Causes - Equality for All

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Ask, Tell
LGBT Rights are Human Rights

Each year the Foundation for Change awards one grantee the James M. Cua Award, honoring our late board member, community activist, and friend who died of AIDS In 1994. Jim Cua dedicated his life to the cause of social justice and was an outspoken champion of human rights and equality for all.  A gay man born to a first-generation Japanese immigrant mother and a second-generation Filipino-American, he championed LGBT rights in ethnic minority communities and fought against racism in the LGBT community by forming several racially-based support organizations. Before succumbing to the disease in 1994, Jim founded a residential shelter for people with AIDS. He was a living embodiment of inclusivity, a core value at the Foundation for Change.

Today the Foundation for Change carries on this proud legacy by championing the human rights of minorities in the San Diego-Tijuana region, with a particular passion for ethnic minority LGBT communities.  Our commitment to these communities has led us to embrace as the leading edges of the struggle for human rights the fight for marriage equality in California and the fight for basic rights of LGBT migrants and immigrants in the San Diego/Tijuana border region.

ASK, TELL – Winning Hearts and Minds in the Fight for Marriage Equality

As the results from the 2008 “No on 8” campaign demonstrate, most Californians are “locked in” to their beliefs about marriage equality. Only sixteen percent of prospective 2010 or 2012 voters can be realistically classified as “persuadable voters,” according to a statewide survey conducted by Goodwin Simon Victoria Research and David Binder Research. (“California Marriage Equality: Statewide Survey Findings,” Goodwin Simon Victoria Research and David Binder Research, May 2009.)

Despite their great diversity, the “swing” voters identified in the statewide survey have one thing in common: they live most of their lives within fields of relationships – families, social networks, places of work and worship, and other public institutions – that are characterized by an informal culture of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”  These people will come to support our cause only when they are led to identify personally and emotionally with someone who feels passionately about – or suffers directly from – the injustice of marriage inequality.  Persuasive messages will be most effectively communicated  by people with whom swing voters have already established relationships of trust.  To win the hearts and minds of swing voters, advocates for marriage equality must break through the accepted culture of “don’t ask, don’t tell” that prevails in their existing relational networks. We must learn to “ask, tell.”

As a local foundation with well-earned credibility in our region’s LGBT, ethnic minority and progressive religious communities, the Foundation for Change is uniquely positioned to mobilize an extensive network of advocates for marriage equality within the San Diego demographics that are critical to a successful marriage equality campaign.

Founded in 1983 as a chapter of the Liberty Hill Foundation, the Foundation for Change has featured LGBT persons in prominent positions of leadership from its earliest days.  Across its first quarter century the Foundation for Change’s most enduring local partnership was with San Diego LGBT Pride, an organization dedicated to fostering pride in and respect for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, locally and globally. In 2008 the Foundation for Change honored San Diego LGBT Pride at its 25th Anniversary Celebration.

The Foundation for Change celebrates LGBT persons in prominent positions of leadership – five of the 16 current members of the Board of Directors identify as LGBT. To cite just two examples: Nancy Rodriguez  is owner of Tochtli Angel Arts offering gatherings with "two spirit" (LGBT) indigenous elders and she and her life partner are Capitanas of Danza Coyolxahuqui;  Anthony White is an assistant director at Family Health Centers of San Diego, whose community organizing experience includes work with the San Diego HIV Funding Collaborative, San Diego LGBT Leadership Council, Immigration Equality, and Equality California/San Diego.

The organization’s straight leaders are also deeply committed to the cause of full and equal rights for LGBT people.  In the case that led to the California Supreme Court ruling to legalize same-sex marriage in 2008, Eric Isaacson, the immediate past President of our Board of Directors, filed an amicus curiae brief in support of marriage equality on behalf of national and regional religious groups.  For this work Isaacson was awarded the President's Annual Award for Volunteer Service by the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) at its June, 2009 national convention in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Foundation for Change Executive Director is an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church and was active in the No on 8 Campaign, his proposal to a coalition of San Diego clergy resulting in a well-publicized statewide Clergy Phone Bank against the proposition on October 23, 2008.  For the past five years John has been a key leader in Strength for the Journey, a bilingual camp offering a safe and affirming space of spiritual support to people living with HIV.  John is a recognized leader in the local movement for marriage equality and in San Diego’s ecumenical community.

The Foundation for Change is now preparing to launch an organizing initiative of granting, networking and evaluation to identify effective and replicable strategies for winning the hearts and minds of moderate religious and ethnic minority swing voters in the fight for marriage equality.

To learn more about this new initiative at the Foundation for Change, please contact Executive Director John Fanestil.

LGBT RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS -- LGBTQ migrants in the San Diego/Tijuana border region

Because it is home to a large and well-established red-light district which functions as something of a haven for sexual minorities, and because of its proximity to the international border, Tijuana remains a desired destination for LGBT migrants from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Still, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender persons living in Tijuana face multiple forms of marginalization.

The Foundation for Change has identified a multitude of human rights concerns facing this uniquely marginalized population. 

• LGBT persons remain marginalized within the dominant culture of Tijuana and frequently experience ostracism, harassment and abuse from family, neighbors and community;
• LGBT residents of Tijuana who risk even modestly “out” behavior are routinely subjected to abuse and repression at the hands of government authorities, law enforcement personnel, and even the medical establishment;
• Access to medical services related to HIV and other communicable diseases remains limited and sporadic; for low-income residents (the majority of Tijuana’s LGBT population), the availability of even basic medications is subject to the variability of charitable donations from the United States.

Faced with these conditions on the ground, many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons in Tijuana are forced to choose from a limited number of coping strategies:

• to remain “closeted” in their conduct and  identity while in Tijuana, and to depend on charitable assistance for any medical needs;
• to establish residence in the red-light district and seek income through prostitution (a legal trade in the city) or through illegal means;
• to secure an entry visa to the United States for the purpose of establishing residence in San Diego and eligibility for social and medical services from U.S.-based providers;
• to use San Diego as a “doorway” through which to enter the United States illegally, with the intent of moving on to another city (Long Beach, Los Angeles, San Francisco) where low-cost legal services are more available to pursue a case of  political asylum.

This distinct social and political context has given birth in the San Diego/Tijuana region to a fundamentally “bi-national” population of LGBT persons of Latino (predominantly Mexican) descent.  As one advocate explained it to us in an interview, for this population “There is no border.”  This population includes leaders who function as “cultural brokers” to organizations serving San Diego’s large (and predominantly anglo) LGBT population and also to organizations serving the needs of San Diego’s diverse immigrant communities. The interests and concerns of LGBT migrants and immigrants overlap and intersect, but do not coincide, with the interests and concerns of San Diego’s other marginalized populations.

The Foundation for Change is now preparing to launch an organizing initiative of granting, networking and evaluation to build a network of community-based organizations advocating for the human rights of LGBTQ migrants and immigrants in the San Diego/Tijuana border region.
To learn more about this new initiative at the Foundation for Change, please contact Executive Director John Fanestil.

CALL FOR DONATIONS

We invite your generous donation to the “Equality for All Fund.”

Private businesses or non-profit organizations wishing to join our list of sponsors are invited to contact Executive Director John Fanestil at 619-692-0527 or john@foundation4change.org.

Donations by check or money order can be mailed to: Foundation for Change, 3758 30th Street, San Diego, CA  92103.  Please make all payments to “Foundation for Change” and please note “Equality” on the memo line. 

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