Julianne Hing

Check Out Our Q&A with Andrea Shorter

It’s been a big week for gay marriage. The good news started with Iowa last week, then Vermont followed a few days later. Today we have our fingers crossed for D.C and are very excited for New York. California better get its act together or this state is going to be left behind in the dust. Thank goodness we have Andrea Shorter, the new coalition coordinator for Equality California, a statewide organization advocating marriage equality. We’ve got an interview with her up on ColorLines.com today.

I saw Andrea speak back in November, just days after election night. Tensions were high at the SF LGBT Community Center that night, but she handled the crowd well. She spoke to people’s fears and demands for clarity. She spoke about numbers and media narratives and race, but also about the inherent limitations of polling data. She spoke about the missed opportunities in the mobilization around Prop 8 with some sorely needed honesty. Here’s hoping she can bring the same political savvy and race smarts to her new position.

She had this to say to ColorLines contributor Leticia Miranda about her new campaign:

We have to get past this idea that all LGBT people are white. If you look at people of color in California, we are really the majority. If we’re not the majority already, we’re getting there. If about 10 percent of the world population is LGBT, then the majority of LGBT folks have to be people of color!

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In the 21st century, isn’t it time that we talk about LGBT liberation and rights in the same breath as we talk about other civil and human rights?

Check out ColorLines.com for the full interview.

Posted at 12:53 PM, Apr 09, 2009 in Civil Rights | Permalink | View Comments