Equality California, the state’s largest GLBT civil rights advocacy organization, has opened up its newest office at The Center. The organization, represented by special projects manager Jeffrey Mittman, has chosen San Diego to launch its California Marriage Equality Voter ID Project. Partially funded by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Community Impact Fund grant, the Voter ID Project is a massive effort to educate voters about equal marriage rights in time for the November elections.

“The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force has developed a model whereby they show that when our communities get out door to door and meet with the public, we can turn back hateful initiatives and ballot measures,” Mittman said. “It’s [EQCA’s] job to find activists and individuals in the community, who want to become active in our struggle, and to provide training and information to them on how to go out into the community and go door to door and meet our voters.”

San Diego has also been chosen as the site to establish EQCA’s first Regional Council, an advisory board comprised of community members that will work with the EQCA’s board, staff and members to increase visibility and resources.

“Previous to this, we had offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento,” said Mittman, an attorney and former military officer who worked previously as interim operations manager at EQCA’s San Francisco office. “As we are a statewide organization and it is our job to represent all LGBT Californians, we looked at the state and realized there was an incredible opportunity. There is a large community here in San Diego that has done amazing things, and in past work we’ve done with coalitions, there is a sense that San Diegans might believe that there is not the recognition on a statewide level of the population, abilities and accomplishments here. We thought it was important for a statewide organization to address that.”

Mittman said that the EQCA wanted to find a typical California area to launch the Voter ID Project, where they could test their ability to influence the public on GLBT civil rights issues, and San Diego seemed ideal. “We think it is very important that, when we join the community, we make it very clear that we’re here to support the work the community has done, which has been phenomenal,” he said. “So we absolutely want to partner with as many organizations who are interested in working with us as possible.”

The Voter ID Project will train groups of volunteers to be activists and educators for marriage equality rights, and will track their results as they canvass San Diego neighborhoods. The information that is gathered from the San Diego project will be used to launch similar campaigns in other areas of California.

“We think that anybody, when given the information about our families and the truth of our families, is going to come out on the side of non-discrimination and equality,” he said. “So I’d say we’re looking forward to working the communities here and educating the public about our families and our stories.”

Mittman does not perceive San Diego to be as conservative as its reputation purports it to be.

“I think there is a diversity of opinions,” he said. “There is certainly a reputation with the military community, which has what might be considered ‘more traditional values.’ We believe it is our job that all Californians are aware of the issues that LGBT Californians and their families face.”

Formed in 1998, Equality California (formerly called CAPE) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan grassroots advocacy organization that promotes the dignity, safety, equality and civil rights of the GLBT community throughout the state of California. They sponsor bills of the LGBT Caucus in Sacramento and educate the public through the Equality California Institute.

The Voter ID Project will continue beyond the November elections, in preparation for any initiatives that might come up down the road, such as challenges to AB 205 legislation and ongoing court battles for equal marriage rights. “I think it is important for the LGBT community to be able to go forward and proactively introduce initiatives to get the California voters to support full equality,” Mittman said.

The San Diego EQCA office will have an event to mark their first cycle of training within the month. Volunteers will be trained on the background of equal marriage rights issues at both the federal and state level, and taught canvassing skills to help them be persuasive advocates.

“Our job is to explain why this is an urgent matter and why this is an exciting way to participate in our battles,” Mittman said.

Equality California’s office will also help with The Center’s Voter Registration Project, a countywide, nonpartisan effort to get out the vote.

“We are very excited that Equality California now has a presence here in San Diego and that our opportunities to collaborate with local, state and national groups continue to expand,” said AJ Davis, director of public policy at The Center. “We have had a lot of community interest in voter registration and education and we anticipate that interest will continue well into the future. We have had the opportunity to register many new voters as well as re-register voters at their new addresses so that they maintain consistent patterns of voting.”

Volunteers are still needed to register voters at schools, at work, and at various events and community locations.

“There are those out there who we can’t reach,” Mittman said. “There are those out there who, for whatever reasons, are not ready to embrace equality and nondiscrimination. But there are two other groups that we are very successful with: members of our own community who may not understand the importance of voting, and those in the middle who are unsure how they feel about the issue, but if we just get out there and get face to face with them and present the information, will be on our side.”

To get involved with the California Marriage Equality Voter ID Project, call Jeffrey Mittman at (619) 692-2077 ext. 211. For more information about the Voter Registration Project, contact AJ Davis at (619) 692-2077 ext. 212.