The Progressive Project

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Family Dinners A Structural Innovation in the
LGBT Movement

• The Progressive Project

Presented by Jasmine Beach-Ferrara Kathryn
Watson NGLTF Creating Change Conference Denver,
Colorado January 31, 2009
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Overview

• Introduction to The Progressive Project (TPP)
• Current Needs in the LGBT Movement
• TPPs Framework for Innovations in the LGBT
  Movement
• The Family Dinner An Innovation for Responding
  to Emerging Events and Building Intergenerational
  Community

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Introduction Whats TPP?

• A movement to guarantee equality for all citizens
  and to establish America as a global leader that
  promotes human rights, sustainability and peace
  around the world.
• TPP connects people to political and public life,
  acting as a bridge between communities and
  action.
• We are a growing national community of people,
  rather than an organization.

CORE VALUES Love Empathy Authenticity Equity
of Access Opportunity Community Responsibility
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Introduction Thinking about Liberation

• Liberation must originate in love, and an
  unwavering belief in agency.
• Ultimately, it is a faith in our agency that
  allows us to confront hard truths and change.

• The quest for full equality in our public and
  private lives includes several phases
• achieving full equality under the law to gain
  recognition as a full citizen
• changing hearts, minds and theology to gain
  recognition as fully human and
• eliminating structural inequalities.

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Introduction Thinking about Liberation

• To rise to this challenge, a civil rights
  movement should
• create a winnable strategy and a guiding ethic,
  and then develop tactics that achieve the former
  and reflect the latter
• focus resources on areas where persecution is the
  most acute
• create structures and mechanisms that promote
  coordination and solidarity among members across
  geographies and organizations
• be able to quickly develop innovations and
  respond swiftly to emerging events
• draw greater numbers of people into political
  engagement, including those who are not directly
  affected by persecution
• move beyond the habits of identity politics and
  express a transcendent vision of equality
• and forecast the innovations that will be called
  for once one type of equality (e.g. legal) is
  achieved.

A movement must connect strategy, spirit and
action.
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The LGBT Movement

• Currently, there is a national network of
  organizations that focus on LGBT issues and, by
  necessity, on sustaining themselves
• This network is not designed to respond to
  emerging events related to LGBT rights and other
  progressive issues, such as poverty or universal
  health care
• But, we face critical emerging events that demand
  a rapid, strategic response, such as Prop 8
• Therefore, we need to develop new mechanisms and
  structures to fill the current gaps in our
  movement.

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Case Study Marriage Equality

• The case study of how the LGBT movement has
  responded to anti-marriage amendments on state
  ballots illustrates these trends
• It also points towards innovations that can
  accelerate our progress towards full equality.

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Case Study Marriage Equality

• Anti-marriage amendments have passed in 29
  states
• We have relied on the same strategies despite
  this storm of losses. Whats missing from our
  efforts? What can we do better?
• Efforts to win marriage equality are actively
  underway in Maine, Vermont, New York, New Jersey,
  Iowa and California.
• Each state presents the opportunity for us to
  test new innovations and models in organizing and
  movement building.
• Based on TPPs work around marriage equality
  since 2004, including participating in the No on
  8 campaign, we have developed a proposed
  framework for moving forward.

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TPPs Framework for Innovation
TPP is developing models in each of these areas
(1) We welcome opportunities for
collaboration, dialogue and feedback about these
models.
Tactics
Tactics
Tactics
Tactics
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Local Movement Center The Family Dinner

• Our presentation will focus on the Family Dinner,
  which we propose can function as a Local Movement
  Center in LGBT organizing
• A Family Dinner is an intergenerational gathering
  of LGBT folks and allies that comes together to
  celebrate and to act
• TPP piloted Family Dinners in 2004 and in 2008,
  we used the model in six cities across the
  country.

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The Local Movement Center Theory

• The Family Dinner model draws on lessons of the
  Civil Rights Movement and the theory of the Local
  Movement Center
• A Local Movement Center is that component of
  social structure within a local community that
  organizes and coordinates collective action (2)
  
• This theory holds that social change is
  accelerated when there is a central organizing
  hub on the grassroots level that connects
  distinct organizations in structure, strategy and
  spirit.

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Civil Rights Movement Local Movement Center
Theory

• Within the Civil Rights Movement, the Black
  church offers a classic example of a Local
  Movement Center

Currently, the Religious Right uses the local
church as a Local Movement Center
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Lessons for the LGBT Community

• The LGBT community has drawn on the traditions
  and lessons of the Civil Rights Movement in many
  ways
• But it has not done so structurally, and
  currently lacks a Local Movement Center
• Compare the diagram in the earlier slide with a
  representative diagram of the national LGBT
  movement

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Representative Map of LGBT Movement

• A large number of organizations while there are
  active collaborations, organizations function
  independently.
• Not a single LGBT organization has a grassroots
  component that can (1) function as a hub on the
  local level in every community across the nation
  and (2) be activated swiftly in time-sensitive
  moments.

