And as we scream from the top of our lungs, another U.S. is HAPPENING.

This week, thousands upon thousands of folks from across the country (and other countries as well) converged on Detroit for the United States Social Forum. We’ve been blasting out a lot of information about Equality Across America’s participation in this historical event, but if you’re behind on the game like all of us are sometimes go to ussf2010.org for the inspiring details.

This is my sixth conference I’ve attended since mid-March, so I was worried that I was going to be burnt out quickly. I’ve felt burnt out ever since the ending of Harvey Milk week and the last leg of regional conferences that were affiliated with EAA.

Upon arriving, I felt the scalding pessimism and frustration melt off my shoulders as the forum kicked off with what had to be a 10,000 strong multi-issue march for any and all social justice issues. Be it racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, gentrification, immigration, environmental or Detroit-specific issues, they were represented. Undocumented activists stood in solidarity, unafraid and led chants in Spanish and English that were eaten up by the crowd. Environmental chants were immediately followed by queer chants. It was the most beautiful feeling to be screaming along with the masses, not isolated by issue but together in solidarity even though we may not all agree or understand each other.

There wasn’t a single person in that march not smiling, dancing, crying or awestruck. I saw it in their faces, and I couldn’t stop reading the crowd.

Why were we at a conference that wasn’t queer specific?

We can’t do this alone, and neither can any of the other movements fighting for a better society and planet. We must help before asking for help, and we must continue helping. The work will most likely never end – for we have billions of hearts and minds to change and a societal structure that pits us against each other to re-work or tear down.

At this forum, I’ve cried. I’ve laughed and I’ve been horrified. I conversed with folks who never knew that there was a raging queer movement about to topple over into a revolution once we unify. I’ve been educated, and I’ve educated. I’ve argued and expanded so rapidly I’m still digesting everything. My politics have changed, but my goal and my reasons for organizing with Equality Across America have only strengthened, become more cohesive, and that anger…the anger that drives us to transform our sorrows and disappointments into a creative and positive energy that will permeate through this society slowly until all have been liberated, IS BACK.

So many of us have been fighting for only a short time, while others have been going for decades. The younger generations don’t have a time-line for liberation, WE WANT AND NEED IT NOW AND THERE IS NO OTHER OPTION. But, we need to remember to take care of our minds, souls and bodies otherwise what happened to me over the past month happens to all of us.

We hit a brick wall, and sometimes it’s impossible to see that positive energy. We still have some air to clear out, and we need to organize our movement to allow us to unite without assimilating. We’re not the same, so why the hell should we ever say we are? Yet, the e-mail listservs ALWAYS have drama, we’re anxious to check our e-mails after a weekend off (if we ever give ourselves one) and sometimes we want to wave a white flag, say fuck you and run away to some island away from electricity so we can just focus on our own happiness. Don’t deny it. We all feel it. We’re all human and in the end we all become selfish. It’s human nature, for individuality is human nature and we’re all trying to collaborate with so many different identities on the table. It’s a beautiful, stressful and historical mess we are living in right now.

Point being, take care of yourselves you little revolutionaries. Go to conferences, summits, meetings, retreats, actions and events, but take 2 days out of the week to not check your e-mail. Get a creative outlet, or even a therapist (Full disclosure: I am not tolerant of the stigma around that word. The most organized and rational people still need an external communication system they can release their frustrations through).

A REVOLUTION IS BREWING, and even though we may not know exactly what it will look like, we need to prepare for the moment everything comes together and us queers actually become LEGITIMIZED FORCES ON THE TABLE, and ONES THAT HELP OTHER MOVEMENTS. Oppression is oppression, and it would be ignorant of us to forget everyone else.

What might this revolution look like? I think I finally have an idea:

or this

or maybe it’s something as simple as dancing in the streets.

No more of this “Yes we can” bullshit.

Yes we are.

And yes we will.

With all my love,
Nik

We have a new leadership team!

Fellow activists,

With the Prop 8 trial coming to a close in San Francisco and partial reforms for LGBT people coming from DC as a result of months of protest activities, Equality Across America (EAA) is proud to announce that we are moving forward in our fight for full federal equality with a new leadership team.

This newly expanded leadership team represents a diverse group of activists from many groups, cities and experiences. Our successful regional and citywide conferences across the country drew more than 1,300 LGBT activists and allies and allowed us to win more people to building a national grassroots network through EAA and to meet many of these new leaders.

EAA National Organizing Team (to replace Interim Governing Board)

Purpose:
To build a broader leadership team that involves activists we met through the regional and citywide conferences who identified themselves as individuals interested in carrying forward EAA as a national grassroots network. Included in this body would be local activists rooted in organizing work on campuses and in local groups representing regional diversity.

