another way to reach out to African American women

Writing in the NYT, Charles Blow thinks the way to get African American women to come on board the marriage equality train is try a different kind of approach. Comparing the current struggle for marriage rights to the fight waged by interracial couples is a bad idea, he says:

“First, comparing the struggles of legalizing interracial marriage with those to legalize gay marriage is a bad idea. Many black women do not seem to be big fans of interracial marriage either. They’re the least likely of all groups to intermarry, and many don’t look kindly on the black men who intermarry at nearly three times the rate that they do, according to a 2005 study of black intermarriage rates in the Wisconsin Law Review. Wrong reference. Don’t even go there.”

Blow’s solution goes in a direction few if any have discussed:

“So pitch it as a health issue. The more open blacks are to the idea of homosexuality, the more likely black men would be to discuss their sexual orientations and sexual histories. The more open they are, the less likely black women would be to put themselves at risk unwittingly. And, the more open blacks are to homosexuality over all, the more open they are likely to be to gay marriage. This way, everyone wins.”

why california’s API community voted for marriage equality

It wasn’t a fluke, says Hans Johnson at The Huffington Post:

“It reflected sustained organizing, independent fund-raising, and thoughtful communication by Asian American supporters of equal marriage that began three years ago.”

Doing slow and steady groundwork over the course of several years delivers results, Johnson says. Who knew?

marriage in new york? not so fast…

Many marriage equality activists were encouraged to help Democrats take back the New York State Senate under the expectation marriage legislation would finally work its way through the legislature. And now that the Dems control the senate? not so fast! Read more here.

that’s senator quinn to you, mister

Buzz about out New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn taking Hillary Clinton’s U.S. Senate seat keeps bubbling. Here’s what she told The New York Daily News, via SheWired.com:

“There’s a lot of steps that have to fall into place before we get to the point where we might have to look for a United States senator,” Quinn said.”I am very lucky to have a job right now, a job that I love and I am at this moment planning to run for both of the jobs that I have — local councilmember and speaker.”

Talk about a potential shake up for the Senate. Jesse Helms is rolling over in his grave.

protect doma web site

Blogger Joe.My.God has a link to the Web site ProtectDOMA, which is reaching out to people of color in order to build support for keeping the 1996 Clinton-era Defense of Marriage Act on the books. Clearly the new administration has traditional marriage supporters running scared, but also emboldened by the exit poll that showed California’s people of color communities voted for Proposition 8 at higher rates then the general population. Check out this quote:

“The white Christian evangelic movement needs to understand that they can’t win this battle alone,” said Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, a board member of Viva La Familia, and President of the Sacramento-based National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.  “They simply don’t have the sheer numbers necessary to win.”

I’d suggest marriage equality supporters replace “white Christian evangelic” with “LGBT movement” and think long and hard.

town hall, but this time with more thinking and better spelling

So I was a mad typing machine and a terrible speller as I live blogged the LA Gay & Lesbian Virtual Town Hall Meeting. More than 270 people clicked in, but one wonders how many Mac users got turned away because they didn’t know there was a number to call for listening in (Microsoft technology used for the Town Hall didn’t allow Mac folks to join in). Yikes!

Things were pretty no nonsense on moderator Karen Ocamb’s end, since she kept it moving and did a pretty good job when it came to follow up questions. Assembly Member-elect John Perez and Join the Impact creator Amy Balliett ended up double booking and didn’t take part.

This is what I took away from the conversation:

 

• The No on 8 campaign never expected the kind of influx of cash from groups like the Mormons that flooded into California in the fall.
• The No on 8 leadership committee structure sounded so complicated it’s a wonder anything ever got done. 
• The No on 8 campaign was prepared for one scenario where kids were used by the Yes on 8 forces, but had to catch up when Yes folks chose a kids strategy they were not prepared for.
• A tremendous amount of education needs to be done with people of color communities if marriage equality is going to garner a majority of votes and support from those communities.
• There was a complacency about Prop 8 failing from the general community until the Mormon money train pulled into town.
• No on 8 leaders on the Town Hall call really blame that lesbian teacher who made her wedding a “teachable moment.” They are also pretty disappointed in Barack Obama’s position that was No on 8 yet still unsupportive of same-sex marriage. Very confusing and not at all helpful.
• There is serious concern about the idea of a 2010 ballot measure pushing for marriage equality, because leaders are worried it could impact the current California Supreme Court rulings over the validity of Prop 8.
• Shannon Minter, the legal voice on the call, says he is bullish on their case, but you can’t guess what the Court will do. 

