How To Sabotage the CA 2010 Marriage Equality Campaign;Twitter Style
@MichaelCBeck If you see signature gathers to repeal prop 8 in 2010 please DON’T SIGN! Many reasons as to why and I’ll be happy to tell you.
@3xgay If you see signature gathers to repeal prop 8 in 2010 please DON’T SIGN! Many reasons as to why and I’ll be happy t… http://bit.ly/5h9MHK
madprofessah RT @3xgay: If you see signature gathers to repeal prop 8 in 2010 please DON’T SIGN! Many reasons as to why … http://bit.ly/5h9MHK
Don’t ya just love Twitter? It’s the best invention since the iPod, is my take. For instance, we all thought (in the marriage equality activist world) that the hatchets had been buried between those folks and organizations supporting a 2010 marriage equality campaign verses those who supported a 2012 campaign. Oh, it got pretty heated for awhile there. The major players EQCA, Love Honor And Cherish, Courage Campaign and Vote For Equality darn near created a civil war of sorts in the movement these last several months. But then things began to simmer down. Folks began to get battle-weary. After all, who’s the REAL enemy in all of this, right? Certainly not each other. So everyone respectfully withdrew their guns and knives and well, it seemed folks were starting to play nice nice.
But apparently that was just for show. Last week Love Honor And Cherish announced that they were launching their signature gathering campaign after finding out that the ballot language for the marriage equality proposition had been approved by the state. And launch the signature gathering campaign they have—all sorts of groups and 2010 supporting orgs are waving the signature gathering banner and the worker bees have hit the streets in full force. But apparently this isn’t sitting well with Vote For Equality peeps. Even though both Vote For Equality and EQCA said that they would support a 2010 campaign if in fact a campaign was launched, now they’ve got their house drones posting on Twitter no less encouraging folks NOT to deliver a signature to anyone requesting one for the 2010 campaign. Ron Buckmire of Jordan Rustin Coalition and also on one of EQCA’s boards is spreading the gospel as well. And clearly proud of it from the looks of his tweets.
But the messy mess gets even messier.
And we ain’t gettin’ involved. So let’s all settle down, find a comfortable place on the sidelines and watch the fall out–cause there’s surely gonna be one! Now go to Twitter and check out the cat fight between Ron Buckmire (@madproffesah) and Robert Xicano Olivarez of Latino Equality Action Project (LEAP) @Latinoequality. Last I checked Olivarez posted on my Facebook profile that he wants to form a protest against EQCA to have Buckmire ousted. LMAO! It just doesn’t get better than this!
UPDATE: Lester Aponte of Love Honor Cherish had this to say on his Facebook update tonight:
“Apparently Prepare to Prevail has launched a Decline to Sign campaign. Today we were told to leave a Queer Pinoy event at UCLA once someone from API Equality showed up. The organizers had invited us in and everyone we had a chance to ask was happy to sign. Public statements from other groups are coming out. Have they no shame?”
Stunning. The guns and knives are most definitely out again. Stay tuned.
News | Derrick Mathis November 21, 2009
29 Comments to “How To Sabotage the CA 2010 Marriage Equality Campaign;Twitter Style”
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EQCA Sends Black Person To Set Decline To Sign Rumors Straight | RENWL — November 23, 2009 @ 1:17 pm
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Are EQCA Staffers Nothing But Lying Liars? Or Just Plain Goofy Dumb? | RENWL — November 25, 2009 @ 9:31 pm
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By Ray, November 21, 2009 @ 8:19 pm
I never had the impression that VFE was advocating one year or another. The fight this past summer was always amongst LHC, EQCA, CC and the Prepare to Prevail folks.
By Derrick, November 21, 2009 @ 8:29 pm
Well, they kinda went to bed with EQCA a while back. But they were pretty quiet about it. They really tried hard to make themselves look as “bipartisan” as possible. But the truth of the matter is that VFE has been staunchly for 2012 side by side with EQCA. Michael Beck, one of the tweeters works for VFE. So, there ya have it.
