Southern Voice

Click here to become an activist: ‘Gay rights’ ranks high among hot topics on MeetUp.com as amendment fights heat up

By CHRISTOPHER SEELY
May. 28, 2004

They showed up for various personal reasons, but their guiding purpose was the same. On April 27, for the first time, 11 strangers met at Smith’s Olde Bar in Midtown to discuss strategies against proposed anti-gay marriage amendments to the federal and state constitutions.

“I just think it’s time at the grassroots level to do whatever we can,” says Michael Martin, the volunteer host of the meeting.

The gathering was one of more than 150 gay rights meetings — including one at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur — that simultaneously united more than 2,000 people across the U.S. last month for the same purpose.

But without Meetup.com, the Web site made popular by Howard Dean’s campaign for president, last month’s nationwide networking would not have occurred — an indicator that the Internet is jumpstarting grassroots gay activism.

Meetup.com allows users to select a topic of interest and find like-minded individuals in their immediate geographical vicinity to vote on a specific location where they can meet for discussion.

“All of the sudden, you are connected to people all over the place who feel the same way, and you start to realize there is more power in one than I think we ever thought before,” Martin says.

The Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay civil rights organization in the U.S., partnered with Meetup.com to organize the sessions last month. HRC plans to hold similar meet-ups around the country on the fourth Tuesday of every month, according to Seth Kilbourn, HRC’s national field director.

“This is kind of a new territory for HRC and for all of the organizations using online tools to motivate people politically,” Kilbourn says. “It is a challenge to get people to actually take real, live political action, but in this campaign year with so much at stake, we’re hoping that we’ll be able to use Meetup as a tool to plug people in.”

At the HRC meet-up in April, attendees passed around congressional maps to learn who their representatives are and were encouraged to send letters to members of Congress and brainstorm for ideas on local activism.

Becky Chandler, 51, who attended the Smith’s Olde Bar event, received a mass form e-mail from HRC encouraging her to sign up.

In the past, Chandler steered clear of politics. But that was before the Georgia General Assembly and some federal officials began threatening her and her partner’s civil liberties, she says.

Had it not been for the speed and ease of clicking her computer mouse during a break at work, Chandler probably would not have met face-to-face with other like-minded Atlanta residents, she says.

“Somebody at work told me about it,” Chandler says. “I received an e-mail, and then I went on the Web site. It allowed you to interact automatically and to find out information right away as opposed to maybe having to make a phone call and get it that way.”

The most innovative use of Meetup.com is that it allows HRC to decentralize its approach to involving people in the political process, according to Kilbourn.

“We are providing people with materials they can download off the Web,” he said. “But it is up to people who participate to run the meetings and be creative on how they get involved, and I think it is a very energizing thing for people in our community.”

The goal for another HRC meet-up on May 25 was to enlist straight friends and family members in the amendment fight, Kilbourn says.

The meetings started by HRC is just one exampled in a long list of gay groups utilizing Meetup.com to mobilize members, according to William Finkel, outreach manager for Meetup.com.

“Gay rights” ranks second on the list of most popular political activism issues that turn people out for meet-ups, Finkel says.

HRC, which has more than 9,000 people now registered on Meetup.com, is the ninth largest association currently holding political activism meet-ups, according to Finkel.

Meetup.com is not politically affiliated with any party but contains more liberal topics than conservative ones, Finkel says.

“Politics was not what we had in mind when we started this,” he says. “But what we found was events that meet towards a goal, like gay marriage or anti-gay marriage, do well.”

Finkel is quick to point out that Meetup.com also provides opportunities for people to connect in person to discuss more than 4,000 topics, like crafts, pets, food, and the list goes on.

“The phenomenon is not with the Web site itself so much as the forum it creates for people seeking specialized social interaction,” Finkel says.

Political topics comprise about 30 percent of Meetup’s membership, which totals 1.2 million people.

But the publicity over Howard Dean’s use of Meetup.com to stimulate grassroots support for his presidential campaign and break Democratic primary fundraising records has attracted “a lot of liberal groups,” Finkel says.

From a sociological perspective, Meetup.com is revitalizing engagement in the political process, according to Audrey Haynes, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Georgia.

“It used to be interest groups wanted your money to become a member, and you would just get direct mailings from national headquarters … but meet-up gives people a chance to meet and become more engaged,” Haynes says.

Meetup.com also benefits large national organizations, Kilbourn says.

“It allows people to find each other in smaller towns and for us to find people in those smaller towns,” he says.

According to Haynes, studies show people need to interact with like-minded others, especially in geographical areas where their ideology is in the minority. Without such interaction, it’s possible that a person’s convictions are chipped away over time or the person becomes complacent, she says.

“It strengthens your belief and attachment and likelihood of participation,” Haynes says.

The Internet makes participation easier by lowering the threshold for engagement, according to John Aravosis, an Internet activist and founder of StopDrLaura.com, DearMary.com and part of the team behind DontAmend.com.

“People are going to the next level of involvement,” Aravosis says, adding that more gay activists have been born through increasing agitation over federal and local anti-gay marriage amendments.

At least 30 state legislatures have considered constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage, similar to the federal marriage amendment proposed in Congress, according to stateline.org, a Web site that tracks state laws.

Lawmakers in six states approved putting the amendment up for a public vote in November: Georgia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Utah.

With Meetup.com, local activists are allowed to step up their level of involvement from online activism to engaged, in-person action, and national groups are able to step back and guide local activists to organize themselves, Aravosis said.

“[National groups] are empowering more deputies, so to speak,” he said. “I think that’s the beauty of it.”

Christopher Seely can be reached at cseely@sovo.com.