GETEQUAL SAYS... Barack Obama, as you're putting the finishing touches on your State of the Union address, sign the Executive Order sitting on your desk that will prevent federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT employees. Show leadership -- we can't wait!

Thank you for everything....

PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL OF YOUR BAY AREA FRIENDS... RUMBLE IN SAN FRANCISCO ON THURSDAY:

On Thursday, October 4, Salvatore Cordileone — an outspoken anti-gay activist — will be installed as the head of the San Francisco Archdiocese. This is a slap in the face to the San Francisco LGBT population, but more importantly an affront to all equality-minded Catholics in the Bay Area. GetEQUAL — a national civil rights organization fighting for full equality for LGBT Americans — will protest his installation and to stand up for the dignity of ALL California families.

WHO: GetEQUAL and other allied organizations/individuals
WHAT: Archbishop Cordileone Installation Protest
WHEN: Thursday October 4th – 1:00PM to 4:00PM
WHERE: St. Mary’s Cathedral, 1111 Gough St., San Francisco, CA

Oakland Bishop Salvatore Cordileone was one of the major voices in the campaign to pass the discriminatory Proposition 8 in California. He is the head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee for the Defense of Marriage, whose sole purpose is to “defend” marriage from inclusion of loving and committed gay couples. His past radical-right political partners have included the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and Focus on the Family.

“Despite a vast majority of American Catholics affirming the true social justice teachings of Jesus and of the church, Cordileone continues to use right-wing political action to climb the ranks of church hierarchy,” said Billy Bradford, a local organizer with GetEQUAL. “The harm caused to our community — especially to our youth — is irreparable. This man has blood on his hands, and his installation in one of the few communities fully welcoming of LGBT Americans cannot go unchallenged.”

Event page at FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/events/417608781633902/


GetEQUAL CA, Bay Area: http://www.facebook.com/pages/GetEQUAL-CA-Bay-Area/166441893435288?fref=ts

GetEQUAL CA: http://www.facebook.com/pages/GetEQUAL-CA/108757559143037?fref=ts

GetEQUAL: 
Website: http://getequal.org/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/getequal
Twitter: http://twitter.com/getequal

WASHINGTON – Just minutes ago, GetEQUAL – a national lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization – The press release from GetEQUAL:#NOTMYVALUES

WASHINGTON – Just minutes ago, GetEQUAL – a national lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization – protested inside the “Values Voter Summit” at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. Activists walked into the conference carrying a simulated coffin, draped in a rainbow American flag, while reading anti-LGBT quotes from Tony Perkins (head of the Family Research Council, the main organizer of the event) and projecting the names and photos of young people who have taken their lives based on similar religion-based bigotry.

This protest is being organized to send a clear message that the organized bigotry against LGBT people that this event both represents and deliberately attempts to promote is an affront to our shared American values of justice, liberty, and equality and is a direct violation of the “equal protection” clause in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Values Voter Summit has featured a vast array of high profile anti-LGBT leaders, including Michele Bachmann, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Paul Ryan, and Tony Perkins, as well as seminars and plenary sessions on the subject of how to deny equal rights to LGBT Americans.<

The ‘values’ promoted at this summit alienate millions of LGBT Americans from full and equal citizenship; deny us our dignity; seek to prevent us from enjoying the basic joy and security of marriage; create an unsafe environment that leads suicide, violence, and hate crimes; and, too often, result in violence toward and even the murder of our LGBT brothers and sisters,” said GetEQUAL organizer Erica Keppler.

This action harkens back to the words of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who said, “We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all our citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.”

For more information about the protest, follow events on Twitter at #notmyvalues. Video from the protest action will be available soon on GetEQUAL’s YouTube page: www.youtube.com/getequal.

He-Men, Virginity Pledges and Bridal Dreams: Obama Administration Quietly Endorses Dangerous Ab-Only VIa Get Equal

Reposted from RH Reality Check

Sometime this month, an updated list of “evidence-based” teen pregnancy prevention programs was endorsed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and posted to the website of the Office of Adolescent Health (OAH).

