When publisher Tom Dyer asked me to write a periodic column for Watermark, the first thing I did was ask my partner Vicki “What are we going to write about?” For those who don’t know Vicki and me, here’s the deal—everything I do, we do together. I am often the public face, but Vicki is the quiet force that completes the circle of our partnership. We have been life partners for 10 years now, in every sense of the word, personal and professional. When either of us accomplishes something, it’s because we partnered and did it together.
I believe that this is true about our community as well—the LGBT community, and the greater progressive community. In order for LGBT citizens to achieve full equality, all of the Ls, and all of the Gs, and all of the Bs, and all of the Ts, must stand together as a community.
But we also need to reach out beyond the LGBT community and partner with other progressive individuals and organizations that share the common goal of social justice. We must care not only about LGBT justice, but about racial justice, and economic justice, and gender justice.
And we have to do more than care, we have to act. If we ask groups like the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, for example, to help us fight for marriage equality and the other civil rights that are currently denied us, then we should stand prepared to assist the ACLU in its efforts to restore civil rights to individuals who have paid their debts to society, and to help Planned Parenthood provide necessary health care services to poor, scared young girls. Partnering works both ways, after all.
I am encouraged that we have been making some progress in this regard. Although we failed in our effort last year to defeat Amendment 2, we enjoyed the support of many non-LGBT individuals and organizations, including ACLU, Planned Parenthood and others. These organizations stood by us and fought with us, expending valuable resources that they certainly could have applied to pursuing their own particular interests.
In the devastating aftermath of Amendment 2, our community formed a group called OneOrlando.org. The idea was to bring together a “unity coalition” of individuals and organizations that would stand together at a grassroots level and propel the fight for gay civil rights by using our voices and our stories to present a human face to the greater community. All the relevant gay groups signed on to participate, but we also appealed to other progressive groups for their help, and again they answered the call, signing on as committed allies in the fight for our equality and dignity.
Recently, the Metropolitan Business Association (Central Florida’s Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce), the ACLU, and Planned Parenthood co-sponsored a joint networking social to bring their diverse memberships together. We talked about our similar beliefs, and about how we could all work together to achieve common goals. It was a beautiful thing!
I talked to my LGBT brothers and sisters about the impressive efforts of these groups to support our community. For example, ACLU lawyers prosecuted the Miami lawsuit that resulted in the court decision declaring that Florida’s gay adoption ban is unconstitutional. They are currently handling the appeal filed by the State of Florida to try to reverse that decision.
Even if the decision is affirmed, the Liberty Counsel and their allies on the radical right will assuredly attempt to pass a constitutional amendment reinstating the ban. ACLU is already gearing up for that fight, planning a series of events and other forms of outreach to educate the citizens of Florida about this issue and advocate to defeat it.
And maybe you don’t know this, but Planned Parenthood performs a number of services specifically designed to support the LGBT community, like sponsoring HIV/AIDS fundraisers, creating programs targeting lesbian health issues, and currently devising a program to provide health services to at-risk LGBT youth. Thank you partners!
It’s time for those of us in the LGBT community—individually and collectively—to open our arms to these and other progressive organizations; to not just ask for their support of our issues, but to stand with them in support of their priorities. Folks, I truly believe that if we can build coalitions outside of the LGBT community, and work with our partners to achieve all forms of social justice, victory is possible for all of us.
I know partnership has worked for me and Vicki, making us both stronger and more effective.
