GetEqual has sprung onto the national scene with three events in three days:
- Two days ago, protesting DADT at Senator Boxer's fundraiser, when President Obama was speaking.
- Yesterday, organizing the event where six people, including Lt. Dan Choi for a second time, chained themselves to the White House fense to protest DADT.
- Today, interrupting a House Education and Labor Committee Meeting to protest a lack of movement on ENDA by that committee.
GetEqual also made the news when they had a sit-in in Speaker Pelosi's office back in March.
Where did they come from and who are the people behind it?
Their website offers little in the way of clues -- no phone number, no address, not even a link to make donations (gasp!). However, if you sign up on their website, you'll get an email that has the names Robin McGehee and Kip Williams, along with links to GetEqual's Facebook and Twitter pages.
According to Queerty they
... split from Cleve Jones and the National Equality March's umbrella group Equality Across America last year. Robin McGehee and Kip Williams haven't been sitting on their hands... they've launched their own project, Get Equal, which is already hawking its wares. It has a mission statement you've read a thousand times before from activist groups: "to create a movement of everyday people: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and straight, who are dedicated to bringing about full legal and social equality."
According to DavidMixner.com the organization formed on March 17, 2010:
Kip Williams and Robin McGeehee, Co-chairs of the National Equality March in October, announced the formation of"Get Equal." The talented organizers have spent months since the March on Washington, carefully putting together an effective national network of activists to battle for civil rights for the LGBT community. They have traveled across the country, held retreats with young leaders and worked with march participants to create an entity that will fill the vacuum of the absence of a 'direct action' organization in our movement.
In many ways, this is the first major "Prop 8 Generation" to emerge on the national level... In just two days, over 2,500 young activists have joined the group. Many expect Get Equal to have significant impact on the tactical direction of the LGBT civil rights movement.
A press release announcing the new organization says:
Emphasizing direct action and people power, the mission of GetEQUAL is to empower the LGBTQ community and its allies to take action to demand full legal and social equality and to hold accountable those who stand in the way.
"All over the country we are under attack," said McGehee. "From the recent actions of the Attorney General in Virginia... to the young lesbian student in Mississippi who is being denied the right to take her date to the prom... We are no longer willing to sit back and wait - we want change now."
GetEQUAL's organization model is based first and foremost on empowerment. The organization will provide vehicles for people to take action around key moments and connect the narrative of those moments into a powerful movement for change. Tactics will be multifaceted, including centralized online campaigns that build up and empower the LGBTQ and allied national base, and coordinated offline actions that allow people to collectively take to the streets...
"No longer must we settle for empty promises while our young commit suicide, our rights are stripped away at the ballot box, and we are treated as second class citizens. The time has come to unequivocally say that we are more than a political movement: we are a civil rights movement."
According to their Facebook pages, Kip Williams lives in San Francisco, while Robin McGehee resides in Fresno, CA.
Here's a picture of Robin McGehee:
According to an inset on this video taken in May, 2009
Robin McGehee was forced to resign her position as President of a PTA board after she attended a "No on 8" rally. She was instrumental in organizating the Meet in the Middle 4 Equality rally.
In the video she gives an inspired speech and sends a message to President Obama:
Show me you have the courage. Show me you have the courage to produce change...
I believed in you, and now I'm asking you to prove it.
And this is the best picture of Kip (assuming it's him) I could find (this one from Google images):
A spokesperson for GetEqual is 10-year old Will Philips from Arkansas, famous for refusing to say the pledge of allegiance because LGBT people do not have liberty and justice.
GetEqual's philosophy seems to be summed up in his video (embedded below), wherein he says
Everyone needs to take a small risk, and maybe get into a little bit of trouble.
and
President Obama, my voice is small... your voice is larger, and can do huge things... So come on, it's time to take action...
Note: I am not affiliated with GetEqual, aside from signing up on their website today to get emails and see what would happen.