Anger at No on 8 Leaders
Prohibited at SF Forum?
There will be a "community forum" in San Francisco on December 4, and unnamed persons, kind of like the No on 8 executive committee, have already decided behind closed doors on the agenda, time limits for certain topics, rules of engagement and goals. I'm surprised the organizers aren't enforcing a dress code and doing a vibes check on all who wish to enter the auditorium.
Before looking at the tightly controlled rules, goals and agenda of the SF meeting, which is either the second or first town hall on the Prop 8 disaster depending on who you ask, let's look at what our brothers and sisters are doing in Los Angeles this weekend:
A 'NON' VIRTUAL, COMMUNITY TOWN HALL TO DISCUSS PROP 8, SUNDAY, DEC. 7 -2-4 PM!
AT THE WEST HOLLYWOOD AUDITORIUM, 647 N. SAN VINCENTE BLVD, WEST HOLLYWOOD
Robin Tyler, who is on the advisory board of MEUSA, and is one of the co-organizers of this meeting says:
Wouldn't it be great to have a Town Hall where you don't have to submit questions in advance? Wouldn't it be great to have a Town Hall meeting that is not virtual, where you can actually see the people you are talking to? ...
You actually get to stand up and talk on an open mike, rather then be lectured to!
For the first hour, we want to hear what our community has to say about Prop 8, to share your feelings, whether positive or negative. For the second hour, we want to hear where you think we should go from here.
And by 'we' we mean all of us.
Everyone is welcome, including those who led,loved and lost the campaign, and those who felt left-out and did not, which includes community leaders, grassroots activists, young and old, LGBTQ and their allies, and people of color.
For Further information about the town hall meeting, go here.
Notice there is nothing about needing to RSVP, unlike SF. Click here to reserve one of the remaining 207 seats available for December 4.
And it's a breath of fresh activist and accountability air that LA folks will be gathering and allowing community members to vent the anger, without excessive rules. Everyone is being asked to show up, speak their mind, listen to others, simply be in the same room and let the energy flow. What a radical notion, actually allowing the community to come together, without an overly tight agenda set by control queens with legal degrees. San Francisco has forgotten has to do this.
Witness the Geneva Convention, um, regulations, pre-determined structure and timed-to-the-minute agenda of the SF meeting tomorrow:
Marriage Equality Community Forum - SF
Thursday, December 4, 2008 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Milton Marks Auditorium, 455 Golden Gate Ave. San Francisco
Goals
• Bring our community together and restore our community to a place of well-being and positive expectation for a victory in the near future
• Re-examine the Proposition 8 campaign: what went well and where we can improve
• Gather and share the collective wisdom generated out of the discussion in a larger document that can be shared with the state
• Create stronger networks and grassroots structure locally and statewide.
Ground Rules
• Listen and be respectful of one another
• Step Up (if you are a quiet person), Step Back (to ensure everyone is heard)
• Keep to the time estimates so we can finish close to on schedule. Don’t Cross-Talk, Stay on Topic.
Agenda
• Opening statement, broader vision 5 minutes –
• Overview on election results (statewide and local county results, turnout, change since Prop 22) – 10 minutes
Brainstorming exercises
- Exercise One: Personal Experience – share in pairs
• Introductions: Name and where you are from 5 minutes
• How were you hurt by the passage of Proposition 8 ? 10 minutes
• What was one thing that happened as a result of Prop 8 that you are proud of, gave you hope? 10 minutes
- Exercise Two: Statewide and local debrief on Proposition 8 share in smaller groups of 5-7 people
• What went well about the Prop 8 campaign locally and/or statewide ? 30 minutes
• What could have been done better? 20 minutes
• How can we reach out to those who voted Yes on 8/future allies – 20 minutes
• Closing - Community Announcements 10 minutes
• Volunteers willing to type up and funnel feedback from this group to info@marriageequality.org for statewide wisdom document?
Hmmm, they seem to have forgotten that pesky little detail of "Asking the audience if they agree to the agenda." I bet if that were on the agenda, Molly McKay would generously allow 2 minutes for discussion.
See anything about criticizing No on 8 leadership and vacations in the middle of the campaign? How do we hold gay leaders accountable for debacle? Should we have term limits on how long gay leaders can serve in top decision-making positions? Can we establish elections to select who our CA leaders will be?
