Some of the women at the Town Hall meeting: Hope Wood and Wendy Aragon from the Courage Campaign, SF Equality Team Sacha Rood and Alameda Equality Team’s Tiana Trutna. Photo by Rink.

By Joseph Amster

Activists backing the effort to rescind Prop 8 in 2010 are moving ahead with their plans and held a series of town hall meetings throughout the state on Saturday, Sept. 19. The organization pushing the effort has adopted the name Restore Equality 2010.

The San Francisco meeting was attended by approximately 50 people, and quickly got down to the business of implementing the “Davis Plan,” which was approved at a statewide meeting on Aug. 29. The Davis Plan calls for the state to be divided up into 10 regions, with the election of three representatives from each region to serve on an advisory panel. At the San Francisco meeting, Eric Ross, Ian Hart and Kat Powell volunteered to serve on the local panel. 

“There’s a two-way function for these representatives. They’re going to be organizing locally, creating hubs in neighborhoods, towns and universities to organize signature-gathering efforts. On the other side, they are the statewide representation,” says Jeffrey Taylor, a member of Restore Equality 2010’s Interim Advisory Council who was one of the meeting’s facilitators. 

Taylor reports that the tone of the meeting was respectful and productive. “The meeting was passionate and very supportive. There were lots of really good questions about the plans we have. There wasn’t much dissention in the room at all – people are really ready to go,” he says. “They’re ready for where we need to be about two months from now, when the ballot language is ready.” 

The effort to rescind Prop 8 in 2010 is bringing many younger activists and new energy into the campaign. “There are a lot of people 35 and under coming in and really driving this,” says Taylor. “I think there were only two of us over 35 at the town hall, and a lot of this groundswell of youth energy was evident at the meeting. I think people are looking at the campaign as being open and looking to people who aren’t in the establishment to stake a claim for themselves, use their expertise, and open doors that were once closed.”

IAG member Jo Hoenninger, who co-facilitated the meeting, says there was consensus in moving forward with the 2010 effort. “Among the people who were at this meeting, there was unanimity with moving forward with 2010. There was virtually no discussion about trying to delay until 2012. One person did bring up that there are political forces that are trying to say wait, that they don’t want to do it in 2010 because it might impact people who are in the race for governor. But, the fact is, with a 2 percent difference in the population of those people who voted for Prop 8 and those who didn’t, I just can’t see that as a big issue.”

Restore Equality 2010 is now in the process of drafting the initiative so they can begin their signature-gathering efforts. Although Equality California and other organizations are moving ahead with plans to challenge Prop 8 in 2012, Hoenninger believes the community will ultimately coalesce behind the 2010 effort. “As the energy in this movement toward 2010 starts growing, I believe that if it hits a place where, for example, most of the signatures are gathered or it looks like we’re definitely going to be successful in gathering the number of signatures we need to gather, I can’t imagine that an organization like Equality California will continue to sit on the sidelines,” she says. “I think at that point, they are going to get aligned with what will become the will of the community.”

For more information about Restore Equality 2010, go to www.restoreequality2010.com.