A Road Map for Empowering the LGBT Grassroots

Corporate is not always better.  That's part of the message of Marriage Equality USA's (MEUSA) latest report, "Respect, Empower, Include: A Road Map for How to Empower the Grassroots Movement," out this week just days before the California State Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments over the validity of Proposition 8.  The new report, in the words of MEUSA's Media Director Molly McKay, "adopts the Obama field campaign's mission statement as our own mission statement for the marriage equality movement going forward.  It embodies what we missed the first time around in the No on 8 Campaign and creates a new vision where everyone is at the table and empowered and encouraged to participate in this civil rights moment of our generation."

The report argues that there's a lot to be learned from the LGBT rights activism of the late 1970s, and applauds leaders like Cleve Jones (no relation - unfortunately!) and Dolores Huerta for continuing to push the importance of grassroots organizing.  Here's one of my favorite lines:

We have a choice on how we move ahead. As marriage equality leaders, we can chose to work collaboratively or go each go it on our own. The movie Milk provides us with a starting point to engage in an intergenerational dialogue, to learn from our past, and remember what can happen when we work together – to courageously fight for our families and promote our truth, and not settle for a fear-based campaign based on political consultants and focus group testing. Pioneers like Cleve Jones, Robin Tyler, Sylvia Rhue, Ron Dellums and Delores Huerta have so much wisdom to share to illustrate how far we have come, the importance of coalition building, how to be a good ally, and how to get through the hard times. We must honor our heroes and return to our grassroots spirit and recognize you don’t have to be “gay for pay” to be a civil rights leader in our community.

This is the third report from MEUSA in the wake of Proposition 8's passage.  The first report, "We Will Never Go Back," examined how the No on 8 campaign was waged, and offered input from grassroots activists throughout California.  The second report, "Prop 8 Hurt My Family," looked at the real world implications of Proposition 8, and put names and faces to why this Proposition was bad for families and children.  Now this third report joins the list of "must-reads" for LGBT activists.

Please check out MEUSA's reports.  MEUSA and Join the Impact are also organizing a series of statewide vigils and demonstrations this Wednesday night, the night before the Court will take up arguments on Prop 8.  If you live in California and would like to attend one of these vigils, visit www.eveofjustice.com for locations.