No notice, not even a press release to announce the addition of three programs to the coveted list of 28 deemed effective and carrying the HHS seal of approval. Until now, this list was the holy grail of the Administration’s commitment to a science-based approach to teen pregnancy prevention and a directive for grantees of the President’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative (TPPI).

o why the secrecy about the new additions? What does the Administration have to hide?

We have been around long enough to expect politics as usual in Washington, D.C. The backroom deals and secrecy should not surprise us. The jettisoning of young people and their sexual health for political expediency is not new. But, this blatant hypocrisy needs to stop. This latest example is just too much.

Perhaps the Administration realized that the inclusion of Heritage Keepers Abstinence Education on this select list would call into question its commitment to young people and their sexual health. Once again, they have succumbed to the political pressure of social conservatives and allowed the ideology of the right to prevail over the health and well-being of the nation’s youth. The Obama Administration’s endorsement of this abstinence-only-until marriage program runs in direct contradiction to its stated commitment to the health and well-being of young people and, quite possibly, its promise to uphold science and evidence. 

The Trampling of Young People’s Sexual Health

The President has talked about his administration’s commitment to LGBT health and rights by recording his own “It Gets Better Video” and announcing support for both the Safe Schools Improvement Act and Student Non-Discrimination Act. And, the CDC has recognized the disproportionate impact of the HIV epidemic on young men who have sex with men and has committed millions of federal dollars to reducing the burden of disease on this population.

Yet, at best Heritage Keepers Abstinence Education ignores LGBT youth – and at worst it promotes homophobia. The stigmatization of LGBT youth throughout the program reinforces the cultural invisibility and bias these students already face in many schools and communities. The curriculum's focus on marriage as the only appropriate context for sexual behavior further ostracizes LGBT youth and the children of LGBT parents who still cannot legally marry in most states.

The Director of the CDC has called teen pregnancy prevention and HIV prevention two of the country’s six “winnable battles,” and recent analysis of National Survey of Family Growth data trends indicates that significant reductions in teen births have been primarily fueled by increased contraceptive use.

Today roughly 40 percent of high school students have had sex and young people under age 29 continue to account for approximately 30 percent of all new cases of HIV infection.

Yet, Heritage Keepers Abstinence Education does not include information about the health benefits of contraception or condoms.

Igniting Fears and Spreading Misinformation

In fact, Heritage Keepers contains little or no information about puberty, anatomy, sexually transmitted diseases, or sexual behavior. Instead, most of its lessons are devoted to promoting the importance of heterosexual marriage and the value of abstinence before marriage. Students are asked to take virginity pledges and class time is devoted to having students envision and plan their wedding days. Heritage Keepers also teaches students that:

• “Males and females are aroused at different levels of intimacy. Males are more sight orientated whereas females are more touch orientated.” The implications of this difference are explained further: “This is why girls need to be careful with what they wear, because males are looking! The girl might be thinking fashion, while the boy is thinking sex. For this reason, girls have a responsibility to wear modest clothing that doesn't invite lustful thoughts.” (Heritage Keepers, Student Manual, p. 46)

• “Sex is like fire. Inside the appropriate boundary of marriage, sex is a great thing! Outside of marriage, sex can be dangerous.” (Heritage Keeper, Student Manual, p. 22)

• “Cohabitation (when two people live together before marriage) is not like marriage! [Heritage Keepers, p. 30] When couples live together outside of marriage, the relationships are weaker, more violent, less [equal], and more likely to lead to divorce” (Heritage Keepers, Student Manual, p. 26)

• “One reason may be that when people bond closely through sexual activity, then break up and bond with someone else, and then someone else, it may become increasingly difficult to maintain a lasting bond.” (Heritage Keepers, Teacher Manual, p. 56)

