LGBT POV

Dear Unite the Fight Readers,

These past two years have been filled with many highs and many lows – we won the right to marry in California only to have it stripped away in months by the ignominious Proposition 8, the latter galvanizing our community into action that hasn’t been seen in years.

Despite another amazing high point of numerous demonstrations and actions attended and organized by thousands, the California Supreme Court, having once given us the right to marry, would later side with the discriminatory Proposition 8 and uphold it, creating yet again another low point. In spite of all this, our movement has encouragingly moved forward, and not just focused on marriage, but working state by state and on the federal level with a goal of full equality under all laws….

PLEASE CLICK INSIDE TO READ THE REST OF PHILLIP’S MOVING FAREWELL TO HIS UTF READERS.

All this talk about repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” – and the spotlight on Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain’s very public and embarrassingly obvious flip-flop over gays and lesbians serving openly in the military made me think about McCain’s predecessor – the late Sen. Barry Goldwater, the political “father” of the conservative movement. Perhaps his most famous quote from the early 1990s is, “You don’t have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.”

But few remember that Goldwater wrote an op-ed calling for the ban on gays serving openly in the military to be lifted immediately. Click inside to read more about Goldwater and his entire op-ed.

Note from Syd: I first met Vincent Jones, 33, at Camp Courage LA this past January. Others may know him as the moderator for the California Leadership Summits in Fresno and San Bernadino this summer, or from his work at Liberty Hill Foundation. But Vincent’s grassroots work goes back much farther– to the 1990s in Los Angeles and DC. Let’s hear his story…

If you looked up “quiet leader” in the dictionary, you’d find a photo of Christine Marge. In this profile, she speaks about how her social work roots led to her current work: ending homelessness and fighting for marriage equality.

J.T. Chestnut talks about growing up in North Carolina, his current grassroots work, and standing up for what he believes in.

For our next Grassroots Profile, meet Marni Zimlin, a full-time volunteer at Vote for Equality. Marni traveled to Maine this Spring to help LGBT activists successfully lobby the state legislature for marriage equality.

Last Sunday, activist Syd Peterson launched a new series for LGBT POV to introduce you to grassroots activists working hard for justice and equality on the ground. His first profile was of Pastor Samuel Chu. This morning meet Matt Palazzolo, co-founder of the Equal Roots Coalition. Click inside for Matt’s brief profile.