Have Courage - And Have It Year-Round

by: Zandra Rice Hawkins

Sat Jan 22, 2011 at 20:40:53 PM EST

"I was so excited when my husband proposed to me, but I was embarrassed to tell my gay and lesbian friends that I was going to get married - when I knew they couldn't."

"I knew I was gay in high school. My first thought was that I can't let anyone know. But after a while, you just need to tell someone, anyone."

These are words that were spoken at today's Granite State Camp Courage - Keene, which taught people how to use their own unique reasons for supporting marriage equality ("Story of Self") to win over hearts and minds and more.

Will marriage equality in New Hampshire be on the chopping block in the next month? Honestly, who knows. The NH House Majority Office said no during a damage control press conference last week (even though the bills are already filed), NOM said yes with immediate mailers targeting those leaders, and now that mailer has pushed the Majority Office to call for the bill to be retained in committee - a position they committed to providing testimony on.

What?!

But putting all of that aside - and that's not easy, I admit - the reality is that this issue is going to continue to come up until we reach a critical mass of supporters, and we have to be more vocal that equality isn't important only when it's under immediate attack.

Granite State Camp Courage is a way of helping you figure out what your story is and how to tell it in an authentic way. It uses inspiration from Harvey Milk and other leaders, and those of us in Keene today had a really great time with good energy and a strong sense of unity. It's safe to say each of us are better prepared (and committed to finding) an opportunity to talk with a neighbor, colleague, old Uncle Joe and, most definitely, our legislators.

There are four more Granite State Camp Courage trainings scheduled over the next week. They are hosted by Granite State Progress in collaboration with the Courage Campaign, which developed the Camp Courage model and which many of you may know for their work live-blogging the entire Prop 8 Trial in response to the U.S. Supreme Court blocking video coverage. (Incredible, IMHO.) PFLAG-NH and regional groups like the Monadnock Live Free and Equal Coalition are also heavily involved in setting the agenda for these.

We invite others to join us at the trainings this week, as we commit to actions to protect equality in the short and long-term. Link here: http://granitestatecampcourage.org/.

Note for those in Lakes Region/Manchester/Nashua: In trying to be respectful and get some trainings on the schedule for the northern areas of the state while the Courage Campaign staff is in town, we kindly encourage you to attend Concord or Portsmouth if you can. We will likely host a smaller training in your areas later on, but it will be a while.