L.A. Gay Center Responds to Prop. 8 Criticism

What the defense of the campaign fails to address is how few Californians contributed to the campaign and how late the money came in. I live in Maine and contributed, but the vast majority of Californians did not. It does not matter how much money was contributed. By the time the campaign became aware of the disaster they had on their hands it was too little too late. They did not have an understanding of the enemy, and that is a failed strategy. Gays of color felt ignroed and unrecognized. The campaign did not set up offices in the Latino(a) neighborhoods in LA, which has a very large population until far too late. Sorry, but your defense falls flat and the campaign was a disaster. I am glad that there will be an independent evaluation of the years we have lost in this fight.

I think it's important to look at just how committed the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's officers and board were in the fund-raising effort to fight prop 8. A look through the public database shows this article's author, Jim Key, donated a whopping $100 to fight prop 8 despite having a six-figure salary. I donated more than that, and I make half as much money. Two of the Center's top four board executives gave NO MONEY AT ALL(at least in his or her name, although a partner may have contributed for the family) -- including one board co-chair. Not exactly putting their vast amounts of money where their mouths are, huh?

I don't live in CA, but from what I've gathered from the internet, there were 2 major problems with the anti-Prop 8 leaders: 1. Relying on focus groups instead of making the ads relatable from a human perspective. Why were there no gays in the ads telling people what the passage of Prop 8 would do to them? 2. Failing to educate the population of what gay marriage does & doesn't do (in part to rebut SSM opponents' arguments). Surely our "leaders" weren't dumb enough to not consider that our enemies wouldn't resort to scare tactics, right?

Well,not everything was a completle lost... May be in a way we won something : MORE RESPECT!. Yes,with our lost on prop 8 the rest of the Country and World(why not!)was able to see how the gay community across the US and a large number of straight people got together to fight for Civil Rights once again.The whole world was able to see that we can rally,speak and demand for rights like anybody else and we have power in our hands too. This is only one step back in our lives but It's not the end...by next year we will be able to marry again and the other states will have to show respect to those gays living there. I think the Mormons were the biggest losers....'cause in the end we will still here....happy and married!

Some (not a majority) of insiders brought in Patrick Guerrero due to pressure from funders who wouldnt invest. Patrick drametically altered the team's strategy 6weeks out. Is this community afraid to ask tough questions of funders? Gill, Bohnett, and others misplayed this -- Patrick, who would have taken all the credit had no on 8 succeeded is absent from this discussion. He was the decision maker. Why aren;t we asking him/gill/bohnett why we didn't use Obama? Why he didn't keep thecommittee in the loop? why did he spend time remaking the logo/colors 6 weeks out? why he brought in staff with no experience on ballot measures? does he have experience with ballot measures? in California? he shut down the transpareny and collaboration that CA community leaders are taking the blame for. Blaming people who are hired to run service organizations for the arrogance of Gill/Bohnett, etc;s politcal operatives is ridiculous.

Here in Phoenix, one saw much more ads being against gay marriage than for it. I had a feeling that anti-gay marriage legislation would pass because most people living in the USA simply are against gay marriage. No amount of campaigning or funding would change that. One is either for or against gay marriage. Unfortunately, I do not think there is any way to find common ground on this issue. Until the day I die, I will always believe that the reason why gay people are still treated as second-class citizens in the USA is due to religious upbringing and certain demoninations of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam that condone vicious attacks on the GLBT community. Unfortunately, Orthodox Jews, Christians and Muslims have more constitutional protections than GLBT people do; yet the latter is compelled to pay taxes.

Why such a large staff, only to butt heads? The tv/radio commercials and ads were abysmal. The message should have been clear: this is a civil rights struggle for all Americans. When blacks were struggling in the 60's, it was an American struggle; this is not a gay agenda item.

EQCA failed us in this campaign. Specifically, 1) After the May 15 ruling, EQCA was busy throwing self-congratulatory parties and award ceremonies up and down the coast rather than hunkering down to fund-raise. 2) I heard one No on 8 radio ad played once. Meanwhile, there were days when Yes on 8 was playing radio ads by the hour. 3) They hid gay people from their TV ads. Gay couples were treated as a liability in the TV campaign. And the first ads were weak. 4) There was an initial lack of urgency from EQCA. I really believe that having their headquarters in San Francisco gave them a false sense of how the rest of the state felt about the issue. California is NOT SF. Future campaigns should be headquartered in Southern California were opposition is strongest.

is it annoying that the laglc is spending more effort on defending their mistakes rather than learning from the mistakes that have been pointed out.

I had the displeasure of seeing Geoffrey Kors , ED of EQCA, at a forum at the Williams Institute at UCLA several weeks ago where he stated it was the community's fault for Prop. 8 failing. He claimed, among other things, that Equality for California had internal poll numbers showing the proposition winning as early as the summer, but that fundraising emails sent by EQCA went unheeded or were resisted because the community thought that EQCA was trying to scare the community into donating as public polls at the time had numbers showing the proposition going down to defeat. I was a recipient of those emails. At no time was a true sense of urgency implicit or explicit in them, they simply failed at critical times to get the right message out. Where was a press conference with gay and straight media? When did these "leaders" make a plea at the grassroots level? Is this now the level of gay leadership?