...And yet more reporting on the FIGHT THE RIGHT Conference...  :-)

During the conference, a workshop was held on organizing campaigns
and forming coalitions. It focused on forming coalitions with
our most natural allies.  

According to Scott Nakagawa (of NGLTF Fight the Right Project), 
our most natural allies would be:  organized labor; women's movement; 
people of color; and religious people who feel the religious right has 
"co-opted religious principles."

Suzanne Goldberg (of Lamdba) adds, "this is not simply an attack on
gays and lesbians.  We all have a right not to be discriminated against."

Suzanne Pharr (of Women's Project, Little Rock, Ark) said that to build
a coalition, we need to link all of our collective oppressions together,
and then link together the solutions." In forming such a coalition
with groups outside of the LGB community, we need to remember that
"it's action that builds coalition.  We need integrity politics.  
Don't ask others to do what we won't do ourselves."  Don't go to a 
meeting of feminists or African-americans or pro-choice individuals 
and ask them to come fight for gay rights.  Fight with _them_, and let 
them know who you are.  Your actions of solidarity with other groups
are _most_ important in establishing a coalition.  Develop trust with 
them, a bond, and they will hopefully stand by you in your local fight
for the civil rights of gay people.  

Pharr went on to say that "we are the one group of people who 
represent everybody, blacks, hispanics, disabled, and so on."  
So when we meet as LGB people  (i.e., not as a coalition), 
we need to ask ourselves, "who is _not_ in the room?"  African-americans?
The disabled?  Women? and so on.  We need to ask ourselves, "why not?  
Is it the nature of the work? Or is it how we treat each other?"  
We need to form a strong LGB community so that we can work effectively 
with other groups.  And this community must be inclusive.

A couple of interesting points came up during the discussion of these
issues (from audience members).  One individual asked a great
question (IMHO):  How do we make ourselves visible in other causes
(e.g., a Martin Luther King Parade) without co-opting the goals
of another group?  Suzanne Pharr answered by saying, "go to the
organizers of the event and say, 'we want to be there for you,
but we don't want to take away from your focus....how should we
best handle this?'"  Work with the other group.  Have a dialogue.
But let them know you are there.

During the discussion, a member of the leather community (Mr. Leather
Colorado) got up to speak, and said that he felt very left out of
the fight against Amendment 2.  He urged the LGB community at large
not to leave out the leather community in the political campaigns.
He said that they would dress down if it was important that they
do so, but that they are part of the LGB community and have a stake
in its future, too.  What I thought was interesting about this speaker
was my reaction to him (!).  I am unfamiliar with the leather 
community, and for some reason, have always been a little afraid
of it (don't ask me why).  At any rate, while I listened to this
man and watched the reactions of a few other leather-folk in the 
audience, I began to feel much more comfortable with the concept 
and with them; Mr. Leather Colorado was funny, and Mr. Leather
International (in audience) was obviously embarassed by a few
innocuous things said by Mr.LC; all in all, I took a quick liking 
to both of them.  The point is simply that once again, putting a human 
face on an issue helps to reduce fear of the unknown.  Maybe this is a 
silly point to make, but it was an impactful experience for me.

I think that pamphlets and brochures are _not_ going to win our war 
against the religious right, IMHO (even though they might help).  
Ultimately, I believe that it's going to be our efforts to be out,
our efforts to speak publicly to groups of people (as representatives of 
the queer-friendly community), and our efforts to be visible, in general,
in a positive way that will eventually win this war.

-maria