A lively memoir of LGBT activist Steve Endeanone of the most
influential political strategists ever to lobby Washington DC!
Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years
of Progress is the spirited and provocative memoir that blows the
lid off the complex machinations of state and national politics.
LGBT activist Steve Endean's autobiographical chronicle, completed
shortly before his death in 1993, tells insider stories that are
sometimes rousing, other times infuriating, recounting the fight
for lesbian and gay rights from the trenches of the Minnesota state
capital to the Washington Beltway. Readers get a clear view of the
political activism of building grassroots support systems,
fundraising efforts, lobbying to rally support for bills, and the
election/reelection of sympathetic political representatives.
Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years
of Progress dynamically recounts Endean's activism and instrumental
leadership of the LGBT movement from 1973 to just before his death
in 1993. From being the first Executive Director of the Gay Rights
National Lobby, founder and Executive Director of the Human Rights
Campaign Fund, and founder of the Speak Out mailgram campaigns for
grassroots pressure on congresspersons on G/L rights issues, the
author discusses with amusing anecdotes and self-effacing humor his
strategies, victories, and failures as movement leader. This lively
mix of the accomplishments in those crucial years and the dos and
don'ts of political activism is peopled with well-known and
lesser-known movers and shakers on the political landscape.
Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years
of Progress gives an inside look at the political process,
discussing: the political roots of Steve Endeanfrom his activist
beginnings in Minnesota his rise from state to national politics
the basics of fundraising lobbying representatives the LGBT
internal conflicts building grassroots support the hypocrisy and
lack of courage inherent in politics protest activities From the
book: I began to ge a sense of what a challenge I had ahead when
Mayo asked what brought me to DC. Exhausted from a long flight,
coping with tons of luggage, and very nervous about such a big
move, I mustered the energy to explain earnestly that I'd been
hired to be the first director and lobbyist for the Gay Rights
National Lobby. To my shock, this distinguished gentleman doubled
up with laughter and, in his charming Southern drawl, told me the
Gay Rights National Lobby was dead as a doornail. He went on to
suggest if that is what really brought me to Washington, DC, I
might not want to haul all those boxes upstairs and perhaps I
should just pack up and catch a return flight to Minnesota. That
was my welcome to Washington, DC. Cold, white Minnesota never
looked so appealing. Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the
Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress is stimulating, eye-opening
reading for educators, students, activists in search of guidance in
the political process, anyone interested in LGBT history and
political history, and anyone who knew the late Steve Endean.
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