 

If you were looking for an exchange on why LAGLC exec director Lorri Jean went on vacation for a month this summer, keep looking. Karen didn’t bring it up.

town hall–legal

time for Shannon Minter. Minter says the reason they have been successful in the courts because everyone works together for a well-done legal plan. he says we had an incredible coalition in the marriage case. he says its because of the work EQCA did. 

Minter says the issue before the court is can a majority of voters strip away a fundamental right from a historically targeted group. he says it’s great the court is considering the case because they didn’t have to hear it.

Karen asks about what happens to all the 18,000 couples married already?

Minter says right now Prop 8 doesn’t do anything to the the validity of same-sex marriages between May and Election Day. He notes the court has asked them to brief on that question. He hopes the question will be moot. 

He says if Prop 8 stands, the court would have to then decide about the already married couples. he says if someone says you’re not married contact lambda Legal and NCLR.

Karen asks if adoption rights is next. Minter says he’s worried about that as well. If Prop 8 stands that’s an issue. “People who do not like out community can come back at us,” he says, noting we are in a fight for out lives. “It is going to take every last single one of us” to get through the fight. 

Karen asks some transgender questions–Minter says the law governing transgender people is very complicated and varies enormously from state to state. He says a lot is much up in the air but the atmosphere in California is very good. Minter says as a trans person himself he’s glad he lives in California. 

He says the ability to marry without an issue of gender is important for trans people too. he notes in CA the LGB part has been supportive of the T.

Karen shifts to what we do from this point on. She asks Lee about the effectiveness of organized boycotts. Could there be a backlash?

Lee says he is not sure if this time a boycott would be effective. he says right now we need to educate more, particularly clergy, and if not clergy than congregation of the clergy. He talks about community forums that reaches out to organizations, advertising in black newspapers and radio to reframe message and gaining allies. He’s not sure if boycotts would work now. Lee says without the proper understanding in Af-Am community it’s not going to work. ”once there is clarity on this is a violation of human rights, we have a number of options at that point,” he says.

Karen asks Lorri about a day without gays, but it seems she’s not there. Kors jumps in. he talks about how they should support No on 8 businesses. 

Lorri is back. she talks about invalidate prop 8 event, and mentions the Mormon Temple protest. She mentions the postcard initiative –they raised $60,000 for NCLR, Lambda Legal and HRC.

Karen asks if all the money was spent or can it be used on continuing education and what’s up with the email list. Lorri says she doesn’t know if there is money left. Lorri says she hopes there is not a deficit. She says organizations that gave $100,000 or more can do a fundraising email to the larger list. She says money left over will work for the email list.

Karen asks how they will keep the media alive and use a more effective strategy. Kors says they have a petition that also asks for more hard work. He says they have had 100,000 people agree to carry petitions. Kors says there will be a summit in January for anyone who wants to be involved.

Karen wants to know if it will be put on a web cast. Kors says that is really a group deciding the agenda, goals and how it will be run.

Kors says they have people already crunching the numbers to figure out when they have the best chance of winning–he notes they get to pick the language as well and building a broader coalition.

Lorri says she is worried 2010 would be too soon. She doesn’t want to give the California Supreme Court any excuse to punt the question because they think it will be on the ballot in 19 months. She wants the time to make sure public opinion has moved far enough to win. 

Kors says they will have to protect any pro-marriage judge who might be a recall target. 

Karen says they need to create one central website. Karen then reads an email thanking people and how to promote unity. Very We are the World.

