Date sent: Thu, 26 May 1994 14:37:10 -0700 From: jessea@nature.Berkeley.EDU Send reply to: ftr-strategy-owner@qiclab.scn.rain.com [submitted by: Jessea Greenman ] Lesbian Avengers Civil Rights Organizing Project [from their mailing, received earlier this week; contact information at end of *third* part] OUT AGAINST THE RIGHT Lesbian and gay people are losing the war against Christian Right anti-lesbian and -gay initiatives. Short-term, closeted, crisis-driven campaign models are disempowering our movement, marginalizing our communities and proving ineffective at the polls. We must devise and distribute new organizing models and long-term strategies if we are to move forward. We need to use the full range of skills, resources and experiences that exist in our communities to battle the Christian Right on every front--from traditional campaign strategies to genuine grassroots organizing and direct action. Now, more than ever before, we need to come out openly and proudly all across the country, to educate voters about our lives, and to fight back against the hatred that silences us. In response to these needs, the Lesbian Avengers Civil Rights Organizing Project is distributing an "Out Against the Right" Manifesto at the Stonewall 25 March and at Lesbian and Gay Pride marches around the country in June. The Lesbian Avengers Civil Rights Organizing Project will produce the four-page newspaper format manifesto, which will detail ideas, strategies, and information provided by lesbian activists in states facing the Christian Right anti-lesbian and -gay initiatives in 1994, and in states and towns that faced initiatives in 1992 and 1993. The purposes of the manifesto will be: (1) to bring attention to the Christian Right anti-lesbian and -gay initiatives around the country; (2) to get out information, strategies, and organizing models that are too rarely disseminated within national lesbian and gay communities and within traditional campaigns and (3) to achieve greater lesbian visibility and mobilization within our movement. The "Out Against the Right" Manifesto will be based on the following beliefs: 1. We, as lesbian, gay and bisexual people, must define and lead our own struggles for human rights. The mobilization and empowerment of lesbian, gay and bisexual communities is the most critical response to the Christian Right's war on our right to exist. 2. Lesbians of all colors and gay men of color must attain a strong and equal voice within our own lesbian and gay communities. Unless we do so, our efforts towards the securing of our civil rights will only reproduce existing power structures within the community at large. 3. We will not accept superficial legal rights for some lesbians and gay men at the expense of real human rights for all of us. Butch, femme, andandrogynous dykes, lesbians and gay men of color, drag queens, lesbian and gay youth, transsexuals, people with AIDS, and rural lesbians and gay men will not be sacrificed in the name of "campaign strategy". We have no desire to win a battle if it means losing the war. 4. The Christian Right is capitalizing on fears created by the economic depression and on people's experiences of being politically ignored. Our referenda campaigns will emerge from work in low-income communities, communities of color and rural communities and will forge grassroots alliances among all people concerned about human rights and social change. 5. Voters will not stand up for the rights of an invisible community. We need to use the anti-initiative campaigns to gain political power by educating straight people, honestly and openly, about lesbian, gay and bisexual lives. Our second major project will be the production of an "Out Against the Right" Handbook, which will detail strategies and organizing models based on the vision of the Manifesto. It will be written by activists and campaign workers with direct experience fighting Christian Right-sponsored anti-lesbian and -gay referenda and will be distributed free of cost to all lesbian and gay activists living in states facing anti-lesbian and -gay initiatives in 1994. STATEWIDE ORGANIZING PROJECTS (pull-quote: "We will mobilize one town at a time, one county at a time, one state at a time...until we are once again the head and not the tail." Pat Robertson, the Christian Coalition). Beginning on July 15, 1994, the Lesbian Avengers will provide direct, on-site assistance to local activists who are establishing grassroots, lesbian and gay controlled projects in states with anti-lesbian and -gay referenda slated for votes in November, 1994. We will assist campaigns, lesbian and gay organizations, and individual lesbian and gay activists to implement projects in the four areas below. These areas have been chosen in order to fill the greatest needs of states facing referenda and to best employ the skills, experiences and resources of the Lesbian Avengers. 1. Lesbian, gay and bisexual empowerment and mobilization. The purpose of these projects will be to help organize and mobilize our communities for the 1994 referenda and for the long-term battle against the Christian Right's homophobic agenda. In accordance with the mission of the Lesbian Avengers, and because of the existing disparity between lesbians and gay men concerning access to resources and leadership positions, we will focus particularly on the need for lesbian empowerment. Examples include: o A Training Program, with local, state and national activists conducting workshops on organizing against the Christian Right. (These trainings, and the literature distributed at them, will be free). o Video screenings, readings, and voter registration events in lesbian and gay venues, including bars and other places where our communities meet as a group. o A strong Volunteer Coordination Project to involve as many lesbians and gay men and bisexuals as possible in campaign organizing. 2. Lesbian, gay and bisexual visibility and survival. These projects emphasize the critical importance of lesbians and gay men coming out within all of our communities (family, town, work, etc.) and fighting back against the hatred that silences and destroys us. Examples include: o Lesbian and gay public forums in small towns where lesbian and gay men from that town speak about their lives and about the meaning of the referendum to them. o "Freedom Picnics" or other visibility events, appropriate to the town, where lesbians and gay men come together publicly as a community. o Direct actions or demonstrations, as appropriate to the town and led by local activists. 