By Ray, November 21, 2009 @ 8:39 pm
It depends on how you define “staunchly for 2012″. That description seem more appropriate for organizations like the Jordan-Rustin Coalition or for Honor Pac. If VFE is a 2012 advocate, then they’re certainly doing so with a much smarter approach, which arguably is less damaging to the 2010 effort as well.
I’m not going to name names but VFE personnel were approached with the 2010 petition. Some declined while some signed it.
By admin, November 21, 2009 @ 8:44 pm
Really! Well that’s news. No seriously. VFE negotiated with both Courage Campaign and EQCA early last year. VFE decided to go with EQCA because of funding drama—the carrot EQCA dangled in front of VFE’s face. Gotta go where the money goes. So VFE told Courage, sorry. And went to bed with EQCA on the 2012 angle. But very interesting this tidbit of some VFE folks signing on 2010. Love it. This is getting more funkier by the minute.
By Robert, November 21, 2009 @ 8:54 pm
Now is the time to stand up to EQCA. Their true intentions are clear.
EQCA is at war with the CA LGBT community! The grassroots is you and me, all of us. And EQCA should never be at war with its own people.
Not like this…
Admin, perhaps an update is on order re Mr Aponte’s FB post as well…
And thanks for clarifying that Beck is an VFE employee.
(VFE is an LA Gay & Lesbian Center project)
IT HAS HIT THE FAN!!!
By Robert, November 21, 2009 @ 8:55 pm
typo in the story my twitter handle is @LatinoEquality
By Ray, November 21, 2009 @ 9:06 pm
Robert, Beck’s employer is the Task Force, not VFE. At least according to Facebook.
By Derrick, November 21, 2009 @ 9:12 pm
Okay. But he’s working for VFE through the Task Force. Listen, the guy works for VFE. He’s doing VFE legwork. And the Task Force by the way came out very early on about it’s support for 2012.
Employer:
National Gay & Lesbian Task Force
Position:
Organizing & Training Fellow
Time Period:
June 2009 – August 2009
Location:
Los Angeles, CA
Description:
Working on Marriage Equality in California.
http://www.voteforequality.org
Employer:
Etna Interactive
Position:
Marketing Dept.
Time Period:
April 2007 – May 2009
Location:
San Luis Obispo, CA
By Robert, November 21, 2009 @ 9:22 pm
What I don’t understand is all these 2010 folks doign so much work for VFE, don’t they understand they back room dynamics?
By Alan, November 21, 2009 @ 9:50 pm
@Derrick Why is a personal opinion of a former employee of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force automatically the official opinion of Vote for Equality? His fellowship with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force was completed and he is no longer employed with them. As far as I know, he’s currently a freelance actor and works as a promoter for GYM bar. People from both sides of the fence have volunteered with Vote for Equality and yet they all come together from both sides of the aisle to do the work that needs to be done with real voters. Where you see drama and conflict by making an assumption by taking someone’s personal opinion which BTW, can go both ways depending on who you pick, I see people working to overcome their differences toward a common goal.
By Derrick, November 21, 2009 @ 9:55 pm
Oh is it “personal opinion” now? Well shucks. Okay. So with Ron Buckmire being on an EQCA board of sorts, I guess that’s personal opinion too, eh?
By Ray, November 21, 2009 @ 10:05 pm
I “work” for VFE as a volunteer. I wholeheartedly support their work. Why? Because I believe their efforts are CRITICAL to our campaigns in either year. As a proponent of going back to the ballot in 2010, I believe we need to go into it with as strong of force as it is smart. We need to do messaging research and we need to figure out what works (and what doesn’t). Why should I be discouraged to help do this important work just because of a few bad apples?
VFE isn’t publicly advocating any year nor do they promote decline to sign behavior. Like I said, I even know members of VFE who have signed the petition when approached privately. It’s a “non-partisan” group that is doing groundbreaking work in combating homophobia.