• Sexual activity outside of marriage can lead to:“Sexually Transmitted Viruses, Sexually Transmitted Bacteria, Cervical Cancer, AIDS, Legal and financial responsibility for a child until he or she is at least 18, Raising a child alone, Emotional hurt and regret, Increased chance of abuse from a partner.” (Heritage Keepers, Student Manual, p. 35)

When planning their weddings during class:

• Young men are asked to envision their wedding day: “The doors swing open and there stands your bride in her white dress…This is the woman you have waited for (remained abstinent for) who has waited for you…This woman loves you and trusts you with all that she is and all that she has. You want to be strong, respectful and courageous for her. With all your heart, you want to protect her, and by waiting (sexually) you have.” (Heritage Keepers, Student Manual, p. 59)

• Young women are asked to envision their wedding day: “Everything is just as you have seen it in a million daydreams…” When the bride takes her father's arm: “Your true love stands at the front. This is the man who you have waited for (remained abstinent for) and who has waited for you…This man wants to be strong and courageous for you, to cherish and protect you… You are ready to trust him with all that you have and all that you are, because you have waited (sexually) you have it all to give.” (Heritage Keepers, Student Manual, p. 49)

Limited Evidence of Effectiveness

Not only does the Heritage Keepers program ostracize LGBT youth, withhold life-saving information from sexually active and HIV-positive youth, and use fear-based messages to shame sexually active youth, youth who have experienced sexual assault, and youth living in “nontraditional” households, there are also questions about the effectiveness of this program to delay sexual initiation or favorably impact sexual behavior among youth. The original evaluation by Stan Weed, et al., of the Heritage Keepers program in 2005 was criticized by other researchers for having a flawed design and was never published, much less published in a peer-reviewed journal.  Next, the program was reviewed in a congressionally mandated study of Title V abstinence-only-until marriage programs conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., and published in 2007. Mathematica found no evidence to support the effectiveness of the program. Specifically, their interim report stated:

…the [Heritage Keepers] Life Skills Education Component did not have significant impacts on 11 of the 12 intermediate outcomes related to sexual abstinence. The one exception is a significant impact among middle school youth on their friends’ support for abstinence.

Mathematica’s final report concluded:

Findings indicate that the [Heritage Keepers Abstinence Program’s] Life Skills Education Component had little or no impact on sexual abstinence or activity.

But, we are expected to believe that the third time must be a charm?  This winter, Mathematica was contracted by HHS to review evaluations for their rigor, and this time they recommended Heritage Keepers for inclusion on the list of HHS-approved programs. To date, there is still no published peer-reviewed manuscript to help assess what, if anything, changed for the program to make the list. Was a new study conducted? Did the authors submit new data or simply rework the old?

A Call for Evidence and Rights

Whether the data exists to support the program’s effectiveness is still in question, but the egregious content of the program is crystal clear. The Administration’s hypocrisy must end.  It is time to embrace both an evidence- and a rights-based approach to youth sexual health promotion. Evidence of effectiveness is important, but it should not be sufficient. It is not enough to help some students delay sexual initiation while leaving others ill-equipped to protect themselves when they do have sex. It is unacceptable to promote teen pregnancy prevention at the cost of ostracizing LGBT youth, survivors of sexual assault, or youth who are sexually active.  Thirty years of public health science clearly demonstrates that providing young people with information about the health benefits of both abstinence and contraception and condoms, does not cause young people to initiate sex earlier or have sex more often. Abstinence-only-until marriage programs leave young people unprepared. They are unethical.

Young people have the right to honest, age-appropriate, comprehensive sexual health information to help them protect their health and lives. The Administration should immediately remove Heritage Keepers Abstinence Education from the HHS-endorsed list of evidence-based programs currently posted on the Office of Adolescent Health’s (OAH) website. America’s youth deserve better.

Exclusive: GetEQUAL’s New Chair Discusses 2012 Focus – ‘We Can’t Wait!’

The New Civil Rights Movement

Editor’s note: We are proud and excited that GetEQUAL’s new Chair is Tanya Domi, a tireless LGBT and civil rights activist, Columbia University professor, and the Deputy Editor of The New Civil Rights Movement. She honors us and our community daily.

