♀ ♀ Gay Parade ♂ ♂

this makes me SO happy! :)

You always have the best ideas! I'm in!!!

The overwhelming amount of anger and sadness at our loss on Proposition 8 on November 4 is now turning into action at Equality California.

First of all, we are crafting a strategy to overturn this outrageous loss of our rights. Equality California, represented by NCLR, ACLU, Lambda Legal and Munger, Tolles, Olson has filed a suit with the California Supreme Court asking that the election—the result of outrageous lies and questionable tactics by the other side, be thrown out. We know our rights cannot be taken away by a mob vote.

It is very important for all of us to ensure our actions result in a victory in the court—our best chance to reverse the elimination of our rights as soon as possible. So gatherings of everyone who supports justice and equality sends an important message to the court that there IS popular support for marriage equality in California. Join your community in peaceful marches and gatherings around the state.

Second, you can also help by signing our petition saying "I demand my equality back" and that you commit to getting marriage equality back on the ballot if we don't win in court.

Third, send the petition to everyone you know. We will need over one million valid signatures to put a new measure on the ballot and we need everyone to agree to carry petitions.

In Solidarity,

Geoff Kors Executive Director Equality California

I am sooooo happy that there is finally a gay themed swap!! I didn't wnat to host my own thinking that there wouldn't be anyone joining it. Thanks for Hosting!!!!

Is this swap straight-friendly? LOL.

Solidarity! Let me know. (pm?) I'd love to send out a supportive rainbow.

And I've been to the parades, too.

Is this an open art swap? Where anything that has a RAINBOW in it goes?? I have a couple of ideas, but just wanted to make sure? Or is this specifically for a Freak Flag or Rainbow flag/banner? ~A~

Lynn, I live about 4 hours from Frisco and never even seen Castro street! I want to go to a drag king show so bad! Those people know how to have a good time! Solidarity? YES! Straight friendly? By all means! I bet the parades are more fun than any other! I heard Rodney King say the gays were protesting when they heard about him getting beat by the cops way back when (if you remember the story of the L.A. cops & their antics) and all the gays flipped their signs over to protest for justice for Rodney. I love that story! Come join in. Everyone except the homophobic welcome! They can figure it out somewhere else. ♀ ♀ ♂ ♂

Awtem, Let your heart be your inspiration. I was just hoping to come together with those that need our strength, support and love right now. Yes, basically it is an open art swap. If someone doesn't feel skilled as an artist who wants to join, they can write a letter. Mostly I wanted to stand together. We are stronger together than singly. We shall overcome discrimination as a people. Condemn war, not love.

I made this swap in hopes it be salve to the lives that are affected by discrimination. It pains me to see human rise up against human. May we all stop the self hatred long enough to embrace ourselves so we can embrace all humanity.

Discrimination is self hatred and deep lack of self worth. Support of these prejudice beliefs on the back of religious institutions is a double standard. Religious people who adopt this hatred are responsible for the proliferation of violence against the community thru upholding the belief.

I will stand in the place of love to fill the void. For the discriminated and the discriminant. Love is never wrong. Love is all that's real! Try it you might like it! Make love, not war!

Ah, cool. I think standing together is very important.

Gotta stand up and support my friends, so I'm in.

How big would it be? Sorry if I don't understand but I've never done this. I would love to support this! I live in California and it makes me sad that Prop. 8 passed. :(

I just finished tiedying some cool fabric to use on mine!

How does this sound...

Options-Let's do a 'freak flag' or banner-either on cloth or paper/card stock. I imagine we could fit our love into a 11 x 8.5 size piece. I don't want to get so detailed that I inhibit creativity. You could also make a gay friendly brooch or pendant, gay pride ATC, scrapbook page or collage. Gay pride quiltie, tip-in, or (?) anything handmade. We all like handmade stuff! Make it gay specific, Love is never wrong, 8 = hate, or make it abstract.

Expect a gay pride ATC from the poly over here - I just love how we had to defeat gay marriage because OMG the next thing you know the poly's will want to marry, too. Yes, yes, in fact, we do.

We stand with you too, foovay! Equality for all humanity! YEH!

Hoorah for pride! I was at the Dallas protest, and it was amazing/empowering.

Thanksgiving is just two days away. Given the passage of Prop 8, I have to admit it’s been challenging this year to focus on being thankful.

The days since the passage of Prop 8 have been difficult and painful. It was a loss for all who cherish fairness and equality.

The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community has faced the unprecedented experience of having a fundamental right eliminated by a majority of voters in California. There is a very good reason why, as a nation, we have not put the rights of a minority up for popular vote — this is an outcome which mars the dignity not only of our lives, but also of the democratic process.

But as challenging as the last several weeks have been, I have found many things to be thankful for.

First, the California Supreme Court has accepted our case challenging Prop 8 and we continue to believe that the Court should be the place where this issue is decided. The support from so many of our allies who have joined with us to overturn Prop 8 has been inspiring.

Second, I am thankful for the members of Equality California. EQCA members donated more than $14 million to defeat Prop 8 — $11 million more than any other organization. The power of our movement resides in people like you.

Third, I returned from Sacramento on Saturday after attending a powerful rally against Prop 8. Many EQCA board members and staff including John Duran, EQCA’s current board president, and Cary Davidson, our board vice-president and I have had the chance to participate in town halls, call-in radio programs and rallies around the state — in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento and Palm Springs. I continue to be inspired by the passion and determination of our community, especially young and emerging activists. And I’m encouraged by all our non-LGBT supporters who continue to stand up for fairness and equality and who remain determined to reverse this injustice. EQCA will continue to update the community on the actions taking place around the state and ways you can be involved.