By Chris, November 21, 2009 @ 10:05 pm
@Derrick, I think it is one thing to vent frustration at an organization who has taken a position contrary to yours and when you are upset at the actions of a member of their board. However, Alan is right, that it is not fair to punish a seemingly neutral organization for the tweet of a former employee who was on loan from another organization. Especially when other people have said their employees seem to have different opinions about 2010 v 2012 and it would seem they are being given the options to follow their own personal conscious.
By Derrick, November 21, 2009 @ 10:12 pm
Okay. A: I’m not upset at all. I find the whole thing amusing.
B. Did you read the earlier comment I left about the arrangement between VFE and EQCA? I didn’t make that up. They teamed up for a reason. I’m just telling what I know. I’m sorry if it upsets anyone that politics, even gay politics is BUSINESS. VFE is simply not the innocent or neutral in this scenario. Never have been. They’ve always had a very “invested” role in whatever direction EQCA decided to go. And you better believe that was also going to be the direction VFE went as well.
That’s the reality of it.
By Ray, November 21, 2009 @ 10:25 pm
Just because EQCA isn’t an advocate for the 2010 movement doesn’t mean we can’t work with them on anything. The very ballot language that we are collecting signatures for was vetted by Mr. Geoff Kors himself.
By Ray, November 21, 2009 @ 10:35 pm
And to add another comment: regardless of who VFE is working more closely with, it’s still unfair to label them as a “major player that nearly created a civil war”. They have done more to bring the two sides together than the opposite.
By Jeffrey Taylor, November 21, 2009 @ 10:51 pm
The lovely thing about all of this is we can really pass the popcorn and collect signatures while we watch the internal drama unfold. Everyday people just don’t care what happens in this bubble, and it does no massive damage to the quest for signatures.
I will say, however, that the quickest route to everyone’s time being eaten up by these pointless-in-the-long-term squabbles is to have a successful signature-gathering campaign. If 2010 doesn’t work, we can expect two more years of this playground nonsense, and that’s when it stops being funny.
By Robert, November 21, 2009 @ 11:08 pm
I was bad and had some chocolate overload cake , now I am watching the proposal… My Pumpkin Spice reed diffuser oil smells great! G’nite!
By Alan, November 21, 2009 @ 11:53 pm
Did VFE actively decline dedicated volunteers from Courage Campaign and LHC? Please share the news with the rest of. I’d like to hear the details.
VFE only has three employees, Regina, Laura and Jay. The remainder 800+ “volunteers” are an amalgam of staff donated by their respective organizations, people that have quit their day jobs to volunteer full-time and (the group that I fall in) just people who can find a few hours of time that they can spare including those from Courage Campaign, LHC, Equal Roots, Equality Network, Love=Love, CA Faith for Equality, Marriage Equality USA and the list goes on.
I don’t need to believe in a conspiracy that VFE is secretly using its ex-volunteers to sabotage the 2010 campaign. They have their own Twitter/Facebook account to do that publicly if that’s really a priority for them.
As far as the proportion of National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and EQCA staff that have become organizers and trainers alongside the other full-time volunteers, I don’t blame VFE for the lack of Courage Campaign and Love Honor Cherish staff. I see both at canvasses regularly and as far as I know, they have the same opportunity to move up the volunteer ranks to become so-called “supervolunteers” with responsibilities that any other volunteer would get no matter what organization they come from should they have the available time and passion to dedicate to the “work” when asked to recommit.