Structure:
This body, EAA National Organizing Team (ENOT), should include 15-20 activists who are able and interested in acting as a consultative and voting body that discusses their experiences on the ground and through reports from EAA groups and members throughout the country. It would:

1) meet via video conference, skype or conference call no more frequently than once every 4-6 weeks;

2) put forward national action initiatives;

3) select a handful of ENOT members help write and edit regular e-blasts and press releases;

4) select a handful of ENOT members to update Web site and respond to queries;

5) coordinate a team of bloggers to make contributions a few times a week and solicit blog contributions from others involved in activism;

6) elect 5-7 ENOT members as administrative delegates to decide financial expenditures and other more immediate questions that require quicker decisions than a wider body can take, but the broader ENOT should be consulted for comment and input on decisions.

7) include the project director whose priorities should be set by this body.

Goals:
1) project and build EAA;

2) develop easy communication and input from EAA members;

3) develop budget and fundraising initiatives to financially sustain EAA through members and supporters;

4) plan an EAA national convention for members by the end of 2010 to provide broader EAA membership input, assess EAA and movement, develop longterm goals, and elect new ENOT for the coming year.

Motivation:
Given the experiences we had before, during and since the conferences, a council of approximately 15-20 people has the potential to tap into the energy, ideas and creativity of a wider layer of activists nationally. Naturally, we’d want this body to be as diverse in every way possible, though if it gets too large it will never be able to meet with any regularity, as we remain a group of volunteer activists with jobs, families, and busy activist lives already. We want EAA to help to shape national debates, initiatives and strategies with diverse input and experiences so that EAA can have an impact on the fight for full federal equality, Time and other limitations necessitate that this body must be both functional and flexible to adjust to the inevitable ups and downs of movement work.

–

The new EAA National Organizing Team includes: Tiffani Bishop (Austin), Ann Coleman (Boston), Bert Coleman (St. Louis), Lindsey Dietzler (Chicago), Anthony Farver (Tampa), Wendy Forbes (Philadelphia), Aiyinah Ford (Washington DC), Colin Hammar (Indianapolis), Judy Heithmar (Chicago), Donna Lee (Gainesville), Amos Lim (San Francisco), Omar Lopez (Austin), Marc Loveless (Chicago), Nik Macjewski (Chicago), David Mailloux (Boston), Melanie Nathan (Los Angeles), Angel Poventud (Atlanta), Ed Reggi (St. Louis), Casey Robinson (Los Angeles), Laura Wadden (San Francisco), Samantha White (Bangor), Sherry Wolf (New York City)

As a grassroots network that grew out of the National Equality March last October, we have continued our devotion to an anti-corporate and grassroots-focused agenda of solidarity with other oppressed groups. We came away from the march with $100,000 remaining and in the last 8 months have spent less than $15,000 in our aim to expand our network and have a broader leadership.

Our Harvey Milk Day initiative was taken up by groups across the country and we are now ready to plot our next steps. We look forward to working with all forces who want to fight for full equality through solidarity and diversity!

In solidarity,

The EAA Crew

From Riots to Rights: Celebrating 40 Years of LGBT Activism

Remarks at Rainbow Flag-Raising Ceremony
Boston City Hall/ June 4, 2010
Don Gorton, 2010 Grand Marshal Boston Pride

City Councilors, honored guests, ladies and gentlemen: I’d like to thank the Pride Committee for all the hard work they do every year to stage the fabulous pageant that Boston Pride has become. This 40^th anniversary Pride celebration invites us to look back on our collective past. The world has changed so much since 1970, the year following the Stonewall Riots, that it is difficult to conceive what living conditions were like for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and trans people in the 1960’s. Yet it is so important that we remember; those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to relive them.

Before Stonewall, there was no such thing as coming out; everyone who could hide in closets, often going so far as to marry persons of the opposite sex. Homosexuality was a dark secret, exposure of which could mean loss of career, friends, family, and even one’s freedom. The shame of being outed as a homosexual or transgender drove many people to suicide.

Homosexuality and transexuality were defined as mental illnesses. One could be involuntarily committed to a mental institution to undergo forced “conversion therapy,” which might include torture techniques like aversive conditioning—electric shocks administered to the genitalia at any sign of same-sex arousal. Any expression of homosexual desire entailed legal jeopardy, regardless of how private or consensual the act. Same-sex dancing, holding hands, and displays of affection were treated as crimes under overbroad and vague statutes; sex acts were felonious. If you sought out intimacy, you ran the risk of entrapment by plainclothes police officers dressed suggestively to entice sexual interest.  Gay bars were illegal, which meant that they were typically owned and operated by organized crime, with unsanitary conditions and abusive employees. If you had a job and an income, you were vulnerable to blackmail; oftentimes, extortion rings operated out of gay bars. Since exposure was tantamount to ruination, victims paid up. Violence at the hands of gaybashers, police officers, or even sex partners was commonplace. There was no recourse. The images of homosexuality one encountered in the media were stereotyped and ugly. Messages about homosexuality were invariably condemning, to the point that the disease label was thought a compassionate innovation. Not even political liberals or the American Civil Liberties Union would stick up for the despised homosexual minority.

