Tag Archives: MarriageEqualityUSA

MarriageEqualityUSA: Collective Wisdom of Our Grassroots Community


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

Prop 8 Hurt My Family: Ask Me How

Some of the thoughts from some of the slides:

Slide 4:

Clergy leaders were underutilized by the No on 8 campaign.

MarriageEqualityUSA - Slide 4 - Collective Wisdom of Our Grassroots Community• 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.

MarriageEqualityUSA - Slide 5 - Collective Wisdom of Our Grassroots Community• “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:

MarriageEqualityUSA - Slide 6 - Collective Wisdom of Our Grassroots Community• “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.

~~~~~

Crossposted from Pam’s House Blend. Material from Mariage Equality USA used by permission.