Today I have the honor to assume the position of chair of the Board of Directors of GetEQUAL, taking over from my colleague Dr. Jillian Weiss, who has served faithfully, with wisdom and skill in this position during the past two years of GetEQUAL’s ascendency to the national stage.

This is a challenging moment for the LGBT civil rights movement, with President Barack Obama — considered to be the most gay-friendly and to have done more for the LGBT community than any other president in U.S. history — seeking re-election. But that bar is quite low. Despite his support, we are far from equal. And for GetEQUAL supporters we simply can’t wait–our lives matter and the consequences of injustice affect us and our families everyday of our lives in America.

Our marriages remain banned and unrecognized under federal law. In the states where we can marry, those marriages do not qualify our foreign national partners for legal immigration. Not withstanding a Glee sequel each week or the daily Ellen DeGeneres talk show on television, we can be fired for being LGBT from our jobs in a majority of states. We have no federal protection from job discrimination. We have tenuous claims to housing discrimination protections based upon sexual orientation or gender identity. Despite the revocation of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law, lesbian, gay and bi-sexual service members can be discriminated against legally, while transgender service members were wholly excluded. Health care benefits for partners can be out of reach or become a financial burden when we are forced to pay taxes for compensation for benefits because we are not married or unable to marry.

GetEQUAL Activists in Los Angeles

Recently, Valerie Jarrett, friend and adviser to President Obama, held a two-hour meeting to tell the LGBT community that the president would not be signing an Executive Order banning discrimination among federal contractors, and instead he would be supporting passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) by Congress. (GetQUAL strongly supports a fully-inclusive ENDA.)

Some LGBT commentators called the meeting a two-hour train wreck, but no doubt, I would call it a disasterous beginning to the re-elect Obama for America campaign with the LGBT community.  The New York Times and The Washington Post in staff editorials strongly condemned the White House decision and urged Mr. Obama to sign the Executive Order expeditiously.

National Democratic Committee treasurer Andrew Tobias, who is gay, recently wrote in The Advocate that this is not the time to demand Obama’s signature on the Executive Order for federal contractors.  We can wait, Tobias said, because our demands put the election at risk, including the Supreme Court.  He forgot to include some important facts according to Jonathan Lewis (disclaimer, Lewis is a major donor to GetEQUAL) that the American public already believes that LGBT workers are protected from discrimination in the workplace and this is an issue of fairness. Indeed, according to Lewis, President Obama said in 2008 he would sign the executive order acknowledging it would be difficult to pass ENDA in Congress. President Obama has signed more than 100 other executive orders to date.

GetEQUAL Activist in Columbus, Ohio

GetEQUAL views its role during the campaign period in the run-up to the election as that of accountability of both parties (and any third parties if they are competing). Thus, we take President Obama at his word that he will fulfill his promise to sign an executive order during his first administration that would require contractors to honor LGBT nondiscrimination practices in hiring and firing.  Our activists have been making the rounds of Obama for America campaign offices all across the country, dropping off writing pens and engaging in conversations with campaign staff members, many of whom are not aware of the Obama 2008 promise or knowledgeable about the insurmountable problems LGBT persons face in unprotected workplaces.

GetEQUAL will remain engaged throughout the campaign period through election day as only GetEQUAL can–by illuminating bigorty, discrimination and basic unfairness that are antithetical to American values and principles. All of us in the LGBT community are deserving of what is best about America too.

I hope you’ll sign the GetEQUAL petition urging President Obama to reconsider his decision and to sign the Executive Order to ban LGBT discrimination by federal contractors. You can learn more about the federal contractor executive order by reading Jillian Weiss’s informative blog.

