It stings, deeply, to have witnessed another close defeat for marriage equality. We fought a hard battle in Maine, and it is heartbreaking to have come so close and not won a victory.

And yet, we're not going to let this defeat discourage us. After the passage of Proposition 8, a new movement emerged to fight for and win full equality for LGBT Americans. That movement is a grassroots, bottom-up movement. The Courage Campaign has been empowering that movement ever since. That movement helped us fight to a near-victory in Maine. That movement appears to have fought to an actual victory in Washington State. And with your support, that movement will fight for victories in California and at the federal level.

The Courage Campaign is going to redouble its efforts to win. We're going to continue organizing on the ground. We're going to continue to do the research to learn from the experience in Maine and to learn how to win in California. And we're going to continue to fight for full equality at the federal level as well.

To do that, we need you to organize with us. Click here to make an investment in the movement for equality. Help us power the repeal. Help us win.

Below is the email Julia Rosen sent to our members today from Maine, where she had worked for the last week for equality.

"So, fellow progressives, stop thinking about suicide or moving abroad. Want to feel better? Eat a sour grape, then do something immediately, now, today. Figure out what you can do to help rescue the country -- join something, send a little money to some group, call somewhere and offer to volunteer." -- Molly Ivins, in a nationally syndicated column published two days after George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004.

Dear Robert --

My heart is broken. Again.

Last night, we lost marriage equality in Maine. And the pain feels as deep and as raw as the wounds caused by Prop 8's passage one year ago in California.

But, like Molly Ivins said five years ago, we can't afford to mourn. We need to organize. Now. Today.

Organizing California from the ground up, we can repeal Prop 8 and win the national fight for equality.

But the only way we are going to defeat Schubert/Flint -- the consultants who passed both Prop 8 and Question 1 in Maine -- is by investing in a strong field operation that can mobilize thousands of volunteers to talk with voters face-to-face in communities across California.

Given the enormous size of California and the federal work we must do, it's going to take a significant investment in grassroots organizing -- the kind of commitment the Courage Campaign made the moment Prop 8 passed a year ago, organizing 44 Equality Teams, training more than 1,200 activists at six Camp Courage training events, and mobilizing 33 Deputy Field Organizers across California.

Don't mourn. Help us organize. Express your support for same-sex marriage now by making an investment in Courage's grassroots organizing. Click here to power the repeal of Prop 8 -- and fight for full equality -- with your contribution to organize California from the ground up:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/PowerTheRepeal

Throughout our country's history, progressives have challenged the majority of Americans to expand equality to all. From suffragists to civil rights activists, progress did not come easily, and certainly not without serious setbacks.

Equality will be ours, but only if we fight for it.

Julia Rosen
Online Political Director, Courage Campaign

P.S. Jesse Connolly, NO on 1's campaign manager, would like everyone in the Courage Campaign community to know that you should be proud of what you did for marriage equality in Maine:

"I'm a big fan of the Courage Campaign and the work everyone in this amazing organization did to help us. Thank you to the folks who contributed more than $60,000 to NO on 1, made calls from home via 'Call for Equality,' and joined us on the ground in Maine -- especially the Courage Campaign staff, Equality Team members and Deputy Field Organizers who worked around the clock for equality."