I'm happy to start up the Standing in Solidarity Blog on the Courage Campaign's website to support our Marriage Equality teams. I was encouraged to start this blog while attending last weekend's OUTWest Boot Camp, an amazing weekend with over 100 other people who support Marriage Equality in California! One of our speakers, the incredible Christine Pelosi, urged us to start blogging and so here I am - a previously lapsed blogger (standinginsolidarity.com) - starting up again with her inspiration.

It's been about 6 months since my last blog post, but there's been a lot of work to figure out our next step in the quest for full marriage equality. Standing in Solidarity is a blog specifically for allies of the LGBT community, who perhaps don't know where to start or how to have an impact in their communities. You can start here! I'm going to post 2 things we can all do each week to support marriage equality. Some will cost money, but in this economic climate there are also plenty of FREE things you can do to support marriage equality.

The 2 things I did this week are:

1. Invite organizers for marriage equality to speak to my USC class about why grassroots organizing and strategic litigation are so important. I teach a class called Political Participation and American Diversity, so you can bet that this is right on par with our curriculum!

2. I walked precincts in Inglewood (a 70% African American neighborhood in L.A.) to talk to voters who have been selected for conversations about marriage equality with the organization Vote For Equality, an arm of the LA Gay and Lesbian Center. Last year's INCORRECT CNN Exit Poll has done a lot of damage between 2 communities that should have (and have had!) deep ties. As an African American Catholic Ally, I know there is a lot of work to be done in our community, and I think it's important to have African Americans talking to other African Americans about this issue. I had success with 1 voter - she voted Yes on 8 last time because of her Catholic faith, but I asked her if she would support it in the future with a clause about religious protection, and she said yes!  I made sure she understood, this meant that same-sex couples would then be able to get married, and she said FINE with her. The rush you get from talking to voters about why this is important is undeniable!

We had a large group of folks help out, but we can always use more next time! Check out VFE's page to find out where they are canvassing next!

 TO DO***** TO DO ***** TO DO ***!

Here's your one free thing for the week: Standing in Solidarity is on Facebook - Search for Us and Join!

This post is a reprint from my blog Uncle Fatlips. It's actually titled:

On Tuesday the Advocate magazine (the nation’s largest gay publication) released a startling analysis of the final voting numbers concerning Proposition 8. California blacks were found to have voted 57% in favor of Proposition 8, not 70% as previously believed. The study also concluded that race was not the most significant factor affecting people’s vote for or against marriage equality. Not only that, it revealed that age, religiosity, party identification, and ideology had more of an effect on whether voters backed Prop. 8 than any other factors. For instance, the rate of support for the initiative among African Americans and whites was nearly the same for those who attended church services regularly.

This is big news. And it makes me angry. All this time many African American supporters of No On 8 have been putting themselves on the line including myself— risking all kinds of retaliation in our own communities because were led to believe that an overwhelming black majority had voted in favor of oppression of another minority group who were fighting for their civil rights.

Now we find out that this wasn’t the case—-at all. Nowhere near the case, in fact. While 57% in favor of Prop 8 is still a little over half, that number is a helluva lot different than 70%.