I want to thank Dr. Jillian Weiss for her outstanding leadership during the past two years. She has worked tirelessly with the Robin McGehee, Heather Cronk, and the members of the Board of Directors, moving the organization from a small but dedicated group, to a much larger group of trained activists around the country who have played a major role in both national and local efforts to secure full equality now. While we have many organizations dedicated to LGBT civil rights,  GetEQUAL plays a vital role as the only LGBT organization dedicated to an “outside” strategy that works to put pressure on reluctant politicians and to hold accountable those who stand in the way, through our direct nonviolent action.

GetEQUAL, I’m proud to point out to our readers and audience, is one of the few national organizations — if not the only one — which has had a transgender person, Dr. Jillian Weiss, as a Board chair. GetEQUAL has put the capital “T” in the LGBT acronym, by including trans activists and trans issues in actions around the country. Autumn Sandeen, also a member of GetEQUAL’s Board of Directors, and a Navy veteran, was arrested during the White House DADT protest action by GetEQUAL in November 2010.

We are grateful Jill Weiss will remain active with our Board of Directors where I know she will continue to make a vital contribution. She is one of the country’s leading  authorities on transgender issues in the workplace and a regular contributor at the Bilerico Project, where she reports and opines on LGBT issues. Go there and read her work, you will learn a lot!

Tanya L. Domi is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University who teaches about human rights in East Central Europe and the former Yugoslavia. She is a Harriman Institute affiliated faculty member. Prior to teaching at Columbia, Domi was a nationally recognized LGBT civil rights activist who worked for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force during the campaign to lift the military ban in the early 1990s. Domi also worked internationally in a dozen countries for more than a decade on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political and media development, human rights, gender issues, sex trafficking, and media freedom. She is currently writing a book about the emerging LGBT human rights movement in the Western Balkans.

GetEqual Gets New Board Chair

Reposted from bilerico dot com

The GetEqual Board of Directors has elected a new Chair, and I am stepping down as Board Chair, though I will continue on the Board. Our new chair is Tanya Domi, a seasoned activist with excellent qualifications.

I am pleased to strongly support Ms. Domi's ascension, effective today. After two years of working with GetEqual, we have moved the organization from a small but dedicated group to a much larger group of trained activists around the country, who have played a major role in both national and local efforts to secure full equality now. While we have many organizations dedicated to LGBT civil rights, thank goodness, only GetEqual is dedicated to the "outside" strategy, working to put pressure on reluctant politicians and to hold accountable those who stand in the way. Now, it will be in Ms. Domi's qualified hands to help us move to the next stage of the outside strategy in this important election season.

Tanya is an Adjunct Assistant Professor for International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, as well as the Senior Public Affairs Officer for International Affairs, Economics and Politics at Columbia University's Office of Communications and Public Affairs. Prior to joining Columbia in 2006, she worked internationally for more than a decade on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political and media development, gender issues, sex trafficking, human rights and media freedom. Among the countries where Ms. Domi has worked includes: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Georgia, The Gambia, Kosovo, Nepal, The Philippines, The Republic of Montenegro and the Republic of Serbia. Her previous work in Bosnia-Herzegovina implementing the Dayton Peace Accords, 1996-2000, included stints as the chairperson for the OSCE Media Experts Commission during the 1998 general elections; counselor to Amb. Robert Barry and executive assistant to the late Robert Frowick, and she later served as Spokesperson and Director of Press and Public Information under Amb. Barry from 1999-2000. Prior to working abroad, Ms. Domi served as a congressional aide to the late Frank X. McCloskey, chief of staff to Hawaii State Senator Anthony Chang and served 15 years in the U.S. Army as an enlisted soldier and commissioned officer.

The GetEqual Board of Directors has elected a new Chair, and I am stepping down as Board Chair, though I will continue on the Board. Our new chair is Tanya Domi, a seasoned activist with excellent qualifications.

I am pleased to strongly support Ms. Domi's ascension, effective today. After two years of working with GetEqual, we have moved the organization from a small but dedicated group to a much larger group of trained activists around the country, who have played a major role in both national and local efforts to secure full equality now. While we have many organizations dedicated to LGBT civil rights, thank goodness, only GetEqual is dedicated to the "outside" strategy, working to put pressure on reluctant politicians and to hold accountable those who stand in the way. Now, it will be in Ms. Domi's qualified hands to help us move to the next stage of the outside strategy in this important election season.

