Thanks to all of you who joined us last Saturday, where 53 canvassers hit the streets of East LA to talk to over 200 voters.
Facing people who voted against us is hard work and it takes courage. We talked to some voters who will never move on this issue, and we learned from even those tough conversations. But we talked to many more voters who are still moveable and who really heard and saw us that day.
As a result of our work on Saturday, hundreds of voters now understand how important it is to all of us that LGBT people get the same dignity, respect and rights as everyone else. It’s also worth noting that over 40% of the undecided and unsupportive voters we talked with began to reconsider their views because we talked with them.
Thanks for your hard work and commitment to creating change, one voter at a time.
Next month we need you with us on something totally new to VFE! We are helping launch a national fight to highlight the outrageous discrimination in our Social Security system. Did you know that right now, hundreds of thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender seniors are suffering economic discrimination?
Rock For Equality is a Rally and March from the LA Gay & Lesbian Center to the Social Security Building in Hollywood. We need everyone who cares about LGBT equality out there standing up for America’s same-sex couples.
Rally & Rock for Equality!
Sunday, April 11th
9:30am 12:30pm
Meet at the McDonald Wright Building, 1625 Schrader Blvd, 90028
Bring your friends as we take to the streets to march and rally to urge Congress to do the right thing and bring this issue up now!
We are organizing two canvasses in March, where we’ll be out knocking on doors and talking to voters about marriage equality. Experienced volunteers: join us this weekend to help test new messaging at our Advanced Canvass!
Advanced Canvass: Northeast L.A.
Saturday, March 13
10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Training location:
Neighborhood Church
301 N. Orange Grove Ave
Pasadena, CA 91103
Anyone who has canvassed with VFE before is encouraged to join!
It’s officially the month of Valentine’s Day, and a great time to work towards all love being treated equally in the eyes of the law, and in the hearts of our neighbors.
In January, one year after Vote for Equality kicked off its door-to-door canvassing operation in L.A. County — in areas where over 50% of residents voted Yes on Prop. 8 — we hit the streets again. We’re continuing to listen to and identify voters’ core concerns, and learning how to open a conversation and move them to reconsider their opposition to marriage equality.
In just the past two weekends, 112 volunteer canvassers talked to over 500 more voters! That makes for more than 5,900 in-person conversations that VFE has had with voters since the passage of Proposition 8 in November 2008.
We are starting to get more into the roots of homophobia in these conversations, and what can start to get people to open up and talk about the gay and lesbian people in their neighborhoods, as well as in their own lives. Alongside relating our own personal stories about why marriage matters to us, and how the passage of Prop. 8 directly affected our lives, many conversations also see voters relating their stories about why marriage is important to them, and how it is equally important to the gay and lesbian people in their lives who they interact with every day.
We will be out talking to more voters in February, and as always — we really need more of you out there with us doing this work. It is helping us gain insight into the minds of voters, which will be crucial in helping us to run better, more effective campaigns in the future. We just need to be talking to voters on a much larger scale — and that’s where you come in.
VFE canvass training
Our next canvass is on Saturday, Feb. 27 in East Los Angeles. No experience is necessary; VFE has developed a full training, where we’ll help you develop a personal story, and roleplay conversations with voters before you head out to knock on doors with an experienced partner. VFE volunteers will have already created packets with everything you’ll need, from lists of registered voters, to maps to get to their houses, to scripts that have key messaging to help you navigate and track your conversations.
East L.A. Canvass
Saturday, Feb. 27
10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Training location:
3583 Beswick St.
Los Angeles, CA 90023
Come to our fundraising training!
Also, on Valentine’s Day weekend, we are making a commitment to help keep this work ongoing. In the name of love, we will be coming together as a group to call people we know to ask them to invest in this work. The only way that VFE can keep doing this critical work on marriage is by raising enough money to keep our program going. And the best people to raise it are people like you who really, deeply care about seeing a day when all love is treated equally. We’ll provide you with a training that will make you an expert fundraiser, before you even get on the phones!
Grassroots Fundraising Training & Phone Bank
Saturday, Feb. 13
11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
The Village @ L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center
1125 N McCadden Pl.
Los Angeles, CA 90038
And thanks to all of the volunteers who worked so hard last year with Vote for Equality, starting to change hearts and minds and build greater support for marriage equality in California.
Our goal for 2010: to have 10,000 in-person conversations with voters by the end of the year.
We’ll be hitting the streets again starting on Saturday, Jan. 23, with a canvass in South L.A. We will be talking to hundreds of voters on that day in our efforts to win back marriage equality, and we need your help to recruit canvassers and help organize the canvass.
See our calendar (at right) for more information on how you can help recruit volunteers over the phone to join us at canvasses and other actions; recruit volunteers face-to-face in West Hollywood and South L.A., and help cut turf, create walking maps and assemble materials our canvassers will need when going door-to-door.
Most importantly, sign-up to join us in South L.A. on Saturday, Jan. 23. If we are going to be successful the next time that marriage equality is on the ballot in California, we must start to build a greater base of support now!
South L.A. Canvass
Saturday, Jan. 23
10:00 A.M. – 3:00 P.M.
Training location: Holy Faith Episcopal Church
260 N. Locust St.
Inglewood, CA
The California Supreme Court ruling upholding Prop. 8 and maintaining the ban on marriage for same-sex couples marked the beginning of the next battle in the fight for the freedom to marry. The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center is not resting when it comes to advancing equality. To win marriage equality, we will need every person who supports us to get involved.
The Center’s Vote for Equality (VFE) campaign is working to build the political power of LGBT people and allies in Los Angeles County to advance marriage equality, and reduce homophobia in our community. Through door-to-door canvasses, phone banks, leadership development, voter education and other actions, VFE works to change the hearts and minds of those who voted for Prop 8.
1st time EVER - the Census Bureau will include same-sex married couples and "unmarried partner couples" Join the effort! http://tr.im/A9iL10 months ago
We’ll be hitting the streets again starting on Saturday, Jan. 23, with a canvass in South L.A. We will be talking to hundreds of voters on that day in our efforts to win back marriage equality, and we need your help to recruit canvassers and help organize the canvass.