Petrelis Files

EQCA's Virtual Town Hall;
December 7, 5-6 PM

Permit me to extend some props to the head of Equality California, Geoff Kors, for sending me this email earlier today, in response to my post on Putin's town hall and what I thought were no similar forums held by a gay group. I was wrong and publicly stand corrected:

EQCA does many livestream town halls including live comments and questions from the community. We held over ten public community meetings in 2009 and streamed the equality summit moderated by Karen Ocamb and several of the town halls. EQCA also held an online town hall in August moderated by Cynthia Laird about the research results and our analysis that 2010 was too soon to go back to the ballot.

We are doing one this Monday the 7th at 5 pm (www.livestream.com/equalitycalifornia) about 2009 results and plans for next year including fighting HIV/AIDS budget cuts, passing affirmative legislation, our marriage work moving forward and Assemblymember John A. Perez bid to be the first openly gay Speaker. We will be seeking input from the community.

And we will be holding another one in the first quarter about the 2010 legislation, candidate endorsements, etc.

My memory is fuzzy on the previous town halls this year, but that aside, it's great that the next EQCA virtual public forum is a few days away. Rest assured, I will participate in it, especially to hear an update on the state AIDS issues. Oh, and not only is Geoff reaching out to me, but his site has an announcement posted here.

I applaud Geoff and his org for engaging the CA community, actually, it's not limited just to the Golden State since anyone with a computer can watch and listen to it, and they're taking questions. Now that I know EQCA is holding these online sessions, it's one less thing for me to complain about.

This is a fine model of using modern technology to communicate, one which I hope other Gay Inc orgs and leaders, starting at the top with Joe Solmonese and HRC, quickly emulate. If Obama, Putin, and EQCA leaders can put on community forums, both in the flesh and on the web, there's no excuse for HRC to stay in it's ivory tower with the rainbow foundation.