Mischaracterizing Marriage Equality USA
I CURRENTLY serve as the leadership coordinator and a board member with Marriage Equality USA. I write to you in the spirit of encouraging responsible journalism.
Your article "Debating the way forward for marriage equality" contains grossly inaccurate information regarding Marriage Equality USA (MEUSA). The repetitive linking of MEUSA and Equality California highlights the inaccuracy regarding organizations involved in the marriage equality movement in California.
MEUSA is a volunteer-driven grassroots organization. Our leaders, members and supporters are volunteers who do this work in addition to holding full-time jobs. MEUSA was not a member of the executive committee of the No on 8 campaign--we were not included at the campaign decision-making table.
During the No on 8 campaign we raised our own funds, as we have done before and since that campaign--funds that go directly back into this organization to supply our volunteers with public education materials. Unable to access needed monies to get enough supplies and materials for our leaders and members during the No on 8 campaign, we formed our own political action committee and used the money raised to enable No on 8 advertising in the Central Valley--an area that was desperate for help and was not being responded to by the official No on 8 campaign--as well as to put lawn signs and literature into our the hands of our volunteers, and volunteers from allied organizations.
MEUSA has no "war chest," and, in fact, we have been one of the organizations that actively participated in critiquing the No on 8 campaign and in calling for a public accounting of funds after the campaign was over.
MEUSA welcomed the thousands of new activists who came out after the passage of Proposition 8--we believe these new activists are the future of our movement and we are sharing our experience while remaining open to fresh viewpoints. We are thrilled with the enthusiasm our new leaders have brought to the organization.
At the crux of MEUSA's philosophy is a commitment to empowering volunteer activists at the local grassroots level and to working in cooperative coalition with others. We are committed to doing everything we can to ensure that communities and organizations that were not included in the No on 8 campaign are heard, represented and involved in the upcoming campaign to re-establish marriage rights in California.
Our leaders and members are passionate and experienced--they have earned the respect of other activists at both the state and federal level. We are the people in the trenches, the folks on the front lines of this battle.
Thank you for covering the current status of the marriage equality movement in California, and please do correct the misinformation in this article regarding Marriage Equality USA.
Christine Allen, Sacramento
SocialistWorker.org responds: The article in question wrongly characterized Marriage Equality USA as having helped run the No on 8 campaign and incorrectly stated that the group had a "war chest" to contribute to a future campaign to overturn Prop 8. The authors regret the error.
