Yesterday was quite a day for progressive, social justice in Las Vegas! How often do I get a chance to write that sentence?

First we had the Nevada Women’s Lobby “Lobbying 101” workshop in the morning. (Full disclosure: I’m on NWL’s steering committee and helped organized Lobbying 101.) NWL wanted to help people get a better understanding of how different parts of government work and the process of lobbying — especially on the heels of such an exciting and historic election. Nevada’s Legislature starts in a few months so now’s a great time to take our activist energy and turn it into change for Nevada!

We had a GREAT turn-out! Nearly 100 participants showed up for a great workshop! I was especially excited to see so many young people and people of color. I want to personally thank all of the wonderful speakers and panelists as well as our two panel moderators Jon Ralston and Launce Rake. I also want to thank Dunkin Donuts, which gave us a discount on the food for the event. And thanks goes to Elliot, who took our unused left-overs to homeless veterans.

On a personal note, I was happy to see my LGBT friends at the workshop because right after the workshop ended, there was a rally against Prop 8 at the Gay and Lesbian Center of Southern Nevada. According to the RJ, the rally boasted 1,000 people! That is an incredible turn-out for Las Vegas and also under such a short time-frame for organizers to get the word out. I am so proud of you, Las Vegas! Love is love!

I am feeling so hopeful that we are in a new day in Las Vegas, and America. This election Nevada went blue and we elected some really progressive people to represent us in government. I am excited to see so many people getting involved and I’m glad to be a small part of that as well.

And I want to give folks a place to give feedback and their thoughts. Did you go to the workshop or the rally? Let me hear it.