From: "Thomas W. Holt Jr." Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 07:37:58 EST ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date sent: Thu, 26 May 1994 14:38:25 -0700 From: jessea@nature.Berkeley.EDU Send reply to: ftr-strategy-owner@qiclab.scn.rain.com [submitted by: Jessea Greenman ] 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