Petrelis Files

Atlantic: EQCA, HRC Leaders of
CA 2012 Gay Marriage Prop

The campaign for California's 2012 ballot initiative to repeal Prop 8 began in November 2008. Yes, almost two years ago is when the 2012 got underway, but writer Chris Good over at the Atlantic thinks the campaign is down the road, but that is the least of what worries me about his recent column. Give these excerpts a read:

No ballot initiative has qualified for 2010, as some activists pressing that plan have backed off. But it appears there is no stopping a ballot initiative in 2012, no matter how close the trial is to being completed.

[...] Marc Solomon, marriage director for Equality California, one of the state's most prominent membership groups for gay rights, wrote over e-mail. "So we are working extremely hard right now to change hearts and minds in the direction of fairness and equality to gain solid majority support for the freedom to marry in preparation for a 2012 ballot campaign."

Solomon's group has been in heavy contact with volunteers and canvassers in the last year, gearing up for the big fight in 2011 and 2012 that will focus on door-knocking, making inroads with communities and constituency groups, and probably a significant ad campaign, coordinated with the gamut of California gay-rights groups and executed with the advice (and money) of larger national groups like the Human Rights Campaign. By the time that campaign needs to start, the [Prop 8] trial probably won't be close to completion. [...]

Okay, technically speaking, that campaign hasn't started, but the battle to educate voters about gay lives and our community is a permanent one, being waged right now, and last Tuesday's Gay Inc presser at San Francisco's City Hall demonstrated how gay leaders are committed to making the same mistakes heading into 2012.

As we saw, with horror, in 2008 with the No on 8 effort, gay leaders had no public forums scheduled in addition to the presser, to respectfully engage the community about the polling and discuss with us directly how it fit into the larger puzzle of the 2012 race. And just like in 2008, we quickly saw the SF Chronicle, the LA Weekly, the SF Weekly, Queerty, and myself, questioning the Gay Inc party line and not getting satisfactory answers.

Now, if Chris Good is to be believed, it's already been decided that EQCA and HRC are going to again serve as the lead organizations, with many of the same executives and staffers running the gay operation.

Any CA gay ballot prop is going to need the involvement of EQCA and HRC, not to mention their money, but I have seen no evidence showing the leaders of the orgs have not only learned important lessons about they did wrong last time, and changing their M.O. The presser last week is ample proof the 2008 playbook still being used by Gay Inc, in the middle of the 2012 campaign.

How many activists are ready to march behind Geoff Kors and Joe Solmonese?

We are 29 months away from November 2012 and EQCA/HRC/Gay Inc, along with Chris Good, are in deep denial that the gay marriage prop campaign for that election is happening right now. This denial should frighten the gay community, if it is serious about winning.