Renna Communications

Working to Change the World

With nearly two consecutive decades of communications experience and special expertise in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues, Renna Communications’ team brings sophisticated and nuanced communications strategies to organizations and people who are working to change the world for the better.

Whether your goals are to gain media coverage and shape national political dialogue or to expand your visibility and reach more people in need, you have something you need to communicate. You have an important story to tell. As a client of Renna Communications, you can be certain of one thing: We’ll get your story told.

RENNA COMM TRAININGS AT CREATING CHANGE

Join us for the 22nd National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change, which convenes February 3-6 in Dallas, Texas. Creating Change is where LGBT activists and organizers can make their good work better and their better work the best. How? The Task Force Academy for Leadership and Action offers nearly 30 different top-level training sessions at Creating Change, presented and led by the smartest trainers in political and social justice movements.

Renna Communications’ trainings will be featured in the Task Force’s Academy for Leadership and Action, a leadership development and skill building training program facilitated by top-notch faculty. These high-level courses will be offered by faculty, including those from Renna Communications, with years of know-how.

posted: 3 December 09

Catholic Charities vs. Washington DC Gay Rights Supporters

Brooke Baldwin | CNN: The Situation Room | November 17, 2009

posted: 17 November 09

HATE CRIMES, MEDIA AND 'TWO SPIRITS'

The Huffington Post | Gail Binkly, Editor Four Corners Free Press | October 26, 2009

Cortez became the center of a debate that raged on street corners, in coffee shops, and in the pages of the newspaper. Letters to the editor streamed in that variously condemned homosexuality, supported gay rights, questioned the very concept of “hate crimes,” and lamented the brutal death of a gentle and fun-loving boy.

posted: 26 October 09

National Equality March Draws Diverse Crowd to D.C.

AFRO Staff | The Afro American | October 14, 2009

African-American religious leaders such as columnist, Rev. Irene Monroe and the Rev. Graylan Hagler participated in the weekend’s events, leading an interfaith service at Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ.

“It wasn’t so long ago that this country justified bigotry against African Americans by hiding behind cherry-picked religious texts. It took strong faith leaders like Dr. King to help overcome religion-based bigotry, then,” said Mitchell Gold, founder of Faith In America. “Now, as we struggle for rights as basic as freedom from violence, or the ability to marry, the next generation of faith leaders is playing a key role in gaining civil rights for LGBT Americans.”

posted: 15 October 09

'Laramie' Producers Revisit Matthew Shepard Tragedy

NPR discusses the Laramie Project: Ten Years Later

Eleven years has passed since the death of Matthew Shepard, the young man who was beaten and left to die in Laramie, Wyo. Authorities later learned Shepard was targeted because he was gay, the details of which inspired the 2002 HBO film “The Laramie Project” recapturing the killing. That same production group has returned to Laramie, both to mark an anniversary and to explore how life in the Wyoming town has changed since Shepard’s death. Their resulting epilogue, the Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, includes conversations one of Shepard’s convicted killers. Actor Greg Pierotti and Fr. Roger Schmitthe, a priest who organized the interviews, explain their newest project and why they continue to tell the story of Matthew Shepard.

posted: 12 October 09

March for the Cure

Cathy Renna | The Bilerico Project | October 6, 2009

As we all wait for this weekend’s events to unfold in Washington, from the National Equality March to the President speaking at the HRC dinner, there are many mixed feelings. Will people show up? What will the President say? How will the media make sense of all the different and often conflicting voices in our community?

As I get ready for the weekend – and as someone who will be at the dinner and the march – I hope that all of us can keep one thing in mind: what we really are up against as we fight for full and equal treatment under the law.

posted: 8 October 09

FAITH IN AMERICA: NEEDS NAT. EQUALITY MARCH VOLUNTEERS

Support full equality for all LGBT Americans? On October 11th, join Faith In America for the National Equality March and end the harm of religion-based bigotry against LGBT Americans. Contact Brent Childers for more information.

posted: 6 October 09

Play's Sequel Gives Voice to Matt Shepard's Killer

David Crary | The Associated Press | September 29, 2009

A decade after ‘‘The Laramie Project’‘ became a theatrical phenomenon, its creators are back with an epilogue highlighted by a riveting prison interview with the killer of gay college student Matthew Shepard — depicting him as candid but not remorseful over the murder.

posted: 29 September 09

A Mother's Love: With a new book, Judy Shepard continues her unwavering fight for equality and compassion

Will O’Bryan | Metro Weekly | September 24, 2009

Judy Shepard hates October. The sixth day of that month marks the night her son Matthew was tied to a fence in Laramie, Wyo., and brutally beaten. Within a week, on Oct. 12, 1998, he died of those injuries in a Fort Collins, Colo., hospital, surrounded by family.

Just 21 when he was murdered, Shepard’s death shook a country dealing with GLBT equality as a political issue growing more pressing by the day. Matthew Shepard was not the first — nor the last — to be targeted because he was gay. But the circumstances were right for him to become the universal victim of anti-gay violence.

posted: 24 September 09

11 years after Shepard's death, mom pushes for hate-crime law

Andrea Stone | USA TODAY | September 7, 2009

One of the most approachable faces of the gay rights movement may finally see her mission fulfilled this year as Congress moves closer to passing the hate-crimes bill she has lobbied for a decade to pass. The Matthew Shepard Act would extend federal protections to people victimized because of sexual orientation. To give lawmakers an added push, Shepard begins a tour this month to promote her book, The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed.

posted: 10 September 09

The Only Out Coach in NCAA Division 1 Women's Basketball

By Kathy Belge | About.com

Editor of About.com’s “Lesbian Life” sat down with Portland State University’s women’s basketball head coach, Sherri Murrell to discuss what it’s like to be, as far as we know, the only out lesbian or bisexual coach in NCAA Division One Women’s Basketball.

posted: 9 September 09

Big Opening for Epilogue to ‘The Laramie Project’

PATRICK HEALY | August 4, 2009

The creators of “The Laramie Project,” the acclaimed play about the 1998 murder of a 21-year-old gay man, Matthew Shepard, are finishing work on an 80-minute epilogue to the original work that will be given its debut simultaneously at dozens of theaters across the United States on Oct. 12, the 11th anniversary of Mr. Shepard’s death.

posted: 4 August 09