3. Education and mobilization of straight people on issues related to lesbian and gay lives. These projects will ideally focus on communities not being reached through other campaign efforts (often low-income and rural communities and communities of color). Examples include: o Door-to-door campaigns where out lesbians and gay men speak to people about their lives and the referendum, and simultaneously register them to vote. o Town video screenings designed to counter Christian Right propaganda on "special rights" and on lesbian and gay lives, accompanied by discussion groups and local speakers. o Free or potluck community meals with local speakers in supportive churches, shelters, or nursing homes. o Tabling at local malls and other public places. 4. Urban-rural and cross-state networking and organizing. These projects will bring people and ideas from different parts of our community together against the Christian Right. They may include: o Distributing the ideas and work of local activists to the national lesbian, gay and straight media through articles and press releases. o Coordinating lesbian and gay activists from other states to travel to a state with a Christian Right-sponsored referendum to work for any length of time (one week to four months) on campaign projects. While most traditional campaigns have budgets of $4-6 million for a single state, the Lesbian Avengers Civil Rights Organizing Project, because of our grassroots, activist, volunteer-based approach to organizing, is able to implement all of the projects outlined above for under $40,000 per state. HISTORY: LEWISTON, MAINE In the fall of 1993, members of the New York chapter of the Lesbian Avengers went to Lewiston, Maine to work with local lesbian and gay activists battling a Christian Right-sponsored referendum to repeal Lewiston's anti-discrimination ordinance. The Avengers sent three full-time organizers to Lewiston from October 1-November 5 as the Lesbian Avengers on-site coordinators of this project and thirty part-time activists over the six week period. Our work in Maine incorporated traditional campaign strategies, grassroots organizing, and lesbian and gay empowerment and mobilization through visibility and direct action. A few examples of the needs in states and towns facing referenda and how our project helped fulfill these needs are outlined below. 1. There is a need for projects that are truly grassroots, that organize in low-income and rural areas and that confront the economic issues the Christian Right is raising. (pull-quote: "We built a very careful foundation of straight-faced reasons why people can come out against gay rights without feeling like a bigot or a hater." Carolyn Cosby, Director, Concerned Maine Families.) The mainstream campaign in Lewiston made decisions not to target low-income, predominantly Franco-American neighborhoods because they were either perceived as being inherently homophobic or were not expected to participate in the electoral process. Lewiston lesbians and gay men from these neighborhoods disagreed, and asked the Lesbian Avengers to assist them in producing bilingual literature targeted to those communities and focused on combating the right-wing "special rights" propaganda. We then went door-to-door in one low-income ward of Lewiston, talking to people as out lesbians, registering them to vote, and leaving them our literature. Although the Christian Right won the referendum in Lewiston, the ward we focused on won the second highest percentage of votes in our favor, despite the historically conservative slant of the area. Comparative studies of different wards show, not surprisingly, that an out, visible lesbian and gay presence had a positive effect on voters' decisions throughout the town. 2. There is a need for projects that empower and mobilize lesbian, gay and bisexual people, not just for the campaign, but also for the long term. To help empower and mobilize lesbians and gay men in Lewiston we: - held voter registration and volunteer sign-up drives in bars - helped organize a forum, where Lewistonians came out in a roundtable discussion on living and growing up lesbian or gay in Lewiston. This forum was attended by members of the public and also received extensive press coverage. - helped organize a protest march down Main Street, which fifty lesbians and gay men participated in. All of these events were crucial in placing Lewiston lesbians and gay men at the forefront of the campaign and in allowing them to define the issues at stake in their civil rights struggles. 3. There is a need for projects that bring lesbians, gay men and bisexuals from different regions, cultural backgrounds and political experiences together in a working, mutual exchange of our skills and experiences. Every project in Lewiston was initiated by local people, based on their knowledge of the town and the town's culture. The Lesbian Avengers were asked to apply our campaign and activist skills to help implement the ideas of local activists: from graphic design to writing press releases to organizing actions. In the face of escalating Christian Right mobilization, it is imperative that lesbian and gay activists across the country continue to come together to share skills, resources and experiences in places like Lewiston where our communities are most under siege. Lesbians, gay men, bisexual, and transsexuals are being assaulted city by city and state by state across the country in the Christian Right's homophobic war against us. We must not back down. We need to take charge of our own struggles for civil rights. But we cannot fight form the closet. Instead, we must build a grassroots movement of visible, out lesbians and gay men from every income, race, and region working together for real social change. A movement in which lesbians of all colors and gay men of color attain visibility and power. A movement of equal voices and common goals, mobilizing against the bigotry and hatred of the Christian Right. We will not sit in silence. We are fighting for our lives. The Lesbian Avengers, Attn: Civil Rights Organizing Project, 208 W. 13th St., NY NY 10011 [ed. note: no phone or fax given] -*-*-*-*-* Jessea Greenman, SAO, ESPM, UCB 112 Giannini Hall, Berkeley CA 94720 510-642-6730; "Remember, stressed spelled backwards is desserts." Unknown