MARRIAGE EQUALITY USA RELEASES REPORT SUMMARIZING POST-PROP 8 COMMUNITY FORUMS AND ON-LINE SURVEY RESULTS

San Francisco, CA - "Our grassroots community is comprised of dedicated, insightful and passionate leaders and individuals who deeply care about marriage equality and our movement," said Molly McKay, Marriage Equality USA (MEUSA) Media Director. "Today, we share their viewpoints and voices through our summary of community forum and survey input on California's No on Prop 8 campaign." A copy of this report can be found on our Marriage Equality USA home page (http://www.marriageequality.org) or directly at http://www.marriageequality.org/uploads/library/Report_One_-_Community_Input_on_Prop_8_Campaign.pdf.

"We received input from community forums hosted across California and over 3,100 individuals across the United States and in 13 foreign countries," continued Pamela Brown, MEUSA Policy Director. "This report is the first of three to be issued in the month of January that will share the 'collective wisdom' gathered by summarizing from this grassroots input."

MEUSA's report entitled "We Will Never Go Back – Grassroots Input on California's No on Proposition 8 Campaign" identified many positive outcomes from the official No on 8 campaign, but also cited the following major concerns and future opportunities:

• Clergy leaders, identified as the most effective messengers for marriage equality, were underutilized in the No on 8 campaign,
  
• People of color are part of our LGBTI family and we must promote their leadership and inclusion to inform and direct outreach to these communities,
  
• The official No on 8 campaign ads lacked heart and inexcusably excluded same-sex couples and their families,
  
• The official No on 8 field plan lacked visibility and ignored potential volunteers,
  
• The official No on 8 campaign abandoned our LGBTI community and supporters in the Central Valley, and
  
• Empowering our grassroots community will help advance our national marriage equality movement.

Under each item of concern or future opportunity, we have also identified a Call to Action that allows us a way to move ahead in addressing these issues. For example, under the section related to the role of clergy, we have asked clergy leaders to take the opportunity of President-Elect Obama's selection of Pastor Rick Warren as the invocation speaker to share with their local congregations and/or communities, reasons why they believe marriage equality is important and begin the slow process of healing and outreach to continue the dialogue with persuadable people of faith. MEUSA ends the report with our New Year's resolutions that highlight how we plan to move ahead as an organization, using the feedback we have received from the community we work to represent.

Marriage Equality USA will issue our second report next Monday, January 12th that will share stories of discrimination and harm that resulted from California's Prop 8 campaign and mirror similar experiences of our LGBTI community and straight allies who have faced similar ballot initiative campaigns. Finally, our third report to be issued later in January will provide MEUSA's plan for the future on how to win support for marriage equality in all 50 states.

Again, all three reports will be posted and available for download on MEUSA's home page (www.marriageequality.org).