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EQCA stages statewide meetings with the grassroots

by Rex Wockner

Stung and damaged by criticism that the No on 8 campaign leadership was haughty, insular and unwilling to listen to outsiders, key player Equality California is now co-staging a series of community meetings around California to listen to grassroots activists.
The gatherings are taking place from April 1 to May 7 in Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Fresno, Sacramento, Orange County, San Francisco and Long Beach.
"The meetings will include updates from Prop. 8 legal experts and open discussion on the future of the movement," says EQCA's Web site.
Thirty-five co-sponsoring organizations include gay community centers, the American Civil Liberties Union, Join the Impact, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Lambda Legal, Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.
"Any future (marriage) campaign must do better at engaging our community and our allies at the grassroots level by providing a variety of ways in which people can participate," EQCA Executive Director Geoff Kors said in an interview. "EQCA is committed to regularly seeking input from members of the LGBT community, the community we serve, and making decisions based solely on what is best for LGBT Californians."
Kors said EQCA is hiring new regional grassroots field staff in locations where Prop. 8 passed, including the Central Valley.
"With the Supreme Court decision on Prop. 8 expected in the next one to two months, it is especially important to engage as many people as possible in a discussion about the public response to the decision and the various events planned for the day and week it is issued – media, educational, grassroots, online and coalition-building efforts to continue moving public opinion in support of the freedom to marry; and issues surrounding a future ballot measure to secure marriage equality in the event the court upholds Prop. 8," he said.
Last November, 52 percent of California voters amended the state constitution to re-ban same-sex marriage by passing Proposition 8. Many California gay activists believe the measure would have failed had the No on 8 campaign leadership not been, according to its critics, isolated and inept.
Same-sex marriage had been legal in California since June 2008, following a ruling by the state Supreme Court that prohibiting gay couples from marrying was unconstitutional. The constitutionality of Prop. 8 and the status of 18,000 same-sex marriages that occurred in California before Nov. 4 are now under review by the court, with a ruling due by early June.

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