NATIONAL CALL FOR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE ISSUED

[dayofd...@gmail.com]

NEW WEBSITE SEEKS TO EDUCATE PUBLIC AND TRAIN ORGANIZERS NATIONWIDE

www.nonviolence4equality.org

In response to the growing equality movement in California and across
the country, community organizers are issuing a call for the use of
nonviolent civil disobedience to further the cause. This call comes at
a time when the equality movement is energized surrounding the
upcoming California Supreme Court decision on the validity of
Proposition 8.

Soulforce is collaborating with individual organizers and groups,
including Join the Impact, to issue this call. Jeff Lutes, Soulforce
Executive Director, drafted the call to action which has been signed
already by several community leaders, including Cleve Jones, who is
the founder of the NAMES/AIDS Memorial Quilt, and was a historical
consultant on the Academy Award winning film MILK.

Working closely with other leaders, Soulforce organizer Chris Hubble
created a new website, www.nonviolence4equality.org, to assist in
educating the public on nonviolent civil disobedience. The website
launched Monday and is designed to help community members learn about
the philosophy, practice and history of nonviolent strategies and
connect with others locally who are interested in organizing
nonviolent civil disobedience. This website is a collaborative effort
and is intended to be reflective of the diverse spectrum of approaches
to nonviolent resistance. It is also envisioned as an open-source set
of learning tools for grassroots organizers. The materials provided
suggest a simple outline for facilitating a training in nonviolence
which organizers may adopt or adapt to fit their needs.

The call to action (full copy below) specifically promotes nonviolent
tactics. Community leaders are urged to sign the call to action at
www.nonviolence4equality.org and to begin training in their own
communities immediately. For questions pertaining to the new training
website, please contact Christopher Hubble at N...@soulforce.org.
Time to Take It to the Streets
An urgent national call for nonviolent direct action to achieve full
equality

Today, we issue a national call for social change through the ongoing
use of nonviolent direct action - including civil disobedience when
necessary - until the federal government extends equal protection in
all fifty states on matters governed by civil law.

Efforts to achieve full civil equality - such as the right to marry
the person we love, the right to care for our families, the right to
nondiscrimination in the workplace, and the right to serve openly in
the military - have awakened a sleeping giant within the soul of the
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) community. We are
tired of agonizing political setbacks, token change, defending
ourselves against charges of moral inferiority, and being told to
"wait" in the land we love while liberation occurs in other countries.
Martin Luther King, Jr. acknowledged that real change takes time; yet
he also warned against the "tranquilizing drug of gradualism" and
instructed the oppressed to demand equality now - not on the
convenient time schedule of those doing the oppressing. Legislative
efforts toward equality, while essential, have proven woefully
inadequate under current circumstances.

Today, we affirm that nonviolent strategies such as marches, vigils,
demonstrations, public protests, and civil disobedience, seek to
create what Dr. King called "healthy tension".. This constructive
tension forces those who perpetuate injustice, and society as a whole,
to pause, reflect, and consider the ugliness of their prejudices and
the indecency embodied in their discrimination. In his Letter from
Birmingham Jail, Dr. King wrote: "Nonviolent direct action seeks to
create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which
has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.
It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored."

In addition to Dr. King's legacy, we remember that those of Mahatma
Gandhi, Bayard Rustin, Oscar Romero, Cesar Chavez, the Velvet
Revolution, and countless others are deeply rooted in United States
and world history. Nonviolent resistance continues to play a vital
role in undermining the power of repressive political regimes.

We call on community organizers, activists, movement leaders, and all
LGBTQ people across the nation to begin training the masses in
nonviolent direct action. We have prepared a new online resource -
www.nonviolence4equality.org - to assist in this vital task. As we
resist injustice, we must avoid violence of the fist, tongue, and
heart and remember that in truth we are challenging unjust systems,
not people. In due course, we seek to be in community with those from
whom we currently find ourselves divided.

We, the undersigned, call on LGBTQ and allied people everywhere to act
with strength and integrity. Today, we reclaim nonviolent direct
action as part of that process. Let's understand that the vision of
equality belongs to all of us and we are each responsible for taking
action in pursuit of that dream. We all have the faculty to be
powerful, influential, and prevailing. Let's reinvest in our movement
for social change and believe in our own capacity to effect that
change. Let's allow the boldness and hunger for justice to grow and
contagiously spread to others.

Let's take it to the streets.

* Jeff Lutes, Soulforce
* Cleve Jones, UNITE HERE
* Willow Witte, Join the Impact
* Sara Beth Brooks, San Diego Equality Campaign
* David Comfort, Equality Network
* Kip Williams, Radical Designs
* Jeff Sheng, Fearless Campus Tour
* David Valk, UCLA Student
* Laura Kanter, Orange County Equality Coalition
* Christopher Hubble, Soulforce in Colorado

Note: Organizational affiliation listed for identification purposes
only.

Add your endorsement today by going to www.nonviolence4equality.org!