Some newspapers might be siding with Equality California over its call to wait till 2012 for a Prop 8 repeal (and urging the Courage Campaign to also heed the advice), some nagging questions remain over Geoff Kors’ non-profit. Namely: Was EQCA collecting more than a million dollars from supporters by telling them they were going to push for a 2010 repeal?
That’s the charge made by Yes! on Equality, the group led by Chaz Lowe that, like the Courage Campaign and David Comfort’s Equality Network, isn’t holding off until 2012 to get marriage rights back for California’s gays. Lowe’s group already filed paperwork to put the issue up to voters on the 2010 ballot — and they plan on continuing the fight with the shorter timeline.
Yes! claims EQCA snapped up more than $1 million in donations through telephone calls telling donors their money would go to a 2010 fight, not 2012.
Officially, it wasn’t EQCA making the phone calls, but the fundraising firm Grassroots Campaigns Inc., which was contracted to raise funds. (Outsourcing the phone calling is standard operating procedure.) Except to plump EQCA’s coffers, the dialers working for Grassroots were reading from a script about 2010, claims Yes!.
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Denying the charges, EQCA says Grassroots’ staffers were “specifically and repeatedly told not to mention a particular year for a ballot initiative,” according to marriage director Marc Solomon. “We have heard of about a dozen cases where canvassers have not followed this directive, and we have immediately gotten in touch with GCI to correct the error. GCI has repeatedly told its canvassers to focus on the issue and not discuss the year in which we would return to the ballot box. If anyone on this list has been asked to donate for 2010, we are very sorry. These canvassers were not following the explicit instructions they were given.”
Not good enough, says Lowe, which wants EQCA to at least offer to refund the cash those callers donated. And as Patrick McDonald points out, Lowe has reason to be suspicious about EQCA’s fiscal activists: Kors and Solomon offered paying jobs to Lowe and other Yes! staffers, which Lowe interpreted as the org’s attempt to buy Yes!’s claim on the ballot measure it already filed with the attorney general for a 2010 repeal. Not to mention this pair is on record just months ago supporting a 2010 effort.
Oh, and then there’s this bit of undeniable evidence: “We contacted a few directors/workers with Grassroots Campaigns and were informed that the money was being raised for 2010,” Lowe tells McDonald. “There were several people on the call when we dialed CGI about the money being raised. Not to mention, what are the odds that dozens of CGI workers would make the same ‘mistake?'”
Highly. Unlikely.
And that’s the sad part: It’s looking pretty obvious that EQCA benefited, whether on purpose or otherwise, by telling marriage equality supporters they would fight for 2010. They collected cash from Californians — our allies — under a falsehood. And with all the existing in-fighting between California’s gay rights groups, the last thing we need are accusations of fraud aimed at our own groups.
And the last things Mr. Kors needs? More criticism. He’s already the face of bungling the failed No On 8 effort — in part because he relied on outside professionals. His reputation as a civil rights leader is already damaged goods, and while he’s given himself the three years until 2012 to repair it, he’s off to a sorry start.
(Photo: Rex Wocker)
schlukitz
ECQA are a bunch of lying bastards.
I know. I had personal experience with these douche bags.
Mudonna
Making money during the recession is easy! Just create a gay rights group and collect money from the hopeful.
Joseph
There’s a facebook group that has started. The group is Demanding REFUNDS and was spearheaded by a straight ally in Santa Barbara:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=146873521170
Marc Solomon
I respect the questions that are being raised here, and I’d like to take a moment to clear them up.
Grassroots Campaigns Inc. is a canvassing company that works with a number of different progressive causes, including MoveOn.org, ACORN and the ACLU. The goal of their canvassing is to identify new supporters and activists in order to expand and create a sustainable base for our work going forward. GCI has helped us identify 16,000 new volunteers who are committed to LGBT rights – which will help us all move the needle as we work to win back marriage. Every dollar donated through GCI canvassers is being used to move people to be more supportive of marriage equality, regardless of when the issue returns to the ballot.
Our scripts and materials say that we are committed to winning marriage back, but they specifically do not mention a particular year to return to the ballot and instead focus on the issue. When these scripts and materials were written, we kept in mind that we weren’t yet certain which year we would recommend, and we carefully selected language to reflect that we were not committed to 2010. We have heard of about a dozen cases where the canvassers did not follow the instructions they were given, and in each we have followed up with GCI, which has arranged additional training for its canvassers.
We spoke with GCI and were told that the person Chaz Lowe spoke with there was actually a volunteer named Becky who has been helping to answer phones. She is neither a director nor an employee. She has been trained on the phone script and has no recollection of straying from the phone script, which used the phrase “to restore marriage equality in 2010 or 2012.”
Lowe has claimed to other media outlets that EQCA offered him a job. This isn’t accurate. We always make our job offers in writing, so Queerty may want to ask Lowe to provide a copy of the offer letter to verify his statement. EQCA and many other organizations are on record as opposing the ballot initiative language Yes on Equality! submitted because of the harm it would cause to efforts to expand school curriculum to include LGBT history. And anyone can submit a ballot measure; there’s no need to buy one.
We appreciate Lowe’s drive and the efforts of his organization. We are committed to working with any organization committed to winning back marriage. Though we favor 2012, we are in continual contact with organizations that prefer 2010 and are figuring out the best ways for us all to collaborate. In order to win back marriage, we must all work together and focus on the real issue – building the support we need to prevail at the ballot box.