Electoral Orgs (Stonewall Dems. Victory Fund)
HRC
Legal Orgs (NCLR, Lambda Legal)
Advocacy/ Support Orgs (Colage, Youth Pride,
SAGE, PFLAG)
Equality Orgs
NGLTF
LGBT-focused Foundations
GLAAD
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The Need for a Hub in the LGBT Movement

• The LGBT movement lacks an essential component a
  unifying hub on the local level
• The hub must meet spiritual and social needs but
  cannot (currently) be a church because of the
  spiritual violence that so many LGBT people have
  experienced in the church
• Create a way for a national community of LGBT
  folks and allies to mobilize quickly on the
  grassroots level to act on campaigns anywhere
• Be open to people of all ages and allies
• It must be easy to replicate on a limited budget.

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A Proposed Solution The Family Dinner

• The Family Dinner is an intergenerational
  gathering of LGBT individuals and allies that
  comes together to celebrate and honor themes of
  family, queer history, love and authenticity
  through these events we create new kinds of
  community
• In time-sensitive moments, the Family Dinner
  model facilitates political action.
• Through this model, we act on LGBT issues and on
  other progressive campaigns, creating links
  between issues that are too often pursued
  separately.

The Family Dinner model fuses strategy, spirit
and action.
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The Family Dinner An Overview

• The Family Dinner is a two-hour event that
  requires about 4 weeks of planning
• Attendees include social networks and members of
  local organizations outreach across generations
  through gatekeepers of social networks and
  organizations that serve the youth, LGBT families
  and the elderly
• The event can be as small as three people and can
  accommodate an unlimited number of people teams
  of between 2 6 people can put on the event.

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The Family Dinner An Overview

• During the first hour, participants share a meal
  and socialize
• Great attention is paid to making people feel as
  if they are coming to a close friends house for
  dinner
• Greeters welcome people and set the tone as a
  social event rather than a meeting
• Have a Kids Station and kid-friendly food, as
  well as comfortable seating for the elderly
• Choices around menu, décor and music create an
  space in which people might experience the
  spiritual aspects of sharing a meal together and
  creating new kinds of community.

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The Family Dinner An Overview

• As the second hour begins, guests gather in a
  group and host/s welcome them share the key
  themes of a Family Dinner and the core values the
  bring this community together and introduce
  Action Stations
• Guests then head to Action Stations which are
  facilitated by key volunteers and set up in
  different rooms of the house
• Action Stations are where people connect directly
  to campaigns and complete and sign up for
  actions.

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The Family Dinner An Overview

• At the Action Station, facilitators present the
  a menu of actions ranging from ones that can be
  completed on-site in 5 minutes (e.g. signing an
  online petition) to ones that will be completed
  at a later date (e.g. phonebanking)
• Stations can be hosted by partner organizations
• Guests complete Pledge Forms indicating which
  actions they want to complete (including signing
  up to host or cook for future Family Dinners)
• After the event, hosts follow up with guests to
  support them in completing actions
• Family Dinners are scheduled to brackets periods
  of action people gather, act, gather again to
  celebrate, and act, etc.

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A Variation on Two Models

• As is true for many civil rights innovations, the
  Family Dinner is a variation on two existing
  models
• 1) the universal ritual of the family meal
• brings people together to share food /stories,
  during times of celebration and times of crisis
• in the LGBT community, this social ritual is
  often generationally segregated, which translates
  into a palpable loss in the LGBT community
  elders do not have an opportunity to share their
  history and youth do not have access to images of
  their future, or their past the Family Dinner
  creates a way for these connections to happen
• By calling it a Family Dinner, we symbolically
  lay claim to the language and imagery of family

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A Variation on Two Models

• 2) the houseparty, which is widely used by
  campaigns and organizations as a fundraising
  event. What distinguishes the Family Dinner is
• the tone, which emphasizes themes of family,
  queer history, home, love and authenticity and
  then connects these themes to political action
• the opportunity to connect across generations and
  to a range of organizations and actions
• it can be hosted by anyone in any community on a
  very modest budget
• it engages people in community, history and the
  vision of the movement rather than in fundraising
  and the mission of a specific organization and
• the emphasis on human connection and action as a
  form of liberation engages peoples minds and
  hearts in new ways

