The demonstrations against Prop 8 that have been organized using Facebook and wikis are promising signs of an opportunity to build a stronger, grassroots-powered movement for marriage equality. The "Please don't divorce…" photo project is a fabulous grassroots action to help people build a personal connection to and empathy for people who are hurt by Prop 8.
One of the great weaknesses of the No on 8 campaign is that it did not take advantage of the opportunities for grassroots/netroots organizing. Also, the campaign made a big strategic error by hiding the faces of gay people, when we know that personal heart connection is what moves many people to change their minds about supporting gay rights.
The actions of the last six weeks are a great start — and there are many more opportunities to weave together a grassroots, netroots, people-powered movement. There are opportunities for people working on bottom-up initiatives to coordinate together. There are opportunities to take advantage of the power of Web 2.0 technology to empower grassroots organizers and younger activists who live online.
The Web has changed organizing; it will never work top-down again. The Web has shown us how to bring people together to make change. EqualityCamp is a pilot event to bring Web 2.0 geeks who know the lessons of the Web well together with activists for marriage equality and equal rights for gays.
EqualityCamp on January 3 in San Francisco, is a "BarCamp" style event that will bring together netroots, grassroots, and technologists to help coordinate efforts to repeal Prop 8 and support marriage equality. The people with the most power aren't the people in a few organizations. We all have power. That means you, too. We're organizing a way for you to exercise it easily. At EqualityCamp you set the agenda. We discover what we want and we teach each other what we need to know.
Themes and topics at EqualityCamp are expected to include:
* connecting "netroots" and traditional organizing
* using "Web 2.0″ tools to support a grassroots movement
* bringing effective practices from the Obama campaign into the movement for marriage equality
* digital video concepts to share stories and build support
Come to EqualityCamp and flesh out your ideas to use your networks, organizing and tech skills to support marriage equality and help repeal Prop 8. We are dedicated to making a people-powered marriage equality movement work from the bottom-up.
Join us!
January 3, 2008
Citizen Space
425 2nd Street, Suite 300
San Francisco, CA 94107
Google Map
For more information: http://equalitycamp.com/
Registration (you'll need a ticket to attend): http://equalitycamp.eventbrite.com/
If you cannot make it to San Francisco for January 3rd, then visit EqualityCamp.com to learn how to make your own in your town. Please comment if you have any more questions.
I'd be interested in your take as to why Prop 8 passed... and subsequently why the State Supreme Court upheld it.
Personally, as a straight male chauvinist dick, I believe it's because most people, even those sympathetic to gays and their right to marry, just don't "care" about the issue as much. On the other hand there's a very structured, financially organized, and numerically large portion of the population who definitely "cares" about defending what they consider proper marriage.
Radical Right-wing Christians have been the scourge of this country since its conception and think that anything natural in human emotion is sinful... unless it fits into their proper mold which they *can* control, and perceived control is very popular and gives the masses comfort.
Personally I'm still not sold on the idea of marriage in general. You'd think that if two people loved each other they'd trust each other enough to not have to worry about locking it all in with a contract. It's really just a piece of paper these days and, considering the divorce rate, means less now than it ever has. So my question to all the gays is - why the big deal? They see it as a fight for equality, the Christians see it as a perversion of their ideals. Someone loses no matter what, though I'm sure the extremists on both ends want to see either homosexuality, or reliance on religion as a basis of society, end.
Really, marriage just boils down to an archaic tradition. Humans want to pair off at some point. This "pairing" and its exact definition will NEVER be completely solidified. It should be no business of the state government, or ANY government for that matter, to even try. But that's just my opinion, and I haven't bothered to investigate beyond that much.
So I would have voted if I could, though the situation is so complex it wouldn't be with the same enthusiasm I channeled each time I fruitlessly voted against Bush.
Posted by: Mortimer Ferd | May 28, 2009 at 09:03 PM