Prop 8 Leader 'Forced'
to Vacation During the Campaign
The AstroTurf roots of the Equality California group came out in full force this week to defend their fellow A-gay friend Geoff Kors, who gave had a soft-hitting interview with Japhy Grant at the Queerty.com site.
I'll give Kors a modicum of credit for weakly acknowledging he and his pals didn't care about their base, the diverse and beautiful people who comprise California's gay community. From their talk:
Yeah, I will say it's clear the campaign did not engage the community and our allies. I think that it's something that was necessary.
Actually, there's quite a bit of such acknowledgements from Kors in this online interview, and I still believe he has a duty to say all this, and much more, in real unfiltered town halls across the state.
These words are a good start, but they are not nearly enough to help us figure out how the A-gay leadership managed to use modern election tools, to the tune of nearly $45 million, not engage the gay Goodwill set, badly lose, and continue to make the same mistakes today of failing to engage the very community Kors represents.
EQCA has not held a single public meeting that it itself has organized since the November 4 election. Sure, Kors and his board and staff, taking cues from Sarah Palin, have appeared in tightly controlled talks, many of them virtual, and the failure to hold such public forums is a moral blot of shame.
Okay, that sounds a bit harsh, but consider this. EQCA is marking its 10th year of operations right now, and the group has never held one community forum in the Castro, never invited the gay public to attend and speak at the EQCA board meetings, never released even summaries of the board meetings, and never says a thing about starting quarterly public meetings in San Francisco, to better engage the community.
However, EQCA is absolutely committed to hosting gala award dinners in five cities annually, so if you just happen to have a few hundred bucks laying around to buy some formal attire and tickets, you can be engaged by the group.
What makes the EQCA galas so special?:
EQCA’s Equality Awards aren’t just about glamour and glitz. It’s a time to honor our selfless leaders. Celebrate community achievements. And renew our engagement in the fight for equality. The black ties, sequins and champagne? That’s just icing on the cake.
Duran, who disclosed his links to Kors and EQCA, veered off into a subject not addressed in the interview: Kors' infamous vacation during the height of the Prop 8 campaign.
From Duran's remarks. Emphasis mine:
So, while I am no longer Geoff Kors' boss - I will say this. He is a hero. The only reason he took that 2 week vacation is because I forced him! He was working all day and night for 7 days a week for about 2 years before election day. I became concerned about his physical well being and told him he HAD to take a vacation because I needed him for the fight ahead.
On the surface, that sounds so touching. Being told in mid December about the circumstances that led one A-gay to "force" another A-gay to take a break and travel to Spain in the weeks leading up to the vote. But is that what really led to Kors engaging in complacent behavior on the beaches of Spain?
The answer comes from the June 19 issue of the Bay Area Reporter, in a story about local gay leaders potentially supporting a tranny-led boycott of HRC's July annual gala. From the BAR article:
Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, said he would not be in attendance at the dinner because he'll be on vacation in Spain for a two-week trip that's been planned for a year.
Nice of Duran to take a bullet over Kors' vacation, but I'm not convinced he's telling the truth. If Kors could tell the BAR in mid June that he would be keeping his commitment to long-planned travel during the campaign, I don't think he needed much "forcing" by Duran to take off at a crucial time.
And speaking of vacations, did Duran also "force" Lorri Jean to take her one-month vacation to Alaska in the middle of the campaign? Unfortunately, Duran doesn't mention if he had to strong-arm Jean to enjoy the wilds of Alaska bush, instead of pounding the pavement in LA against Prop 8.
If Kors ever gets around to holding both a town hall just on what went wrong with Prop 8, and ongoing quarterly meetings in the Castro, I'll ask him about his vacation to Spain. But I'm not holding my breath Kors will all of a sudden become accountable and transparent to the California gay community.
1 comment:
I disagree with the criticism of John Duran. Anyone who knows John, or knows of his works in the City of West Hollywood, knows that he is quite un-pretentious and sincere in his efforts. I know there can be a certain "A-Gay" dismissive attitude that Petrelis speaks of, and I'm critical of that, as he is. It's a nasty phenomenon that has its roots in internalized homophobia. But John Duran has none of this, and I've known him in my professional travels since 1991 (that's 17 years). That is enough observational and experiential data to assess John as "one of the good guys". That said, I agree that EQCA should hold some town hall forums to let the community vent, ask questions, and most of all, assist EQCA in setting policy for the future so that we WIN future battles with the evil Dark Side Religious Right, instead of losing battles like Prop 8. And, I agree that vacations by executives during critical campaigns is unwise. We needed all hands on deck re. Prop 8, and we didn't have them -- that's one reason we lost.
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