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Family Dinners 2004 - 2008

• In 2004, TPP piloted this model, using it to
  engage people in Asheville, NC, in efforts to
  defeat an anti-marriage amendment on the Kentucky
  ballot to keep an anti-marriage amendment off
  the North Carolina ballot and to elect Democrats
  and progressives to office on the local, state
  and national levels.
• TPP was part of a network of organizations that
  forecasted that NC could be swung in a
  presidential election and was focused on building
  skills and infrastructure toward this end.
• Participants in the Family Dinners reported that
  it marked the first time they met LGBT people
  from different generations

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Family Dinners 2004 - 2008

• In 2008 TPP used this model in six cities across
  the nation to support the Obama Campaign and the
  No on Proposition 8 campaign in California
• Albuquerque, NM
• Asheville, NC
• Boston, MA
• New York, NY
• St. Louis, MO and
• San Francisco, CA.
• The model was easily adapted and translated
  across these regions of the country.

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Family Dinner Action Stations, Boston 2008
Fundraising, phonebanking, social networking
These are the Action Stations we offered at the
Family Dinners in Boston, creating teams that
then completed actions together
Phonebanking canvassing in NH fundraising
Public art and performance events
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Family Dinner Testimonials, 2008

• Thanks again for everything else that you are
  doing, including the dinner on Saturday. That is
  actually what motivated me to start sending
  fundraising requests out to my friends and
  family. Which I'm usually too bashful to do.
  (San Francisco)
• My work with TPP has been nothing short of
  transformative for me . . . I have learned, in a
  deep and resonating way, the mountain-moving
  power of people, hope, engaged citizenship,
  passion and community . . . I am grateful to have
  helped build and be part of a truly wonderful
  community. (Boston)

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Family Dinners 2008 Highlights

• Using Family Dinners, TPP was the first group to
  run out-of-state No on 8 phonebanks
• Raised over 61,000 for the No on 8 campaign from
  outside CA
• Unexpectedly high engagement from allies getting
  involved in No on 8
• Partnered with Obama teams in various cities,
  significantly increasing their capacity
• Connected volunteers to the Obama campaign in the
  key swing states of NV, NM, PA, NH and NC
• Core volunteers built leadership and organizing
  skills
• People were highly responsive to the unique
  opportunity to easily connect to both the Obama
  and No on 8 campaigns and to be part of a
  national community doing so.

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Family Dinners 2008 Results
TPP spent approximately 3,450 to coordinate
these efforts. Major expenses included food
fuel for trips to swing states and copying
materials. Preliminary results. Focus groups
to be conducted in spring of 2009.
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Images from 2008
Canvassing for Obama in New Mexico
Family Dinners in Boston and Albuquerque
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Images from 2008
Canvassing for Obama in Nevada
Relay marathoners raising money for No on 8 in
Boston
First Family Dinner in SF
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Images from 2008
Family Dinner at a Community Garden in Harlem
Family Dinner at a home in Boston
No on 8 Fundraiser, Boston
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Advantages of the Model

• The Family Dinner Model creates a mechanism for
  volunteer retention and for a deeper form of
  engagement
• By meeting social and spiritual needs, it creates
  a reason for people to show up that is distinct
  from completing a volunteer shift
• The model facilitates action around a broad
  progressive agenda and
• The model can be replicated easily and at low
  cost.

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Replication of the Model

• TPP proposes that this model can be adopted by
  social groups and organizations in order to
• mobilize communities to engage in political
  action to celebrate victories and to respond to
  crises on the local level (such as hate crimes)
• build intergenerational communities of LGBT folks
  and allies
• create connections between issues that are
  typically discrete and
• address vital spiritual needs that motivate
  people to act but are often unaddressed in
  political organizing.

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Hosting a Family Dinner

• Online Toolkit
• step-by-step guide to hosting, from invitations
  to follow-up
• templates for all forms including invitations and
  sign-in sheets.
• Consulting
• Services include trainings in the model
  planning co-hosting and follow-up. Sliding
  scale.
• Collaborations
• We are always seeking new partners (organizations
  and individuals) to host Family Dinners with.

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Conclusion

• By adopting a simple and essential innovation
  a unifying hub on the local level the LGBT
  movement can significantly accelerate its
  progress.
• TPP proposes that the Family Dinner model can
  function as this hub.
• THANK YOU!

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Let Us Hear From You!

• Email
• theprogressiveproject_at_gmail.com
• Website
• www.theprogressiveproject.org
• Blog
• www.jbf.typepad.com/aliveinamerica