From Equality Across America:

On October 11th, 2009 hundreds of thousands of activists marched together in Washington DC for the National Equality March and announced that anything less than complete equal protection under the federal government is unacceptable. We demand full equality.

But our work, as a grassroots movement, does not and cannot stop there.

Organize!

Equality Across America (EAA) is a network of grassroots organizers, from large established groups to campus organizers to hard-working individuals, who demand full federal equality. We wish to connect grassroots activist groups that support full LGBT equality by building this network, developing new ways of communication and encouraging folks to affiliate with EAA as a Federal Equality Action Team (FEAT). Share your upcoming actions with the network, get to know our Regional Coordinators and link up with other activists.  In unity, there is strength. Click here to get started.

Strategize!

We need to meet face to face and strategize to take action! Regional Conferences affiliating with EAA are being independently organized by grassroots groups on the ground from Seattle to Washington DC, with many stops in between.  We will be or have been working with these teams to support, share resources and promote the event. Check out the conference locations to get involved.

Take Action!

The International Day Against Homophobia, May 17, kicks off a week of local actions across the country.  On Harvey Milk’s birthday, May 22, EAA is calling on activists to hold centralized events in each of the 50 states for the Harvey Milk Day Action. Email us at info@equalityacrossamerica.org to let us know what you are planning or want to organize, and we’ll connect you with other activists in your state!

On Facebook?  Join our event page!

See some of our Interim Board members in the Bilerico Project Harvey Milk Day Action PSA.

Check out this video from the National Equality March explaining how we can organize and participate in efforts to bring about full equality in all 50 States.

“We are the people we have been waiting for.”

David Mixner blogged today about the results from Maine, Washington and Kalamazoo. You can read his thought provoking comments over here. And here is part two of his blog posting.

On November 4th, 2009 Equality March Texas and the LGBT Community of North Texas will host a Marriage Equality Rally to:

• Express our continued outrage a year after Prop 8!
• To rally against rights that have been stripped away in Maine!
• To continue to demand Equality in the state of Texas!
• To kick start The DFW Week of Initiative, November 1-8 and begin the work of the Equality Across America Campaign!

The Rally will assemble starting at 7pm at the Legacy of Love Monument (Cedar Springs at Oaklawn)and will officially begin at 7:30pm! All are welcome and encouraged to attend! We must show our brothers and sisters in Maine, California and all across our nation that they do not stand alone!

More details on the Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=178392086406

From David Mixner,

Like Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Lion and the Scarecrow sang in the musical THE WIZ, we are easing on down the road to a day when marriage equality will be a way of life in America. The only question is not ‘when’ but ‘how long.’ There is simply no question that the LGBT community and its allies will win this battle despite the constant ballot box bigotry that we have to face such as in Maine. No matter what happens in Maine, don’t pause and don’t let up. It is our passion and our commitment that will enable us to overcome those who live in a darker place.

The signs of change are everywhere.

Not long ago, we could not even get out of the low 20% range of those who supported marriage equality. Only Senator Ted Kennedy and a few others in the Senate supported our efforts. No state had officially passed marriage. The vote wasn’t even close in state legislatures who strove to create apartheid type laws to deny us our rights and most liberals were silent. The issue of our freedom, at best, was considered a special interest group issue and at worst one not worthy of the fight. Even those in our own community were hesitant about pushing marriage and often agreed that not only was it a loser issue but it was all right for our straight allies to take a walk on the issue.

Then the calls of freedom started replacing the calls of patience. Thousands stood in the pouring rain in San Francisco to honor their relationship with marriage. Massachusetts became the first state to legalize marriage equality. Even in California, we came close to winning the battle over Proposition 8. Some of the most distinguished legal scholars in the country are taking cases to the courts of the land. The states of Vermont, Iowa, New Hampshire and Connecticut joined Massachusetts. Soon we will see if marriage equality survives in Maine. Even there it is close which is a stunning shift in public opinion in just a decade.

