What now? What are our next steps?

The burning question of the hour is, "What do we do now?" We can only march and protest for so long before the nation doesn't listen anymore. In order to answer this question, we need to ask ourselves a few more questions first:

1. Who's the opposition?
2. What's our goal?
3. How do we unite?

My thoughts on the answers:

1. Who's the opposition? See my first post. Know the Opposition or my guest post on overturnprop8.com

2. What's our goal? Sounds like an easy question to answer - regain our right to same-sex marriage. But is that all? Is that the only reason we're marching and protesting? If we really think about it, no. We're fed up with years of discrimination, harassment and lack of rights. What we want is equal rights. We want the discrimination against the LGBT community to STOP. We want to be represented in our government. Obtaining the right to marriage is just one step in the right direction towards our overall goal. But this doesn't just pertain to California. This pertains to all gays in the nation. That's the overall main goal. Yes, one step at a time. But we got to keep our eyes on the goal.

3. How do we unite? We communicate. I'm hoping that this blog can help us do that. I'm reaching out to all those websites and groups that have popped up in just this past week to talk to each other, to link each other's sites, to constantly email and call each other, to continue their specific agendas but to come together as ONE for the gay community to rally behind with a single purpose. A goal. And I say we hold a town hall meeting.

So now, back to the burning question. What now?

Practically speaking: LET'S HOLD A TOWN HALL MEETING FOR LEADERS. Let's get all our leaders together, the No on 8 Campaign leaders (Dr. Delores A. Jacobs of the Center Advocacy Project, Lorri L. Jean of L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, Kate Kendell, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Geoff Kors, Equality California), Gay & Lesbian Center Directors, LA Pride leaders (Rodney Scott, and other cities' pride leaders), get our activist groups together, and discuss what's next. Create one website for different groups to update (while maintaining their own) - a one-stop-shop full of information on events and rallies, readily available, for the community. This will then activate the gay and straight communities to act as one with a single purpose.

Sounds hard? Sure. Impossible? No. Needed? DEFINITELY.

Time is of the essence. Contact these leaders (links listed on the right of this blog). Ask for a meeting. Ask them to communicate to each other. Send them my way if you want! Just . . .

ACT NOW AND UNITE!