Kors says we have to make sure we are all out there and working together. Lorri agrees and says the question that’s been a challenge for our community is that we are all so different. “It’s my hope with this summit it will include virtually any organization of any kind,” she says, noting they need to keep the grass roots engaged. 

Rev Lee says this is a start but if they are talking unity they are truly inclusive. I hope we get to a point where we don’t talk about gay or straight. he talks about projects at social and even economic levels. 

Karen says there were 270 participants before thank you’s and goodbyes.

town hall part 3

Lorri Jean goes through the seven people on the No on 8 committee–three of the seven were people of color. She said the exec committee grew significantly over the summer if you raised cash. Different groups both gay and straight became members. 

She says in Labor Day consultants were saying we need a smaller more nimble body if decisions are to be made. She says they laid out the plans a long time in advance. Lorri says most of the time people were spending time spending money. She says they were on daily calls getting reports from consultants. She also talks about the mini-executive committee. It all sends very confusing. 

Karen asks why No on 8 didn’t have a presence at the Weho Halloween Carnival, and what it could do with rural communities.

Lorri doesn’t know what was up with the Halloween carnival but resources were focused in other more crucial areas.

Lorri said they had to focus where most of the votes were, and left the rural areas up to the local groups and volunteers. 

Lorri said there were one-on-one conversations with 200,000 voters.

Karen asks who ran the field office? Lori says earlier it was The Task Force but later it was a woman from the Marriage Collaborative and someone else.

Karen asks why national organizations came in to run something in California. Kors says the national groups have been working on this for years in CA, and mentions HRC and Task Force. he says they have been on the ground for years. “They worked together with field staff based in California.” He says there were a lot of significant experience in California.

Steve says tactically it was the right thing to do to have them call all those people throughout the state based on some very careful targeting. Smith says their campaign eclipsed most presidential field campaigns.

Karen brings up emails from volunteers who found a lot of confusion and chaos with the phone banking. Smith says there was a great deal of confusion on both sides in terms of voting Yes and No. Steve says they need to figure out and clean up any organization with the phone banks if they do this again.

karen again asks why they weren’t prepared for the kids thing. Steve says that was one of the more frustrating elements of the case. they had an ad but it didn’t deal with kids in the schools. There were three of four options but they went with one we didn’t have, he said.  I’m surprised Karen didn’t go back to him on this one–why weren’t they prepared for all scenarios?

Steve then goes back to the lesbian wedding teacher story and talks about how it made them look like liars.

town hall part 2

Steve Smith is not sure if the Samuel L Jackson TV ad was very effective. He notes something nontraditional in this campaign–in the last few days the undecided vote in propositions usually bump no, but this time they bumped yes.

Karen asks about the civil rights issue

Smith says there was a lot of heated discussion in the campaign about the debate between civil rights and human rights.

Kors talks about the EQCA separate long-term plan Let California Ring–he goes through everything they were doing  and talks about African Americans who were part of the campaign.

Kors also goes into the misperception in the CNN exit poll on the 70 percent Black voters voting Yes.

Karen asks about the evaluation campaign–will it be open?

Lorri jean says they are looking into people who are experts –Michael Fleming is talking to people now about this. they will talk to people inside and the outside the campaign. Jean says her personal view it would not be wise to make the results public. “We don’t want our opponents to have that information.” She says no one on the call has the authority on that, though.

Karen asks who does have the authority–Lorri Jean says the broader executive committee does, and answers Karen question that she would have no problem making public non-strategic items of the analysis.

Karen asks Steve Smith a question from Michael Weinstein about why they didn’t use the Governator more.

Smith explains the 40/40/20 split–40 percent against gay marriage, 40 for it and the 20 movable middle. Smith says women were very important in the campaign, and he thinks the public exit polling was off. Smith says all the private polling men were tougher on us but women didn’t make up the difference.

He said they should have spent a TV track focused on women. He said the issue wasn’t GOP women specifically. He says they used the Governator at the end, and he does best with GOP women.

Karen talks about how one emailer was disappointed with the way they handled the kid issue. They should have known kids were going to be used.

Smith says the kid ad was bogus and they used Jack O’Connell ads to get them back–he says the ad made significant inroads but the lesbian school teacher incident killed them. 