It’s a measure of how far we’ve come that this account of the way things used to be seems shocking or incredible, especially to folks under 40. We celebrate today and for the next nine days because our world has been so profoundly transformed since the time of Stonewall.

Change came fitfully. The American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental illness in 1974. Private, consensual sex between adults began to be tolerated; gay bars not owned by the Mafia began to open. Some LGBT folks began acknowledging our identities, and being a known homosexual no longer meant automatically losing your job. Police entrapment of gay men became less frequent, though it was many years after Stonewall before the practice was largely abandoned. The idea of non-discrimination laws to protect LGBT people in access to employment, housing, and public accommodations gained currency. In 1984, the City of Boston passed a non-discrimination ordinance; the Commonwealth of Massachusetts passed a comprehensive anti-discrimination law for lesbians, gays, and bisexuals in 1989. Gaybashing stopped being a risk-free pursuit; hate crimes laws were amended to protect the LGBT community from bigoted violence. Gays and lesbians began to be appointed and elected to high office. The needs of LGBT youth became a concern of state government in the 1990’s. And of course, Massachusetts led the way in recognizing same-sex marriage in the landmark Goodridge decision of 2003. That same year, the US Supreme Court finally invalidated the sodomy laws that have afflicted English-speaking gays and lesbians since the reign of Henry VIII.

What all of you should realize is that change was not inevitable. We have made progress only because we have fought for it, unrelentingly and with tenancity, against tremendous odds and fierce resistance. Every step forward has come at a cost; the cliché that freedom isn’t free has been borne out time and time again.

Living conditions for LGBT people are dramatically transformed because dedicated activists took initiative and confronted the status quo. Courageously, year after year, heroes have stood up at great personal risk to demand that LGBT’s be treated as human beings. Because of the unsung efforts of countless activists over the past 4 decades and more, we live in a time that the downtrodden homosexual of the 1960’s simply could not have imagined.

Getting from riots to rights was exceedingly difficult, and yet here we are. As we revel for the next nine days, let us remember that activism has been our pathway to social change. And the work is yet unfinished. I hope many of you will find inspiration in this year’s Pride festivities to get involved in the movement for full equality.

Don Gorton is a veteran grassroots LGBT activist and one of the 2010 Boston Pride Grand Marshals. Don brings a wealth of historical knowledge and experience as well as support for new activists in our movement. He is currently a board member with Join The Impact MA, and chair of the anti-violence project. He was Chair of The MA Gay and Lesbian Political Alliance and Co-Chair of the Governor’s Hate Crimes Commission. Don has dedicated his life to activism for the LGBT community. He has been instrumental in hate crimes legislation and reporting, a leader in grassroots activism, a stern advocate for police protection and accountability, and a prolific writer with countless letters to the editor and elected officials. He continues to inspire new generations, recently joining to support the local GLAAD presence, and Equality Across America.

A conference so inspiring, people are biking hundreds of miles to get there?

Folks from Equality Across America will be attending the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit from June 22nd to June 26th. Before going into anything, here’s a blurb from the website.

The US Social Forum will provide a space to build relationships, learn from each other’s experiences, and share analysis of the problems our communities face. It will help develop leadership, vision, and strategy needed to realize another world.

Leadership, vision and strategy! Something every part of every movement needs, right? Be it a grassroots group of a few people trying to build their vision or the entire LGBTQ movement as a whole, even though sometimes it doesn’t look, sound or feel that whole, those three words are essential to not just a particular organization or movement,  but to life in general.

When I first became involved in LGBTQ activism, I found comfort in talking to people involved in movements against racism or other forms of bigotry because I heard the same struggles, the same concerns and the same passion. Everyone wants to be equal. Everyone wants to figure out a way to make their movement more cohesive and unified. At the forum, union organizers will have the chance to sit face to face with those struggling in the movement against racism. Queer folk can sit FACE to FACE with women’s rights organizations and see where the opportunity lies to learn from one another.

We all know from organizing ourselves and even just living in this electronic world that e-mail doesn’t replace a human conversation. Our movements can only become stronger individually if we are willing to sit and listen to everyone struggling, and perhaps make statements together.

Already people are finding ways to make a grand statement before they even arrive. Organizations are planning biking tours that will bring activists to their destination with practically no carbon footprint. Many cyclists are donating their bikes and gear upon arrival to help those with transportation needs in a city with little to no options without a car.

You can still register for the forum if you feel like taking an impromptu trip for your activist soul. If you’re contemplating, do it QUICK. Hotels are filling fast. Another world that embraces LGBTQ people IS possible – and we’re excited to take this opportunity to network and collaborate with other folks fighting various forms of oppression.

-Nik Maciejewski