The Mad Professah Lectures

Lambda Legal has issued a statement calling "for more education and time" in order to restore marriage equality in California, says that bring the measure to a vote in 2012 would be "the strongest strategy."

From the press release

Lambda Legal Calls for More Education and Time to Restore Marriage Equality in California "While we're within striking distance, we're not there yet."

Los Angeles, November 30, 2009 - Lambda Legal today called for more
outreach, education, research and time to change hearts and minds before
returning to the ballot to reopen marriage to gay and lesbian couples in
California. At least one initiative to restore marriage equality for
same-sex couples is currently circulating that, if it qualifies, would
appear on the November, 2010 ballot, but Lambda Legal believes that putting
this measure to a vote in 2012 is the strongest strategy.

The Courage Campaign, in partnership with Lambda Legal and other leading
groups, has recently concluded the first phase of extensive and
groundbreaking research about public beliefs about marriage and gay people.
It confirms that attitudes are shifting steadily toward equal treatment of
same-sex couples, and that conversations among family members and other
close relationships inevitably speed the process.

"Over the past year since Prop 8's passage, we've expanded our community
education in California and have seen the remarkable national progress
exert a positive influence here," said Jennifer C. Pizer, Marriage Project
Director for Lambda Legal. "We've seen our many community groups
collaborating as never before. With the great field operations of the
Courage Campaign, Vote for Equality, Equality California and countless new
activists and allies across the state, the next two years hold great
promise. This work complements the efforts within California's racial and
ethnic minority communities and within the state's diverse communities of
faith. There has never been any doubt that the LGBT community and our
friends and allies will restore marriage equality in California – the only
question has been when. We now believe it's November 2012."

The recently concluded research validated the lasting effect of the work
already being done in the successful Camp Courage program and by Courage
Equality Teams organizing across the state. These grassroots efforts are
building support for marriage equality by training Californians to tap into
their community's resources to start a conversation and connect the
movement for equality to their own lives and their own experiences. This
outreach has surged ahead, fueled by the passion and determination of
countless new activists who have committed to this cause within the past
year.

"We're so close," said Pizer. "Each year, each month, public understanding
shifts a bit more in our direction. As crushing as it was to lose in Maine
this year and in California in 2008, support is building strongly in our
favor: in 2000, Proposition 22 won with 61 percent of the vote;
Proposition 8 passed by a meager margin of only four points. It's
insulting to have to wait and work to regain a core human right that should
never have been taken. As legal advocates, we know minorities should never have to beg the majority for equal rights. Given the decision by the California Supreme Court earlier this year, that's our only path. It's essential that we choose wisely when to return to the ballot – while we're within striking distance, we believe we're not there yet."

It's interesting that Lambda would release their statement now, after the 2010 absolutists are circulating petitions in a vain attempt (in multiple senses of the word!) to collect the 800K-1100K signatures necessary to qualify a Proposition 8 repeal for the statewide general election ballot next year. It seems Lambda may have been influenced by Courage Campaign also finally revealing their "neutral" stance on 2010, a change from the Rick Jacobs-led organization's previously announced gung-ho position in favor of rushing to the ballot next November. MadProfessah posted the news from Facebook posts ove rthe break, but today the Courage Campaign released a press release making it official that they no longer support a 2010 repeal effort.

“For months, we have laid out the criteria for moving forward. Like the Obama Campaign, we understand that we need a combination of powerful and clear research that informs an expertly run campaign, an unstoppable movement that harnesses the new energy we have seen since the passage of Prop. 8 and the connections through personal stories and outreach in order to win at the ballot box,” said Rick Jacobs, the Courage Campaign founder and Chair. “We are taking the lessons learned from last year’s Prop. 8 campaign, the campaigns in Maine and other states to understand the fundamental work that must be done before moving forward in California. We also must come together as a community to create a broad coalition and governance structure, put in place a strong manager and secure the resources to win. Right now, the pieces are not all in place to do so confidently.

To Lambda I say (as I did to Courage Campaign earlier), welcome to the Prepare to Prevail team! Now, let's work together to restore marriage equality in California.

Rumors that had been swirling for weeks about a schism between the only significant organizations that were supporting a 2010 repeal of Proposition 8 were confirmed by the Bay Area Reporter this weekend:

The chair of the statewide Courage Campaign told the Bay Area Reporter this week that he doesn’t see the governing structure and other necessary elements in place to win marriage equality.

[...]

