INGLEWOOD – The grassroots campaign for marriage equality reached into South Los Angeles when gay organizations sent dozens of volunteers into neighborhoods to build support for the repeal of California’s Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage.

Using Holy Faith Episcopal Church in Inglewood as their home base for the one-day canvass, 70 volunteers last Saturday (July 11) descended on homes in middle-class Leimert Park and upper middle-class Baldwin Hills, hoping for open doors and tolerant minds in a statewide campaign to roll back Prop 8. The anti-gay marriage measure was narrowly approved by voters last November and was largely upheld by the California Supreme Court this spring. The defeats at both the ballot box and in the courts have prompted gay and lesbian organizations to regroup through neighborhood canvassing efforts throughout Los Angeles County and the state.

In Inglewood, the volunteers met at Holy Faith church for an hour of instruction in how to engage voters on the topic of same-sex marriage in communities of color that have stood firm against expanding the definition of marriage. Once in the field, some volunteers reported voters doors slammed in their faces. Others were given hearings, then politely turned away; in rare instances, some voters minds were changed. Face to face conversations are key to educating Angelenos, canvass organizers said.

"You have to put a face on it [marriage equality],” said Sky Johnson, senior policy counsel for the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center, one of three organizers of the event. “You have to meet people where they are.”

The weekend canvass was the third in Los Angeles County, but the first into South Los Angeles, where sensibilities and history may make building support for same-sex marriage exceedingly difficult. The African-American community anchored historically by its churches has, as a rule, opposed the gay-rights campaign and has bristled over comparisons by gay advocates that the GLBT campaign is comparable to the black Civil Rights movement. Johnson said, however, the perception that all African Americans oppose gay rights is wrong.

Changing minds, one voter at a time

Educated and younger African Americans tend to support gay rights, Johnson said. Congresswoman Maxine Waters, whose district encompasses South Los Angeles, along with other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, is on the record supporting marriage for all, said Johnson. Older African Americans, and those who are religious, often oppose the gay-rights agenda. The same is true of all California voters, Johnson said, including Latinos, Asians and whites, particularly if voters have strong ties to organized religion, as is the case in South Los Angeles, where churches are a strong presence.

The door-to-door canvassing, previously conducted in Pasadena and Glendale, target communities where Prop 8 was narrowly approved. Johnson said moving electoral support five to 10 percentage points in these swing voting districts in favor of same-sex marriage could result in its passage the next time the issue becomes before voters, who endorsed marriage between a man and woman last November by just 300,000 votes statewide. The gay and lesbian groups also have embraced the more neutral “marriage equality” versus the “same-sex marriage” label, which many voters found incideniary and focused on gas and lesbians. The more expansive “marriage equality” could also apply to unmarried heterosexual couples.

Even so, volunteers encountered cool, even hostile, receptions.  “It was kind of disheartening to have the door slammed in my face,” said Danny Daniels, a 23-year-old artist living in Los Angeles. Of the 30 doors he knocked on in the upscale Baldwin Hills neighborhood, 10 were open and four doors were opened long enough to be slammed shut. “Older African American people are just stuck in their old religious ways.”

Another volunteer encountered a voter who listened politely and then responded with a response the volunteer found disarmingly honest.  "I’m praying for an answer, not from my minister, but in my heart," the woman told the young volunteer. The meeting hall erupted in thunderous applause.

There were light moments, too, that smoothed some of the hard reactions several of the volunteers encountered. One young man told of encountering an older resident, who told the volunteer, “the idea of two men getting together gives me a stomach ache.” To which the young volunteer responded: “Sir, the idea of you in the bedroom turns my stomach. This isn’t about the bedroom. It’s about equality.”  The older man laughed, enjoying the comeback, and though the volunteer didn’t change the voter’s mind, the door by door campaign is, according to organizers, sowing at least seeds of awareness.

“Sometimes it’s hard to do this work,” Regina Clemente told the assembled volunteers after they shared their stories. Clemente, the field director for the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center. “But I reground myself by reminding myself how I felt on the night of the election…I never want to feel that way again.”

Other gay and lesbian organizations are conducting similar canvassing efforts in California cities and towns in anticipation of an another vote on the issue, possibly as early as next year or in 2012, Johnson said. To that end, the 70 volunteers who trudged through Baldwin Hills and Leimert Park under warm 80-degree temperatures last Saturday visited 1,677 homes, a number when announced by Clemente elicited whoops and applause.

FURTHERMORE: Gay organizers identified the Holy Faith Episcopal Church in Inglewood as a potential meeting place after organizers used Google to identify gay-friendly congregations in South Los Angeles. Other faiths that have supported the same-sex campaign across the country include the Unitarian and United Church of Christ, though the support by these churches has generated controversy within their organizations….Six states  – Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire – have passed laws in support of same-sex marriage, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. A state by state roll of the status of same-sex marriage legislation is available at the NCSL web page. Saturday’s canvass was organized and sponsored by the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center, Vote for Equality and Equality California, all organizations working for the repeal of Proposition 8.