“I think that took women to place where they began to question what was true and what wasn’t,” Smith says.  He thinks when they were unsure, they chose their kids.

Rev. Lee says if there were TV ads of kids of color with gay couples would have increased resistance in the Af-Am community. “We have not come to the point of fully engaging the community without homophobia,” he says, noting more reaching out has to happen.

Karen asks how that is done.

Rev. Lee says you have to engage the pastors. “I did not get the sense there was a significant amount of outreach to the pastors.” He notes that if you’re outside the community it’s hard to figure out where to get in.

He says he didn’t see an outreach to civil rights groups. he notes that the NAACP in LA is not as strong as it used to be or as engaged as it used to be. He says you have to go community by community and not macro in a state like CA. “It’s not one size fits all,” he says.

Karen talks about the Obama statement–she suggests his statement was confusing–not supportive of marriage but against Prop 8. She wants to know if they should have done flyers with prominent Af-Am politicians saying No on 8. Lee thinks that would have been “very effective” to have politicians, religious leaders and community leaders endorsing No on 8.

Lee also points out all the early voting that took place. “If the belief is that the No on 8 campaign did not gear up quickly enough to reframe the message,” they may have lost an opportunity to get to those voters.

Kors notes when the early voting started they were in an $11 million deficit. He talks about all the money the Mormons raised–$25 million on the yes side. Kors says they didn’t go early with the BO statement because it could come back to haunt them because he didn’t belive in amrriage.

Steve says they were in a dilemma. BO as opposed to 8 but he made statements the Yes people could use. Steve said they didn’t know the Mormons had done a very, very aggressive campaign. Smith thought they would be down by just 3 or 4 million.

Smith said about ten percent of votes were cast by time they got economically viable, and it showed.

“it was a problem,” he says.

LA gay & lesbian center town hall

So here we go–Karen Ocamb says she received over 100 questions over the web plus emails and phone calls for the Town Hall.

John Perez and Amy Balliett are both busy and are can’t make the call.

the whole recording will be available starting tomorrow on the LAGLC web site

 

Karen wants to know what failures there were:

EQCA’s Geoff Kors said the lack of early money was critical because the opposite side dumed so much money in the campaign and they couldn’t catch up.

LAGLC’s Lorri Jean said money slowed in August but it wasn’t because they were doing less work. Jean has questions about the future of the campaigns–she said they ran the campaign by the book. “We did what they said,” she explained of the political analysts brought in. She wants to know if they need to come up with some completely different ways to do things.

Jean says she thinks it was a mistake to not play up Barack Obama’s opposition to Prop 8.

No on 8 senior consultant Steve Smith said they didn’t have enough money early on. “It was our fault, because fankly we let the early field poll numbers stand out there unchallenged.” he says they let people get complacent.

LCNR’s Shannon Minter said his feeling is gratitude we came so close. “I’m amazed we came so close to winning” but says lack of early money and lack of complete engagement really hurt us.” 

SCLC’s Los Angeles CEO Rev. Eric Lee says he is speaking from the perspective of his community–African American and Latino communities. He says we missed an opportunity to counter the YEs on 8 message. He notes grassroots engagement is the way to go. “There needs to be some relationship development between our respective communities” and playing up shared experiences. he also talks about the civil rights issue versus human rights issue.

live blogging the LA gay & lesbian center town hall

I’m listening in on the LA Gay & Lesbian Center Virtual Town Hall Meeting on what’s next for Prop 8, and will be blogging throughout. Wish me luck…

new york lesbians recognized as married

 

An upstate New York couple prevail in getting their marriage recognized by their County-run employer. Patricia Martinez, who married Lisa Ann Golden in 2004, explains why this will be a good holiday season in New York Newsday:

In a family ritual at Thanksgiving each year, “we go around the table and we talk about what we’re thankful for,” Martinez said. “We have an enormous amount to be thankful for during this holiday season.”

And where did they get married? Niagara Falls, of course.

is iowa next?

