One Struggle, One Fight began two days after the November elections. We were thrilled that Barack Obama had been elected as our next President, but we were blindsided and brokenhearted when Prop 8 passed, revoking our rights through a constitutional amendment.
Under the name SF Direct Action Against Prop 8, we mobilized in less than 24 hours to organize civil disobedience during a San Francisco march on Friday, 11/7.
Within a week, we carried out two civil disobedience actions. On 11/15, while people joined solidarity actions at City Halls across the country, 15 of us were arrested for a peaceful blockade of the 101-S offramp at Market and Octavia. And in the months after that action, we brought together a coalition for a 6-day march from SF to Sacramento, March 25-30, to call for the repeal of Prop 8 and to build bridges with other communities struggling for social and economic justice.
Most of us are not concerned primarily with the issue of marriage, and many of us are new activists.
The experience of having our rights stripped away has been a rallying point to organize and build community.
In the aftermath of Prop 8, we were also brokenhearted to see the blaming of specific groups - namely, communities of color and of faith. This cynical Divid & Conquer tactic worked for a time to create artificial walls.
It is our goal to change that story.
We hope to help bring those walls down, because we have more power when we stand together.
This is not a fight for marriage; it is a fight for civil rights. Within the LGBT community - as without - we struggle with racial prejudice, immigrants rights, healthcare, poverty & homelessness, and gender discrimination.
We are gay, straight, and everything in between. Some of us are gender-nonconformers, people of color, or HIV-positive. We are people of many faiths, or no faith at all. We are a Beloved Community, and we are fighting for all the Us-es.
