The speech below is the one that Geoff Kors, the executive director of Equality California, gave at the Equality California Awards Ceremony in San Diego, California, on November 12, 2009.

If you want to know why I support Equality California as much as I do, you can read it in the speech: It’s in how the organization, from the top down, see the L, G, B, and T as equally significant parts of their mission. You can see it in the list of accomplishments that the Mr. Kors points to in his speech; you can see it in how they honored a hero in the transgender community: Diane Schroer. They don’t just say “LGBT,” they actually mean “LGBT.”

And by the way, pay close note to the paragraph entitled The LGBT community must stop endorsing and giving money to candidates for office who do not support full and complete equality. It sounds like someone is tacitly agreeing with the concept that Pam has been emphasizing at The Blend about the gAyTM: Holding politicians accountable for their positions on issues and their record of LGBT related legislative accomplishments. Although Geoff Kors doesn’t say it directly, it’s obviously not too far a stretch in holding politicians accountable on the state level to holding politicians and the DNC accountable on the national level.

~~Autumn~~

By Geoff Kors

We are less than two weeks since the election where Maine voters stripped same-sex couples of the right to marry by an even slightly wider margin than California voters did last year. But election day had many bright spots: Kalamazoo residents voted overwhelmingly to preserve anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals and Washingtonians, by a slim majority, voted to keep their newly enacted domestic partnership law. As we think about these results, and the loss last year on Prop 8, we need to consider them in the context of the long struggle for equality.

Ten years ago today on November 14, 1999, you could have been fired from your job or denied an apartment simply because of your sexual orientation or gender identity. You could have been denied routine health care by your insurance company because you were transgender. You and your partner were legal strangers. After a life time together your deceased partner’s estranged family members could take your inheritance, your home and your kids. And our community was less than four months away from a devastating defeat at the polls when Prop 22, with the exact same wording as Prop 8, passed with a whopping 23 percentage point margin.

Fast forward to today and things are dramatically different. Over the past 10 years, Equality California in partnership with the LGBT legislative caucus and our allies, has helped pass an unprecedented 63 pieces of legislation on behalf of the LGBT community, including many bills that have not yet been enacted anywhere else in the country such as the equal benefits law, legislation to prohibit discrimination in health insurance based on gender identity, and legislation passed and signed into law just last month that requires that same-sex couples married outside of California, before the Court ruled in support of marriage equality, during the window when marriages were happening equally in our state and even after prop 8 was passed be treated identically to any other married couple in this state. And also passed and signed last month — legislation creating the first state holiday named after an openly gay person in our nation — Harvey Milk Day. And during these 10 years we have defeated over 30 anti-LGBT bills and helped elect dozens of legislators and statewide officials who support equality. And we closed the gap on an anti-marriage equality initiative from a 23 point loss to a 4 point loss. Not enough to win majority support at the ballot box but tremendous movement on the most difficult social issue the electorate has been allowed to vote on.

WE HAVE MADE AMAZING PROGRESS.

BUT THE TRUTH REMAINS THAT while a majority of voters may be willing to support our right to hold a job and in some states a slim majority will support our having domestic partnership, they also remain willing to strip away our right to marry, making it clear they do not fully accept us as equal to them. We are still the other.

So how do we change that and achieve equality and acceptance, especially in light of these recent elections

We must continue to come out and tell our stories. That is why EQCA has already added 20 field staff who are leading thousands of grassroots volunteers in the places that account for 65% of the Yes on 8 Vote including here in San Diego. And we are making progress. Over the past 6 months our staff and volunteers working with coalition partners have engaged in over 600,000 conversations and knocked on over half a million doors. Thank you to each of you here tonight that has participated in these canvasses. And thank you to the rest of you who will be joining them in the weeks and months ahead.

The LGBT community must stop endorsing and giving money to candidates for office who do not support full and complete equality. Until the politicians who take our community for granted realize that they can no longer count on our votes unless we can count on their votes, they will not change. EQCA’s Political Action Committee only endorses candidates who support our equality 100 percent. Sitting by as a minority group is stripped of their rights is immoral and should not be rewarded with an endorsement. And that applies not just to people like Meg Whitman but also, with all due respect, to Barak Obama.

We must make clear that there is nothing wrong with children learning that there are LGBT people. All children should grow up in a world where the learn that one day they can fall in love and get married regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity and are safe to live their lives as who they are. The danger isn’t in children learning about LGBT people in School. The danger is in their not learning this. Those who oppose us are praying on parents fears that their children will choose to be gay and, in the process, are creating a climate of hate that results in tragedies like the execution shooting of 15 year old Lawrence King in Oxnard last year and LGBT teenagers committing suicide because they are ostracized in our schools. It is time to call our opponents out for the damage their hatred causes.

Tonight, Equality California is thrilled to celebrate those who stand with us and honor and show our support for those who have done extraordinary things to advance LGBT equality and acceptance. People like Diane Schroer, Stuart Milk and Jerry Brown.