The spiral of advocacy: How state-based LGBT advocacy organizations use ground-up public communication strategies in their campaigns for the “Equality Agenda”

•LGBT community-based spokespersons conveying personal stories are more important than the use of statistics.•The perfect messenger often is more important than the perfect message.•Change occurs from the ground up through a “spiral of advocacy” real change requires a critical mass of support locally.•These findings reinforce public relations’ role as managing organizational legitimacy.•This research highlights how PR can be used as a tool for democracy and social change.

This article outlines the communication and outreach strategies used by state-based LGBT advocacy organizations. Leaders of these organizations explained through in-depth interviews that their campaigns address four policy areas: non-discrimination, hate crimes, safe schools, and relationship recognition. LGBT citizens and allies serve as spokespersons. They convey stories of the LGBT experience and reinforce LGBT issues as mainstream concerns. State-level advocacy emphasizes that substantive change occurs from the ground up; change nationally requires a critical mass of support first at local levels. This article demonstrates how public relations can serve as a tool for democracy and an instrument of social change, and how “managing legitimacy” can be placed as central to the public relations’ process.