Ben Smith of Politico pointed out that Senator Chuck Schumer, (D-NY) who long opposed marriage, sent a powerful political message out to all those who still step timidly about marriage in the Democratic Party. At the Empire State Pride Agenda dinner, Schumer was clear in his message to others and that includes the White House (the video is at the end of this piece):

“If Dick Cheney can support marriage, so can every senator. So can every Democrat, Republican, Liberal Conservative,” Schumer told the Empire State Pride Agenda. “Equality should know no bounds, and we must not rest until we have marriage in all fifty of these United States.”

Everyone knows now the nation’s elderly are holding up the journey to our freedom. Straight young people are by our side and fighting for our freedom in the Congress, in the streets and against ballot box bigotry. One only had to look at the 200,000 who recently marched in Washington, DC to see the tens of thousands of straight and gay youth walking side by side for justice. The sight was one of the most inspiring in my lifetime.

Maine is neck and neck and it is so wrong that our freedom is even being voted upon by other Americans. No group has had more efforts to put restrictions on our freedom than LGBT Americans. Those who want to create a system of Gay Apartheid by fear, lies and appalling lack of compassion will not give up. However, no matter how things turn out in Maine, don’t anyone, anywhere think for a second we have been stopped.

With a win, our journey is more easy and the path less burdensome. With a loss, we will only regroup and rethink how to move forward on all fronts: civil disobedience, at the ballot box, in the courts and in the media. Nothing ever will stop from being free. I promise you that. So give what you can to Maine by phone calls and money. Prepare yourself for either result. And the fight continues until as Senator Schumer says in the following video that marriage equality is a way of life in all fifty states.

In the latest online edition of The Advocate, Michaelangelo Signorile suggests that it may be worth considering another National Equality March. Signorile writes,

The march in fact has only made us all stronger as a movement. We were able to organize in a few months, using new media, and got 200,000 people to D.C. without spending much on traditional advertising.

We now know it can be done successfully on short notice and for little money. That means a couple of things: We need to continue making a lot of noise — online, but also getting into the streets and protesting everywhere. And we need to march again on Washington — or at least let them know we’re prepared to do so if we don’t see some real action, real soon.

Given the strategy of Equality Across America, perhaps we need to re-focus our definition of “national” and plan a series of marches on our State Capitols on the same day. Yes the numbers may not be as great as the National Equality March, but it would make our visibility more local, and would possibly even increase the overall numbers of marchers across the country.

Can you imagine, every State Capitol being marched on at the same time? What a sight that could be. Do we think Texas could be up for this? What about the rest of the country?

This Wednesday, Oct. 21, 7:00 PM
UT campus, Pharmacy Building room 2.110

On October 11, hundreds of thousands marched on Washington to demand equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.  Come and hear students and activists report back from this historic event, featuring participants and video from the National Equality March.

The march is just the beginning.  We have stated our demand for equal rights on the doorsteps of those who have the power to make it so.  But our work must continue until we have achieved our goal: full equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all fifty states.  Whether you rallied in DC, Austin, or have yet  to get involved, join us.
We have only just begun to fight.

Map to UT’s Pharmacy building:
http://www.utexas.edu/maps/main/buildings/phr.html

Sponsored by Join the Impact and other UT groups. More info:  http://jointheimpact-austin.blogspot.com

RSVP on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=181546795711

Download the poster for this event here:
https://webspace.utexas.edu/corwinmc/public/panelposter.pdf

A meeting date has been set for a CDAT Mobilization Meeting to be held for Texas Congressional Districts 3, 4 and 26 on Thursday, November 5, 2009. The meeting will start at 7PM, and will be held at:

Library Building 220
Preston Ridge Campus, Collin College
9700 Wade Blvd, Frisco, TX 75035
Map link: http://tinyurl.com/yfxpnpv

Details available on our Facebook Event page:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=160316313116