A Time To Build Up - National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

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IntroductionAs you read A Time to Build Up, two pointswarrant articulation.1 A Time to Build Up is based upon three sources:• survey data from national and California religiousorganizers, national and California secular organizersand LGBTQQIA 1 funders,• a convening of thirty-two California and nationalreligious and secular organizers, and LGBTQQIAfunders held in Pasadena, CA January 15-16,2009, and• numerous conversations with secular and religiousorganizers between June, 2008 and February,2009, including at the National Conference onLGBT Equality: Creating Change held in Denver inJanuary of 2009.At different points throughout this report we refer bothto “research” and the “Pasadena convening.” When wesay this, it is to these that we are referring.2 The starting point for this report, and all the workit represents, is the assumption that pro-LGBTQQIAreligious organizers and pro-LGBTQQIA secularorganizers share a common vision and set of values.We all strive for a country whose mores, culture andlaws reflect the dreams of our forebears: life, libertyand genuine justice for all — including lesbian, gay,bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and intersexpeople and families. Although uncertainty and lack ofunderstanding between pro-LGBTQQIA religious andsecular organizers remains, these shared visions andvalues provide us with a solid foundation upon whichto build strong partnerships.The spirit of this document, and the movement we hopeto inspire with its publication, is one of collaboration anddeep respect — for the wisdom of those who direct, workor participate in campaigns, and for the experience anddepth of knowledge and influence of those who organizeand work within religious communities.Those gathered at the Pasadena convening spoke severaltimes about the honor and privilege of being there. Beingproud pro-LGBTQQIA religious people within this movementis a gift. It is also a gift to have colleagues in allaspects of our movement, particularly those who work oncampaigns. They often work tirelessly, anonymously andin places in which many of us don’t venture. All that isshared in A Time to Build Up is done so out of the desireto build a more powerful, expansive, inclusive movementthat can transform our world. Where there are criticisms,they are raised to help us do better next time, not to teardown our colleagues. Where there is analysis, it is sharedto better our strategizing and actions. Our deepest desireis to work together, to draw upon the strengths of each,so that all of us might enjoy the fruits of a more just,equitable and loving world.1) Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex andally. Participants in the Pasadena convening spoke eloquently aboutthe importance of including all of the members of the pro-LGBTQQIAmovement in our work and organizing. Because this document seeksto widen the circles of inclusion, we chose to use a more inclusiveterm (LGBTQQIA) for the community. However, even as we do this, werecognize that we have work to be done around language. For example,same-gender-loving and two-spirit are not included in this term.3
AnalysisThe following analysis, presented askey learnings and discussion, emergedfrom the Pasadena convening and thepre-convening survey.KEY LEARNING 1Proposition 8 and most anti-LGBTQQIAmeasures are rooted in conservativereligion, and religious opposition requiresa religious response.Conservative religious voices influenced the debateand outcome of Proposition 8: Proposition 8 is anexample of a public debate that was influenced byconservative religious leadership. Conservative religiousleaders have demonstrated a willingness and ability to:• shift the debate from legal and civil rights to one thatfocuses on morality and religious rights; and• strategically create a conservative platform from whichconservative religious leaders dominate public debateon LGBTQQIA issues within communities of color.Religious opposition requires a religious response:It is naïve to believe that rights-based arguments cantrump the values-based arguments of conservativereligious leaders. It is also naïve to ignore the power andinfluence of the moral authority given to religious leaderswithin communities of faith. The voices of conservativereligious leaders must be responded to by the voicesof progressive faith leaders whose religious beliefs andtraditions allow them to speak to people of faith as moralequals, within the context of their faith traditions andracial/ethnic cultures.DISCUSSION1a: Yes on Proposition 8rooted in conservative religionProponents of Proposition 8 rooted their efforts religiously.Studies clearly indicate that the primary funding forthe Yes on Proposition 8 campaign came from religioussources. 2 Additionally, religious attendance was oneof the primary indicators of support for Proposition8. It is undeniable that religion, particularly conservativeChristianity, formed the backbone for the Yes onProposition 8 campaign. This is true for both the fieldcampaign and the media and messaging efforts tosupport Proposition 8. Yes on Proposition 8 campaignorganizers utilized conservative church networks forvolunteers, organized campaign efforts that fit withconservative religious culture (for example — worshipservices, and the Qualcomm stadium event in earlyNovember, which was akin to a Promise Keepers event)and placed conservative religious leaders in the media.RecommendationsFundersSupport campaign work that analyzes andrecognizes the power of religious opposition.Secular OrganizersMonitor anti-LGBTQQIA religious messaging andfield tactics. Partner with pro-LGBTQQIA religiousleaders who have experience in combating these.Religious OrganizersDraw upon your experience with anti-LGBTQQIAorganizations such as the Institute on Religionand Democracy and intra-religious conflicts toanticipate and counter religious opposition.1b: Religiously-rooted oppositionnecessitates a religiously-rooted strategyAlthough the No on Proposition 8 campaign wasconvinced, based upon the research it did with focusgroups, that creating a situation in which there wasconflict between pro-LGBTQQIA religious people andanti-LGBTQQIA religious people would be detrimental,this was not the case with other concurrent campaignswithin California.In particular, participants in the survey and conveningidentified Proposition 4, the parental notification measure,as a powerful example of how religious organizing could2) Egan, Patrick J. and Kenneth Sherrill, California’s Proposition 8:What Happened, and What Does the Future Hold? Commissionedby the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Foundation and released under theauspices of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Policy Institute,January 2009 and Jones, Robert P. and Daniel Cox, Marriage Equality:Findings from the Faith and American Politics Study, Public ReligionResearch with funding from the Human Rights Campaign, February2009. A release on the Egan and Sherrill report noted, “More than70 percent of voters who were Republican, identified themselvesas conservative, or attended religious services at least weeklysupported Proposition 8.”4
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