Is it déjà vu? Is it me? Seems like a repeat, but here we go again…
Rumors of a secret LGBT strategy meeting in the hills of Tennessee are confirmed. The group, which includes Kip Williams and Robin McGehee, has holed up for 4 days in Tennessee to "discuss ways to build a national network of activists to demand full equality now".
That sounds awfully familiar…I think we heard it at Meet In The Middle and during the National March promotion. In fact, according to what’s left of the website that was behind the National March, Equality Across America, (the most recent posting on the site is dated November 20th 2009), the goal was… Equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states. We will accept no less and will work until it is achieved. Equality Across America exists to support grassroots organizing in all 435 Congressional Districts to achieve full equality.
The promise of the organization behind the National March was that the march was just the beginning of their efforts. Immediately following the DC March, the organizers would work to create independent grassroots teams in all congressional districts across the United States. In reality, the march was the end of the organization. The group fell apart a month later, with Williams, McGehee and many others choosing to leave the organization. Now, it appears to be defunct. The website, by the way, is still accepting donations, as it just processed my contribution, although I have no idea where my money went. (It was just a dollar, so no big loss.)
Williams and McGehee have joined forces again, inviting some 45 others to join them in Tennessee to discuss the "next project". After a few days of rumor, amid mysterious tweets, Williams and McGehee issued the following statement on his Facebook page…
Radical Minds Retreat at the Highlander Center in Tennessee
Over the last year and a half, we have met some incredible folks in California in the aftermath of Prop 8 and nationally through our work on the National Equality March. Since the march last October, we have continued building on those relationships and discussing strategies to move forward in the struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer rights.
Over the last 4 days we gathered at the historic Highlander Center in Tennessee with 45 activists from across the country who are sick of delays, compromises and excuses. Some who joined us have been activists for many years; some are new to the movement—all brought a vast depth of knowledge and a readiness to fight for a more just and equal world for all. Some have worked on national LGBTQ issues, such as ACT-UP, Equality Across America and Join the Impact; some were connected to organizations outside of LGBTQ rights, such as PETA, Presente.org, Unite Here, Colorofchange.org, Greenpeace, etc. In our outreach we purposefully looked for those who were supporting and advocating for LGBTQ working people, communities of color, and trans rights.
We had one thing on our agenda: Discuss ways to build a national network of activists to demand full equality now. We believe that it is time to escalate our demands through coordinated nationwide nonviolent direct action, and we hope to build a broad base of organizers to work with all who struggle for justice and dignity in their lives.
We know that many people across the country feel the same way, and that many have been actively working within their own communities for a long time. The Highlander Center can comfortably accommodate about 35 people, and we broke those limits because we wanted more people to participate in the conversation. We had no secrets, only limited space and resources, and a very short time to organize this retreat. We wish we could have invited thousands.
We want to work with everyone to help inspire our community to bold action. We want to be what Kate Bornstein described as "an unpredictable outspoken force," and we want everyone at the table – no matter the sex, gender, race, class, look, age, ability, religion, family status, citizenship, class, and everything in between. We want to make the White House and Congress take notice. And we want everyone who stands in the way of full equality to be held accountable and wonder what just hit them.
We wish every voice could have been present at the Highlander Center this week, but that was neither a beginning or an end to the conversation. If you want to be involved, or if you have something to share, please let us know. You can email us at [email protected]. Also, if you’re coming to Creating Change in Dallas next week, we’d love to get together to talk in person.
With hope and love,
Robin McGehee and Kip Williams
We can only guess what the next action will be, but I doubt it will be anything which can be labeled "radical" or "bold", and in no way "unpredictable". Whatever it will be (not another rally or march, please…) will it make a difference?
The National March was a polarizing event. To this day, on the internet, people go back and forth about it. Those involved and in support of it consistently speak of how important it was and how much further it got us in terms of LGBT rights. This website is fairly direct in their assessment of the March and it’s organizers…
**Without Robin McGehee and Kip Williams and Dan Choi and a woman named Laura Martin (who arranged a major meeting in D.C. with Senator Reid)and all the grassroots activists who came to Washington D.C. (thank you David Mixner!) on a gorgeous Fall day, we would be a lot further back from our goals of full equality for ALL U.S. citizens.
