Brian Elliot: Four Lessons from New York on Engaging Straight Supporters

The central tool of our campaign was the Friend-setter page, a personalized click-to-call tool that lobbed over 8,000 supportive calls into Albany. These pages worked much like an all too familiar marathon fundraising page but, instead of raising money, these pages raised political actions. Anyone could set up a Friend-setter page for free, set a goal for how many friends of theirs they wanted to ...

David Mixner • Aug 30, 2011

Maine, Obama and the LGBT Community

President Obama and his team were zero help in this critical battle and in the last week might actually have hurt us. That is a fact. Despite repeated pleas for assistance from this community from the start of the campaign, he chose to ignore every opportunity to grant us such relief. At the recent Human Rights Campaign dinner he never said the word "Maine" once. The most we were able to get out ...

David Mixner • Nov 4, 2009

MUST-READ: Oh California!

The room was intense and packed. Angry people from both sides stood up to give righteousness to their view on rather we should fight the ballot initiative coming up. Major donors said it couldn't be won and they wouldn't finance it. The leader of The Advocate said if they attempted to go for it he would destroy those who wanted to proceed. Polls showed that we couldn't win and the focus groups wer...

David Mixner • Jul 29, 2009

http://www.davidmixner.com/2009/07/observations-from-turkey-hollow-on-the-lgbt-civil-rights-movement-part-four-what-now.html

There are so many options an individual, straight or gay, can put their time and resources toward. Some might chose the political path, others the grassroots and others work within the legal system. They all are needed and appropriate places for one's time. However we choose to participate we should always have foremost in our minds - "Is this good for the community or am I doing this to please ot...

David Mixner • Jul 24, 2009

Observations from Turkey Hollow on the LGBT Civil Rights Movement: Part Two: Learning from History.

The community should not waste time and resources attempting to stop those with whom we tactically disagree. Celebrate our differences! If you don't think someone is proceeding in the right fashion, stop attempting to bring them to a halt and create your own way if you feel it would be better. Embrace and acknowledge that we are indeed in the midst of the greatest civil rights battle of this gene...

David Mixner • Jul 24, 2009

Observations from Turkey Hollow on the LGBT Civil Rights Movement: Part One "Oh Lord Not Now!"

The cabal of powerful decision makers wants everything to be safe, clean and perfect before moving. Don't upset anyone, don't jump ahead of ourselves and most of all don't deviate from a well-laid plan that hopefully will eventually lead to victory. Every one of our allies has to be comfortable, the polls have to show us way ahead, and proof of victory has to be assured before trying anything new....

David Mixner • Jul 22, 2009