By Lester Aponte, November 22, 2009 @ 12:11 am
Love Honor Cherish has been a co-sponsor of the VFE canvasses all year and we always have more volunteers there than any other single group. We believe passionately in the work VFE has been doing and have never found ourselves unwelcome. It is about changing hearts and minds on the issue of marriage equality. That is vital to a 2010 campaign. We have been asked to also co-sponsor the canvass EQCA is doing on December 12. As Ray mentioned, VFE does not have a position on the 2012 vs. God-knows-when debate. We have certainly not had a blanket refusal from them to sign. Until today, it did not appear that anyone was trying to sabotage us. Perhaps our showing up everywhere with clipboards and getting thousands of signatures has upset some people. We are focused on our work and have no desire to perpetuate this unnecessary internecine strife. I call on EQCA and on every organization in the Prepare to Prevail coalition to disavow any efforts to Decline to Sign. Let everyone choose for themselves whether or not they want to sign. We have to work together, if not now, in the future. SO GROW UP, GET OVER YOURSELVES AND STOP SABOTAGING YOUR FELLOW ACTIVISTS. Don’t be a schmuck, mire.
By Marc, November 22, 2009 @ 12:33 am
They haven’t succeeded in sabotaging it yet
Just not cool at all
By Michael, November 22, 2009 @ 12:41 am
If you were involved in NO ON 8 and have done canvassing for VFE, you’ll notice that everyone running the canvassing events are the same people who ran the phone banking sessions for EQCA during the campaign. I doubt that’s a coincidence. I’m fairly certain EQCA has placed various volunteers from their ranks in the VFE org to help further their agenda and keep an eye on things. Wouldn’t be surprised if that was happening with other orgs as well.
By Frustrated Lesbian, November 22, 2009 @ 6:44 pm
I really hope that all of the people that have commented here are also actively working/volunteering with some organization, be it Love Honor Cherish OR EQCA. Everyone involved with any of the aforementioned organizations is doing good work to advance the cause, and *just* sitting around debating the intentions and efficacy of any of these efforts doesn’t move us forward. If you hate EQCA for some reason, fine, you’re joined by many. But at least find another organization that you agree with and do the work. Because it really seems like this knock-down drag-out war between the orgs is only happening in the blogosphere.
By Another Lesbian, November 22, 2009 @ 9:50 pm
I agree with Frustrated Lesbian that all this “knock-down drag-out war” is only happening online and it isn’t helping anyone out. I don’t really understand this type of chismosa. Can we just do the work that needs to be done and quit this “he said she said” crap?
By Derrick, November 22, 2009 @ 10:58 pm
Hmmm…I’ve been trying to find the statement where someone said a “knock-down drag-out war” was occurring within the marriage equality realm. I don’t see it. I wonder how it all got embellished to that? At any rate, and this goes out to the critics of this post and conversations that have followed—I don’t see where people are wrong for being upset about a “decline to sign” campaign occurring as they are attempting to reach a very critical goal in obtaining a place on the 2010 ballot. I’m tired of so-called committed and serious activists “shushing” others when others have a legitimate beef or concern. So what? People are supposed to just pretend someone isn’t attempting to damage their efforts? That makes it not happening?
By Andrea Shorter, November 23, 2009 @ 11:29 am
Folks,
Thank you for the opportunity to clarify Equality California’s commitment to win marriage back in California:
EQCA is NOT organizing or involved with a decline-to-sign campaign. Furthermore, we don’t know of any other organization that is waging a decline-to-sign campaign versus individuals who are expressing their position on the matter of when best to return to the ballot in California.
EQCA is working with a number of different organizations to win marriage back — regardless of whether they support a 2010 or 2012 campaign.
We respect the work of all of our marriage equality advocates in California. The Jordan/Rustin Coalition, of which Ron Buckmire is a founder, is a member of Let California Ring, a public education project on marriage housed at the Equality California Institute (www.letcaliforniaring.org). Over 50 organizations are involved in the coalition that drives this effort. Vote For Equality (VFE) is a member.
Regarding Love Honor Cherish: We admire the dedication of Love Honor Cherish. As Lester says above, we’re looking at co-sponsoring a canvass with Love Honor Cherish in December as we have co-sponsored other canvasses with LHC in the past.
EQCA, along with several other organizations and leaders, maintains that 2012 is the optimum time to return to the ballot to win marriage back in California. In the meantime, we are working daily to build much needed support among Californians for marriage equality — work that will make the critical difference for victory.