A University of Iowa poll shows Hawkeyes may be ready for same-sex marriage. Here’s what the Des Moines Register reported:

The statewide survey of 586 Iowa voters found that 28.1 percent support gay marriage, while another 30.2 percent oppose gay marriage, but support civil unions. Thirty-two percent of respondents oppose both gay marriage and civil unions. Nearly 10 percent of respondents said they didn’t know or refused to answer, the U of I reported.

But is it the same kind of poll that showed Californians defeating Proposition 8 by a comfortable margin?

prop 8 town hall: interviewing assembly member curran price

At the Nov. 22 African-American Town Hall on Proposition 8 I had a chance to grab California Assembly Member Curran Price after he had given some brief remarks. Price was an opponent to Prop 8 and reiterated his position to the crowd. Here’s our exchange:

There’s a question of whether the African-American community saw Prop 8 as a religious issue rather than a civil rights issue. Do you think that was factor in the final vote?

Yes, I do. I think there was certainly an emphasis on religious overtones and a failure to address the civil rights aspects of the legislation. There was an undue emphasis on the religious connotations and not enough of a hard look at the constitutional, legal and equity issues.

What do people on the marriage equality side need to do at better engaging the African-American community if and when this issues comes in front of voters again, maybe as soon as 2010?

I think there needs to be outreach to grassroots organizations. Certainly churches are an important component, but they are not the only resource in the African-American community. We’re not monolithic. So I think outreach to community-based organizations, special interest groups and involving the black gay and lesbian community more actively in the campaign, you know, not just sort of as an afterthought, or saying “we’ll give you a few bucks.” Let’s really involve that African-American gay community in the discussion, in the planning and the execution.

Did you feel you were reached out to?

No, not really. I certainly took a position in the legislature. There were several bills on marriage equality I supported. So it may have been somewhat taken for granted, “we don’t need to reach out to them,” but I think there should have been more effective outreach.

why No on 8 should have been like Yes on Measure J

So I’m still wrapping up some of the reporting from the African American-centered Town Hall from Saturday, not to be confused with today’s upcoming online Town Hall from the LA Gay & Lesbian Center.

I had a terrific conversation with, Danny Bakewell, Jr. who co-moderated the town hall along with Jasmine Cannick. Bakewell is the president and executive editor of the Los Angeles Sentinel, L.A.’s premier newspaper for the African American community. The Sentinel endorsed a no vote on Proposition 8, and from the way Bakewell told it, his paper is taking heat from both inside and outside its offices on the No endorsement.

Bakewell gave me his assessment for why he thinks Prop 8 got support from his community, and what could have been done differently.

He used the example of the L.A. County Measure J as a model for what No on 8 could have done to build better support in the African American community.

the LA gay & lesbian center’s virtual town hall meeting

Queerty tees up some pointed questions about this evening’s Town Hall Meeting being sponsored by the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center, and references some articles here and here about the ongoing criticism of the No on 8 campaign.

Queerty also points out that LAGLC’s Lorri Jean has posted her own Q&A on the Center’s web site going through what happened and where we should go from here. I found this passage interesting:

Why didn’t you use any LGBT people in your ads until the last week?

The campaign actually had prepared an ad to be launched early in the advertising schedule featuring a lesbian in a long-term relationship and addressing the issue of why domestic partnerships are not the same as marriage. We had planned to run it after the inaugural ad featuring Sam and Julia Thoron talking about their lesbian daughter (which tested extremely well with undecided voters, particularly women, and was shown by tracking polls after it was running to be effective with them). 

Once the Yes on 8 forces began their advertisements falsely asserting that if Prop 8 didn’t pass, schools would be required to teach kids about gay marriage, it became critical to use the available advertising slots for an ad responding to that attack rather than the lesbian ad. It wasn’t until the last week of the campaign that a new ad aired showing images of LGBT people.

