Guest Post: About Face - How OUT West Boot Camp changed My Mind About Marriage Equality

Guest blogger Frances Yasmeen Motiwalla is the Director of LA Based Outreach for Peace Action West. She grew up in Chicago, then grew up even more in New York City, and now lives as a grown up in Echo Park with her partner, May, and their parrotlet, Pico. She holds a BA from Wheaton College (IL) in Political Science, and recently helped create the Peeka-Bu Mirror (www.peeka-bu.com) - the world's first "intimate" grooming mirror.


To be perfectly honest, marriage equality has been low on my priority list. For the last two years, I've been canvassing for Peace Action West, and focused on foreign policy. Marriage is great and all, so is the environment, and the economy - BUT IT DRIVES ME CRAZY that so many people don't think about how the military industrial complex has bankrupt our society. OUT West Campaign Boot Camp this past weekend officially shot the fight for Marriage Equality up my priority list.

What did it for me, was a realization during David Fleischer's presentation, "Changing Hearts and Minds: Message Development and Voter Persuasion." After laying out informative principles of messaging, David showed us several campaign ads from various gay marriage ballot referendums, from BOTH sides. What became clear to me was that as our side fumbles to present the nicest possible people rationally explaining the fairness and rightness of marriage equality, the opposition is not even really talking about marriage. I don't watch TV at all, so I had no clue that their ads were thinly-veiled, fear-mongering attacks that we are a threat to children and society. That pissed me off.

In the afternoon, we heard from Rose Kapolczynski of Progressive Strategy Partners, who has run Senator Barbara Boxer's campaigns, and has won a myriad of proposition campaigns. One thing she mentioned was that usually "Yes" ballot measures usually highlight a problem and claim to be the right solution. The problem proposed by the Yes on 8 camp is that legitimizing gay marriage will lead to "gayness" being taught in schools, their kids thinking that it's okay, and god forbid, actually turning gay.

While their campaign completely avoids the actual question of equal rights regarding marriage, I think it does illuminate a very real problem that deserves attention:

IF your child DOESN'T learn to accept homosexuality as equal in school, there is a greatly increased risk that they will grow up to be bullies who ignorantly talk about hating gays.

While some parents might think it's in their best interest to propagate their prejudice, our only hope for evolving as a society, ending discrimination and hate crimes and achieving true equality, lies in our ability to stop the cycle of hate. The groundbreaking documentary It's Elementary demonstrates the powerful impact that talking to school children about homosexuality can have on their ability to develop into well adjusted adults. Perhaps this problem calls for a whole other ballot referendum, an Homophobic Asshole Prevention Measure, if you will.

So, boot camp officially sucked me into the fight. I realized the key word is Equality...and that I was sitting in a room with 140 people who are going to be the change in this socio-political battle. OUT West brought together a spectacular line-up of instructors, teaching the fundamentals of campaigning: Finance, Field, Political and New Media Organizing, and Communications. The only downside was that we only had time to pick two!

I took the Finance and Organizing classes. Charles T. Moran's Overview of Campaign Fundraising was my favorite part, well, Charles, himself, was my favorite part. He is a political consultant, mega-fundraiser for the Republicans, and spokesperson for the Log Cabin Republicans. I am still perplexed by his choice of party affiliation, but I was totally enamored by his straight-forward presentation, I want to be just like him when I grow up, and I am very happy that we are on the same side of this battle. He shared tips on being a great fundraiser, but also stressed the necessity of a solid campaign plan, because while personality goes a long way, wise investors want to know their money will be well spent.

The most challenging part of the weekend, was during the second finance class, lead by Moof Mayeda, Sarah Reece and Kathleen Camisano of the Gay and Lesbian Task Force. After a thorough presentation of the fundamentals of one-on-one contacts, we were asked to scroll through our phones and make a list of friends to call and practice the fund raising skills we had just learned, whilst raising money for the No on Prop 1 campaign in Maine.

While I stand on the street and ask strangers for money every day while canvassing, this was surprisingly scary. But as I looked at the list I had formed, I realized, though, that each of these people most likely cared about the issue, and would probably love the opportunity to give. We ended up only having a few minutes to make the calls. I got 5 voice mail messages and they told us it was time to wrap up...I dialed one more, determined now. My friend, Tracy picked up, and, well, it was even easier than I had expected. Tracy was psyched I was getting involved with the campaign, didn't know that Maine was facing a proposition and was happy to help. Even easier than getting people jazzed about foreign policy!

The organizing classes were also very helpful, Martha De Hoyos of Brave New World Films introduced us to the nuts and bolts of coalition building and community organizing. Effectively building relationships by focusing on shared interests with community leaders will undoubtedly be a key to future campaign successes. And Lola Elfman of the New Organizing Institute (NOI) gave us solid tips to refine our use of online tools. From here on out, our e-mail campaigns will be timely, engaging and trackable, our websites will empower and lead to action, and our social networking will be maximized. Fingers crossed. We also learned NOI is hosting a Non Profit New Media Training conference October 5-6 in SF, which sounds fantastic.

