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If you want to help get the LGBT community experience with organizing to achieve change,
you'll need to have a grassroots campaign. In some places, people may be so afraid of being open
that you'll never get more than a handful of people involved. And most campaigns start fairly
small.
The first step in putting a grass roots campaign like that together is running the idea by the
community to see if there is support for it. This section will look at how to do that both if you
have an organized LGBT community and if you do not. Then it will move on to building support
for the campaign within the LGBT community. It will finish with some tips on running a mass
grassroots campaign organization.
If the community has visible leaders, start by meeting with them and explaining what you would
like to do. At this stage, take a broad view of who a leader is; if some people in the LGBT
community treat a person as a leader, check in with her or him. If the community has
organizations, talk to their leaders. If you can, try to get permission to go to a meeting and
present your idea to the organization's members.
Finally, if you can, try to hold at least one open, public community meeting to discuss the idea.
If you circulate a sign up sheet at a meeting, say that it is only for people who might want to work
on a campaign later if you decide to go ahead.
If the leaders and the community are generally positive, you should go ahead. If they are all
against the idea, you probably shouldn't. More typically, you'll find something of a split. There
is no easy formula for what to do then. Sometimes, when people say the time isn't right, it isn't.
A policy campaign could spark a backlash that, if the community isn't organized enough to
respond, could be a serious setback.
On the other hand, to many people, the time is never right. Change is always particularly scary to
people who've gotten used to working with things as they are.
Pay attention to the warnings of people who understand the political process and have worked it
effectively. Pay attention to warnings that are reasoned out, and which don't depend too much on
an emotional reaction to your proposal. Be respectful of other views; if most people disagree
with you, there's probably a good reason. On the other hand, if you've done your basic research
and the objections really do seem based on fear of change, don't be afraid to disagree.
How do you contact the LGBT community if it doesn't have visible organizations or leaders?
First, try finding the community through other organizations that are generally supportive of
LGBT people. The more liberal churches, particularly the Unitarians and the Quakers, frequently
have significant numbers of LGBT members. You can often get notices on church bulletin
boards or in newsletters that you'd like to meet members of the community. The church may let
you speak to a membership meeting. Sometimes, a minister will know local LGBT people and
will contact them for you. Feminist bookstores, women's organizations, local chapters of the
ACLU or the National Lawyer's Guild and similar organizations are also a good source of first
contacts. Try the same techniques you would with a church.
When you've made a few contacts, you might try asking people to invite their friends to a
meeting at which you will explain what you propose to do. See if you can use a few meetings
like that to generate others. You want to make sure that you don't wind up talking to one circle
of friends.
Hold a public meeting, although it may be difficult to get anyone to come in an unorganized
community. An unorganized community may be supportive, but unwilling to work directly for
the policy. Many people may fear that they'll lose jobs and homes if they campaign openly. You
may need to think about using one of the alternative campaign models if most members of the
community are unwilling to work openly. If you do use an alternative model, try to get as many
LGBT people involved as you can, at whatever level. Be especially careful to think about how
you can use the campaign as a step in community organizing.
If you've run the idea past the community and decided to go ahead, you'll need to keep building
support in the community. Get the support of as many community leaders as you can. Use the
same logrolling and lobbying techniques that you'll use later to line up the support of policy
makers. Go after those most likely to support first, and, if you can, approach them with people
they know and respect. See the section on Lobbying.
Get the support of as many community organizations as you can. Again, use the same
endorsement techniques that you'll use later to line up the support of other organizations. See the
section on Endorsements.
Obviously, with both leaders and organizations, you should have your eventual goal of getting
their support in mind when you do your "run by" effort. Ordinarily, you shouldn't ask for
endorsements when you are consulting people about whether to do a campaign at all; you
shouldn't have decided whether you are going ahead at that stage. But you should approach those
who are least likely to oppose first, so that you don't build a groundswell against a policy before
you've decided. Finally, efforts to line up support from LGBT leaders and organizations should
continue throughout the campaign. Welcome support whenever it comes.
You should have a public meeting to start the campaign. Try especially hard to get the word out
about this meeting, and make sure you use the newsletters and meetings of organizations that
already support you if you can. They may be a great source of campaign volunteers.
At the meeting, you should briefly sketch out the goal and the elements of an ideal campaign.
Mention any support or endorsements you've already gotten. If some popular leaders are willing
to come to the meeting and allow their names to be used in your publicity, so much the better. At
the meeting, circulate a sign up sheet and ask people to say what parts of an ideal campaign they
would most like to be a part of. Make sure people include their email addresses and phone
numbers.
The campaign should have regular public meetings. If you organize as a grassroots campaign,
these will be your organization's regular meetings. Even if your campaign is done by a small
organization or an umbrella group, you should hold regular public meetings at which you report
back to the community about what you are doing. It may be easier to get people to this kind of
"report back" meeting if you do it in conjunction with existing organizations.
You need to reach people who can't or won't come to public meetings. In addition to building
support, this will help you turn out supporters when you need them. Keep an email list of
supporters and send out regular updates. Try to convince an LGBT paper, an alternative paper,
or the website of a local organization to let you have a regular column to report on the campaign.
See the section on working with the LGBT press.
Otherwise, it might be helpful to create a website for the campaign, and/or a newsletter that is
circulated in the community.
Stay in regular communication with the organizations which have endorsed the campaign, or
which are being generally supportive. Offer short progress reports for their website or
newsletters, or ask permission to report briefly at their meetings. Have a member of the
organization report if you can.
Finally, use events and gatherings. Obviously, if there is a LGBT pride parade or a block party or
street fair in an LGBT neighborhood, you should get permission to set up a booth. But you
should also do that at events which may attract likely supporters, like pro-choice rallies or street
parties in liberal or progressive neighborhoods. Your booths should always include sign up
sheets for the campaign in addition to information about voter registration and how to contact
policy makers.
Just as galvanizing events can be a way of getting the public to see the need for a policy, they can
be a way of rallying support in the LGBT community.
As explained in section 10.2
a galvanizing event is an incident which can be used to focus attention on some of the problems
your policy would address. They can involve opposition to or support for LGBT people
individually, or on the community as a whole. Sometimes, you can create events which
galvanize community support. The keys to using galvanizing events are to focus people's
reaction on the policy campaign, and to keep track of people who react strongly to the event.
Some events, like bad court decisions or an attack on the community by a politician, will result in
a spontaneous demonstration. If that happens, get someone from the campaign to speak at the
demo and make the connection to the campaign. Pass around sign up sheets. If you've had time
to schedule a post-event public meeting or if a public campaign meeting was already scheduled,
announce the time and place as often as you can. Pass out flyers announcing the meeting and
briefly describing the campaign. If you haven't had time to schedule a meeting, announce that
one will be called, and tell people where to find out about the time and place.
If the event doesn't result in a spontaneous demonstration, schedule an open public meeting to
discuss the event. Have the campaign sponsor the meeting and have at least one speaker draw
the connection to the campaign, describe it and ask for volunteers. However, you shouldn't focus
the meeting entirely on the campaign; let people discuss the event in whatever way they wish.
Again, be sure to circulate sign up sheets.
>> Next: 7. Launching Your Campaign
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