News Roundup – The Marriage Equality Summit In Los Angeles
Queer Town: The subtle lessons of the Equality Summit, LA Weekly, Patrick Range McDonald.
More questions than answers at Gay Marriage Equality Summit, Queerty.com, Japhy Grant. Includes a couple of videos; follow the link to see them.
OUTTAKE Voices: Gay Marriage Equality Summit (audio), GenerationQ.net, Natalie Kalow. An audio interview with Andrea Shorter, one of the organizers of the Equality Summit.
Angry crowd at the Equality Summit, Pam’s House Blend, Autumn Sandeen.
Thoughts on the Equality Summit’s transgender breakout session, Pam’s House Blend, Autumn Sandeed.
Update: A Unite the Fight report on the EQCA Summit, Unite the Fight.
Prop 8 opponents unhappy with campaign leaders, The San Francisco Chronicle, John Wildermuth.
Equality Summit backroom struggles see the light, Queerty.com, Japhy Grant.
Excerpts from the above headlines follow:
Queer Town: The subtle lessons of the Equality Summit
Judging from the morning panel session, as well as such blog and newspaper reports as Queerty.com and the San Francisco Chronicle, many gays still aren’t happy with their leaders — particularly with Equality California’s Geoff Kors and the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center’s Lorri Jean — both of whom sat on the “No on 8″ executive committee, which ran the unsuccessful show to defeat Proposition 8. Yet lingering resentment was not the confab’s major theme.
More questions than answers at Gay Marriage Equality Summit
It’s like the set-up to a bad joke: “How many marriage equality activists does it take to get gay marriage?” That’s just one of the many unanswered questions raised by this weekend’s Equality Summit, held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The 400-ish attendees came looking for answers as to why the No On 8 campaign failed to preserve gay marriage, and what the next steps towards marriage equality should be. Anyone expecting a definitive answer would have been setting unrealistic expectations, but with so many committed marriage equality leaders in one room, it was surprising to see just how far we have to go.
OUTTAKE Voices: Gay Marriage Equality Summit (audio), GenerationQ.net, Natalie Kalow.
Andrea provides her opinion and ideas on where we need to go to reverse Prop 8 and ultimately provide better marriage equality for gay couples.
Angry crowd at the Equality Summit
One of the things I took away from first plenary session at the Equality Summit is it’s in large part, a pretty angry crowd. They aren’t happy about how the Prop 8 campaign was run at all, and they want answers to questions that it sounds like they don’t feel like they’re getting from the leaders of the No On Prop 8 Campaign.
Thoughts on the Equality Summit’s transgender breakout session
Of the hundreds at the Equality Summit, about 8 of us showed up to the transgender breakout. Two of us were media.
What a tough issue this is to the trans subcommunity of the LGBT community. On one hand, many of us recognize exactly how every marriage that a transgender person enters into is considered by many to be a same sex marriage.
Update: A Unite the Fight report on the EQCA Summit
Equality California’s Equality Summit was defined as “a gathering of community leaders committed to winning back marriage equality in California to network, share information and resources, and plan next steps” on the organization’s page, and though EQCA obviously spent a lot of time tailoring an agenda to meet this definition, the many grassroots organizations that attended had other agendas in mind. One in particular: holding the leaders accountable for the failure of the No on 8 campaign.
Prop 8 opponents unhappy with campaign leaders
By bringing in professional consultants and making the campaign more about politics than the needs, stories and enthusiasm of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual community, the No on 8 leaders not only lost the election, but missed the point, argued many of the more than 400 people at Equality Summit ‘09, held at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Equality Summit backroom struggles see the light
Emails obtained by Queerty yesterday offer up a glimpse into the backdoor politics of the planning process for this month’s Equality Summit, scheduled for January 24th in Los Angeles. The conference will be the first major meeting of mainstream LGBT groups and grassroots activists since their defeat in November, and it aims to begin planning the next steps for a newly energized gay movement. The emails, sent between members of the planning committee, show internal strife and debate over the question of media access and also appear to contradict the public statements of Equality Summit leaders.
