Act Queer! Teleconference: Movement Building in Queer Organizing
Posted by Q4EJ on March 24, 2010 · 2 Comments
Many of the mainstream LGBTQ organizations focus on single issue, electoral and policy based organizing/advocacy. Whereas the work done by many of the radical, grassroots LGBTQ groups focuses on grassroots strategies, with a heavy focus on movement building. Often we’re told this work doesn’t have impact, or doesn’t have measurable goals. What is movement building and why is it a cornerstone of the grassroots movement? What are the strategies being utilized by different queer groups to build the movement? What has been successful and what has failed in the past?
The March 18th call served as an introduction to and description of movement building within LGBTQ organizing.
To hear each presenter, press play on the audio player. Read materials from each presenter just below the audio player.
Moderator: Suzanne Pharr, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice (New York, NY)
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Presenters include:
Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz, Intersections/Intersecciones Consulting (San Francisco, CA)
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- Recent blog post written by Lisa that discusses movement building.
- Zemsky and Mann – Building Organizations in a Movement Moment (pdf)
Patty Berne, Sins Invalid (San Francisco, CA)
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Coya Artichoker, Two-Spirit First Nation Collective (Minneapolis, MN)
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Paulina Hernandez, Southerners on New Ground (Atlanta, GA)
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If you have questions, comments, or know of other resources or events related to this topic, please feel free to post in the comments section!
Our friends at EMERJ let us know that they have their movement building strategy posted online. Check it out by clicking here!
The purpose of Act Queer! is to connect grassroots LGBTQ racial and economic justice organizations with national queer and/or allied coalitions and organizations to share information and strategies on racial and economic justice research, organizing and advocacy.
Hello!
I’m on the Steering Committee of Allyship a volunteer LGBTQ organization in Seattle which has existed since 2005. Our mission: We are LGBTQ and Allies who believe that all oppressions are interconnected and in the possibility of a world free of oppression. We seek to work in solidarity with marginalized communities to understand the interconnectedness of oppression and to support the systematic liberation of all people.
We are interested in doing a presentation at the US Social Forum on economic justice in the LGBTQ community. Allyship presented a workshop at the 10th Anniverisary of the WTO protests in Seattle called ‘Queers Fight the WTO’. There were several of us on our Steering committee who helped organize a workshop 10 years ago called ‘Queers Fight the WTO’ and, as a documentarian, I made a documentary interviewing organizers of that workshop. I’d like to incorporate this documentary in the workshop at the US Social Forum.
Might there be other organizations that are interested in helping to coordinate a workshop for the US Social forum?
thank you,
Debbie Carlsen
Allyship