Monday, November 02, 2009

Red is the color of equality in Maine -- 1 day to go!



Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it to today's big "No on 1" campaign 'Get Out the Vote' rally for marriage equality here in Portland. I'm pretty sure other bloggers were able to make it, though, so let's take a look at the internetz and see what we can find.

Jeremy Hooper of Good As You finally made it to Portland and already posted two videos featuring speakers at today's rally (click on "Twas the night before..." to watch them). A bird pooped on him while taping. Yes, you read that right: Jeremy got pooped on - and didn't seem to appreciate it. In my neck of the woods, that's considered good luck. Perhaps a good omen?

John Aravosis and Joe Sudbay of AmericaBlog are also here. Joe has actually been here for a few days and has been posting great stuff over at the AmericaBlog offshoot AmericaBlogGay. He's got some photos from today's rally and a video as well (go to "Scenes from today's GOTV Rally in Portland" to watch them).

Louise from Maine who blogs for Pam's House Blend and has a personal blog at Louise's Snack Bar was also there! You guessed it! She took pictures and video (click on "'No On 1' Final Rally today in Portland..." to watch). I swiped the code for her video ans posted it above. I hope she doesn't mind! If you see people wearing red shirts or sweaters ut's because people were asked to wear red.

GayinMaine.com has some great pics as well (click on "NO in 1 Rally - Portland")

Thank you guys! Made me feel as if I had been there!

Finally - That last minute urgent call for donations from the "No on 1 / Protect Marriage Equality" campaign? The original ask was for $25K. The haul as of right this moment? 1,340 donors have given $74,550 dollars to the "No on 1" campaign. Here is campaign manager Jesse Connolly giving thanks earlier today (via Adam Bink of Open Left):



Will the added economic muscle ad up to a win tomorrow? I certainly hope so but we are all on pins and needles here.
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1 comment:

j.andres said...

Today , I am angrier than most days.
It could be this society and its system. Or maybe I am reacting to the morbid symptoms of what happened yesterday in Maine. But to tell you the truth, I am angry the most at those “LGBT activists”, sometimes leaders of our community, that emphasize fund raising activities over everything else, those that have turn themselves into “donation predators”, those that only worry about reaching their yearly financial goals because they know that if they don’t they are out of the “cause”.
Before the DC March I attended a meeting at the center where one of this “leaders” said that in Texas they already have an Institution that teaches LGBT activists how to encourage the LGBT population to develop the habit of donations towards our tribe. It made me sick. I almost puked.
When society sees LGBT activists, non-profit directors, politicians or preachers, with a personal monetary agenda, infected by the virus of ambition, it punishes with a YES on 1.
I would like to recall what happened with one of the earliest American gay movement organizations: the Mattachine Society. They were dedicated to the cultural and political liberation of homosexuals; but in the face of McCarthyism, they adopted conservative policies of accommodation (accommodationism) to the system. And failed.
In addition, during the 1990s many large corporations developed high-powered marketing campaigns targeting LGBT communities. Many of these campaigns have promoted narrow standards of beauty, restricted social needs, and fostered a limited social expression that operates within mainstream consumerism. Many grassroots LGBT associations have criticized the effects of such consumerism on LGBT communities.

New groups on the LGBT community have also emerged to address inequalities such as of income and opportunity that affect LGBT people from minority and working-class backgrounds. A few weeks after Stonewall, gay and lesbian activists organized the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). Drawing on the principles and rhetoric of many other radical movements of the 1960s, GLF saw its mission as revolutionary and set its sights on a complete transformation of society. Not only did it hope to dismantle social institutions such as heterosexual marriage and the bourgeois family, but its leaders also forcefully opposed consumer culture, militarism, racism, and sexism.

I think we need to re-think our struggle as LGBT activists and the emergence of lesbian and gay political identities and re-elaborate a plan to fight for our inalienable rights as multi-concern activists.
Our political and intellectual perspectives have been mutually influential for several decades. Let's start again, but first we ought to prune our unwanted branches.

andres fagundez

7:56 AM

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