Petrelis Files

EQCA Afraid of Gays at Town Halls?

(Why are this man and his org not holding regular in-person town halls with California's gay community?)

The executives at Equality California simply love love love putting on many wine and cheese and chocolate tastings, swim meats, an art auction with TV star Loni Anderson, fundraisers with Nancy Pelosi, chats with reality TV stars Sharon and Kelley Osbourne, garden parties, and gala award ceremonies around the state.

Besides raising funds for EQCA, all of these events have something else in common, and that is, they require people to get off their computers and get into the same room or venue, and meet face-to-face with the leaders of this org. Glancing at the events calendar for EQCA shows these sort of happenings take place are a regular basis in any given month.

But when it comes to staging cost-free town hall forums around the state, EQCA can't be bothered with such community engagement. I believe the executives truly fear such forums, and I'm not sure if the fear is because they think community anger over the org and its leader Geoff Kors (above), key to the Prop 8 loss, would boil over, or if there are other reasons they can't put on town halls.

Tonight, EQCA's gay marriage staffer, Marc Solomon, will hold a one-hour virtual town hall on the web to discuss the ruling by Judge Vaughn Walker invalidating Prop 8 yesterday.

Hmmm, the org has plenty of staffers devoting many hours and resources to all of the fundraisers, which don't have such short time constraints like the 60-minute online discussion, but EQCA can't devote an equal amount of time and energy to engage in basic democratic organizing through town halls. If the reason isn't fear of other gays, what is the excuse for no actual town halls?

As it stands, in recent months and in the near future, EQCA will have done more to promote the careers of TV stars and Democratic politicians than in hosting public discussions at various gay community centers around the Golden State.