Come Out and Win: Organizing Yourself,
Your Community, and Your World
by Sue Hyde
208 pages softcover, Beacon Press (2007)
Part of the Queer Action series, edited by Michael
Bronski
An inspirational and effective guide to grassroots
LGBT organizing
Come Out and Win will educate, engage, and agitate LGBT and straight
activists to become involved in the political movement to win
full equality under the law and sexual/gender freedom. Spurring
a new generation of activists to positive social action, it not
only tells the history of gay liberation but, crucially, offers
guidance and practical advice for building organizations and taking
concrete action to eradicate homophobia.
From starting a gay-straight alliance in your high
school to the most effective way to lobby your state representative
face-to-face, Come Out and Win explains how to organize and become
politically engaged in a clear and user-friendly manner. Other
issues explored include youth organizing, marriage equality, legislative
change, public relations, having a voice in the mainstream press,
putting on a street demonstration, and political organizing from
local to national levels. Grappling with the complexity of grassroots
political interactions, Come Out and Win suggests ways for LGBT
communities to form coalitions with women's organizations, communities
of color, and faith communities.
Reviews
Review By: Kate Clinton, - July 1, 2006
Sue Hyde's book answers the plaint, What are we gonna
do? So quit whining, get her book, pick a chapter, do the
workbook. Repeat. Create change. Badges not included.
Review Publishers Weekly - April 23, 2007
In this richly detailed and well-organized book, she offers
a stirring course in gay activism with step-by-step-how-to-advice
. . . Designed to outrage, inspire, encourage and anger readers,
and give them the tools to spring into action, this is an indispensable
resource for anyone looking for a little guidance and a little
push.
Quotes
"Sue Hyde's book answers the plaint, 'What are we gonna do?'
So quit whining, get her book, pick a chapter, do the workbook.
Repeat. Create change. Badges not included." Kate
Clinton, humorist and author of What the L?
Sue Hyde has demonstrated in her own life that winning
equal rights for LGBT people is not a spectator sport. Now she
has taken this one step further and provided a guide for other
LGBT people so that they can join her in this effort. Congressman
Barney Frank
Unique and invaluable, this is the essential guide for
anyone wanting to advance equal rights for LGBT people.
Matt Foreman, Executive Director National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force
"An invitation to change the world can't be taken lightly,
unless it's delivered with the sure and light touch of an engaging,
dedicated organizer like Sue Hyde. Turn the pages and be the new
world." Jewelle Gomez, author and activist
Sue Hyde
Biography: A longtime LGBT activist and organizer,
Sue Hyde has worked with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
(NGLTF) for over twenty years. Prior to her work at NGLTF, Hyde
served as news editor at Gay Community News in Boston from 1983
to 1985 and was a leader in the community-based campaign to defend
lesbian and gay families in Massachusetts when state lawmakers
banned the placement of foster children with lesbian and gay parents.
Since 1986, Hyde has served on the staff of the National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force, leading the fights to repeal sodomy
laws, rescind the military's ban on openly lesbian, gay and bisexual
servicemembers, and to pass non-discrimination laws in cities
and states. The Task Force in 1994 appointed Hyde to direct the
Creating Change Conference, the LGBT movement's annual skills-building
and strategy forum. As director of NGLTF's Creating Change conference,
Hyde has trained thousands of queer activists. Hyde is a leader
of the battle to preserve marriage rights for same-sex couples
in Massachusetts. She was bestowed the prestigious Stonewall Award
in 2002, recognizing her for a lifetime of dedication and service
to the social movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
freedom, justice and equality. Hyde lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts
with her wife and two children.
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