Last week we asked our members to turn fear into hope and match the Dolby family's $25,000 donation to support our marriage equality campaign. We've had stunning success with this, raising over $70,000 to hold Camp Courage grassroots training events and other marriage equality actions around the state.

Our success has even attracted the attention of Tina Daunt at the LA Times, who wrote about our campaign in her column yesterday:

Political professionals like to say that all politics are local, but for those involved in the fight to reverse Prop. 8's ban on same-sex unions, it's become deeply personal, as well. This week, Rick Jacobs, who chairs the Courage Campaign -- the focal point of the reversal efforts -- began circulating an e-mail by author Tom Dolby that indicates how these new politics may play out in the months ahead.

Dolby's letter is at once a fundraising appeal and a passionate account of what Prop. 8's passage meant to him, his partner Drew Frist and their families. "My partner, Drew, and I are getting married this Saturday," Dolby writes. "But not in California, where I grew up and my family has lived for more than 30 years." Instead, the couple will marry in Connecticut, where same-sex marriages still are recognized. "That is why we will be legally married this coming Saturday in the state of Connecticut, where lawyers tell us we'll always have equal rights. However, according to the state of California, our marriage will be meaningless. This is not acceptable. Equality belongs to everyone and same-sex marriage should not be reserved for those who can only travel to another state, 3,000 miles away.

"That's why I asked my family last week to make a $25,000 challenge grant to support the Courage Campaign's transformative 'Camp Courage' training program for marriage equality activists -- a personal action in direct response to the [pro-Prop. 8] National Organization for Marriage's $1.5 million 'Gathering Storm' national TV ad campaign."

Can we make it to $100,000? That's what Tom Dolby and his partner Drew Frist want to know. They sent the following email to our members yesterday to challenge them to meet the $100,000 mark and ensure that our Camp Courage trainings can continue across the state.

Click here to help us make the match!

Below is the email from Tom Dolby and Drew Frist:
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Dear Robert,

My partner, Drew, and I are getting married this Saturday. But not in California, where I grew up and my family has lived for more than thirty years.

Let me explain.

On May 1, 2008, we got engaged, even though our fundamental right to be married as a loving, committed couple was not legal at the time in the state of California. We made this momentous decision because we believed in affirming a lifelong partnership in the eyes of our family and friends, regardless of the state's failure to recognize our civil rights.

A mere two weeks later, the state Supreme Court announced its historic decision, establishing the constitutional right of same-sex couples to be married in California.

Like so many others, Drew and I were ecstatic. As we made our plans to marry, however, we learned that our rights might be taken away by Proposition 8. So we waited until after the November 4 election, because we wanted our vows to be as permanent as our intentions.

On November 4, 2008, our fundamental right to marriage in California was eliminated by the shocking passage of Proposition 8.

And that is why we will be legally married this coming Saturday in the state of Connecticut, where lawyers tell us we'll always have equal rights.

However, according to the state of California, our marriage will be meaningless.

This is not acceptable. Equality belongs to everyone and same-sex marriage should not be reserved for those who can only travel to another state, 3,000 miles away.

That's why I asked my family last week to make a $25,000 challenge grant to support the Courage Campaign's transformative "Camp Courage" training program for marriage equality activists -- a personal action in direct response to the National Organization for Marriage's $1.5 million "Gathering Storm" national TV ad campaign.

Your response to this challenge -- "turning fear into hope" -- has been phenomenal. In less than five days, your collective generosity has yielded $72,572, making it the most successful single response ever to a Courage Campaign community request for support.

I'm so inspired by this community's commitment to love, fairness and equality in the face of the religious right's fear-mongering TV ad.

And now I hope you'll join me in helping the Courage Campaign reach the amazing milestone of raising $100,000 online in response to this disturbing 60-second ad. Please click here to contribute what you can afford today (and watch the "Gathering Storm" ad, if you haven't seen it already):

http://www.couragecampaign.org/TurnFearIntoHope

I believe in the Camp Courage training program because it is laying the foundation of restoring marriage equality to California -- and it represents the future of community organizing. Modeled after Camp Obama, the program utilizes the "Story of Self" to transform personal experiences into compelling and authentic narratives that can persuade undecided voters.

To change the hearts and minds of our fellow Californians, we all need to tell our own stories about how Prop 8 has affected us, our families, and our friends. Just like I have today, by expressing why this is so very personal.

That's the only way we will win back our rights -- and the only way the marriages of so many same-sex couples will have meaning in California once again.

Let's make it to $100,000 for marriage equality today.

With much gratitude for your support,
Tom Dolby, joined by my future husband, Drew Frist