No On 8 Says "We Messed Up"

Rex Wockner has posted a recapping of the Equality Summit now going on in California, where leaders of the marriage equality movement there have expressed regret over hiring professional lobbyists to run the No On 8 campaign. An excerpt:

More than 400 gay activists gathered at the Los Angeles Convention Center Jan. 24 to organize and strategize to win back same-sex marriage in California. But attendees at the daylong Equality Summit spent just as much time looking backward -- at the errors made by the leadership of the No on 8 campaign in its failed effort to stop voters from re-banning same-sex marriage.

And, for the first time since the Nov. 4 election, several of those leaders publicly detailed what they did wrong.

"When I look at what was the biggest mistake, when I lie awake at night prepping my e-mails I'm going to send to all of you and I think about the biggest mistake that we made, it's that we've turned everything over to political experts and political consultants," said Equality California Executive Director Geoff Kors. "And I would never ever do that again. You know, when we started Equality California, everyone was, like, 'Hire professional lobbyists to go lobby on LGBT issues,' and I was, like: 'You gotta be kidding. We're going to do our own lobbying because it's about our lives and we know what we're talking about and we know how to do this.' One thing, you know, that I would never do again ... we should have been in the strategy room and part of those (consultants') conversations, and that was a huge mistake."

Wockner notes that some are complaining about how summit organizers are handling dissent from outsiders at the conference.

"Today is about the same people ... taking control of anything that goes forward, being in charge, and collecting the money and having the power," said Miki Jackson, a longtime lesbian and AIDS activist in Los Angeles. "These people are control junkies, they are power junkies, and we are at their mercy," Jackson said in an interview, singling out Kors and Kendell by name. "They're up at the podium and they're talking at everyone. ... Grassroots people can't even stand up and ask a question. It has to be read (from a notecard) by a moderator. There isn't a rift between the grassroots and the No on 8 usual suspects -- there is a wall they have built. We have a place, and they want us in it. You can see it here today."

Read Wockner's entire report.

[Photo credit: Rex Wockner]

Full Media Access Granted For California Marriage Equality Summit

Two weeks ago a controversy erupted when activist Robin Tyler leaked word that next week's marriage equality summit organized by Equality California would bar press and bloggers from a portion of the proceedings. Many blogs (including this one) expressed disappointment with that decision, although some blogs accused us publicly of having gotten the story wrong. (Which we didn't.) Today Rex Wockner reports that the summit will now open all proceedings to the press.

The California Equality Summit, a large gay activist powwow being held in Los Angeles Jan. 24, has abandoned a plan to block media access to portions of the gathering. The meeting of more than 250 California GLBT activists at the Los Angeles Convention Center will focus on strategizing and organizing to win back same-sex marriage in California.

Internal meeting minutes and e-mails, given to reporters by a disgruntled co-organizer, had made clear that the 53-member organizing committee had decided to prevent reporters from attending at least some portions of the summit. "Media will have access to cover only a portion of the summit," stated the minutes of a Dec. 18 planning-committee meeting. "Co-chairs will determine which section that is." The policy was reiterated as late as Dec. 29, when summit coordinator Anne Marks of Equality California informed the planning committee that the summit's co-chairs "have decided not to revisit the committee's decision on media policy."

But after the documents became public and news stories were published on Jan. 5 and Jan. 7, organizers apparently opted to reconsider the decision. A note published Jan. 13 on Equality California's Web site stated simply, "There will be press access at the entire summit for pre-registered members of the media." The planned media limits had been controversial because the people who ran the failed campaign against Proposition 8 have been widely criticized for their alleged insularity during the campaign, in which Equality California had the lead role.

Prop 8, passed narrowly by voters on Nov. 4, 2008, amended the California Constitution to wipe out same-sex marriage, which had been legal since June 16, 2008, following a state Supreme Court ruling which found the state's opposite-sex definition of marriage unconstitutional. Prop 8 itself is now under attack before the Supreme Court as allegedly unconstitutional for a variety of reasons. A ruling is expected in June.