We had the honor of hearing from many more speakers - truly inspiring messages from Reverend Art Cribbs, Reverend Eric Lee, Rabbi Allan I. Freehling, and Eric Bauman; a powerful history lesson from longtime activist Diane Abbit; lessons from the battleground from Planned Parenthood's Serena Josel and Sara Shirrell; and to top it off, key note speaker, Christine Pelosi.

Something that has really stuck with me, was from Ms. Pelosi's introduction. It turns out that she has been organizing since she was in a stroller. Every year her mother, our Speaker of the House, apparently, used to wheel her children door to door doing lit drops for the Democratic Party back in the '60s, way before she ever considered running for office. This has given me a whole new respect for Nancy Pelosi. While it's easy for people to point fingers and say she's not done enough, perhaps she's done way more than we know. May we all be as dedicated and long-suffering as we take up leadership in the struggle towards equality. (and a just foreign policy, of course.)

OUT West Campaign Boot Camp Took the Bull That Is a Ballot Campaign by the Horns

Over the past weekend, nearly 150 people gathered on the USC campus to attend OUT West's Campaign Boot Camp for hands-on training on how to run a ballot campaign. Over two days, the attendees learned about fund raising, media ads and buying, message development and discipline, voter persuasion, campaign structure, organizing, strategy and much more.

And an amazing array of faculty took time out of their busy schedules to pass on a wide range of knowledge: political consultant David Fleischer; long-time activist and campaign veteran Diane Abbit; SCLC Los Angeles President Rev. Eric Lee; Moof Mayeda, Sarah Reece and Kathleen Camisano of the Gay and Lesbian Task Force; Marc Solomon of Equality California; Sarah Callahan of Courage Campaign; and keynote speaker Christine Pelosi, author of the book Campaign Boot Camp and many more.

Mike Skiff of Third Rail Media reports:



OUT West, one of the largest LGBT grassroots coalitions in California, hosted Campaign Boot Camp. Unite the Fight is a member of OUT West.

Stay tuned later today for a guest post by an attendee of Campaign Boot Camp!

Read other coverage at Towleroad and Greene Universe.

Want an Active Role in a Marriage Equality Campaign? Learn How at OUT West's Campaign Boot Camp!

OUT West Campaign Boot Camp will train activists in fundamental campaign skills and offer them a campaign manager's view of how a solid campaign is run. Committed activists will gather for two days of training at USC in Los Angeles, CA that will prepare them to be leaders in the next campaign for marriage equality.

Keynote speaker will be Christine Pelosi, author of Campaign Boot Camp, the inspiration behind this event.

WHO: Committed activists who want to know how a campaign is run.
DATE: Saturday and Sunday, September 12-13
CAMP: Los Angeles (More information upon registering)
COST: Just $11 donation for two full days of education

Register now!

Doesn't Matter When We Return to the Ballot, the Work Must Begin Now!

Contributor Josh Einsohn has lived in Los Angeles for 14 years, working in the Entertainment Industry, and is a Dallas, Texas native. Like so many others, he woke up after the defeat of Prop. 8 and realized that he had more to give than had clearly been given in the last campaign. He founded ALLorNotAtAll.org and is producing PSAs and adding content so that his site can slowly become an educational hub for all sides of the debate. ALLorNotAtAll is also part of the OUTWest.

With all the attention paid to the Marriage Equality Summit [in San Bernardino] and whether or not we were going to go back to the ballot in this year or that year and who was going to get to decide how to decide what to decide, there was not a great deal of attention paid to an event which may prove to be more important to the health and growth of the grassroots movement, ultimately. Unfortunately, a lot of people had to catch planes and so forth, and even more people just left in a huff, but it's a shame that more people couldn't stay for the Grassroots meeting that was held in a wonderfully well-air-conditioned room just after the larger event.

A little over 30 people attended the meeting that was co-moderated by Kristi Campbell of Equality Inland Empire and myself. We had a very loose agenda, but the main point of the meeting was to get people talking about the work that has to be done. I opened the meeting by saying something like: "Imagine for a moment that the decision has been made about when we're going and it's exactly what you wanted. Ok. Now, what does that campaign look like? What do you know to do? What do you want to learn to do? How can we in this room help each other with that?"

It became a chance to share ideas of, "Hey! This worked great in our community!" and to ask questions of each other and to offer support and suggestions. Some good ideas came up and there were little nuggets of wisdom that were mentioned and suddenly you'd see someone's eyes light up and start taking notes. Here are a few of the ideas floated, advice given and suggestions made:

• On behalf of OUTWest, I offered to share our Constitution with anyone who might want to form a coalition in their part of the state. It would have to be tailored, of course, but my hope was that other groups might be able to skip some of the growing pains with support or advice or tales from the trenches from OUTWest's formation.
• OUTWest is also sponsoring an event called Boot Camp...it will educate about some of the more advanced issues in running a campaign in terms of finances and what areas need to be targeted and how certain areas were won in the last campaign and so on. People who attend that will definitely be able to leave and go help their communities to lead. (More info to come.)
  
