Posted on Friday, November 28, 2008
by Jesse Monteagudo for

Over a hundred members of Miami-Dade’s GLBT community, along with a number of straight allies, attended SAVE Dade’s “Uniting for Equality” gathering on Sunday, Nov. 20, at Miami’s historic Unity on the Bay Church. 

SAVE - Safeguarding American Values for Everyone – organized the rally to serve as a follow-up to November 15's “Join the Impact” protests against the electoral passage of the anti-gay Amendment 2 in Florida and Proposition 8 in California.  

Hundreds of GLBT people and their friends protested in front of Miami Beach City Hall, as thousands of others did across the United States.

According to C.J. Ortuño, SAVE Dade’s Executive Director, the purpose of  “Uniting for Equality” was to “bring the people of the community together and give them an opportunity to hear what the next steps are.  I think at a time when you have such a big loss you need to mark the time with an actual acknowledgment of the defeat or the loss and then be able to move forward.”

Ortuño hoped that the event would channel some of the energy that was shown at the November 15 protests into “some real action, maybe some political action or social campaign as well.”  Though Ortuño acknowledged our community’s great losses, he still believed that “we got to move forward.  There is no progress without struggle so we got to keep doing what we are doing.”

In his introductory remarks, Ortuño laid out the major themes of the gathering.  “Tonight we must turn our attention to the recent results of our elections,” he told his audience.  “Our opposition has delivered a blow in hopes of stalling our struggle.  Yet we understand that stalling is simply not an option.  A journey of freedom is not a straight line but instead a series of shifts.” 

Ortuño then introduced several “faith-based speakers” who were “because in the past religion has been used to divide our community and tonight it gives us our bearings to unite us.”  Not counting the Board members of SAVE Dade, who took part in a question and answer section after the main body of the program, most of the speakers were, like Ortuño himself, friendly and supportive heterosexuals.

The Rev. Chris Jackson, pastor of Unity on the Bay, was the gathering’s first “faith-based speaker.”  Rev. Jackson referred to the audience as “spiritual pioneers,” a term that he uses regularly in his sermons. 

“You my friends are the ones who have stood against all odds.  You are the ones who have looked at what the world considers to be normalcy and asked the human family to redefine it,” he said.  “You have within you the power, not only to change the consciousness of the state of Florida, but to change the consciousness of our country, of our world and in no small way of this whole universe.”

The Rev. Laurie Hafner, Senior Pastor of the gay-friendly Coral Gables Congregational Church, spoke about her five-year old daughter Sianna, who has been to so many same sex unions and anniversaries that she was amazed to learn  “that a man and a woman can get married!”  More seriously, Rev. Hafner described Amendment 2 as “the Dred Scott case of our time,” referring to the notorious 1857 Supreme Court case that ratified slavery in the territories. 

But Hafner “grieved” for the results of the recent elections (notwithstanding the Obama victory), she concluded her remarks on a hopeful note; “While our hearts may be broken our resolve is steady.  While our grief may be overwhelming our vision is vivid.  While our hope may be for just a moment a bit diminished our eyes are indeed set on a new heaven and a new Earth.”

Other speakers added diversity to the program, while at the same time addressing its main themes.  James Winkle, former Board member of SAVE and a representative of Temple Israel of Greater Miami, spoke from the Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu and Native-American perspectives, while closing on a worldlier note by urging his audience to support SAVE Dade, Equality Florida, Florida Red & Blue and other organizations.  Jessie (no last name), a member of University of Miami for Equality, spoke about “the passion and power of the student community” which gave so much to the No on 2 campaign. 

Also speaking were Professor Brenna Munro of the University of Miami and attorney/SAVE board member Georg Ketelhohn, who talked about “the nuts and bolts of Amendment 2 – What it would take to ‘undo’ Amendment 2,” acknowledging it won’t be easy.