As most of you reading this already know and despite extraordinary organizing efforts to stop it, the 2012 election will be including a vote on an amendment to ban marriage equality in Minnesota.
At moments like this, being involved with a community foundation is a funny thing. It’s different from being involved in any other kind of community organization. Here’s what we mean: Our role is to create the space for conversation across community to take place, conversation that will support our communities to make the changes needed to become stronger. This means stating our organizational opinions is much less important than how we listen, and the moments when we can create the opportunity for all of us to listen to each other. And to then respond from that listening.
Our community has a variety of opinions about the struggle for marriage equality. For many of us, the right to same-sex marriage is a fierce point of liberation. The lack of this legal right is a constant reminder that same-sex relationships are seen as less equal than different-sex relationships. For others among us, marriage is not a priority. Instead, other issues are seen as more urgent, more demanding of our community’s resources.
As a community foundation, PFund’s role is not to decide which community priority is the most important, but to instead support the forums where dialogues about our shared agenda can take place. And sometimes, parts of the agenda are decided for us.
The fight at the Capitol is a fight about resources: the resources of time, of money, and of hope. Because of this potential amendment, thousands of Minnesotans who might otherwise be putting their time, talent and tenacity towards building a state that cares for all of us will be putting their energy towards defeating someone else’s agenda.
Currently Minnesota is facing budget cuts that will significantly affect the quality of life for Minnesotans: from eliminating affordable health care to closing multiple state parks and recreation areas. Cuts to prevention and intervention services place vulnerable children at greater risk of peril and cuts to employment support will push some families with children deeper into poverty. These cuts will impact those of us who are aging, those of us with ongoing healthcare needs, and those of us already living some distance from necessary services, such as individuals in rural communities. These are our families. Our children. Our community.
As Senator Scott Dibble and others have voiced so clearly, our time is better spent in coming together to make sure our state has the resources needed to build safety and the space for celebration for each one of us. As your community foundation, our role is also to maximize the resources that are available to our LGBT community to make the changes we need so that all of us can be celebrated and live free from discrimination, violence, invisibility and isolation. Thank you to all of those who spent time at the Capitol, demanding that our focus remain on figuring our how we can best share the wealth that is Minnesota rather than having to defend ourselves against a campaign we didn’t choose.
- Kate and Susan
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