Best,
Andrea Shorter
Deputy Director, Marriage and Coalitions
Equality California
By Robert, November 24, 2009 @ 1:04 am
Andrea, A bit of a half truth… but not intentional I am sure. On the personal level, you still sit on a pedestal, and I respect you much. I think you know that… As an EQCA employee, I do not think you are any longer seeing the disconnect that many members of the communities of color and diversity have with EQCA and its choice of partners from their communities… Let us just say that it does not feel broadly diverse and inclusive. It feels like the choices are collegial and not necessarily represented of all facets of the community. The exception being API Equality – they seem really great at creating this broad umbrella of community that is united and hard working. Some of the other groups you have aligned yourself with, may have political connections but they lack strong community presence amongst a large number of the community. The are not “bad” but how many folks have a strong connection to a PAC for example.
Ron Buckmire is actively advocating decline to sign, or he was through yesterday. In public Tweets and on Facebook, he did not back down from that position, but remained stand-offish about it and the attempt at discussion.
Ron Buckmire is the President of the JRC and he is on the board of the EQCA marriage equality board “Let California Ring.” When you place someone on a board, especially a community board of that nature, you are placing them with an understanding that they will fund raise; further the interests of the organization, and represent the values and policy of the board. It would make no sense to place someone on the board who advocates issues that do not further the cause of the organization/board nor the community it represents…. Read More… Read More
EQCA we understand you are for 2012. I hear you, the community hears you. And your Prepare to Prevail partners have been masterful at positioning that 2012 is the choice of the majority of the groups and orgs that work in communities of color. That is not true, especially in the Latino LGBT community. Many Latino LGBT orgs have not taken a stand, some including the Latino Equality Alliance are on the record supporting 2010.
At this point, who is there to convince anymore re the 2010/2012 campaign? Why the constant drumbeat about it. To the many members of the community that feels like an active campaign against them. Most have decided that they support 2010 or 2012 or remain apathetic as usual. I am not even on the 2010 campaign, I just signed up to collect a certain number of signatures to do my part and to give other Latinos an avenue to participate if they desire. But at this point the constant “we think 2012 is best, we think 2012 is best…” OK WE HEAR YOU. THANKS!
If Ron Buckmire now disavows a “decline to sign” position then OK cool. It wasn’t his position yesterday, but cool. We can move past. But all of this acrimony did not develop overnight over one or two tweets. EQCA continues to ignore the act of mending fences and making amends with its community. EQCA still keep pounding the 2012 beat loudly everywhere. EQCA still is exclusive on its community partners.
And frankly, Ron Buckmire is still referring to 2010 as “absolutists” and the “irrationality” of their campaign… Well, it is still name calling even of the words are dollar sized. I am a in the streets activist. I do not have 20 years of marriage equality experience. Frankly, I think that is a plus. I do have 21 years supporting my Democratic party and candidates of my choice. I have 37 years of being a Latino living a poor to lower middle class life. I have faced unemployment and see so many of my friends still stricken with HIV at the highest levels. And yes, I am more barrio brown than collegial tan, so my work for the LGBT community as a part of the Center’s Project YES back in the days may not be sufficient but no one complained when they had me going to Sacramento to lobby as a youth leader for then AB101. I spent months working against 187 and 209 with community groups. So maybe marriage equality hasn’t been MY priority for 20 years, but no one asked me when they made it the LGBT community priority over the passage of ENDA and other legislation first. So you bought the fight to the community, OK cool, maybe you should embrace the ones who actually care to fight on your side – there are not that many of us out there. There are few of left after the glamor of the street protests has worn off…
So yes, I do call your response a half truth… in that there is more to the story and this isn’t some last minute argument amongst friends… it has been brewing for a year now. if anyone thinks otherwise, they have lost touch with the community! So EQCA, take pause… and brainstorm and try to find a way to mend fences with your community. Obviously the PAC is not doing it for you…