Lt. Dan Choi, from Orange County, California, is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and an Iraq War veteran. On Tuesday, he will face a panel of colonels who will decide whether or not to fire him -- to discharge him from the military for "moral and professional dereliction" under the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

An amazing 140,000 people signed Lt. Choi's letter to President Obama a few weeks ago. Now he needs your help again. Please join over 44,003 people and sign the letter of support and add your own (optional) personal message.

When we told Dan earlier today about the amazing response he got choked up. It's important that Dan walks into the courtroom holding as many signatures of support as possible for his fight to continue serving his country, no matter who he loves.

Will you add your name?

Flip it for the email Dan sent to Courage members earlier today.   Read More »

The gracious and disarmingly honest mentor to aspiring fashion designers on the hit TV show "Project Runway, Tim Gunn was kind enough to record this special message for Courage Campaign members.

As Tim likes to say to his designers, it's time to "Make it Work!"

If you're ready to get to work and have some fun, watch this video and then RSVP for a special "Make it Work!" Equality Team event near you.

More than 20 “Make it Work!” events are scheduled between June 18-28. Find one near you and join the fun.



Flip it for the full message from the fabulous Tim Gunn and Make it Work!   Read More »

Check the flip for the email Charlize Theron just sent to our members asking everyone, no matter their sexual orientation, to come to Fresno for Meet in the Middle for Equality.

The whole Courage staff will be there this weekend. Are you coming? Are you bringing a carload of your best friends and favorite family members?

Please join us for this historic event. 1 pm this Saturday at the Fresno City Hall. RSVP now.

There is a great line-up of speakers and there will be a bunch of tents, including a blogger tent for the netroots' finest. So come one, come all to Fresno!   Read More »

We finally have a day for the Prop 8 decision from the Supreme Court. They just announced that they will rule on Tuesday.

Here are a couple of important links as we all get prepared for D-Day and beyond.

1) Day of Decision rallies will be held in dozens of cities across California and beyond. Go here to find one near you.

2) Meet in the Middle for Equality will be held in Fresno on May 30th, at 1 pm in front of the city hall. Go here to find out more and RSVP.

3) Do you know anyone who wants to get an alert the moment the Supreme Court rules? Tell them to sign-up to get an email, as soon as the court issues their decision.

For more info flip it to see the email we sent out to Courage members earlier today.   Read More »

We are all waiting on pins and needles for the California Supreme Court to rule on Prop 8. There are only 4 possible dates left: May 18, 21, 28 or June 1.

As marriage equality builds across the state we are still fighting the good fight here.

Two major TV stations in the past two days have aired interviews with Rick Jacobs among others. Take a look.

Here is KNBC (Los Angeles NBC affiliate) interviewing Rick and a major highlight of Meet in the Middle.



And KPIX (San Francisco CBS affiliate) featuring Dustin Lance Black, Cleve Jones and Rick.

Watch 'em, rate 'em and pass 'em along.

We just put out this memo to the press and all interested parties from Courage Campaign Founder and Chair, Rick Jacobs.

Feel free to quote liberally or re-post the memo in its entirety.   Read More »

Academy Award-winning actor Charlize Theron asked us to share an important message with the Courage Campaign community and the progressive movement in California.

Her message has been quoted all over the place from E! Online to the LA Times.

Here it is in its entirety. Please help us spread the word about Meet in the Middle for Equality by forwarding on the link to everyone you know.   Read More »

Academy Award-winning actor Charlize Theron asked us to share an important message with the Courage Campaign community and the progressive movement in California.

Her message has been quoted all over the place from E! Online to the LA Times.

Here it is in its entirety. Please help us spread the word about Meet in the Middle for Equality by forwarding on the link to everyone you know.
   Read More »

"We the People" stand together for marriage equality and religious freedom

Some amazing volunteers put together this video for us. Unlike some other ads out there (NOM NOM NOM), individuals appearing in this video are real people, including a carpenter, lawyer, priest, and a soldier discharged under the military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy.



Speaking of NOM...they are out today with their latest ad, playing the victim and trying to claim that they lose their rights when gay people want to get married.

As "We the People" explains, marriage equality and religious freedom are not in conflict. The constitution provides for a separation between church and state, meaning that no religious organization can be forced to perform or acknowledge same-sex marriage if they choose not to.

They are sowing fear and distorting the facts in an attempt to try and hold on to an increasingly smaller share of the American public.

NOM is putting Miss California up as their spokeswoman victim. They probably correctly assume that she is a better mouthpiece than their most prominent board member, best-selling fiction writer Orson Scott Card. PFAW:   Read More »

Camp Courage San Diego closed with an amazing speech from the legendary Torie Osborn. In the grand tradition of Marshall Ganz, this is the California marriage equality movement's Story-of-Now.

