Dustin Barnes

The Clarion-Ledger

The nation's largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender organization is spending $8.5 million to set up shop in the South, announcing plans to establish field offices in Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas.

The Human Rights Campaign said it is focusing its Project One America on the states because they lack nondiscrimination protections for LGBT residents in the areas of employment and housing.

"The opportunities for progress couldn't be clearer, and the need couldn't be greater," said Brad Clark, director of the new initiative. "Mississippi has the single highest rate of gay and lesbian couples raising children of any state in the country, for instance, but these parents are making do without essential legal protections or inclusion in their community."

Joce Pritchett and her partner of 10 years, Carla Webb, are raising two children in Jackson. The couple has remained in the state because it's their home, said Pritchett.

Pritchett carried the couple's two children, but Webb was the egg donor in both pregnancies.

"They're her biological children," Pritchett said, referring to Grace, 5, and Ethan, 20 months. "But in Mississippi, the laws are antiquated. According to them, I'm their birth mother. She has no legal rights."

Bryson Pickens, a longtime central Mississippi resident and transgender male, said he hopes the new HRC office, which will be based in Jackson, will bring more attention to the lack of resources to members of the transgender community in the state.

"Hopefully it will set up more events and conferences," he said, adding a group with HRC's clout could draw in doctors and therapists from outside the state to share their resources with those in Mississippi.

And though he's noticed the attitudes toward gay and lesbian Mississippians changing in the state, Pickens said there is still a lot of close-mindedness surrounding the transgender community.

"A lot of transgendered people are afraid of coming out," he said. "This is an at-will state, and they are afraid of losing their jobs, their livelihoods."

A group as well known as HRC also could bring the state closer together, Pritchett said.

"What I'm personally hoping they'll be able to do is help bridge part of the divide in the state," Pritchett said, pointing out the diversity of the state's LGBT residents has resulted in fractures among the community.

"Despite the legal landscape, it's long past time that the country stopped treating Mississippi like the 'finish line' for equality," said Chad Griffin, president of HRC and an Arkansas-native.

"HRC has more than 10,000 members and supporters in Mississippi, and there are countless more fair-mined people ready to stand on the right side of history."

By the numbers

• 500,000 — HRC members in the South

• 10,000 — HRC members in Mississippi

• $8.5 million — Cost of HRC's three-state campaign

To contact Dustin Barnes, call (601) 360-4644 or follow @DustinCL on Twitter.