Reflection.

Since November 5, I have received thousands of messages and calls from our community across the state and nation about what worked, and more importantly, what did not work in the No on 8 campaign. Many have asked about the structure of the campaign and how it was run.

It is only through this spirit of honest reflection that we’ll be able to make progress and move the needle on full equality for LGBT people in California. There will be a full and independent assessment of every aspect of the campaign.

In the meantime, I want you to know that the campaign marshaled what we believed to be the best resources in our effort to defeat Prop 8. All key decisions regarding the campaign were made by a team of professional campaign consultants — some of the best in the nation in defeating ballot measures. Here’s a quick summary of the campaign structure:

When this campaign started in earnest — well over a year ago — we did what every statewide campaign must do: We hired a professional campaign consultant to make key media, strategy and messaging decisions. That hire, Steve Smith from Dewey Square Group, was made based on Steve’s 30-year record in ballot campaigns in California, including twice defeating parental notification initiatives which had been expected to pass by large margins. Steve and Dewey Square Group wrote an in-depth plan and managed its execution.

In May of this year, Steve brought on the media and public relations firm Ogilvy International to design ads and media strategy and brought in a team of professional campaign consultants and staff to run the different components of the campaign.

National, state and local organizations contributed money and staff to campaign. The national field directors of the Task Force, HRC and GLAAD were members of the Executive Committee. The Task Force designed and led the statewide field effort and numerous national, state and local organizations lent staff to the field effort. We should all be appreciative of the many organizations based here in California that did so much to fight Prop 8. And a very special thanks to the senior staff from HRC, the Task Force, Gill Action, the ACLU and other organizations that uprooted their lives and temporarily moved to California to take on leadership roles in the campaign.

I am so appreciative of all the amazing campaign staff, the donated staff from so many organizations and the incredible volunteers who worked so hard to secure equality. I believe that the team hired was committed to making the best decisions they could. These decisions were based on the information our consultants had from a number of sources regarding what messages had the best chance of success with the undecided voters the campaign had to reach.

Commitment.

Still, given our disappointing loss, the campaign has committed to an external assessment of what worked and what didn’t. While the campaign made many smart decisions, there’s no doubt that mistakes were also made. The campaign is committed to learning from those mistakes so that a smarter and better campaign can be run in the future.

As new information emerges from the analysis of the election, I pledge to you to share information so that our movement can move forward with the knowledge and understanding of what it will take to win full equality in California and across the nation.

We must all renew our commitment to this cause. We’ve come too incredibly far to give up now. Consider the following:

In 1948, when the California Supreme Court struck down state laws that banned interracial couples from marrying, 90 percent of Americans opposed the freedom to marry for interracial couples. In 1967 — nearly 20 years later — when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down similar laws across the nation, the number opposed stood at 70 percent. According to the Gallup Organization, it wasn’t until 1997 that support for marriage for interracial couples broke the 50% mark — 49 years after the California court decision!

In contrast, Prop 22 passed in 2000 by 61.4 to 38.6 percent — a 23 percent margin of defeat. This year, we narrowed our margin to 4 percent. More importantly, 6.2 million Californians voted against discrimination in 2008 compared to only 2.9 million in 2000 — an incredible increase of 54 percent.

Speaking of numbers, here’s one particularly compelling and heartening set of numbers: Above, I mentioned that it wasn’t until 1997 that a majority of Americans supported the freedom to marry for interracial couples. What I didn’t mention is that something incredible happened within the span of six years. In 1991, 48 percent supported the freedom to marry for interracial couples, while 42 percent opposed. In 1994, 48 percent still stood in support, but opposition dropped to 37 percent. Then, in 1997, the tipping point was reached. All of a sudden, opposition dropped to 27 percent and support jumped to 64 percent.

I believe we are on the cusp of our own tipping point, but it will take the ongoing determination and commitment of every single one of us. We must continue to tell our stories to our friends, family members and co-workers. We must continue to volunteer and to donate. While we lost on November 4, the trend line is moving in the direction of fairness and equality for all Californians.

We’ve seen how far we’ve come in a relatively short period of time. As we continue this dialogue with Californians, I’m convinced that a majority in our state will come to realize that they don’t want to live in a place where we treat our fellow Californians unfairly.

I hope you will continue to join Equality California in our mutual struggle for freedom, fairness and dignity.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Warmly,

Geoff Kors Executive Director Equality California

P.S. Tonight, I’ll participate in a town hall moderated by Frontiers/IN Magazine News Editor Karen Ocamb. The virtual format will allow participation from across the state, including rural communities. For more information, please visit.

Im new at making ATC's,would it be ok for me to join this swap? Please let me know,I will have this on my watch list.Thank-you.p:)))

I'm straight all the way, but I don't feel this world would be what it would if we didn't have our gay pals around. I have several gay friends (men and women) and absolutely love them. In fact, they are more-over my friends than the others, because as I've learned, they are judged every day in reality, so in return, they don't judge unless it's by the person they have been judged by. They make the best friends and i'll do what I can to stand by and support all of them.

Count me in this swap. I'm adding it to my watchlist right now. :)

Yes, Patricia, I am new to ATC making too! Please come join us!

I'm with you all the way, ShawnaJ! oxo

Count me in for this swap!

I really would like to see more queer swapping... but check it out... for Valentines day!

http://www.swap-bot.com/swap/show/27899

oooo! also... a LGBTQ ATC Swap

http://www.swap-bot.com/swap/show/27902