Please share widely and leave your thoughts in the comments.

Here is: "It's Time to Make Hope and History Rhyme" by Torie Osborn as prepared for Camp Courage San Diego April 19th.

You probably think this weekend is about marriage equality. That's why you signed up. Left your weekend plans, your partners and family to come here.

Sorry. You've spent the last 36 hours at Camp Courage under false pretexts.

This is not about gay marriage.

What is being launched at Camp Courage is about something bigger. As enormous as history. And you are the force for change.   Read More »

Our team has been hard at work creating a central location where anyone can find and join one of our 23 Equality Teams around the state. Check out the Equality Teams page now!

It has a great interactive map where you can zoom in on your area and find a team near you. If you click on those oh-so-cute little gay bears it will pop-up information on the team along with contact information and a link to their group page within the Equality Hub. I've included a screen grab to show you what it looks like, clicking it will take you to the Equality Teams page.



All of the teams are listed below the map along with a featured team leader. Andrew Davey from Team Courage OC has the high honor of being our first featured team leader. In addition to helping run Team Courage OC, Andrew is also a blogger over at OC Progressive.

The page also features the next 10 upcoming team events. Just click on one to RSVP and come to one of our many canvassing events across the state. You can also purchase individual team t-shirts. All proceeds go to that team to cover expenses.

We will be adding new teams to the page as they are launched.

As always, we love feedback on any and all aspects of our website. So please tell us what you like and what you don't here in the comments.

Enjoy the page!

It was a compelling scene: Rep Dennis Cardoza and Rep. Devin Nunes brought in a bowl of 3" long smelt and pictures of unemployed farm workers and their families to a House Natural Resources Committee meeting. They were hoping to provide an effective contrast and convince their colleagues to make an emergency exemption to the Endangered Species Act.

The state is in the third year of a drought and it has gotten so bad that in order to protect a federally endangered species a federal judge in 2007 ordered the state and feds to cut down on the amount of water pumped through the delta to save the smelt.

This is not simply about a species of little fish. The smelt, as Kevin Freking at the AP writes "a bellwether for the health of the delta, the heart of California's water-delivery system." More from the article:

With that, he offered to submit a fishbowl filled with nine minnows for the Congressional Record. The fish were rainbow smelt, not the endangered delta smelt, which are illegal to possess without a permit.

Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Norwalk, responded by asking him to take the plastic wrap off the bowl so the fish could get some air, which Nunes did. Napolitano served as chairwoman for Tuesday's hearing.

I can't just picture that scene in my head.

Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, said some of the lawmakers were "cherry picking history" and ignoring that water has been pumped into the valley at rates that exceeded what was appropriate.

That's one of the reasons the judge ordered state and federal wildlife agencies to revise how much water should be pumped out of the delta. Most of the pumping occurs from late spring through summer.

"The judge had no choice because the system was run right down to the margins where in fact he did kick in the protections of the Endangered Species Act," Miller said.

We have lacked a sensible water plan for decades. To allow more pumping risks devastating the entire ecosystem. It is not about just a couple of little fish in a bowl.

The farm workers are devastated right now with the cutbacks to water supplies, but we need long term solutions, not short term actions that cause irreconcilable harm.

The PPIC is out with a new poll. They are a generally well regarding polling outfit here in CA. The top-lines that are getting all of the headlines are their numbers on the initiatives on the May 19th special election. Yes, folks, there is an election in a few weeks, due to the disaster that is our state budget.

According to the PPIC, all of the initiatives, which were placed on the ballot by the legislature are going down, except for the one that would eliminate pay raises for legislators when there is a budget deficit.

Here are the specific numbers via Dave at Calitics:

Proposition 1A: About four in 10 support the measure (39% yes, 46% no, 15% undecided) to change the budget process by increasing the state "rainy day" fund. Less than half say the measure would be very (7%) or somewhat (38%) effective in helping California avoid future state budget deficits.

Proposition 1B: They are divided (44% yes, 41% no, 15% undecided) on the initiative that would require future supplemental payments to local school districts and community colleges to address recent budget cuts.

Proposition 1C: Half oppose (37% yes, 50% no, 11% undecided) the measure to modernize the lottery and allow for $5 billion in borrowing from future lottery profits to help balance next year's state budget.

Proposition 1D: Nearly half support (48% yes, 36% no, 16% undecided) the proposition to temporarily transfer funds from early childhood education to help balance the state budget.

Proposition 1E: Nearly half favor (47% yes, 37% no, 16% undecided) the measure to transfer money from mental health services to the general fund to help balance the state budget.