As to whether his group’s stance on 2010 has changed, Jacobs said, “Courage Campaign has never changed our attitude or the basis on which we’re operating, which is that we have to have research that informs a path to victory, a governance structure that the progressive community and LGBT community respects, a campaign manager that is empowered to make decisions reporting to that structure, and funding, so we’ve been very, very consistent on that and remain so.”

Asked if he sees those elements in place at all, Jacobs said, “I don’t see them.”

[...]

Courage Campaign has been doing research on repealing Prop 8 for months.

Jacobs said that some summaries of the research will be available “I would think sometime in December.”

After the B.A.R story, Rick Jacobs posted a lengthy statement on Facebook clarifying Courage Campaign's position on a 2010 repeal of Proposition 8:

First, I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. Second, I invite those interested here to read the blog post that the BAR put up. No where in it does it mesh with their controversy-grabbing headline: neither I nor Courage criticized the leadership of the 2010 effort. Read the story. What I do say is what we have been saying since late July. Nothing we have said has changed.

Second, I would be very interested in knowing more about the supposed meeting we had with EQCA. I will tell you that since June, Courage has sought such a meeting, has sought to improve relations in the community and we hope and expect to meet and talk soon. We look forward to working with everyone so that we stop duplicating efforts and better coordinate/share information.

Courage has a specific view of the means by which training and organizing should occur. That's why we have so many Equality Teams, all of which are led by volunteers who are, in turn, led by Deputy Field Organizers (all volunteers) with the professional leadership of a small, smart and highly motivated field staff (Hope, Arisha, Anthony and Caitlin) who in turn benefit from the leadership and experience of Sarah Callahan. ... See More

We are learning from our research and applying lessons at every turn. We try to integrate online and offline and we try as hard as we can to build on ideas and leadership of our members and volunteers. We have had some remarkable results from the ideas and work of many, many of those teams and others. The recent meeting Derrick and others held at Lucy Florence Coffee House about homophobia in the Black community is just one such example. No one person or organization can think of or do everything. We are all made more powerful by the manifold talents and ideas of others. Our job at Courage is to magnify those where we can.

Our model is to build a permanent volunteer infrastructure using the Obama Campaign as the jumping off point. We believe firmly that LGBT rights are part of the larger progressive movement. All of our work is informed by that.

In that context, it's important to look around. Last week, for the first time in years, we saw major demonstrations and non-violent civil disobedience on multiple UC campuses. Why? "Fees" (which is California French for tuition) increased 32% at UCs, resulting in a three-fold increase in ten years. Cal States are set to reject 50,000 or more eligible students because of budget cutbacks. Community colleges and Cal States are the traditional routes for advancement for those in our society least able financially to afford higher education. They are the backbone of California's once upwardly mobile workforce, the only mechanism by which we as a state can grow our way out of this economic mess. The once model California education system that took every Californian from kindergarten to post-doctoral work, is in shambles--unless you are white and rich (or in some cases just rich).

And in 2010, next month, the state's $70 billion general fund budget faces a $25 billion shortfall, plus a further debt to special funds which could effectively mean we have a $40 billion deficit. Forty billion out of $70 billion. And you thought 2009 was bad.
Think about it: our state cannot print money to get out of deficit (as can a sovereign nation) and the right wing has convinced the entire country that all government is bad. We have Meg Whitman, a billionaire who has not voted for "twenty or thirty years" saying that we have to lower taxes and spend more on higher ed. Maybe she can do that kind of voodoo math on E-Bay, but it does not work in government. If that's the ethos for 2010, we are in a whole heap of trouble. Well, we're in trouble anyway, but I and Courage are not about to sit around and wait for candidates to talk nonsense, get elected and just make things worse. We're done with that.

Now is the time for the LGBT community to stand up together and rebuild our state. Now is the time for us to stand together to lead. More about this in coming weeks and months, but clearly LGBT people, along with everyone else, are hurt when colleges are unaffordable or entrance closed, healthcare is decimated, unemployment (and underemployment) rise to over 20%. We're all in this together. As Derrick has pointed out so eloquently in what he and RENEWL do, we win equality by lending a hand, leading in a fight for all of us and showing that together we are all stronger.

As to the current effort to put an initiative on the ballot, while organizationally we will not participate for the reasons above, we do not now, nor have we ever, attempted in any way to interfere with the efforts of others to win equality as they see fit. I and Courage greatly respect that there are different paths to victory. As we have seen all too well, no one path is "correct." What we do know from Maine and our research to date is that we have a lot more to learn.

I look forward to working with everyone to win equality--economic and social--for our state and nation. And clearly it is going to take all of us.

Welcome to the Prepare to Prevail team, Mr. Jacobs!