In a post earlier this week on Pam’s House Blend, I commented that I was going to post a copy of MarriageEqualityUSA‘s slideshow at last Saturday’s Equality Summit, entitled the Collective Wisdom of Our Grassroots Community (the link is to a PDF file of the PowerPoint slide show).
The PowerPoint slideshow was based on two written reports:
• We Will Never Go Back; Grassroots Input on California’s No on 8 Proposition 8 Campaign
Some of the thoughts from some of the slides:
Slide 4:
Clergy leaders were underutilized by the No on 8 campaign.
• Clergy leaders, particularly those who had performed marriage ceremonies, were the best spokespeople to counter faith leaders used by the Yes on 8 campaign.
• Over reliance on focus group findings directed clergy to phone banks, instead of visibility actions and outreach to congregations.
• CA marriage case and now Prop 8 amicus briefs identified supportive clergy across California.
Slide 5:
Leaders of color were underutilized by the No on 8 campaign.
• There is a deep bench of Leaders from the Black, Asian, Latino and Native American communities. We must have a campaign where all communities are well-represented as leaders, spokespeople, and in campaign literature.
• “We need to engage with all people and not just people “like us”…to ensure we are not acting in unintentionally marginalizing or discriminatory ways.”
• “I feel that some of the language used in the ads, particularly „unfair and wrong? was very Caucasian centric. Most people of color live in a world that is unfair and wrong, so this washed right over us.”
• Funding to distribute Spanish and Asian language materials and ads were needed at the outset of the campaign.
• We must make institutional changes so that the LGBTI leadership and organizations reflect the natural diversity of our communities.
Slide 6:
No on 8 ads lacked heart and inexcusably excluded LGBTI people.
• Survey respondents and town hall participants agreed:
• “The decision to „hide? gay people was unacceptable.”
• No on 8 messaging was “swift boated”by the Yes on 8 campaign.
• No on 8 ads were too abstract and “lacked heart.”
• We can’t take the personhood out of a human rights campaign.
• In moving ahead, community input emphasized the need to present personal stories.
It goes without saying that I believe the slideshow is worth watching, and the reports are worth reading. Lots of good info in the collected thoughts.
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Crossposted from Pam’s House Blend. Material from Mariage Equality USA used by permission.