That doesn’t exactly line up with what No on 8 campaign director Patrick Guerriero said on Nov. 13 at the Williams Institute’s “Election 2008: A New Administration, the LGBT Vote, & Proposition 8″ panel held at UCLA’s School of Law. Keep reading below…

prop 8 town hall: “it was almost a dismissive response”

At the African American Town Hall I got to speak at length to Latrice Johnson of the group United Lesbians of African Heritage, or ULOAH, a non-profit that’s been around for nearly two decades promoting the health and safety of Black lesbians, During her panel she revealed how her organization first interacted with the larger marriage equality campaign.

Johnson said her group was approached by marriage equality activists after the California Supreme Court decision in May permitted same-sex civil marriage and were asked for stories and images showing happy nuptials. ULOAH put some examples together, but soon heard back that what they really wanted were the stories and pictures of multiracial couples.

I caught up with Johnson afterwards, and asked her more about what transpired, including her contention that the larger No on 8 campaign did not want to listen to campaign strategies that would be the most effective in the African-American community. That’s if there was interest in engaging Blacks at all. 

Read below…

prop 8 town hall: phill wilson speaks

Phill WIlson, the founder of the Black AIDS Institute and the former AIDS Coordinator for the City of Los Angeles, is always an interesting guy to hear speak on any subject that bisects race, sexuality and the struggle to live life with HIV.

He was all fired up at the African-American Town Hall on Proposition 8 on Nov. 22, and had some choice words on what exactly happened Election Day. Wilson noted he is a homeowner, has raised two kids and is in a relationship even though he sees no need for him and his partner to get married. Here’s just part of what he had to say:

The reason why Proposition 8 passed was because the Yes on 8 folks did a better job of communicating their message than the No on 8 folks. We need to get away from the issue, quite frankly, of marriage at all. What this is about is, what kind of civil society do we all want to live in? Do we want to live in a civil society where all of us have equal access to the law? That’s the fundamental question, and we need to communicate that. Within the black community, we need to have conversations about where do we stand on our interests…is it really in our interest to further marginalize a portion of our community? I submit it is not. Is it in our interest to ally with those who are against us? I submit it is not. I think within the LGBT community, we actually have to be clear about what we want…

… While you can’t legislate love, you also can’t legislate approval. The reason we came here today because we’re hurt because the message from Yes on 8 was disapproval. We can’t get that at the Supreme Court or the ballot box. We have to do the hard work of approval ourselves. and the black LGBT folk are the only ones who can do that if we want approval.

notes from a town hall meeting

  

Jasmyne Cannick is a real bomb-thrower. An African-American lesbian know in the L.A. community for her op-ed pieces, journalism, media appearances, political activism and co-founding the National Black Justice Coalition, she’s not one to pull punches.

Here’s what she wrote on he Web site about the Nov. 22 Town Hall meeting she organized on Proposition 8 along with The L.A. Sentinel, long considered the most important media voice for news in the Southern California African-American Community:

Dear No on Prop. 8 Leadership,

While I know that your ego and superiority complex will tempt you to attend these meetings, I’d politely ask that you don’t. You’ve done enough damage and now it’s up to the Black same-gender loving community to try and clean up your mess.

 Now of course by law you can’t be turned away. But I want you to really think about this.

 If this issue of gay marriage is so important, don’t come.

 Let the Black community have a discussion about this among themselves without the interference of outsiders, who in my opinion have only made the issue worse and only aided in the invisibility of Black gays.

Not being a member of the No on 8 leadership, I figured it was okay for me to tag along (the email invite I got from Jasmyne was also quite welcoming) even though I’m of Sicilian-Irish descent. Boy, am I glad I did…

sundance and the threat of boycotts

This weekend I put together a story about the Sundance Film Festival andf boycotts. Some gays are talking about a boycott of Utah and a boycott of Cinemark, whose CEO gave big to Yes on 8 and runs a four-plex that’s a major venue for Sundance. As the queer gods would have it, Sundance’s programming director is a gay guy who lives in California and got married on Nov. 1 . Talk about being in the eye of the storm! Read the article here. I also touched base with GLAAD, which sponsors the Queer Lounge at Sundance. As fate would have it, this year’s opening night film is from Adam Elliot, the Academy Award winner who made headlines in 2004 when he thanked his boyfriend in his acceptance speech.