Tanya is an Adjunct Assistant Professor for International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, as well as the Senior Public Affairs Officer for International Affairs, Economics and Politics at Columbia University's Office of Communications and Public Affairs. Prior to joining Columbia in 2006, she worked internationally for more than a decade on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political and media development, gender issues, sex trafficking, human rights and media freedom. Among the countries where Ms. Domi has worked includes: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Georgia, The Gambia, Kosovo, Nepal, The Philippines, The Republic of Montenegro and the Republic of Serbia. Her previous work in Bosnia-Herzegovina implementing the Dayton Peace Accords, 1996-2000, included stints as the chairperson for the OSCE Media Experts Commission during the 1998 general elections; counselor to Amb. Robert Barry and executive assistant to the late Robert Frowick, and she later served as Spokesperson and Director of Press and Public Information under Amb. Barry from 1999-2000. Prior to working abroad, Ms. Domi served as a congressional aide to the late Frank X. McCloskey, chief of staff to Hawaii State Senator Anthony Chang and served 15 years in the U.S. Army as an enlisted soldier and commissioned officer.

GetEQUAL: Move On from Obama & Attack Our Enemies By Viktor Kerney

GetEQUAL has a new strategy. Stop me if you have heard this one already. In order to make the Obama Administration rethink their decision on workplace discrimination, they are:

Planning to work with lawmakers on this issue? No.

Finding out which federal contractors are against protecting all employees? No.

They are going to stage a bunch of protests against Obama.

Greg Sargent from the Washington Post reports:

GetEQUAL's managing director, Heather Cronk, tells me that in the next few weeks, the group will start staging actions against Obama For America offices throughout the country. The actions will begin with small gestures and will escalate over time.

"We'll certainly be doing potentially arrestable actions at the White House," Cronk tells me, confirming that the group has raised money in the six figures from gay donors to finance the actions.

So instead of securing votes for ENDA or meeting with lawmakers, they are going to cause unnecessary drama; as if this worked the last time.

When they heckled President Obama before they made news, but Obama didn't really change course. Hell, he even told them to go lobby Congress, but, no, they were fixed on attacking him, causing a lot of eye rolling and head scratching within our community. I thought they learned from those experiences, but I guess not.

And I find it very interesting that they are using a lot of resources, money and people power to 'pressure Obama'. Really? GetEQUAL is willing to disrupt his campaign in hopes to get his attention. Funny, I don't remember them ever using this much force on our opponents.

It's a shame that Obama gets more attacks than our enemies. I haven't seen GetEQUAL use this same vigor towards hate groups, religious leaders or politicians who gladly brag about taking our rights away. Where are the six figure plans for our enemies, GetEQUAL? Where are the press releases assailing One Million Moms, Ken Hutcherson, Bishop Harry Jackson, NOM or Scott Lively?

Now, truth be told, I do not hate GetEQUAL. I applaud their passion, but I question their strategy. It does not make sense to attack Obama, when our real enemies are out there. Yes, we should hold Obama's Administration accountable, but at the same time, we need to be a threat to our opponents.

I ask for GetEQUAL to rethink this messy plan and come up with something else. I want this group to use critical thinking in their protesting efforts. I really don't see this doing something productive. If anything, they will be painted as the Kardashians of the gay activism: Gaining attention with no substance.

We should make actual change, not disorganized noise. GetEQUAL, please reconsider your plans and seriously think about a more effective tactic.

David Fleck: Odd. Did not see anyone from the Jordan Rustin Coalition protesting outside the Republican Presidential Debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley back in September. Did see a quite a few of the GetEQUAL folks. Feel free to hit me up the next time Viktor or Jay (my old friend from Fresno) the next time you want to protest a Republican. We can share a ride and the cost of gas and have a good conversation on strategy.

