... and of course, HRC is there, leading the charge for equality. I am so proud to support this organization, and the fantastic work they do.

For the bigots to get their anti-gay amendment on the ballot in the fall, their website says they need over a million signatures.
VoteYesMarriage.com - VoteYesMarriage.com Petitions

The deadline for getting those signatures in is this coming Monday, April 28th. They appear to be far short of that figure.

And HRC activists are on the ground in California, actively fighting the efforts of the anti-gay bigots. So far, nearly 100,000 people have pledged to oppose the effort to Constitutionally ban gay marriage there.

I wanted to share this great story with you, from Orange County, about a brave young man willing to stand up to bigotry in his own family:

Equality for All Orange County field organizer Art Mungia:
I was having a good day working one of our prime Wal-mart locations in Huntington Beach. The weather was great as always and people were responding to our positive message about marriage equality. I was standing at the entrance and asking customers if they would help us in our efforts with marriage equality when a woman and her son approached me. The woman asked me if I was for or against same sex couples. When I responded to her that we are working to stop an anti-gay “marriage protection” petition, she responded with a disgusted look on her face and turned and walked away. Her son, with a melancholy look on his face, stood still and said, “I’ll sign it.” His mother then came running back and screamed in his face, “Don’t you sign that!” She slapped the clipboard and shoved it back at me then pulled the clipboard back and demanded to know if I made him sign it. He was not able to sign before his mother came. I was stunned and just wasn’t expecting a reaction from such as common encounter. They both walked into the store after the awkward public scene.

It was a defining moment for me in this campaign. I guess sometimes you can get stuck in the “big picture” mentality and forget that there are very painful bitter battles that continue in the home, homes that are supposed to be a person’s safe place. It took me a second to get back to my normal self but I pushed on and continued with our voter education efforts.

A few minutes later, the son came out of the store and very proudly said “I want to sign.” I was completely humbled by his personal bravery in such a hostile home environment. He signed our pledge sheet and I gave him several campaign stickers. He hung around and we talked a bit and he said he wanted to volunteer but his mother took away his car because she couldn’t handle him coming out. They left shortly after that and we tried calling him a few days later but could not get past his mother on the phone. I will always remember meeting this young man when I will reflect on this campaign in the future. It will remind me that behind all the work and “big picture” logistics that makes a campaign function are the people that we fight for. And that includes people like this young man who do not quite have their voice yet.