LIBERACTION

  ueer Liberaction was established to fill a political void in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex in the wake of California's Proposition 8 in November of 2008. Across Texas thousands of Queer people and their allies took to the streets to protest the removal of marriage equality in California. Organizers across the country used Join the Impact (JTI), an internet-based tool, to stage events in reaction to the passing of Proposition 8, a California ballot initiative amending the state's constitution to define marriage as between "a man and a woman," thus eliminating the constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry. Each place JTI touched took on the characteristics of the groups that employed it. In Los Angeles the Queer community decided to march which JTI supported and helped orchestrate. In Salt Lake City, the Gay community used the seat of the Mormon Church as a backdrop to protest its role in the passing of Prop 8. When JTI touched ground in DFW, the Cedar Springs Establishment shaped the initiative in its own image, as well. With their collective organizational weight, established groups made JTI less visible, less direct, and quieter than it had been in other cities. It took the anger and frustration out of it. Dallas gays and lesbians knew the importance of visible, public displays of protests, but instead of a march, the DFW Queer community assembled among a few concrete buildings in downtown Dallas where no one could see them but the police, Christian extremists and themselves. The Cedar Springs Establishment wasted this gold mine of activism. Dallas's JTI event was a picnic. For the queer community to bring change and equality, it must take an active visible approach like our brothers and sisters in Los Angles and Salt Lake City, and our predecessors in Castro and Stonewall. The founders of Queer Liberaction knew that people were angry over having their rights stripped away from them. They knew that those who showed up at City Hall on November 15 were frustrated because they weren't allowed to tell as many people as possible about the injustices of Prop 8 through a march. Queer Liberaction was not formed because people were upset and frustrated but that is what brought us together. Queer Liberaction was formed because those that kick started this organization knew that homophobia is the foundation of Queer oppression and in order to make strides in terms of our civil rights we have got to directly confront and combat it. We knew that this has to be done through visible direct action activism. Civil rights are intrinsic to all people, and when not bestowed must be claimed. Rights are won, not given to us by our benevolent leaders. Queer Liberaction fights for those rights by combating hatred and discrimination toward the gay community through visible, direct, public grassroots activism. Just as Women, Workers, racial and ethnic groups, religious minorities, and other oppressed and disenfranchised individuals have used these methods to successfully make enormous strides in equality and empowerment in their own groups, the Queer community must forge an independent movement solely dedicated to its liberation in order to gain empowerment and equality in society and under the law.