGBT rights. It would control sexuality, gender conformity, reproductive choice and the legal definitions of family. Those behind this agenda seek to change the make-up of the Supreme Court to roll back the hard-won gains of both our movements.  

• Policy intersections
Good policies have the benefit of moving our communities forward, while policies sponsored by right-wing extremists attacking reproductive justice and LGBT liberation have detrimental effects on all of us. For example, the Bush administration’s “Marriage Imperative” for low-income families not only works against women who are trying to escape abusive situations, but also actively discriminates against LGBT people who are not allowed to marry. Sex education programs that promote “abstinence until marriage” serve to deny young people information about “safer sex” and prevention of pregnancy and HIV/AIDS. They also further marginalize and alienate LGBT youth by deeming their sexuality pathological. Health insurance policies often refuse to cover contraception, emergency contraception, and abortion. Likewise, these policies often have restrictions on or lack of coverage for infertility services, especially services needed to create LGBT families. These are just a few of the many policy intersections that affect both our movements.

Will my organization have to change its mission statement?
No. One of the goals of Causes in Common in demonstrating the linkages between the Reproductive Justice and LGBT Liberation Movements is to show that our missions are already inherently interconnected. As a pro-choice organization, the Center recognizes that the term pro-choice is not limited to a position on abortion access, but encompasses a much broader advocacy of sexual life liberated from reproductive function. It includes the right to choose whether or not to have children as well as the right to a life free from governmental scrutiny and intrusion in our sexual and reproductive lives. Therefore, a pro-LGBT mission should imply a pro-choice mission and vice versa.

What is required of my organization if I join the coalition?
The only requirement is that your organization sign the Pledge of Commitment and make a good faith effort to incorporate the principles of Causes in Common into your work. What this means will differ from organization to organization, depending on your own needs and resources.  

I am already bombarding my members with information. Will joining the coalition mean increased communication to my members?
Not necessarily. Your organization must determine the content and scope of communication that is most effective for your membership. You may choose to focus an action alert or newsletter article about an important issue for LGBT and/or Reproductive Justice that your organization may not have previously recognized as related to your mission.  However, your organization can also simply use the information you glean from Causes in Common to strengthen the messages you are already sending, possibly making them resonate even more with your membership.

How will signing the Pledge of Commitment help my organization?
By signing the Pledge of Commitment, you join an instant network of organizations that recognize the connection between LGBT liberation and reproductive justice. This can increase the resources your organization has to leverage, widen the scope of allies who support your campaigns, provide you with back-up in the press and elsewhere when you are under attack, and broaden the appeal of your message to those with intersecting causes. The more organizations that sign on, the more politicians who scapegoat one of our causes will realize that both movements will hold them accountable. In today’s hostile environment, unity only increases our strength.

Who has signed on already?
Those who have committed to incorporating the principles of Causes in Common into their work range from large national groups such as the National Lesbian and Gay Task Force, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health to smaller community centers and local grassroots groups such as the Kansas City Anti-Violence Project, Planned Parenthood of Louisville, and The Center Hawaii. For a complete list, check out the coalition partners page of the website.