Tonight, I am reading through an RFP for a friend. It is put out by the Justice Dept and part of the `President's Family Justice Center Initiative'. It requests proposals to deal with family violence.
After just a cursory glance, I think it would be a great opportunity for Lesbian and Gay family support groups to form non-profits and allied legal support and open such centers. Without making it a point to privilege Gay and Lesbian couples, but to be primarily interested in targeting such a population---an equivocation made necessary by the current administration anathema of queers. And the irony is THEY pay YOU to do it. Let the mass media and their righwing minions work themselves up into a cum lather over queer marriage...
At any rate the main point is that one of the ways to push activism is to get a fed or state grant and push activism, sotto voce, by just being there. It was a tactic that was very successfully used by the entire spectrum of civil rights groups from women and minorities, to native americans, disabled, and gay-lesbian groups. It always required a dance to not directly engage in political advocacy, and yet engage in organizing around the issues advocated for, as part of the system of delivering services and support.
In the deep history outback, one of the amusing ironies for Andre Malraux as Minister of Cultural Affairs under de Gaulle, was that one of his main projects was to establish cultural centers around France, outside Paris to make French history and culture available to the masses. Nice idea. However, these same centers became the focal point, the resource centers and meeting places for organizing the overthrow of the de Gaulle regime during the 1968 ouster.
And, you can bet that the `faith-based' groups of rabid rightwing christian fanatics are doing exactly this same thing, right now...
Chuck Grimes