Supporter, Activists, and Icons of GetEqual

#FORCESOFNATURE

Click on this link to Donate to GetEqual

MISSION

Our mission is to empower the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community and our allies to take bold action to demand full legal and social equality, and to hold accountable those who stand in the way.

VISION

We envision a society in which LGBTQ people experience equal protection under the law, and are free from cultural and social transphobia/homophobia, without caveat or compromise. To that end, GetEQUAL will inspire and equip the LGBTQ community and allies to fight back against discrimination in a way that builds power and personal agency, encourage LGBTQ people to take our place to push forward progressive change as equals, and to build bridges with all who struggle for justice and dignity in their lives.

THEORY OF CHANGE

GetEQUAL will work toward this mission and vision by:

• Building and authentically engaging a movement of people poised to take action, both online and offline, to create and sustain a critical mass demanding full equality
• Organizing direct actions that lead to moments of crisis in existing power structures – moments that result in more power for our allies in the movement and the political will for elected officials to resolve that conflict
• Illuminating and grounding our organizing work in the lived experience of discrimination and multiple oppressions
• Creating meaningful avenues for straight allies in our organizing work
• Refusing to count as friends those who stand in the way of equality — regardless of party affiliation or individual/organizational agendas
• Challenging false frameworks that claim legal and social equality for LGBT Americans has already arrived
• Engaging in relational organizing – meaning that we will strive to create deep and authentic relationships with supporters as often as possible, and that we will provide clear ways for supporters to take action with meaningful results

This work will involve many different avenues for supporters to take action individually, including both online and offline mechanisms within the context of sustained campaigns. Some of the mechanisms we intend to make use of in this work are:

• Online calls to action via email and social networks
• Direct actions that strategically target those with decision-making power
• Townhall meetings in local communities
• Training sessions on the history, strategy, and tactics of direct action
• Centralized online organizing hub
• Online toolkit to support local organizers’ work in their own communities
• Professional consulting and advice on direct action campaign planning
• Coordinated, distributed actions

BACKGROUND

The LGBTQ movement stands at a turning point. In the 40 years since the Stonewall Riots, our lives have changed immeasurably. We have Gay-Straight Alliances in schools across the country, out characters in movies and on television, affirming communities of faith, and openly gay public officials. But in 2010, we are still unequal as working people, as members of the military, as families, as immigrants, as students, as taxpayers, and as citizens.

All across the country, LGBTQ people are regularly the victims of hate crimes and discrimination on the job. More than 30 states have banned same-sex marriage, including two states (California and Maine) that had previously affirmed marriage rights. Several states have banned us from adopting children, and in the majority of states it remains legal to fire people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Perhaps most discouraging, we have seen little movement on our federal legislative priorities: the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is mired in delays and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) still codify discrimination as the law of the land. All the while, supposedly progressive leaders openly refuse to prioritize our civil rights, and many of our own leaders (out elected officials and directors of long-standing LGBTQ advocacy organizations) have become mouthpieces of the status quo – urging us to continue waiting patiently for equality.

In light of this discouraging state of affairs, hundreds of thousands of Americans – LGBTQ and straight – are demanding a new direction for our movement. In October of 2009, more than 150,000 people marched on Washington to demand full federal equality. Activists young and old returned to their communities inspired, and people everywhere are still pushing for change at home.

We believe this momentum can fundamentally change the current political dynamic, restricting support for those who stand in the way of full equality, and emboldening those who want to do the right thing. No longer can we settle for empty promises while our youth commit suicide, our rights are stripped away at the ballot box, and we are treated as second-class citizens. The time has come to say unequivocally that we are more than a political movement – we are a civil rights movement.

GetEQUAL exists to serve and grow this constituency of everyday Americans – LGBTQ and straight – who are willing and ready to demand equality. We are committed to working with everyone, no matter the sex, gender, race, class, look, age, ability, religion, family status, and citizenship to build a society in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people are equal.