Has it been two years already? Two years since LGBT people in California got a taste of equality when the California Supreme Court issued their historic and moving decision saying marriage is a fundamental constitutional right which had been improperly denied to same sex couples. And a month later, the marriages began. And five months after that – equality was stripped away a simple majority vote of the people with the passage of Prop 8. LGBTs in California still can feel those moments of joy – and sucker-punched pain. And after a failed attempt to repeal Prop 8 this year, several groups – including Equality California and the LA Gay and Lesbian Center have continued doing outreach, voter identification and trying to figure out how to move Yes on Prop 8 voters to marriage equality before the next attempt to repeal Prop 8 is put before voters in 2012.
Now Rick Jacobs and the “Equality Hub” arm of the non-gay, progressive Courage Campaign has come up with something different – which they will announce Thursday morning in San Francisco. (Rick Jacobs is seen here in the middle backstage at a post-Prop 8 rally in downtown LA with Yashar Hedayat, now San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s campaign manager, and SCLC/LA’s Rev. Eric Lee.) It involves equality and “guerrilla theatre” so you know it will at least be engaging. Here’s their media advisory announcing their press conference:
Thursday morning, just two days from the two-year anniversary of the California Supreme Court’s landmark decision to legalize same-sex marriage, some of the nation’s leading voices from the faith, labor and LGBT communities will join with Courage Campaign Equality to launch an unprecedented national public education campaign for LGBT equality at a press conference in San Francisco.
The press conference will be immediately followed by live “guerrilla theater” re-enactments of portions of the Prop. 8 Trial in San Francisco, New York, North Carolina, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Ohio and other states.
“Testimony: Equality on Trial” (Testimony) is supported by a diverse coalition that includes the California Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), Academy Award winning actress Marisa Tomei, and former Republican congressman Michael Huffington.
“The historic federal trial over Proposition 8 has already destroyed the lies and hollow arguments used to deceive voters into taking away basic freedoms from their neighbors,” said Courage Campaign Founder Rick Jacobs. “While Prop. 8’s proponents have tried to suppress evidence and exclude the public, we are launching an unprecedented, year-long campaign on May 13 that will give every American their day in court.”
The launch of “Testimony” comes with final arguments in the continuing federal trial over Proposition 8 (Perry v. Schwarzenegger) scheduled for June 16. The case is widely expected to reach the U.S. Supreme Court, with far-reaching implications for both federal law and the 30 states which have already passed constitutional amendments restricting the freedoms of LGBT Americans, and LGBT families.
“Since our nation’s founding, equality has been on trial,” said Cleve Jones, a close friend to Harvey Milk, founder of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and a Senior Advisor to the Courage Campaign. “By merging time-honored organizing tactics and cutting-edge technology, Testimony will bring the heart of this trial — the essence of fairness and decency — out of the courtroom and into the public square.”
Thursday’s press conference will debut the project’s companion website, which will feature videos of the “Guerrilla Theater” reenactments of the ongoing Prop. 8 trial (Perry v. Schwarzenegger), that comprise the first phase of the Testimony Project.
These videos feature everyday Americans, as well as re-enactments shot by well-known television and film actors like: Academy Award-winner Marissa Tomei; Josh Lucas; Michael Urie; Cheyenne Jackson; Tony Award-winner Alan Cumming; Ellen Greene and Academy Award nominee Patricia Clarkson.
The scripts for the “guerrilla theater” reenactments were personally selected by Academy Award-winning film producer Bruce Cohen (”American Beauty,” “Milk”) and are based on the original trial transcripts.
Phase 2 and Phase 3 of Testimony: Equality on Trial will enable Americans to upload their own video “testimony” to the Equality on Trial website, and to ultimately present their work to America’s elected leaders.
WHAT: Courage Campaign Equality press conference, national launch of Testimony: Equality on Trial, and “Guerrilla Theater” reenactment of the ongoing Proposition 8 Trial
WHO: Attendees/Speakers to include: * Cleve Jones, Founder of AIDS Memorial Quilt * Rick Jacobs, President and Founder of Courage Campaign * Dolores Huerta, Co-Founder of United Farm Workers * Rev. Eric Lee, California President of Southern Christian Leadership Conference
WHEN: Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 10:30 a.m.
WHERE: Larkspur Hotel, 524 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
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Courage Campaign Equality is an online organizing network dedicated to full lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in all 50 states and by the federal government. Courage Campaign Equality is a part of the Courage Campaign family — a national network of more than 700,000 grassroots and netroots activists that push for progressive change and full equality across America. Rick Jacobs is the founder and chair of the Courage Campaign. He chaired Howard Dean’s presidential campaign in California. He is also the co-founder of Brave New Films and a featured contributor to Arianna Huffington’s Huffingtonpost.com. Rick has an extensive background as an international investor and senior executive.
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Delete if you must, but there is a time when Stupid must be called out, and I’ve seen no stupider idea in a long time that imagining that re-enacting the trial, which started understandably enough because cameras were barred in the courtroom, can be a vehicle for “education.”
Was there courtroom oratory, fireworks, that I’ve failed to read about that would create the kind of drams anyone NOT ALREADY PRO MARRIAGE EQUALITY would stop to pay attention to? Why not just shoot them with tranquilizer darts?
Courage Campaign posited themselves as people who would make up for the failures of existing gay orgs, but, more often that not they’ve confused self-satisfying self-righteousness for courage and creating change. “Guerilla theatre” and “trial reenactment” = putting the moron in oxymoron.
Thank you for posting. Why would I want to delete this? It’s your opinion and hardly in the same league with some of the REALLY offensive things both Courage and groups with a different strategy have been called in the past.
Heavens, “stupid” is a fly buzz not a shark bite.
Besides, your comment reminded me more of Aaron Sorkin’s comment about the Newsweek piece in the Huffington Post today – defending the gay theatre critic who said gay Sean Hayes should’t play straight: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-sorkin/now-that-you-mention-it-r_b_574210.html
Thanks -
KO
Thank you for keeping my comment. But color ME stupid, I guess, for not getting why it reminded you of the Aaron Sorkin piece.
For the record, I believe Sorkin is wrong about Setoodeh “not being homophobic just wrong.” One does not have to have previously read Setoodeh’s shark attack on 14-yr. old Lawrence King, post mortem, to get there is something very rotten not just in Hamlet’s Denmark but also in Setoodeh. Further, that the often brilliant Sorkin segued from a Ma Barker-like, “He’s a good boy!” defense of Setoodeh to trying to blame it all on our pathological celebrity culture is a stretch of Olympian length.
The latest, apparently, is that Ryan Murphy, the creator of “GLEE,” after understandably attacking Setoodeh for attacking one of the show’s gay actors for playing a straight character, has invited Setoodeh to observe, as one recalls, their “casting process” and Setoodeh has agreed.
Now, if someone could just invite Murphy to explain to us why an out and supposedly proud gay high schooler in 2010 in any place this side of Burnt Coffee, Mississippi, should be given lines such as, “Since I’m the hononary girl here,” perhaps one wouldn’t have to observe that he has more in common with Setoodeh that he might like to believe. Or did “nelly” go back to being equated with transgender while I was watching “West Wing” reruns?