Internet activist Jeff Campagna and Marriage Equality’s Cathy Marino-Thomas, pictured at a Nov. 15 rally at City Hall. Both participated in a town hall meeting about activist strategies. Photo: GRCC.
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By Trenton Straube
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
If a town hall meeting this week on same-sex marriage is any indication, the fight for gay nuptials is about to take to the streets.
“The community really wants to have a lot more street protests,” said Ron Zacchi, executive director of Marriage Equality New York (MENY), which organized the Monday meeting at the LGBT Center.
An entire new wave of activists is fired up and ready to take up the cause.
They are angered by the passage of California gay marriage ban Proposition 8; they are inspired by successful marches and rallies in recent weeks; and they are connected online via Facebook.
But the main question is: How, exactly, to attain marriage equality as a community. In fact, the meeting was titled “Town Hall Post-Election Round-up: What’s Next?”
Several hundred packed the room, expecting a planning session that would leave them with a solid strategy and game plan for upcoming activist actions. Instead, the meeting was a traditional panel discussion and Q&A session.
Panelists included State Sen. Tom Duane, Human Rights Campaign’s Marty Rouse, Empire State Pride Agenda’s Alan Van Capelle, MENY’s Zacchi and activist Jeff Campagna.
MENY’s Cathy Marino-Thomas, who moderated the event, said the original intent of the meeting was to allow the organizations and community to dialogue because there had been a lot of accusations and frustrations in recent months over the established leadership’s strategy in fighting for gay rights—and their lack of visibility during November.
But there were so many questions and discussions that the meeting never got to the planning stage (HRC in particular took a lot of heat from the audience for its perceived role in the Calfornia Prop 8 campaig—and for its past issues such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act).
Not only did that leave most participants frustrated, but it also underscored a current challenge facing the activist movement.
How do the established gay civil rights groups respond to the sudden and significant groundswell of younger activists ready to take to the streets? It doesn’t quell the friction to understand that groups such as Pride Agenda and Marriage Equality have never been known for in-your-face activism and civil disobedience.
In fact, Marino-Thomas described MENY as an educational group more comfortable meeting with community boards and legislators. “We need political action, educational action and activist action right now,” she said, adding that the town hall audience was only interested in the activist approach.
Activist Campagna sees the gay civil rights movement at a pivotal moment. “There’s a movement afoot, and it consists of street activism. The younger and independent activists are going to drive this issue. The older organizations have created channels they expect people to flow in, and [the new generation] is not flowing in these channels.”
“The people who lead organizations have to listen to what’s happening,” he said. “Millions of people across the country are spontaneously engaging in grass-roots activism. The trick is to figure out how to harness that.”
On the stage at last week’s City Hall rally, Campagna gave out the phone number for Sen. Rubin Diaz and got thousands of people to call him and ask him to support Malcomn Smith as Senate Majority Leader.
“We are at a real turning,” Campagna said. “There will be butting of heads in the coming weeks and months as people use different tactics. But ultimately we will end up working together.”
What’s next? Join the Impact will hold a planning meeting Wednesday, Dec. 3, at the LGBT Center and an action Dec. 10. MENY is planning an education day in Albany for late January.
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