EmpoweringSpirits.org
Title
Empowering Spirits Foundation
Description
Excerpted from the website description:
- ESF is a national grassroots based civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. ESF members engage in service-oriented activities in communities typically opposed to equal rights to foster positive dialogue and change toward equality. Additionally, the ESF sponsors legislation, lobbies legislators, develops community awareness, collaborates with coalitions, and empowers individuals and organizations to engage in the political process for equality.
Additional Information
The Empowering Spirits Foundation (ESF) is a national lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) grassroots based civil rights organization in the United States. The ESF mission statement is "By inspiring and engaging all Americans through service-oriented activities, the Empowering Spirits Foundation strives to end discrimination against LGBT individuals and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all."
About
The Empowering Spirits Foundation is based in San Diego, C.A. with chapters spread throughout the nation. ESF members engage in service-oriented activities in communities typically opposed to equal rights. In doing so the organization works side-by-side with non-LGBT individuals in an attempt to foster thought and change toward equality.
Additionally, ESF is a visible entity in U.S. politics. The foundation sponsors legislation, lobbies Congress and state and local legislators, develops community awareness through its website and social networking pages, collaborates with other coalitions, and empowers individuals and organizations to engage in the political process for equality.
History & Leadership
The Empowering Spirits Foundation was established by A. Latham Staples in 2008 after the passage of Proposition 8 in California out of frustration as to how he thought LGBT rights organizations were approaching the gay rights issue.
“I volunteered with a LGBT organization in California and grew tired of their attacks on minority groups and Mormons as they felt these groups were the cause of the passage of Proposition 8,” said Staples in a November, 2008 press release. “Demeaning someone doesn’t make them want to re-consider their viewpoints. I feel that we can come together through service-oriented events, and maybe in working side-by-side with our non-LGBT neighbors, they may come to see similarities rather than differences, hope rather than failure, strength rather than weakness.”
Events
Empowering Spirits Foundation members engage in service-oriented activities in communities throughout the nation. These events range from small events at nursing homes and food banks, highway clean-up endeavors, and neighborhood restoration projects, to participation in large citywide rallies.
National Equality Rally
The Empowering Spirits Foundation, along with other LGBT organizations, co-organized the National Equality Rally which took place from April 27 through May 3, 2009 in Philadelphia, PA. The rally featured a series of cultural programs, panels, parties and outdoor events, and a tribute to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome who is a proponent of gay rights.
Freedom Jubilee
The Empowering Spirits Foundation announced May 26, 2009 that it will hold its first simultaneous nationwide service-oriented event to promote LGBT equality called “Freedom Jubilee” on October 11, 2009. The date is in conjunction with National Coming Out Day. The nationwide event was created in response to the Supreme Court of California decision to uphold Proposition 8, the state-wide ban on same-sex marriage.
“Now that the Court announced their long-awaited ruling, we must move forward, and focus on ways to foster positive thought and change toward equality. We will engage in service-oriented activities nationwide in communities typically opposed to equal rights,” said A. Latham Staples, Empowering Spirits Foundation Executive Director. “It is our hope that in working side-by-side with our non-LGBT neighbors, they may come to see similarities rather than differences, hope rather than failure, strength rather than weakness.”
The Empowering Spirits Foundation will team up with MyOutSpirit.com for the first event.
Controversy
Catholic Diocese of Portland, Maine
In May, 2009 the Empowering Spirits Foundation filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service to seek revocation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland’s tax exempt status. This complaint was filed after Mark Mutty, the Diocese’s Public Affairs Director, announced plans for the church to gather 55,087 signatures needed for a state referendum on same-sex marriage, in an attempt to overturn Maine’s new same-sex marriage law. Mutty is quoted as calling the church’s action “one of the biggest grassroots movements in Maine history.”
The Alliance Defense Fund, responding on behalf of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Maine, urged the Empowering Spirits Foundation to “cease filing frivolous and factually flawed IRS complaints as a way of intimidating organizations that believe in protecting marriage.”
The Alliance Defense Fund's senior counsel, Erik Stanley, stated in the letter to ESF that the IRS allows tax-exempt organizations to "engage in lobbying activities, including advocating a position on a public referendum, without violating their tax-exempt status so long as the activity is not a substantial activity of the organization."
