Last month, the San Diego LGBT Leadership Council hosted a community forum with one of the nation’s premier advocates for marriage equality, Evan Wolfson, director of Freedom to Marry. Wolfson provided us with a national perspective, as well as a state-by-state breakdown on marriage matters.

In California, we will very likely face a statewide ballot initiative that would amend the California Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage and/or domestic partnerships. We must face this challenge with the full force of our community’s resources – our money, our efforts, our time, our conversations and our stories. As Wolfson shared with us, “the clock is ticking” and “the nation will be watching” as California tackles this issue.

Wolfson’s words resonated with so many of us. It also served as a real reminder of just how critical it will be for us to mobilize as an informed and connected community.

As marriage legislation, ballot measures and court cases permeate our national political and legal landscape, California remains one of the most influential states involved in this effort. And while the concrete rights and responsibilities of marriage are important, our collective human dignity and the principles of fairness and equal treatment are the larger issues at stake.

Please join us as The Center continues its work to secure marriage equality. We need you. We need you to get involved, and we need you to bring your friends and family into these conversations as well.

One simple thing you can do to help this week is to participate in The Center’s “Connecting LGBT San Diego” campaign. The campaign is an effort to increase our e-mail list so that we can ensure that LGBT San Diegans are connected to news and events that impact our community quickly.

Simply put, Connecting LGBT San Diego is an important way to help get more people involved. We live in a time where it is not only possible, but essential, to inform, engage and mobilize our community instantly.

When Bishop Brom recently denied the family of John McCusker a Catholic funeral in all of the Catholic churches in the Diocese of San Diego, The Center was a central source of information for the concerned and the outraged community leaders and activists. While it is impressive that we were able to bring together more than 500 people for a community meeting to respond, the truth is, we need the capacity to mobilize even more.

Over the next several months, LGBT San Diego will play a key role in the marriage equality battle – and we will need you as we continue to build working coalitions of LGBT individuals, families and organizations and our allies. Already, The Center is collaborating with Equality California, Lambda Legal, the ACLU, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the San Diego LGBT Community Leadership Council, LGBT community centers throughout the state and a variety of other organizations. The importance of our ability to respond quickly cannot be overstated.

So this month, sign up for The Center’s e-newsletter (visit this column online at www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link. If you are already on our list, sign up your friends and family to The Center!

As an incentive for joining in the Connecting LGBT San Diego campaign, The Center is offering two great prizes. When you sign up for The Center’s e-newsletter, you have a chance to win two tickets to The Center’s annual gala, plus $100 in cash. The person who signs up the largest number of friends and family will win two air transportation vouchers on American Airlines good for use anywhere in the United States.

With your participation in the Connecting LGBT San Diego campaign, we have a chance to ensure that even more people have the opportunity to help meet the challenges ahead. San Diego has one of the largest LGBT communities in the country… let’s make it one of the most connected.