Submitted by Marjory on Thu, 2010-07-29 16:40

Filed under:

• Social Change in Oregon
• LGBTQ
• Marriage Equality
• Racial Justice
• Western States Center

Summer is wedding season, which makes this a good time to take a fresh look at marriage.

Basic Rights Oregon has launched a new ad campaign aimed at helping everyday Oregonians understand why marriage is so critical for gay and lesbian couples. Equally important, they’re partnering with Western States Center to broker a marriage of a different sort—a union between the movements for racial justice and the movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people’s rights.

My own commitment ceremony is just three weeks away. It's given me a lot of opportunities to talk with family and friends about what love is, and how the rituals we create shape--and are shaped by--our cultural norms. My partner Ben and I have waded through countless small decisions to create a ceremony that is outside many of those norms. It is infinitely more challenging to change the cultural norms themselves, and that's the critical work that Western States Center, BRO and others are taking on.

Check out the ads—they feature a wide range of community members talking about why they believe it’s important to open civil marriage to all loving couples in Oregon (some videos are in Spanish, like this video by Abel Vallardes). By bringing those voices into living rooms around the state outside the context of a controversial ballot initiative, BRO hopes to create a transformative dialogue that inspires thoughtful conversations about why committed and caring gay and lesbian couples want the freedom to marry.

Part of what makes this dialogue transformative is that it isn’t just an examination of marriage from a gay rights perspective. It’s that it is also an examination of gay rights from a racial justice perspective. That part of the conversation is happening in progressive organizations throughout the community.

Western States Center's groundbreaking Uniting Communities initiative helps organizations in communities of color re-frame the conversation about LGBT equality in a way that is relevant for their communities and puts queer people of color at the center. It directly addresses the wedges that have been driven between communities of color and queer white activists in the past.

BRO has a complementary program called Standing Together: Coming Out for Racial Justice that helps queer white organizations examine the many ways that structural racism has shaped and limited the movement for gay liberation—including the campaign for marriage equality. I joined one of their community dialogues earlier this month, and was inspired by the group's dedication to creating new ways of talking about gay liberation that more accurately reflects the complexity of our communities.

This is long-term, challenging work that builds on decades of alliance building between the Oregon farmworkers’ union (PCUN), the Rural Organizing Project, and Basic Rights Oregon. Because of them, and the skilled assistance of Western States Center, there are strong relationships between progressive Latino organizations, predominantly white groups in rural Oregon and LGBTQ activists. Those collaborative relationships are growing, as the groups reach out to other organizations throughout the state led by immigrants, Natives and people of color.

Jeana Frazzini of BRO has said that “Marriage is one of the few times we make a public promise to love and care for someone in good times and bad. And when we ask our loved ones, our friends and family to take a stand and support us and hold us accountable to that commitment.”

This wedding season, let’s all take a stand to support the union between racial justice and LGBTQ liberation. Join the transformative dialogue. Share the videos. Check out the new resources.Talk to the people in your lives. I know I am.