Proposition 1F: An overwhelming majority (81% yes, 13% no, 6% undecided) support the initiative that would block pay increases to state elected officials in years of budget deficit.

Anything under 55-60% at this point in the game before the campaigns heat up are in danger territory. Being below 50% is in seriously big trouble and likely to go down.

CTA just put $2 million into Prop 1B, but that may not be enough to save it, particularly because 1B has a poison pill. If Prop 1A does not pass, then Prop 1B is rendered meaningless. Prop 1A has a lot more opponents than any of the other initiatives from both side of the aisle.

It is hard to conceive at this point that Prop 1A passes, given that the biggest proponents are the legislature and the governor. Their terrible approval ratings do not make them good messengers. A lot depends on how the union endorsements shake out, since they bring both cash and good messengers: teachers, nurses, cops and firefighters anybody?

If these all fail then the budget deficit will swell again, but the question is are the solutions in the initiatives worse than original problem. There are no easy answers here.

These ballot numbers are getting the lion share of the attention, but the poll also includes new figures on marriage equality. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly nothing much has changed.

49% are opposed to marriage equality, 44% are in favor. While the issue has been in the news due to the court case, legal arguing is unlikely to sway public opinions.

Only hard work contacting voters and a sustained campaign will change hearts and minds.

Pop quiz hot shot: when someone gets two options, and picks option A, does that mean that there was never a choice to begin with?

I know, I know, that question really doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But then again neither does the response by the Chamber of Commerce to our email on the Employee Free Choice Act and Robert's blog post on Calitics about it. Here is the Chamber:

Language lesson for Calitics, the word option means "The power or freedom to choose." The Employee Free Choice Act gives no choice "if a majority of them sign cards," there will not be an election.

Yes, that's right. Workers would get to choose how or if they would like to unionize under the Employee Free Choice Act.

Option A 50% of workers sign a card saying yes I would like to join a union.

Option B the workers request a secret election.

If they choose Option A and 50% of the workers sign the cards, then they do not do Option B.

The Chamber is confused, because quite often workers have to do both A and B under the current law and that is what is wrong with current labor law, among other things.

Why do they do both you ask....well, often workers will sign the cards, but the bosses will not want to accept the fact that their workers want to join a union. The bosses decide at that point that they want a secret election. Those usually take months to set up, giving the employers time to hire union busting consultants, spend work time threatening their workers that if they vote to unionize then they will go out of business and all too often, fire workers who are helping organize a union.

The Employee Free Choice Act puts the decision making power into the hands of the employees, thus the name of the act. The end result is that workers will be able to more easily form a union when they want one. That power shift away from the corporations that make up the Chamber of Commerce is what scares the pants off of them and causes them to make up illogical arguments.

The wonderful Marta, one of our facilitators was kind enough to upload her photos from this weekend onto our Flickr photostream. There are some absolutely wonderful shots of Camp Courage Fresno. I've noticed that a number of campers/facilitators have already made the photos their facebook profile pictures.

Enjoy!



And here is the local NBC affiliate's story from Saturday night on Camp Courage Fresno.

This weekend in Fresno we collectively changed lives. Everyone was Respected, Empowered and Included.

Fresno, thank you for welcoming us into your community. We learned so much from you and are so grateful that you got so much out of the weekend. We did too. As Mike Bonin said in an email to the Camp Courage team this morning: "It is changing those creating it as much as it is changing those who are attending it."

The best way for those who were not there to get a feeling for Camp Courage Fresno is to hear directly from the participants and the facilitators. By and large the wonderful participants were from the Central Valley. The incredible trainers and facilitators came from all over CA (and even one person from NM) and were either Camp Courage or Camp Obama alumni.

The testimonials from the Campers are humbling and inspiring:

Camp Courage was definitely one of the greatest experiences of my life thus far. To reiterate what another participant said, it feels so good to finally be PROUD to live in Fresno.

One sentence conveys so much:

this was the best thing that has happend to me in my life and i will continue this movement in my life thank you

   Read More »

Today we are proud to debut "Fidelity", to put a face on the 18,000 couples facing potential forcible divorce. On December 19, 2008, Ken Starr and the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund filed legal briefs defending the constitutionality of Prop 8 and seeking to nullify the 18,000 same-sex marriages conducted between May and November of 2008.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in this case on March 5, 2009, with a decision expected within the next 90 days.

Watch the video and then go sign the letter to the State Supreme Court, telling them to invalidate Prop 8, reject Ken Starr and the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund's case, and let loving committed couples marry.

A special thanks to Regina Spektor for giving us permission to use her song "Fidelity".

