I think we did a lot of good in Maine. I really do. But I'm left wondering how long it will take to change enough hearts and minds that we win one of these ballot initiatives? I talked to dozens and dozens of voters over GOTV weekend and the Yes on 1 folks are not bad people. They really believe that it's not about gay rights. Many of them are for making civil unions/domestic partnerships equal to marriage--even at the federal level. And they really believe that they are called by their god to protect traditional marriage. They aren't trying to be bigoted.

But they are.   Read More »

(Closing speech I delivered at Camp Courage Sacramento at 4:45PM today. Camp Courage Sacramento burst forth with warmth, embrace and power. What great folks!)

This past Monday morning, I found an envelope in my front yard. It was addressed to “Courage Campaign.”

A year ago, in the wake of Prop. 8, I was afraid to open some of those envelopes, not sure if they’d contain hate mail or something worse.

People on the other side were unhappy that we had called them to account for their lies during the campaign.

But this note was very different. Let me read it to you:

“Courage Campaign,
I just turned 3 and I told my friends that I didn’t want any presents. Instead, I asked them to make a contribution to you. My Dad tells me that you give a voice to those people that don’t have one and what you do changes the world. I hope that more of my friends contributed on line. Love, Libby.”   Read More »

A year ago I knew what went wrong and I knew how to fix it.

A year later, I don't know what went wrong. I don't know how to fix it.

We had the money. We had a stable campaign. We had the a robust well-oiled field campaign. We had a strong campaign manager. We had the turnout we wanted. We had great coordination between the netroots and the campaign. We had a not particularly religious state. We neutralized the church issue. We had a manageable voter universe. We had an opposition with an inferior media and field operation. We had TV ads with gay people in them. We responded to their attacks swiftly.

And we still lost.

Our campaign wasn't perfect. But it was damn good.

And that's why this loss is so hard. The lessons to be learned are not as obvious. Not knowing how to fix it makes it tempting to throw our hands up in the air and say at 0-31 we just can't win marriage rights at the ballot box. Or we have to wait a decade until we can.

But that would be letting them win. That would be giving up. That would be accepting inequality.

We can't. I won't.

We need to learn how to neutralize the schools issue better than we did this time. We must continue telling our stories, one by one, person by person, door by door.

Nate Silver as usual has some smart thoughts:

I certainly don't think the No on 1 campaign can be blamed; by every indication, they ran a tip-top operation whereas the Yes on 1 folks were amateurish. But this may not be an issue where the campaign itself matters very much; people have pretty strong feelings about the gay marriage issue and are not typically open to persuasion. There's going to be an effort by many on the left to blame Barack Obama for his lack of leadership on gay rights issues; I think the criticism is correct on its face, but I don't know how much it has to do with the defeat in Maine. A more popular Democratic governor, for instance, who had been a bit quicker on the trigger in his support of gay marriage, might have helped more.

Persuading voters to change their minds about marriage equality is extremely difficult, but it is possible and it happens every single day. It just takes a lot of resources and is most effective on a one-to-one level.

That means we must continue to invest in grassroots organizing, training new leaders to work in their communities and supporting their efforts over time. We need to continue to build connections and relationships with faith communities. We can organize in churches. We can even organize in Mormon Temples and Catholic Churches. It has happened. It is happening.

There are lessons to be learned out of Maine and the No on 1 loss. We know that we can build a massive GOTV operation. We know how to build a model where a campaign invests in the netroots and reaps the rewards. The church issue can be neutralized. It's possible to set aside differences and focus on a common goal. We can build a campaign to be proud of as a community.

What we can do now is have experts in Maine politics analyze the results to understand better how we lost. We need talk to the No on 1 campaign leadership/consultants to get their advice like they did from our Prop 8 loss.

We can win marriage back in California. We will win marriage back in California. We can win marriage in Maine. We will win marriage in Maine.

I am not quitting. You better not be either.

This weekend I am picking myself back up and getting right back to work, training hundreds of activists in Sacramento how to organize at Camp Courage. They will and I will come in with heavy hearts, but leave empowered.

We will leave and fight the next fight together.

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.   Read More »

It's late Friday night and we're finally at GOTV. This is the day where everything we've been working towards will finally come into view. It's always exciting. But this time feels a little more so. It's so important that we win here in Maine.

The forces of hatred and bigotry will never rest. Neither can we. We must continue to work until we live in a just society where everyone enjoys equal protection under the law. I'm so proud of the work the Courage Campaign team is doing out here. We've been welcomed by the No on 1 staff and we are working side by side to protect Marriage Equality.

It's not too late to get involved: http://www.ProtectMaineEquality.org/CallForMaine   Read More »

11 of our amazing Deputy Field Organizers and Equality Team members have come out to Maine, as part of the Volunteer Vacation program to work insane campaign ours until the polls close. They arrived over the weekend and have been put to work for No on 1 all over the greater Portland area.

Mitchell is helping "cut turf" for all of the canvassing over the weekend. Jasmine has been out on the University of Southern Maine campus encouraging students to vote early and volunteer. Laura is fielding phone calls from Maine voters calling the office with questions. Derrick buried in spreadsheets, helping organize staging locations for election day.



The office here has been a buzz of activity, crammed with staff, volunteers and on occasion TV camera crews. The Rachel Maddow show was here yesterday interviewing Governor Baldacci, who previously opposed marriage equality and is now one of its biggest backers. NBC News was also here filming a spot for Sunday.

Yesterday some local TV stations came by to film shots of some No on 1 signs that appear to have been shot up by a paintball gun. The Yes on 1 campaign has been trying to make themselves a victim since some of their signs have been defaced and stolen. These types of shenanigans are typical during a heated election, and usually it's just a couple of numbskulls messing with signs instead of doing something productive like talking to voters.



Here is a few of our Courage Campaign DFOs, Equality Team members and staff holed up in a small windowless room making calls.



Much more to come over the next few days.

No matter where you are you can help bring home a victory to Maine. Sign up now to be a virtual phone banker and we will get you trained and on the phones.