A redesign of the California State Flag worth bringing back.
Click on the flag for a larger version. (Graphic: mine)
Harvey Milk once said to Allan Baird, the local Teamsters Union representative and director of the Coors Beer boycott in California, who had asked Harvey to support the union’s strike against six major beer distributors, “You’ve got to promise me one thing. You’ve got to help bring gays into the Teamsters Union. We buy a lot of beer that the union delivers. It’s only fair that we get a share of the jobs.”
The fact that the Coors family gave millions to the radical religious right’s fight against queer equality and later propped up Mary, lesbian daughter of Dick, Cheney as their spokesperson to disingenuously ingratiate their third-rate brew to the queer community aside, unions and the queer community have long been a match made in Heaven.
Anne Kronenberg, who coordinated Milk’s campaign for San Francisco Supervisor, said, ”He understood we can’t do it by ourselves.” An NPR interview with Ms Kronenberg notes that “by working strategically with unions and the city’s fragmented ethnic and racial groups, Milk organized minorities to become the majority.”
Labor has long played a significant role in the peace, justice and equality struggle. Now organized labor, to its credit, is continuing to back the movement for marriage equality in California, because they know that if our right to form families via civil marriages in the state of California can be so easily taken away, as it was last November, by a simple majority vote, then so can their right to look out for their own families and for the families of other minorities, many of whom depend on union connections for their livelihood.
This morning it was revealed that a coalition of California labor unions will be filing an amicus brief in support of the repeal of California’s hateful Proposition 8, which took away our community’s right to have our families fully respected under the law.
More than 50 labor unions have signed onto the brief, according to the Sacramento Bee, including the California Labor Federation, SEIU California State Council, the California Federation of Teachers, the California Nurses Association, the California Faculty Association, UNITE HERE! and the Screen Actors Guild. You can find the full list here.
I was positively elated that our anti-DOMA march and rally in San Diego this past Saturday kicked off with speeches by local union activists and, mid-march, we met up with union demonstrators against Doug Manchester’s homophobic hotel empire, which, by the way, has been severely hurt by the boycott organized by Californians Against Hate and Sleep with the Right People, an alliance between the LGBT community and UNITE HERE.
Harvey Milk knew the value of reaching out and forming alliances. It’s reassuring to know that the lesson hasn’t been lost, and we’re still building bridges between communities to overcome bigotry and achieve equality for all.
We have, among others, to thank for this collaboration the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO Chief Officer Art Pulaski and United Healthcare Workers President Sal Rosselli.
A special thanks, also, to Karen Ocamb, editor of IN Los Angeles magazine, for her help with the facts in this post.