Flip it to see the email we sent out to Courage Campaign members earlier today.   Read More »

We sent out an email today, including some wonderful testimonials from Camp Courage attendees. That is below the fold, for those who didnt.

I encourage you to take a look and also check out the photos and videos that we have up on the page. There is a short Local Fox 11 segment on Camp Courage, a slideshow of pictures, video of Cleve Jones' impassioned speech from the kickoff reception and pictures from that event.

Even if you weren't there, you can have a small taste of the experience...

Don't forget to sign-up for a Camp Courage near you and volunteer to help put one on in your area.   Read More »

The inaugural Camp Courage training in West Hollywood was absolutely incredible. Thank you to the trainers, planners, facilitators, and most of all campers for collectively making Camp Courage live up to its motto: Respect- Empower- Include.

There have been a few reviews popping up on the tubes. Rather than me explain what it was like for the Campers, here they are in their own words:

Unite the Fight:

Of the countless meetings I've attended after the election, focusing either on the postmortem of the No on 8 Campaign (including Saturday's Equality Summit), brainstorming strategy, figuring out how to build coalitions, planning events and actions, and trying to determine next steps for the movement, I have not been to one meeting that was as effective, inclusive, practical and educational as the Courage Campaign's Camp Courage.

Andrew Davey:

I'll be brutally homest, the "Fired Up! Ready to Go!" and "Yes We Can!" chants seemed a little creepy at first. As someone who supported Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Primary (before moving to Barack Obama for the general election), I was starting to feel uncomfortable. But once the program got rolling, I was blown away... In a good way.

We had "old school" civil rights activists, like Lisa Powell and SEIU's Liz Moore, train us on telling our stories and persuading voters. We also had newer activists, like Calitics blogger & Courage organizer Julia Rosen, train us on new tools like Courage's Equality Hub. All in all, I felt like I was actually being empowered to undo the damage of H8 at Camp Courage yesterday.

And here is an excerpt from Roots of Equality right here on the Courage community blog:

I have to admit, I did not have the highest expectations for Camp Courage when I saw the word "training". I was pleasantly surprised throughout the day as we went through trainings that were not condescending or rigid. They split us up into random groups and met new people and taught us that our biggest weapon was our own stories (which is exactly what we were trying to emphasize in our pre-election rally emphasized).

We did ice breaking activities, told our stories, heard other people's stories, learned how to recruit others, and learned how to make baby steps with the opposition. I would usually hate these activities but the way in which they were run was surprisingly empowering even though they were sometimes tough.

The lessons learned from Camp Obama are too late for prop 8, but will be an incredible resource for 2010. We went away from the day's activities refreshed, excited, and confident for the tough road ahead. I highly suggest you check out the next Camp Courage whenever it is scheduled and check out their new equality hub.

We were using the hash tag #campcourage on Twitter all day long. Searching under it pulls up all sorts of great tidbits.

deondrake: #campcourage gets 4 gold stars from me...kudos to everyone who put it together

jdb: #campcourage Can't get Mike Bonin's words out of my head: with my inaction, I made me a 2nd-class citizen. I made you a 2nd-class citizen.

CathyBrooks: Learning power of story telling from Lisa Powell. So simple. So basic. Yet such an ah ha. Power in the room here is electric. #campcourage

Speaking of Cathy Brooks, she had the talk Cleve Jones gave at the kickoff reception from the night before up and online within minutes of him concluding to thunderous ovation. Here it is, thanks to the wonderful Cathy, whom you can find over at other than that.



We will have loads of pictures and other videos up in the next few days. If there are other blog posts on Camp Courage that I am missing, please add the links in the comments.

I personally can't wait for the next one, which will be in...drum roll please....Fresno!

Infamous prosecutor Ken Starr has filed a legal brief -- on behalf of the "Yes on 8" campaign -- to nullify the 18,000 same-sex marriages performed in California between May and November of 2008.

Yes, they really did go there after promising repeatedly not to do this.

It's time to put a face to Ken Starr's shameful legal proceedings. To put a face to the 18,000 couples facing forcible divorce. To put a face to marriage equality. Because, gay or straight, YOU are the face of the Marriage Equality Movement.

The Courage Campaign just launched "Please Don't Divorce" a community photo project. They will break your heart and have made me cry on more than one occasion.

Please click through the photos in the slideshow below and then submit your own photo, as an individual, a couple or in a group (perhaps with your family over the holidays). Take a picture holding a piece of paper that says "Please don't divorce us," "Please don't divorce my moms,""Please don't divorce my friends, Dawn and Audrey," "Please don't divorce Californians" or whatever you want after "Please don't divorce..." and send it to: pleasedontdivorce@couragecampaign.org.