"When I dare to be powerful-to use my strength in the service of my vision,
then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid."
- Audre Lorde

Thank you to all of the wonderful people we met across the state this spring. Thank you for your tireless work. Thank you to those in as well as outside of North Carolina who took risks, who gave support, who spoke. While the passing of the discriminatory amendment is a setback, it is just that: a setback. The road toward social justice is filled with struggle and setbacks. We know what side of history we sit on. We are proud that we were able to turn a fight against a hateful ballot initiative into an opportunity to connect - expanding our communities, networks, and resources. Thanks to these connections we are now in a better position than ever before to work on the issues that we choose. Instead of scrambling and playing defense against right-wing attacks, we can set our own agenda and choose how we will fight for the future that we desire!

Our strategy of popular education and relational organizing works on a longer time scale, because the wins that we want, and that our communities need, are so much bigger than we could ever get from one electoral fight. The end result, we hope, is a population that believes in and defends justice for all of our community members. We will not be swayed by short-term political scapegoating and our victories will be more solid and irrevocable.

In that spirit we are planning a FAMILY REUNION with everyone we met in the last year. Please join us in celebrating our 1 year anniversary during North Carolina Pride in Durham over the last weekend in September. We will eat together, celebrate, and discuss our next steps. There are a lot of new faces and organizations who are ready to move forward and we would like to work together to create a vision and a path to get there.

Between now and the end of September, let's work to keep in touch- re-convene with folks that we worked with leading up to the election. Check-in on how people are doing and what our needs are. Also, please use this website and the list serve to keep up with what we, as individuals and organizations in an alliance are working on. Until it exists, we will continue dreaming of a North Carolina with dignity for all of us who live here!

"When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being,
his very act of protest confers dignity on him."
- Bayard Rustin