NGLTF Executive Director Matt Foreman exhorted the delegates at the Creating Change conference to move to a more aggressive brand of activism.

So much of the bigotry we face is framed around so-called “deeply held religious beliefs,” said National Gay and Lesbian Task Force director Matt Foreman, that the gay civil rights movement will not advance further unless it goes forward as a united secular and religious community.

Oakland was the host to the Task Force’s annual Creating Change conference last week, where a record 2,500 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists came together, to “plan, commiserate and learn,” Foreman said. “Our message for the conference is that we and our allies need to reclaim moral values—and that involves not hesitating to talk about the immortality of our opponents’ tactics,” Foreman said in an interview on Saturday. Creating Change is “the annual gathering of the activist family….To share success stories and failures.”

“It’s the one time of the year to meet people who are doing the same thing,” Foreman said, “because so many work in relative isolation, people are hungry for skills and information.”

They came from most states, including large delegations from both coasts, and, of course, from the Bay Area. They attended almost 300 workshops, about half of which were organized by NGLTF staff—but the rest by other organizations and individuals.

“We don’t censor,” Foreman said. Subjects ranged from serving homeless LGBT youth, lobbying rules for non-profits, a critique of the gay movement from “radical queers,” fighting for LGBT rights within the United Nations, police misconduct, World Pride0 in Jerusalem, and the “ballroom” scene. They watched a movie, produced by San Francisco-based Children of Gays and Lesbians Everywhere (COLAGE), about what it’s like to have LGBT parents.
But on Saturday, and in his keynote address on Friday, Foreman said that “the secular part of the movement has distanced itself from people of faith, and that’s got to end.” And on Saturday afternoon, the New York Empire State Pride Agenda’s Christopher Cormier led a session about organizing among communities of faith. He said that the Pride Agenda isn’t a religious organization. “We’re an advocacy group, not a religious group,” he said, but their “Pride in the Pulpit” program has new attracted over 450 members and is crucial to undoing what Foreman called “the unholy alliance between religious extremism and political extremism.”

“We don’t do theology,” Cormier said. “This is about passing legislation.”

In California, gay San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno (D) introduced his gay marriage bill this year in the sanctuary of Glide Memorial Methodist Church in San Francisco, with ministers from half a dozen churches present. After its first introduction last year that legislation died early, after its first committee hearing, partly because of opposition from religious fundamentalists.

But this year it passed both the Assembly and the State Senate, only to be vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R). Leno credits the some of the success (it was the first gay marriage bill to clear pass a state legislature ever in America) to the efforts of religious communities in advocating for it.
NGLTF has grown quickly since Foreman took over two and a half years ago. Its $9.1 million budget has doubled, as has its staff, now at a total of about 50. About $1.6 million of that came in two enormous grants from a donor who remains anonymous—even to Foreman.

On Saturday, Foreman was dressed up on top, in a pink shirt a purple tie, and informal below, in jeans and boots. But even after its explosive growth, Foreman’s group is small compared to the Washington, DC based Human Rights Campaign, which ran on a $30 million budget last year, over half of the total contributed to all national gay rights organizations combined.

HRC DOES LOBBYING IN WASHINGTON
Foreman and HRC butted heads after the November 2004 election when Foreman criticized HRC, after the New York Times reported HRC was backing away from gay marriage as a goal. HRC denied the report.

“A more radicalized gay movement will make more progress,” Foreman said. “I don’t think accommodation gets you anywhere. But you need different kinds of organizations… Aggressive activism is not incompatible with behind-the-scenes lobbying. In fact, they’re complementary,” Foreman said.
According to Foreman, about 75 percent of Americans support non-discrimination legislation for gays, and even 77 percent of Christian evangelicals support safe schools laws. But only 17 states have non-discrimination laws, just seven of those include transgenders, and less than 10 specifically protect gay and lesbian kids from violence in their schools. And the federal government gives no protections whatsoever.

Now the NGLTF has expanded its operation in Washington, adding approximately eight new staff members, including long-time Washington hand Eleanor Acheson, who is the granddaughter of former Secretary of State Dean Acheson and was an Assistant Attorney General under Janet Reno. They have been charged with the NGLTF’s agenda of securing federal protections for gays in employment, anti-violence legislation for LGBT youth in schools, and securing set asides to combat violence and substance abuse.

Foreman demanded that the gay movement’s political allies “take a stand for us and not run away.” He called the positions that candidates, including John Kerry, took on gay rights in the 2004 election “spineless and incoherent.

“Instead of being on the defensive, push back,” Foreman said. He said America’s politicians, even the community’s traditional allies, need to be held accountable. “If you say it’s only about marriage? Then vote on this piece of legislation. “You say you’re not a bigot? Vote on this piece of legislation. This is not a hard concept in my mind.”

Gay groups, service organizations and merchants exhibited in the conference’s exhibit hall. Among them, “Books to Watch Out For,” a new on-line review of gay oriented books organized, in part, by Different Light Books founder Richard Labonte; “Please tell people, even if they missed the conference, they can still get free stuff,” chirped the company’s rep. Go to www.btwof.com/CC/ and get a free subscription.