The announcement this week that Restore Equality 2010 and Love Honor Cherish did not collect enough signatures to get a proposition on the November ballot to repeal Proposition 8 is an example of a grassroots effort that, for all the earnestness of its members, struck out. But the self-congratulatory tone in its news release did not acknowledge that Restore Equality stubbornly had decided to move ahead with a half-baked plan rather than engage in true community building to unite LGBTs and straight allies to its cause. There were early indications that the community was not fully united about trying to repeal Prop 8 this year.
Restore Equality, of which Love Honor Cherish is a part, also never had a realistic budget to accomplish what it had set out to do. And that's because it did not have community buy-in or support for its campaign. Sure, a lot of activists wanted to push ahead this year with a ballot fight, but there was no institutional support and no money coming in. Even the marijuana legalization initiative that qualified for the November ballot had a sophisticated signature gathering operation that cost about $1.1 million. Restore Equality never seemed to grasp that it would take that much money to qualify an initiative, but in a state the size of California, that's what it usually costs.
Factor in voter fatigue over the marriage equality issue – a result of the polarizing Prop 8 campaign – and it wasn't a surprise that the 2010 effort fell short in its attempt to gain traction.
In order to move forward we need an honest examination of the 2010 effort and why it failed. There are some misleading statements in Restore Equality's press release that need to be clarified so root problems can be identified and rectified for the next repeal effort.
First, the statement, "In the past five months, our campaign has done more than any other organization in California to change hearts and minds to support marriage equality" is misleading. Groups like Equality California and the Courage Campaign have been just as active over the past year. EQCA has opened field offices and has consistently sent volunteers to canvass neighborhoods around the state. The Courage Campaign has not only held its popular "Camp Courage" workshops in many cities, but has been on the front lines in advocating for equal federal rights for LGBTs and the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the military's anti-gay policy. Both groups spent considerable resources (financial and personnel) in developing research to shape messaging for future marriage equality campaigns. At the beginning of this year, EQCA re-launched its successful Let California Ring campaign, which had a pilot project in Santa Barbara County in the year before the Prop 8 vote and is widely credited with helping that county vote against Prop 8 in November 2008 by a 53.6 percent to 46.4 percent margin. It's a proven educational campaign that can be replicated in other parts of the state, as EQCA is implementing.
Secondly, the sentence, "We talked to hundreds of thousands of Californians and confronted nearly a million more with the fact that many in California do not have equal rights under the law" is questionable and if true bears scrutiny for its implications. If this sentence is true, why didn't Restore Equality collect enough signatures? If "nearly a million" people heard their message that "many in California" lack equal rights, specifically marriage equality, they should have easily gathered the nearly 700,000 signatures needed. Unless, of course, all those people they talked to were not in favor of marriage equality and didn't sign the petitions, which would not bode well for any success in an election this year.
Third, "While we never envisioned that we would have to make it happen without the help of existing LGBT rights and marriage equality organizations, that was the way it turned out." That's not accurate because there were early signs that other organizations would not support their effort. Last July a coalition of LGBT and allied people of color groups said that 2010 was too soon to mount a repeal effort. Last August EQCA announced it was not in support of a 2010 repeal effort and felt there was a greater chance for success in 2012. Then throughout the fall, the Courage Campaign was occupied with conducting its research. The fact that it did not immediately get on board with the Restore Equality effort should have been – and was – a signal that its leadership was having second thoughts about a successful Prop 8 repeal effort in 2010.
In fact, when Courage Campaign Chair Rick Jacobs announced the decision in early December, Love Honor Cherish's John Henning said it was "no surprise."
"They haven't been talking about 2010 for several weeks now," Henning said at the time, referring to Courage. "... The leadership of the group has not been active in the signature gathering effort, so the handwriting was on the wall."
Instead of blaming existing LGBT rights and marriage equality organizations, Restore Equality and Love Honor Cherish would do better to examine why they couldn't work with the other groups and acknowledge that they chose to continue without their support, which was a recipe for disaster. Henning, in particular, didn't even agree with Restore Equality when it hinted at the need for professional signature gatherers, although it never was able to raise the money to fund them anyway.
Two recent polls in California show support for marriage equality at or slightly above 50 percent. That support should only increase in the next year or so, as groups proceed to plan for a 2012 Prop 8 repeal measure. What Restore Equality has done during the last five months is to reach out to likely voters, but it's unfortunate that it seems to be pitting its grassroots activists against others in the community who want the same result.
The infighting is what our opponents are counting on. Don't give them the satisfaction. Now that Restore Equality's quixotic repeal effort is over, marriage equality supporters need to join together for a united front.