Out Against the Right: An Organizing Handbook for Queer Activists and Grassroots Organizers
For lesbian activists and grassroots organizers fighting the Christian Right.

Off to Idaho

      By July of 1994, there were only two states with initiatives on the ballot - Oregon and Idaho. The very strong and active Portland chapter of the Lesbian Avengers asked us to come out and support them. They'd lived through the similar Measure 9, two years before, so they knew what they were up against and welcomed additional support. Although we did end up making numerous trips to Oregon to support specific projects and actions, in the end it was the small and extremely determined Palouse chapter of the Lesbian Avengers that convinced us we were needed for the long haul in northern Idaho. They had formed just weeks before our initial probing into the Idaho activist scene, and their vision was strikingly close to ours. After an exciting telephone conversation, two of us traveled to Moscow, Idaho to meet five of these courageous women. Within a few hours there was no doubt we'd found our new home.

     Already exhausted but still full of hope, we quit our jobs, left our girlfriends, climbed into cars with total strangers and went west. Eight long-term and ten short-term LACROP activists journeyed to Moscow, Idaho where we were formally invited by the local Palouse Lesbian Avengers to support them in their fight against the Idaho Citizens Alliance's Proposition One.

     After four long, hopeful, torturous, fulfilling, grueling and rewarding months, the Proposition was finally defeated by a narrow margin (less than one percent). The three northern counties where LACROP concentrated our efforts, however, defeated it by considerably higher percentages than the average Idaho vote, indicating that out-and-proud organizing and victory at the polls are not conflicting or exclusive projects. Now, after a year of reflection, we've put together what we hope to be a helpful account of the work we did in Idaho.
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