• Robin McGehee brought up the need for the true grassroots groups to communicate together better. For example, if we know that there's going to be a major summit, we should coordinate a separate meeting for just the grassroots folks. And I know in my perfect world, there would be coalitions all over the state and reps from those coalitions would be in constant contact with each other...offering help, advice and support when needed.
• There is a website called blue-friends.com that is used as a sort of LGBT activists social networking site.
• We really need to create the sense of a movement...someone proposed doing a Freedom Ride through smaller towns. (I hear Equal Roots may be working on something like this already!)
• There were stories of having events in some of the smaller communities on the outskirts of the big cities in some of the suburbs and areas that never get any attention.
• We need to keep all LGBT issues in the media because they all tie together and make sure the media gets that. For example, there's going to be a vigil in West Hollywood this Friday to show solidarity and support for the victims of the murders in Tel Aviv. We want the press there and we want them to see that any inequality at all makes us a different class of human that is "ok" for haters to attack. DADT, teen suicide, marriage equality...they all tie together and every time the press comes, we need to keep making that connection for them.
• Take advantage of local public access television...it's cheap!
• SD Pride had an Olympic-style torch relay through all the smaller suburbs and they got proclamations of support from the mayors or officials of each one of those areas.
• Join The Impact offered to continue to help networking and facilitating communication between the grassroots groups.
• We had a long discussion about the trans community and how it is often marginalized...but one transgender woman also talked about how many people in their segment of the community do too much to marginalize themselves. Both sides need to reach out. The idea of a Transgender 101 sort of workshop came up to help educate groups and coalitions that may want to support them but not really know how.
• We also had a very interesting talk about race that started with my asking: "I'm a big, tall white guy. Does it really do any good to have a face like mine canvassing in a neighborhood of people that don't look like me? I'll go anywhere, of course, but does it hurt or help?" A number of interesting points were raised after that...the main one was that it doesn't matter what you look like as long as you are well-educated and friendly. However, some good caution points were brought up that may not be getting addressed by the canvassing orgs. For example, more than just having someone in the group who is able to speak the languages of that neighborhood, is there someone who understands the cultures? Is there training going on to make sure that canvassers know that some cultures appreciate a hand-shake and some do not? Or that sometimes you need to ask to speak to the head of the household or it would be considered rude? These are the sorts of details that we need to attend to...if we want their vote and support, we should make sure that the message is delivered in such a way and with a level of respect that will engender and facilitate open dialogue and the possible changing of minds.
• I also mentioned that I was going to be working with some local POC communities to help them produce microtargeted spots since I have the technical ability, but not the cultural know-how. I know that Eugene from TruthAndHope.org ran a successful campaign for Obama doing just that and they are already talking to pollsters about how to run similar spots in California to target specific communities...cheaply, quickly and efficiently.
  

We spent 90 minutes talking with each other and it was friendly, respectful and supportive. It felt good...so many people pay lip service to these ideas but never really discuss them and help each other out. After a rough day, I'd say the people who left this meeting were in a much better space than the people who left the main summit as soon as it was over.

In the week since the summit, I've started to sense a new movement...a sort of pragmatic need to start the work now, regardless of when we go. Everyone's tired of the bickering and infighting and my hope is that more creative ideas are being generated all over the state and that the work is starting already. (Speaking of which, I'll have a new PSA to share in the very near future!)

I hope we all take a breath and choose to see where we fit into the next campaign and start working on THAT...whatever THAT is...right away. 2010, 2012, 2014...it won't matter when we go if we don't buckle down and start the work right now.

Good luck to us all!

In solidarity,
Josh Einsohn, Founder
ALLorNotAtAll.org

A Call to UTF Readers: Tell Us Your Stories and Give Input on California's Next Steps for Marriage Equality

Eric Nakano is an officer of OUT West, one of the largest LGBT grassroots coalitions in California. He has a special request for the Unite the Fight readership.

Dear Unite the Fight Readers:

In two weeks, grassroots LGBT rights activists and volunteers from across the state of California will descend on sleepy San Bernardino for an Equality Summit to exchange ideas, plot strategy, and plan for the future.

Last November, the county of San Bernardino, the largest by landmass in the continental United States, voted Democratic for the first time in recent memory when they voted for Barack Obama over John McCain by a mere 26,791 votes. And while the county broke overwhelmingly in favor for Prop 8, residents in the County still donated $68,000 to the No on 8 Campaign and turned out to the tune of 181,280 to vote against the measure. Who were these 181,280 voters and what did they do to keep the faith while outnumbered by a 2-1 margin?

As the grassroots begins to develop a strategy for victory, I want to remind my colleagues that any winning strategy must be one where we contest for votes in each of California’s 58 counties and in all of the state’s 25,423 precincts.

When I head to San Bernardino, I want to take with me your stories of activism and your ideas for the future. I’m especially interested in hearing from people who voted against Prop 8 in cities, towns and counties that overwhelmingly supported it.

ACTION: Email me your stories by answering these questions:

• What did you do to buck the trend?
  
• What ideas do you have to support your work in the next round?
  

You can email me at votenakano@gmail.com. Thank you for your continued involvement in our struggle for full equality.

Sincerely,

Eric Nakano
Officer, OUT West Coalition