Cleve Jones and Dustin Lance Black: National Seven-Week Equality Campaign Leading to Inauguration

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/14/08 at 8:15am

From Towleroad.com:

Activist Cleve Jones and Milk Writer Dustin Lance Black Call for National Seven-Week Equality Campaign Leading to Inauguration



NOW IS THE TIME FOR EQUALITY FOR ALL AMERICANS

By CLEVE JONES and DUSTIN LANCE BLACK

On Nov. 27, 1978, gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk was assassinated in San Francisco City Hall. Thirty years later, his struggle continues.

On Nov. 4, 2008, millions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans of all races proudly cast their ballots for Barack Obama, helping to elect the first African American president of the United States. On that same day, voters in Arizona, Arkansas, California and Florida approved initiatives denying basic civil rights to GLBT citizens.

Like other Americans who voted for Obama, gay people supported our president-elect because we share his vision of a united America, and want to move forward to address the critical challenges facing our country and our planet.

We have always been willing to serve our country: in our armed forces, even as we were threatened with courts-martial and dishonor; as teachers, even as we were slandered and libeled; as parents and foster parents struggling to support our children; as doctors and nurses caring for patients in a broken health-care system; as artists, writers and musicians; as workers in factories and hotels, on farms and in office buildings; we have always served and loved our country.

We have loved our country even as we have been subjected to discrimination, harassment and violence at the hands of our countrymen. We have loved God, even as we were rejected and abandoned by religious leaders, our churches, synagogues and mosques. We have loved democracy, even as we witnessed the ballot box used to deny us our rights.

Like Obama, we never abandoned hope in the American dream of equality and freedom. We never stopped believing that the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights included us.

We have always kept faith with the American people, our neighbors, co-workers, friends and families. But today that faith is tested and we find ourselves at a crossroad in history....

[READ THE REST AT THE towleroad.com LINK BELOW]



Activist Cleve Jones and Milk Writer Dustin Lance Black Call for National Seven-Week Equality Campaign Leading to Inauguration

Updated On: 11/14/08 at 08:15 AM

[Q]

Posted: 11/14/08 at 10:25am

"Avoid attacking people's religions."

I'm curious about the inclusion of this statement - are they pointedly advocating backing off from the Mormon demonstrations that we've been seeing?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 11/14/08 at 10:35am

I'm sorry to be a broken record, and it's not that I'm not trying to do everything I can right now, but why is it that NO ONE seems to recognize that this country has been dismantling the civil rights of gays for years? Arizona, Arkansas, California and Florida are just four states in a long line. I just wish that some of the national screeds would acknowledge that. Anyway, rant over.

We call on our country's leaders to take personal responsibility for involving our nation's religious leaders and the GLBT community in a national dialogue to encourage understanding and reconciliation.

Good luck with that. I'm really not sure how "our" side is supposed to reconcile with religious fanatics, or why our nation's "religious leaders" should be the ones we should be listening to.

[Q]

Posted: 11/14/08 at 10:41am

PRS - I think it's just a case of a straw breaking the camel's back. Hell, this isn't even the first time it occurred in California, so it's not like it's because it 'finally' happened here. It just seemed to reach a boiling point at the same time that the national attention was on 'change' and 'hope'.

I DO think there's validity to the proposal, and the statement is forcefully and beautifully written. And it would seem to make sense to keep moving with the national momentum we've seen recently.

About the timing, there're a couple of interesting comments on the Towleroad site after the article. When all is said and done, I favor keeping up the pressure. The other national issues ARE important, but during the election, people were willing to still put emphasis/time/money toward this issue, so let's keep the focus for a bit more.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/14/08 at 10:54am

are they pointedly advocating backing off from the Mormon demonstrations that we've been seeing?

Actually, yes. There's a strong feeling in the activist community that a negatively focused anti-religion campaign will always lose the battle of public opinion, but a positively focused civil-rights campaign can win in the Age of Obama.

The problem then is what to do with the broad-based and legitimate anger toward Mormons and other fundamentalist religions. Millions of lesbians and gays are feeling it, and it won't go away. So how do you channel it?

One of the things I love about this letter is what we saw in NY with this week's rally: a coalition between the fired-up 20-something activists of the Obama generation and the 40- and 50-something activists who remember AIDS activism.

Renewed activism is the one good thing to come out of Prop 8, Florida, Arizona and Arkansas.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 11/14/08 at 10:58am

I agree with you, to some degree; I just REALLY hope that when it's all said and done (particularly if Prop 8 is declared unconstitutional) that the REST of the country beyond Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, etc, has California's support. I really want to believe this IS the straw that has broken the camel's back, but I do feel like it's part of my part to remind everyone that this is about the entire country, and that Prop 8 may have been the thing that's gotten the most coverage, but it's certainly no the first or even the most discriminatory anti-gay legislation in this country.

We've got a long tough, fight ahead of us, and I really hope that we can continue to all find ways to work together. I'm of the mind that we need to keep pushing. I kind more and more blinded with rage every time I a suggestion to "slow down" or "wait" or whatever (as I saw in one of the comments).

Remember always, and reflect in all your actions, that we are not fighting against anyone, or anything. We are struggling for equality.

Again, that's from the site, and I just don't 100% agree there. We're struggling against at least 50% of the population that doesn't want us to marry. We're struggling against people who think that if gay marriage is legal - horror of horrors! - kids will LEARN about homosexuality, as though they already don't already and kids every day aren't terrorized and called "fag" or worse.

All that said, I also understand that I'm not going to 100% agree with anyone involved here and I don't expect everyone to 100% agree with me. I'm all for throwing it all against the wall and seeing what sticks, as long as it's not some of the more passive "actions" people have been advocating.

[Q]

Posted: 11/14/08 at 11:10am

An example of the level of frustration and anger - and it seems to be mostly the 40-50 (or above) crowd. Stomping on the cross was an interesting touch . . .
Palm Springs gets heated.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 11/14/08 at 11:19am

The problem then is what to do with the broad-based and legitimate anger toward Mormons and other fundamentalist religions. Millions of lesbians and gays are feeling it, and it won't go away. So how do you channel it?

I agree. And I'm the first to say that I don't have all the answers. How DO we channel it? What sort of civil disobedience should we be promoting? Is it not paying taxes? Should everyone in a state with anti-leigislation do that? For the too soon crowd, is perhaps marriage not what we should be focusing on and simply focusing on the laws and legistlation to restrict rights most of us never even had in the first place?