Other postings on the internet had this to say…
**If they REALLY wanted to do something radical the 45 of them would have met in DC and walked to whe (sic) White House and hancuffed (sic) themseleves (sic) to the fence and demanded Equal Rights.Towleroad
**In other words, the heads of a variety of failed initiatives coupled with leaders who washed out of successful grassroots organizations. The timing is impeccable: the country moves decidedly to the center so a faction of our community lurches as far as possible to the left. Remember all the hoopla about Cleve Jones which led nowhere except to an abandoned web site and two failed campaigns?Well, here we go again. Towleroad
Don’t get me wrong, I think the National March inspired and motivated, the basic purpose of a political march, and that’s important, in perspective. But to claim that we’d be "a lot farther back from our goals of full equality" seems disingenuous given the catastrophic losses the LGBT equal rights movement has suffered since the march ended. Talk to the folks in Maine and ask them how far we’ve come. So I have no problem with anyone saying the March was inspiring and motivational, but declaring the march moved civil rights forward in any real way is just blind worship. Why come up with new strategies if the past once were so successful?
My recent knowledge that the National March committee stifled free speech by refusing to allow certain people to speak simply because they wouldn’t follow a prescribed list of acceptable phrases, doesn’t elicit much respect for a group fighting for EQUAL rights. At Meet In The Middle, there was censorship of protest signs, as well as the stifling and restriction of legitimate media. LGBT organizers are succumbing more and more to PC correctness and manipulation of their public image. Not good.
And let’s all realize one thing, once and for all…this is not the 1970’s. Despite the ramblings of some that this is a "new movement", this movement has been here for decades, and it used to actually be "radical" and was successful with that tactic many times. People know we’re here. Our case has been stated. Everyone knows it. EVERYONE! So at this point in the history of our civil rights movement, marches and rallies should be at the bottom of the list, while lawsuits, political action and perhaps creating a successful congressional lobby should be at the top.
There’s another elephant in the room, and it’s a big one. Money.
How much money will be spent for another action that has no hope of bringing about any real change? Millions were spent in the marriage battle in Maine and we lost. Millions were spent on the National March. Lots of money was spent on Meet In The Middle and any number of other national and local rallies and marches. The money is fine if we see results, if we see some equal rights coming our way, if we notice a tipping in the minds of voters toward our equal rights. But at what point do we stop spending millions of dollars for another gathering, rather than use the money to help struggling LGBT Community Centers, or donate to HIV/AIDS organizations who’ve seen tremendous financial cutbacks.
Although I think we need to be more thoughtful about where we’re putting our money and consider all the needs of the LGBT community rather than only one, I believe marriage to be the most important issue to win on. For one reason only. Once same sex marriage is federally legal, everything else will fall into place. That’s historically the way it works. That being said, it’s not enough to bring together large coalitions of people and raise millions of dollars. You must have a winning strategy. So it’ll be interesting to see what this group from Tennessee comes up with. While the new mantra in the gay community is to stop giving money to the Democrats and that people are sick of the thousands of email requests for money from groups like the Courage Campaign and Equality California, what will the reaction be when this group starts asking for your dollars? If we’re supposed to go by the track record of an organization, what will the verdict here be?
I’m not a believer of "sharing your story". I didn’t come to that overnight. I still urge anyone I talk to about the issue to come out, to talk to others, to make themselves known as who they are. This is not, however, a winning strategy toward LGBT Equality. It’s been made perfectly clear over the last couple of years that a slight majority of Americans don’t care about our stories. And don’t come back at me with BS like, we just haven’t talked to enough people yet. LGBT issues are in the media every single day. We’re all over the place. We do not live in the past, when gay people lived in the closet. We’re visible. We’re audible. EVERYONE knows we’re here and what we want. To spend more time trying to "convince" Americans that we’re nice people while they succeed every day in not only banning our rights but uprooting them once they’re in place, this strategy is like beating a dead horse. It won’t work.
I’m hopeful about the Federal Prop 8 case. Our side seems to be kicking butt on a regular basis, and I never believed civil rights should be fought at the voting box anyway, it must be fought in the courts. Now, how the court system will decide to rule has nothing to do with what’s presented. As we’ve seen recently with the California Supreme Court and the Federal Supreme Court, a great deal of the judicial system has now mutated into political tools, truth and constitution be damned. Judge Walker seems rational enough to make the right decision, but he’s the first step, and the diseased "5-4 Court" will be the final say.
