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Outreach effort counters marriage backlashGoing door-to-door to build support for same-sex marriage, Judah Dorrington braced herself, anticipating a hostile reaction when she knocked at her first house. “I had nightmares,” recalls Dorrington, a 47-year-old black woman who was part of a team that recently talked to likely voters in a predominantly African-American neighborhood in Boston. “I thought somebody’s going to shout, ‘Jesus says it’s wrong,’ and slam the door in my face.” Instead, in each of 20 interactions, Dorrington met a voter who listened respectfully to why she feels she and her partner of 23 years will benefit from marriage. “Most people did see it as a civil rights issue. And only one person said he was opposed. Nobody was mean and nasty,” she says. “I saw what I was saying really was changing people’s hearts and minds.” Thanks to an on-going training program offered by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, people like her are learning to overcome their apprehension and stick out a hand or knock on a door to ask voters for support. Even before Massachusetts starts issuing marriage licenses to gay couples on May 17, a heart-wrenching number of states have been swept up in a backlash. A record number of states will be voting on the basic rights of those of us who’re gay. Already, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah are set to vote this November on whether to amend their state constitutions to ban same-sex marriage. Meanwhile, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Orange County, Fla., will be voting on whether gay men and lesbians ought to be protected from discrimination. As if that lineup weren’t enough to stretch gay-rights resources to the max, the Task Force is extremely worried that anti-gay marriage amendments might get on the ballot in Arkansas, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, Ohio and Tennessee this year, in Wisconsin in 2005 and in Massachusetts in 2006. Also in 2004, Kansas City, Mo., voters may be asked to repeal domestic partnership benefits. And anti-gay ballot initiatives on marriage or other couples’ benefits are possible in Alabama, Delaware, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas. Obviously, it’s never been more critical for gay Americans to educate other voters — whether by going door-to-door or by just reaching out to friends and neighbors. “We want to squeeze more and more luck out of the process,” says the ever-optimistic Dave Fleischer, who leads Task Force training sessions around the country. “Elections can be decided by a very small number of voters,” he stresses. “Anybody who thinks they can’t make a difference should realize that they might make the difference.” In the four-day, hands-on sessions, trainees actually build files of supportive voters, so they can be reminded to vote. Trainees also raise money and do what many find most intimidating: Knock on doors. In a March session, 80 participants raised $20,000 by making phone calls for an hour. Since 1999, the Task Force has trained more than 1,000 people. Many were instrumental in helping to reverse what had been an awful trend on ballot initiatives. From 1998 to 2000, the gay-friendly side lost 13 of 18 votes. But from 2001 to 2003, it won an amazing 11 of 14 measures. If this year’s backlash is halted at the ballot box, it will be because of the work of people like Rhonda Bourne. After being trained, she went to a busy Boston-area subway stop to ask voters to sign post cards urging state lawmakers to support gay marriage. “I had a wonderful experience where a young man waited and waited to talk to me because the line got so long. I said, ‘Wow, you waited a long time.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, well if I hadn’t waited, my two moms would have killed me,’ ” recalls Bourne, who plans to marry her partner in Massachusetts. This backlash is undeniably painful. But it’s a golden opportunity to persuade state after state to side with equality. Deb Price can be reached at dprice@detnews.com or (202) 906-8205. This article was published in the Home News Tribune (NJ) on May 11, 2004, under “Education key to spreading word, winning votes in gay-rights battle. |
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