My name is Chaz Lowe and I was one of the organizers for Sunday’s event. I, like many others, have concerns when you post information without checking the sources first. I will attempt to clarify.

First, as an organizer for the event, I was caught in the middle between a plethora of community leaders who said they would not come if the press was invited to the strategy session and the press which believed they were entitled to attend. Initially, the plan was to allow only the LGBT press to come, but after a nice chat with Lisa from the AP, we decided to open the meeting to all the media. However, on Sunday, Vincent Jones, who was the moderator, was faced with a walkout of community leaders who were upset that the press would post poll data that would be damaging if found by the otherside. A democratic vote was then conducted, and the ROOM voted to close the poll session. NOTE: over 300 organizers from across California were there and an overwhelming majority wanted a closed poll session. It was not one person’s decision.

I must also vent my frustration when bloggers, such as Queerty, post damaging information that will aid the Yes on 8 side. We ARE NOT hiding the poll information from our community, in fact, we have planned 80 community meetings across California to share this info with the LGBT community. We also had a press call yesterday about the poll. However, creating posts, such as ‘All the Things Homophobes can Learn..’ is inappropriate and genuinely hurts the movement.

I also believe the badgering of community leaders who have sacrificed their life for this movement is uncalled for. I myself have gone over 6 months without pay, working 7 days a week and have gotten so low on money that I am literally down to one meal a day. The bullying and egos within our own community needs to stop.

I would also hope that if you take issue with myself or another organizer, you would have the decency to come and talk with us first rather than post information that may or may not be true.

Sincerely,

Chaz Lowe
Yes on Equality

Let the public know exactly what our campaign and strategy is all about: out reach to the folks who voted against us, encouraging glbtq as well as equality minded people to get off their asses next election day and vote for the removal of this anti same sex marriage amendment, speaking about civil rights and equality and why it matters to anyone who will listen, exposing the anti gay marriage folks lies before they are even spoken, etc. None of this will hurt us, transparency and the truth and exposing the lies of the haters is all we need.

@Aj: Thank you also for injecting some reason into this thread. Again, the 2010 campaign should be as grassroots-friendly as possible. However, grassroots-friendly should NOT mean open to NOM infiltration.

‘yeson8won’ it could only have been you.

As I said, “the thought police”

This isnt craigslist. flagging is so immature…..

Jon Hoadley of National Stonewall Democrats should be advising these people. He handled the campaign against South Dakota’s measure, which passed in 2008 by roughly the same margin that Prop 8 passed by. Given that the setting was South Dakota, I don’t know why he wasn’t brought in for the comparatively favorable setting of California.

“You can’t find any press photos from any major news outlets because no outlet sent a photographer. Their choice. Not a conspiracy to black out any images under a cloud of “secrecy” just a decision on their part not to cover it. However there were many other folks with cameras there and I’m sure that some images will start showing up on blogs and facebook pages in the near future.”

Indeed this is now the case, and I’ve seen photos posted online. (I’m not telling you where QUEERTY because I’m tired of doing fact finding for you)

As far as your claim of “patently false” I’m beginning to think that you studied how to parse language under Lord Vader himself — Dick Cheney. PLEASE EXPLAIN WHICH PHOTOGRAPHER WAS TURNED AWAY. Answer- NONE. WHICH NEWS OUTLET SENT A CAMERA PERSON? Again – NONE. A few local Media came to cover the event, were allowed in to get b-roll and then left. This hardly seems like the “Katie-bar-the-door” sub-rosa scenario you keep shilling for.

As was posted earlier, there was one portion that was closed to cameras, blogs and journalists. But to insinuate that it was off-limits the entire tme and that photographers were barred is certainly disingenuous on your part, bad reporting and wholly irresponsible behavior.

I would request you try to report the truth but I’m not sure you even know where to begin to find it.

Thanks Mom. LOL. J/K

BTW. This is Lester Aponte. I am not with Honor Pac (which is a fine organization), but with Love Honor Cherish and the Latino Equality Alliance. I share your concern about there not being a deadline set among coalition partners to decide on 2010. As both Marc Solomon and myself explained during the conference, we need volunteers to be hitting the streets with petitions by September or the opportunity will be lost. I have no doubt that there will be a ballot proposition to restore marriage equality in California on the November 2010 ballot. The hangup is that an increasingly smaller minority among activists want to continue the conversation and many organizations don’t want those people to feel rushed or forced. At LHC we have been committed to 2010 ever since Prop 8 passed we have laid ot plans for the signature gathering process. Joining us on the call for a 2010 proposition are Stonewall Democrats, Latino Equality Alliance, Meet in the Middle, OUT WEST, the California Democratic Party and many other organizations listed at repealprop8.com.

As to the confidentiality issue, the pollsters will be making their powerpoint presentation available to everyone. There will still be some more detailed data about strategy, etc. that will not be made public, and contrary to rumor, is not public now. The reason is that you do not hand out sensitive information to the opposition. That is politics 101. Let them pay for their own survey.

REPEAL PROP 8 IN 2010
ELIMINA LA 8 EN 2010

You clearly have an agenda, and from my perspective, it’s not one that is supportive of GLBT equality. Having directly witnessed much of what you’ve been “reporting,” and seeing very little resemblance to the actual events, leads me to conclude one of 3 things: 1) You’re incompetent 2) You’re relying on very poor “sources,” — which, if true, you’re incompetent or 3) You have your own agenda and are going out of your way to sabatoge every effort put forth by the people in this state who are actually doing the work for positive change — again, if true, you’re incompetent. So, to sum it up, I can draw only one conclusion: you’re incomptent.

This has certainly taught me to take everything I read: MSM, bloggers, online “journalists” with the grain of truth that they probably possess and ignore it, and move on to the work of this movement.

If you issue a patent, aren’t you supposed to make it public? In other words, what major news outlet send a photographer that was turned away? Why not mention in the story?