The 11 Garden State Equality Caucuses. Garden State Equality has developed a pathbreaking Caucus program to diversify New Jersey’s LGBT rights movement.   Garden State Equality has 11 Caucuses, each of which serves a different demographic community and has a large and active membership.   Communities of color and other constituencies have praised Garden State Equality’s Caucus program as a pioneering national model.   Here are Garden State Equality’s 11 Caucuses, which you can email by clicking on their respective links:

Garden State Equality African-American Caucus

Garden State Equality Catholic Caucus

Garden State Equality’s Children’s Caucus

Garden State Equality Couples Caucus

Garden State Equality Clergy Caucus

Garden State Equality Corporate and Professional Caucus

Garden State Equality Labor Caucus

Garden State Equality Latino and Latina Caucus

Garden State Equality Real Estate Caucus

Garden State Equality Women’s Caucus

Garden State Equality Youth Caucus

Volunteering at our offices.  Garden State Equality has an extensive volunteer program in each of our three field offices:  Our statewide headquarters in Montclair, our Central Jersey/Shore office in Asbury Park, and our South Jersey office in Collingswood.   We also have volunteers working in our Trenton office when the legislature is in session.   Our volunteers work days, nights and weekends as their own schedules allow.  If you would like to volunteer for Garden State Equality, please complete our volunteer form.

Canvassing.  Garden State Equality’s volunteers also go deep into New Jersey’s many communities, including downtown areas, shopping centers, houses of worship, you name it, to collect letters and postcards in support of marriage equality.  If you would like help Garden State Equality canvass a community in New Jersey, please complete ourvolunteer form.
  
Garden State Equality’s annual Legends Dinner.  The Legends Dinner is our signature black-tie, star-studded gala held every spring.  The Legends Dinner is New Jersey’s largest civil rights gala and one of the landmark stops on the national LGBT civil rights dinner circuit.  More than 900 people attended the 2009 Legends Dinner.  Speakers and entertainers have included Governor Corzine, Mario Cuomo, Fran Drescher, actress Cynthia Nixon, comedian Judy Gold, Dreamgirls’ Jennifer Holliday, Annie’s Andrea McArdle and many members of Congress and state legislators.  
 
Summer-fall gala.  In addition to the springtime Legends Dinner, Garden State Equality holds a second annual gala, either in the summer or early fall with changing themes.  These galas have included Shore Sensation, a rock-and-roll clambake on the beach; the Blue Jean Ball, a country-and-western gala at a working farm; and SEAquality, a luxurious day cruise off the Jersey Shore.   
 
Town meetings.  This is the program which put Garden State Equality on the map.  Tens of thousands of New Jerseyans have attended our town meetings on marriage equality across the state, held throughout the year.  Our town meetings have packed houses of worship, municipal halls, community centers, gymnasiums and hotels to the rafters. The town meetings have not only smashed attendance records everywhere in the state, but they’ve also drawn massive coverage from news organizations in New Jersey, the region, the nation and the world.  
 
Neighborhood action summits and regional ramp-ups.  Smaller, more personal versions of our town meetings geared to educating particular legislators about marriage equality.  
 
Activist house parties.   Parties at members homes where activism happens right on the spot.  At each activist house party, one to two dozen activists call their legislators, call other activists in that legislative district, write letters and postcards, and strategize on other ways to influence the local legislator.  

Legislative dinners.   Assembly members and state Senators meet Garden State Equality members at the members’ homes.  Much of the New Jersey legislature has attended at least one town meeting or legislative dinner.  
 
Activist Institutes.  Garden State Equality’s Activist Institutes train different constituencies in state-of-the-art organizing skills.  Our Clergy Activist Institute, for example, attracted more than 300 pro-marriage equality clergy from across the state.
 
The Equality Express.  Garden State Equality’s "Equality Express" motor home travels the state to bring the message of equality to houses of worship, community fairs, shopping malls and anywhere else with a crowd.  We don't merely expect people to come to us – we go to the people.

Marriage Ambassadors.  Garden State Equality’s Marriage Ambassadors are our speaker’s bureau of same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples who advocate for marriage equality in their communities.  Our Marriage Ambassadors often travel on our “Equality Express.”
 
Telephone town meetings. In Garden State Equality’s telephone town meetings, a public official is on a conference call with as many as 200 people.
 
“Helping You Personally” seminars.   In these seminars, experts talk on legal and financial issues of particular importance to the LGBTI community – and help people understand how unprotected they are without marriage equality, thus intensifying their activism .
 
Lobbying Day at the State House.  Garden State Equality meets with legislators and their staff constantly throughout the year in Trenton and in the legislators’ own districts.  We have an office across the street from the State House.  We also mobilize our members and allies periodically in formal lobbying days at the State House.