Regards,
Marc Solomon
Marc Solomon
P.S. Here is a statement from GCI’s national canvass director, Wes Jones.
Best,
Marc Solomon, Marriage Director, Equality California
“The canvassers referred to here all work with Grassroots Campaigns, Inc., which is running this volunteer and supporter recruitment drive on behalf of Equality California. I’m the national canvass director for Grassroots Campaigns.
EQCA’s field staff very clearly instructed us not to have canvassers make any representations regarding when it would advocate for a ballot initiative. After hearing of instances where canvassers said that 2010 was the target date, our local directors immediately followed up with them and — at the insistence of Equality California — ran a series of trainings to ensure that everyone understood the EQCA position: to gather more information and speak with community members before deciding on the year.
I sincerely apologize on behalf of both GCI and EQCA to those who heard otherwise from one of our canvassers, and will be following up on each instance.”
Chaz Lowe
@Marc Solomon: Marc, my mother always told me, ‘honesty is the best policy.’
First, Becky was only one of the people we spoke to. The director from GCI that we spoke to was Melissa Staten. She confirmed the dollar amount raised ($1 million) as well as 2010. We can supply witnesses.
Second, in regards to the offer, I declined before your organization had to chance to submit a formal offer. However, you also offered a job to Nishan for Southern California and we can supply those emails. Additionally, on April 20th, 2009 Amy Mello sent an email which states, ” I want to double check to see if you will be sending in a resume for the field position. If you are interested I would like to schedule a time for you to meet with Marc Solomon.” I can forward you the emails to refresh your memory of you offering Yes! on Equality folks a job…
Sincerely,
Chaz Lowe
Yes! on Equality
petted
And here I thought that rationality was one of the things that separated us from the raving bigots on the other side. Guys, gals, and friends we all want to get to the same place lets not loose sight of that.
Chance
How about… just throwing an idea out, here… instead of getting into a queenly little fight here, we, oh, maybe, come up with an actual strategy for equality?
Chaz, Marc… the only thing different between the two of you is what date you’re trying to throw your party. It doesn’t matter when we put this on the ballot if we don’t have a strategy in place to combat the religious beliefs that make us wrong.
ThinkRealHard
This is simply “Professional Fundraising” at its worst. The fight is about MONEY. These groups don’t have a Plan to obtain equality for us – they are simply trying to keep their salaries and perks.
This “movement” (or noticeable lack thereof) is without any real plan to win. It’s always “give us your money and we’ll try some things.” It MUST stop. We should not pay these people any more.
I would define winning as “full equality.” I have asked HRC and and many other groups (including this California mess) for their “Plans,” and they don’t have one. That is just plain stupid. We who donate are to blame. We don’t have any expectations any more and we are just throwing away our money.
I think we should all agree to wait for a “strategy to win” and a detailed “plan” before giving another dollar to these weasels. Let’s save our money until we have a way to win.
ThinkRealHard
This is a lot like the financial questions surrounding Cleve Jones and the National Equality March. They have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and there will probably never be a March. I have seen calls for their financials for more than a month, but they dismiss them.
This movement needs a Plan and some very real “transparency.” When I called the National Equality March, to speak with Cleve, I was told he was “traveling.” I wonder who was paying for his travel expenses. It was probably us.
Ohomo
Here is a personal note right back to Wes Jones at “GCI:”
Dear Wes,
Your organization is obnoxious, and the mostly straight, generally uninformed, overly aggressive people you pay to harass gay people in their neighborhoods are obnoxious as well.
I live in the Castro. For months I have not been able to walk anywhere without being yelled at by your paid hacks. They are snide, and they spout the same stupid script at passersby over and over. Little ditty’s such as “WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP FIGHT FOR GAY MARRIAGE TODAY?” When you try to ignore them (oh, you know, maybe because they are paid to harass people who have already likely done more for gay marriage than they would do for anything — unless they were getting paid), they make snide comments.
Wes, go back to your “fauxgressive” causes and leave gay people alone. We have long ago figured out that the only reason Solomon & Co. are pushing things out to 2012 is because you want to milk this issue for more money.
You are both an embarrassment to every cause except maybe soulless non-profiteering.
PleasePreparetoPrevail
Chaz Lowe doesn’t care if the ballot initiative language jeopardizes our community’s work to make schools safer. Chaz and his rich white cohorts at Love Honor Cherish are willing to go back to the ballot as soon as possible regardless of the consequences of running a multi-million dollar campaign are for the most marginalized of us. And regardless of the effects it may have on the work we are doing to build strong, long-lasting coalitions.
Ohomo
@PleasePreparetoPrevail: WTF does making schools safer have to do with gay marriage? Oh Dorothyyyyy… Alice and the Mad Hatter want you to come over for a hash tea party!
ThinkRealHard
Don’t give these fools your money. Save it for a winning strategy.
Mike K
Thank god for the federal suit going on right now. If we waited for our kumbaya, pussy “gay leaders” to do anything we’d all be dead by the time we got equality.
Jason_M
Going in 2010 makes no sense to me. If we won, the other side would be back in 2012, with the same problems we faced in 2008. You don’t think that passing a repeal would be the end of the argument, do you?
Brian
@Jason_M: That is why the fight has to be against “religious beliefs” Jason. Because of religion LGBT people have NEVER won a popular vote. Never.
Thankfully, younger people are not infected with religion and in 50-60 years the “non-religious” will be the new majority.
Let’s not wait. Let’s reject the lies about homosexuals (only from religion) and re-brand gay people. That can win.