When will the board of directors of Equality California be comprised of more than lawyers? Why don't Equality California, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the LA gay community center hold monthly meetings or allow the gay public to attend their board meetings? Is it enough to demand the leaders of those groups resign, as the first step in moving forward?
Can't have questions like that raised, otherwise the tamped down disgust with the No on 8 leadership might erupt. Better to get all touch-feely, impose "respect" on what people say, and put time aside to sing "Kumbaya."
IMHO, the Los Angeles activists are setting a much better example than San Francisco leaders in delivering the best kind of community meeting needed right now. Thanks LA for showing us San Franciscans there is a better way of community organizing.
8 comments:
So much of this makes the blood boil. Read it.
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=83942
Read how Steve Smith, highly paid No on 8 head honcho, had no idea who the Wirthlins were. Anyone who was up close to the Massachuetts 6 year long marriage battle knows exactly who the Wirthlins are, in some detail, and could not only explain their actions quickly after they happen, but predict them. Kids. Watch out for the kids. The kids, the schools, the Wirthlins.
But you'd have to, I don't know, CALL UP AND ASK AND LISTEN or something.
Have you spoken to the creators of the SF meeting agenda? Have you contacted the organizations to which you find fault in their processes to see how you can get involved in their changes?
I'm guessing not.
While I register your desire to complain about the campaign ad nauseum, and I agree there certainly is a bevy of matters to complain about, what will that serve us going forward? We can't hit rewind on time, so venting about a failed campaign seems futile. Focus on the future and apply the lessons you've learned from the past.
You wanna vent? Take it to the streets during a march or protest. That's not what the SF meeting is about.
The agenda, from what I can devise upon reading it, is to work on establishing the pros and cons of the campaign and begin the process of moving forward (focusing on the future.) An unstructured session with hundreds of people is EXTREMELY LIKELY to get out of hand quickly and end rather unproductively. What's your issue with some structure?
Afterall, no one said the agenda will be enforced with an iron fist. Quit trying to divide our community by stirring up some LA vs. SF b.s. Let each city do it their own way and see what comes of it.
kory,
i've called the lousy advocacy groups responsible for the no on 8 failure. guess what? they're not returning my calls? oh, they're also not holding meetings. seen kors or kendell at a meeting in SF? i haven't.
there's nothing wrong with _some_ structure, but the agenda and rules as presently posted on the web could only have come from a committee of control queens.
see you tomorrow.
michael
They're not returning your calls...?
Can you blame them considering the press you're giving them?
As for control queens, you should at least give them credit for taking the bull by the horns and putting together the meeting.
You seem very passionate about the issues you bring forward. If you want a place to vent your concerns, schedule something to your liking and promote it. Turn the anger and frustration into something constructive. That is, after all, what we need to do as a community now anyway.
Until Tomorrow,
Kory
kory,
i wasn't aware that i was supposed to be a cheerleader or mouthpiece for kate and geoff. sorry to see you approve of them talking only to folks who kiss their butts. we need new leaders with thick skins who won't be like kors and kendell -- unable to accept responsibility for a major mess.
Why is anyone surprised? Who anointed these "leaders" in the first place? Their imitation of lawlessness, such as GWB and El Gavo demonstrate, is pretty common for the core. And, as far as "scripted" and one-sided forums, the Human Rights Campaign has been the model of foggy and non-transparent agendas.
The question no longer seems to be about our "rights," but about individuals' personal agendas. In that regard, little has changed since the days of Harvey Milk. Even his widows competed to "own" monikers like "Castro Street Fair," "Gay Freedom Day Parade," and other personal agendas.
But, then, I've given up attending such meetings, because they tend to become "bitch sessions," rather than constructive exchange of ideas. For those with more patience and better ideals, we wish you well, but doubt your zeal will achieve anything unless it fits someone's personal ambitions.
Did I say you were supposed to be anything?
I'm saying that bitching about the past accomplishes little to nothing. You want to see change? Get out there and make it happen. The world has enough critics and armchair quarterbacks already.
as someone who often helps to run public meetings, having a detailed agenda, ground rules, and time controls are super important if you want to GET ANYTHING DONE. if all you want is to give people a "safe" place to have a huge rant-session without a lot of outcome, organize it like the LA meeting. i'm interested to see the differences in outcomes after the fact.
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