Our Emerging Vision

The great movements of the past - such as the Women's Suffrage Movement, the India independence movement and the Black Civil Rights Movement - did not focus solely on one dimension of outcomes, such as just political outcomes. Instead, they focused on multiple dimensions (e.g., "personal, political and planetary").

Shades of Equality Coalition follows in their footsteps. Our top-down, bottom-up, inside-out, outside-in organizing framework promotes change across multiple dimensions. That is, we are about systemic change. We seek to foster whole people and healed communities and incredibly effective movements in support of pivotal changes going on in our society and with our planet.

Numerous individuals and groups have emerged to take a range of actions in the wake of the passage of Proposition 8 - so much so that the movement in LGBTIQ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Intersexed Queer) communities has been dubbed "Stonewall 2.0" (a tribute to the 1969 Stonewall Riots that catalyzed the modern "gay rights" movement, coupled with Web 2.0 and other forms of social-media organizing). This time, however, the struggle for LGBTIQ rights has been joined by numerous heterosexual allies. Clearly a new movement has been born.

What's been lacking, however, is a means of coordinating the efforts of different groups for optimal impact. Instead, there is often minimal synergy, rampant duplication of efforts, action at cross-purposes, etc. Given the diverse range of interests, politics, worldviews, etc. of the different players, clearly no single, existing organization can convene and lead all of these players under one banner. However, there is another way to create synergies between such autonomous individuals and groups.

Our fluid governance model (called "dynamic governance" or "sociocracy") allows us to capitalize on the organic energy of so many individual and organizations that have been stirred in the wake of the passage of Prop 8. It supports the best of autonomous action and collaborative synergy, while reinforcing open, democratic, transparent and accountable ways-of-being and organizing.

Think of the role that internet organizing/"Web 2.0" strategizing plays in contemporary organizing in so many arenas - from MoveOn.org and ColorOfChange.org to JoinTheImpact.com.

• Imagine convening the Web 2.0 strategists working for marriage equality in the context of related oppressions.
• Imagine putting them through a process whereby they get to work out their visions, goals, interests, complimentary skills, ground rules/operating agreements, projects and activities, roles, etc. - such that they become a cohesive circle of individuals and groups that work independently, but also come together as a circle to coordinate and synergize for maximum effectiveness in the movements. "Come together", in this case, could mean anything from two members working on a project by email and telephone, to the entire circle meeting face-to-face, to anything in-between.
• Further, imagine this Web 2.0 circle connected to similar circles for community-building & dialogue within and between communities, film/video documentation of the movement, healing (from the distress and trauma brought up by Prop 8), leadership development, media reframing, protest actions, ....
• Imagine all of the circles contributing representatives - by an open, democratic election process - to a coalition leadership circle, such that all functions are represented and have a voice in decision-making on policy, strategy and other critical areas.
• Imagine these networked circles deliberately developing as cross-class, interfaith, intergenerational, multiracial, etc.
• Imagine these networked circles being deeply networked with, and to a great degree peopled with, constituents from typical social-change coalition bases: arts, education, environmentalism, faith, labor, students, etc.

This is the vision of Shades of Equality Coalition - a series of self-organizing circles that operate autonomously, but also interact synergistically as needed; all operating within the context of a larger, coordinated coalition; all working on various aspects of the issues that arose in the struggle against and after the passage of Proposition 8 - from marriage equality and racism, to classism and strife between communities; all networked with a broad base of social and environmental change groups & coalitions & movements.

Our people and our passion are unstoppable. We are the change that we want to see in the world, and ain't nothin' gonna' turn us around. Onward!