From: "Thomas W. Holt Jr." Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 07:37:54 EST ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- 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. -*-*-*-*-* Jessea Greenman, SAO, ESPM, UCB 112 Giannini Hall, Berkeley CA 94720 510-642-6730; "Remember, stressed spelled backwards is desserts." Unknown