Roots of Equality

Protect Marriage, the sponsor of Prop 8, sued to hide the names of donors to the Yes on 8 side. They argued that the publicly disclosed list has led to, “consumer boycotts, picketing and even death threats” according to SF Gate. The list of donors is available to the public thanks to campaign disclosure laws.

The ironic part is that the same committee who is suing to protect their donors, went after No on 8 donors in October of 2008 in a pseudo-extortion attempt:
“In October, ProtectMarriage.com wrote to big donors to the gay rights group Equality California. The letter noted the contributions and respectfully requested that donors correct this error with a big check to ProtectMarriage. Those who didn’t donate would have their names published.” - NPR

Thankfully, the federal judge struck down the suit though they are appealing.

Harassment and threats of illegal harm are just bullying and un-American but I am a strong believer that boycotts, free speech, and freedom of information are truly American values. Like I heard from someone last week, “If a waitress at a restaurant was rude to me, I wouldn’t go back to that restaurant. So if the owner of that restaurant contributes to taking away my rights, you’d better believe I’m not giving them my money.”

For a list of Yes on 8 donors, head here: http://www.rootsofequality.org/?page_id=70

“Big ups” to API Equality LA for their work on marriage equality issues both before and after the election. We at Roots are going to try to get more involved with their work because they rock.

This Saturday (1/31), API Equality LA will be celebrating the new year by participating in the Chinatown Lunar New Year Golden Dragon Parade.

This is their theme:
“This year’s parade unit will feature two married couples, one lesbian and one gay couple, sitting in convertibles decorated with cans and ‘Just Married’ signs and leading the contingent. Paraders will be provided with banners, flags, streamers, and handheld drum noisemakers to carry in a colorful display of diversity, inclusion, and equality for all members of the Asian Pacific American community.”

They’re encouraging other community based organizations to join them as well.
For more information, see the event page or contact Kat Khommarath at (323) 860-7348 or email kkhommarath@lagaycenter.org

The Christian Anti-Defamation Commission is trying to claim Christian “bashing”. They actually cite the Prop 8 Musical video as “bashing” in their top ten list seen here.

Their use of the word “bashing” belittles the meaning of the word and the true violence behind it. When we say gay bashing, someone has actually been bashed or worse. Fuck you Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, you don’t know bashing.

The message seems to be: “Hey, we’re just living our lives just like you.” Though I am cautious of too much “just like you” arguments because a lot of us do not live “just like” the idealized “normal” lifestyle. I do think this is an effective message and I am a proponent of attacking from all sides and these PSAs do get a point across. Plus, I love that our heroes Robin Tyler and Diane Olson are in this.

GetToKnowUsFirst created this series of PSAs to air in lots of different markets and had some air time during the inauguration. But according the the LAist, ABC7 in LA deemed this commercial too controversial to air during a time when so many families would be watching.

What about these commercials seem controversial to families?

It was awesome.

The camp really kicked off the night before with a Saturday night evening reception with inspiring words from Rick Jacobs, Torie Osborn and the incredible Cleve Jones.  Jones highlighted our need to build coalitions and the need to keep fighting.  I hope I get to see him speak again.

I have to admit, I did not have the highest expectations for Camp Courage when I saw the word “training”.  I was pleasantly surprised throughout the day as we went through trainings that were not condescending or rigid.  They split us up into random groups and met new people and taught us that our biggest weapon was our own stories (which is exactly what we were trying to emphasize in our pre-election rally emphasized).

We did ice breaking activities, told our stories, heard other people’s stories, learned how to recruit others, and learned how to make baby steps with the opposition. I would usually hate these activities but the way in which they were run was surprisingly empowering even though they were sometimes tough.

The lessons learned from Camp Obama are too late for prop 8, but will be an incredible resource for 2010. We went away from the day’s activities refreshed, excited, and confident for the tough road ahead. I highly suggest you check out the next Camp Courage whenever it is scheduled and check out their new equality hub.

Today we went to the Equality Summit at the LA Convention Center hosted by EQCA.
The meeting started with a room full of hundreds of highly energized leaders which was exciting to see. This movement is not going anywhere with this type of talented energy behind it.

The agenda started with an election summary going over what happened in the No on 8 campaign. The panel included Geoff Kors and Lorri Jean who both went through the dry nuts and bolts timeline of events leading up to the election. Booooring.

There was interesting data presented by David Binder who did a post election voter survey. What I got out of it was that people basically voted against us because of their religious beliefs, people were much less likely to vote for 8 if they had a gay person in their lives talk to them about it, and that phone banking didn’t work (duh).

The party really got started when they collected a pile of questions for the panel. The discussion quickly degraded into a lynch mob who wanted the heads of Kors and Jean while the latter kept blaming the hired political consultants without taking a lot of responsibility for the oversight of those consultants.

The keynote Eva Paterson was spectacular and reminded us not to create a “circular firing squad.” She reminded us we’re all on the same side though personally I’m still waiting for some modicum of accountability on the part of the leadership.

The rest of the day consisted of break out sessions that accomplished pretty much nothing (at least the ones I was involved in) and involved just a rehashing of the usual broad ideas ie. We need to reach out to people of color. At least we met some pretty cool people. Another highlight was the surprise arrival of Antonio Villaraigosa.

In summary, this summit was EQCA’s way of reaching out to grassroots and non-”establishment” people in the movement. It also served to bring people in the movement together in the largest forum yet post-prop 8. Whether it was just a gesture of appeasement to the angry masses or a real effort to take our input and resources seriously is yet to be seen.