Bright skies, sandy beaches and of course, advancing LGBTQI+ political participation: it’s the story of Victory Institute Global team in the Dominican Republic!
The team gathered with our partners, Diversidad Dominicana, and 16 LGBTQI+ political leaders to learn the fine art of political strategy. Historically, the Dominican Republic has a powerful and deeply-rooted anti-equality movement which continues to persist to this day – but these future political leaders are on the forefront of the fight. And now, they have the skills needed to fight for much-needed progress.
This year’s Dominican Republic trainee cohort!!
Sr. Director for Global Programs, Alhelí Partida, welcoming the group and giving opening remarks on the importance of this space.
A Run-through of the Numbers
Dates:
- April 19-21, 2024
Participant Demographics:
- 16 total participants
- 33% women
- 27% Trans/NB
Module #3 – Electoral Campaigns:
- Steps Prior to Launching a Campaign
- Electoral Campaign Planning – included
- Strategy
- Campaign Regulation
- Messaging and Slogans
- Understanding the Social and Territorial Landscape
Our third module in the Dominican Republic was not only very specific in equipping participants with the necessary tools to building an electoral campaign, but also did so in a way that geared our participants to think of campaigning within intricacies of the Dominican political context.
What this looked like:
- Our trainer led conversations with participants on common tactics that the political class has historically implemented to co-opt and sector off portions of the voting population. Poverty levels in the DR have remained persistently high and during election cycles many politicians take advantage of this unfortunate reality by offering to buy votes and voter registrations, as well as other tactics incentivizing people not to vote at all.
- Our trainees engaged with each other addressing these common realities and brainstormed what it would take in an individual campaign to not only get voters to believe in the legitimacy of their candidacies as LGBTQI+ people, but to also inspire voters to support a transformation in the very foundation of the Dominican political process.
- Trainees also addressed the very difficult reality of being an LGBTQI+ person in the DR, which has and continues to be religiously conservative, consistently threatening the possibility of LGBTQI+ people to simply exist in safety, let alone engage effectively and safely in the political processes of the country.
- As with all of the spaces that our training programs provide, this stock-taking of their reality was imperative for our participants because it provided a realistic sense of direction for them to follow within a system that has been disadvantageous to them historically, using it to fuel their advantages and build political profiles.
Constructing Campaign Teams – Modeling Today for the Reality of Tomorrow
During the last day and a half of the training, our participants shifted from discussions on constructing and understanding political realities to practical exercises focusing on constructing political campaign teams. Separating into 3 groups, they brainstormed together to build their campaign objectives, assign roles within the team, lay out the policy areas that their model campaigns would focus on, and assign budgets.
Participants focusing on their political roles and campaign objectives
To wrap up, each group presented before the whole group, assigning one member to present as the candidate, bringing forward their campaign priorities in front of their peers and a panel of Victory and Diversidad Dominicana staff who provided feedback on presentation, coherence in discourse and recommendations on how to better focus their political messaging.
After some incredible presentations, both our trainer and Diversidad Dominicana ED, Rosanna Marzán, ended the session with an invitation to be forward thinking to DR’s 2028 election cycles. In a reminder to all participants, they stressed the commitment that would be needed in the coming four years to implement all the skills learned in this training to build winning campaigns for the next elections.
Participant, Carlos de León, presenting as a model candidate
Up Next
All things end and our LGBTQI+ Leadership Training in the Dominican Republic is no exception. This training cycle, which started in November 2023, will finish out its 4th and final module focused on Security in mid-June. Though bittersweet, Victory Institute’s Global Team is proud to support this group of trainees through the end of their training experience, continuing to build their leadership skills and bring this program held in partnership with Diversidad Dominicana to a close as we enter the summer.
Diversidad Dominicana and Victory Institute Global Programs staff
