Head of Equality California Stepping Down

GLBT advocacy group Equality California is losing its Executive Director for the second time in less than a year.

Roland Palencia will be stepping down as the head of the Equality California effective Oct. 14, LGBT POV reported on Oct. 10.

"I am stepping down. We will be having a board meeting and have a transition plan by the end of the week," Palencia told LGBT POV during a phone call on the evening of Oct. 10. Palencia did not give a reason for his departure. The article noted that when asked, he "hesitated." Then, rather than address the question, Palencia agreed to follow through with a previously agreed upon interview.

Palencia took over as executive director of the organization last May after Geoff Kors, who previously held the post for nine years, resigned in March.

Kors and Equality California had faced intense criticism after anti-gay groups waged a successful campaign in 2008 to pass Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that yanked then-existing marriage rights away from gay and lesbian families in California. Though Equality California was highly influential in terms of how efforts to protect marriage equality in the state were carried out, the advertising from the pro-marriage parity side shied away from depicting gay families--a choice that critics blasted. Moreover, the group's strategy overlooked a swell of anti-gay voters in the African-American and Latino communities, demographics that anti-gay activists aggressively targeted.

More recently, the group has researched the question of whether, or when, to go back to voters with a ballot initiative that would restore marriage equality. Meantime, a federal court ruled against Proposition 8 last year, finding that the measure was unconstitutional. That verdict is currently under appeal.

How Palencia's departure will affect the ongoing struggle to regain family parity in California is unclear. Palencia told the Associated Press last week that Equality California would not press for a new initiative to restore California marriage rights at the ballot box.

"Executive Director Roland Palencia says polls show voters are still divided and a court challenge that could overturn the measure is still pending," the AP reported in an Oct. 5 article. "As a result, he says the time is not right to undertake a risky and expensive ballot fight.

"Instead, Equality California plans to devote its resources to a public education and messaging campaign to counter beliefs that allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry harms children."

The outgoing executive director and the group offered mutually supportive messages to the media.

"I want to make sure that everyone supports the organization," Palencia told LGBT POV. "This is the time for all of us to rally and support Equality California. I have seen how this organization literally changes lives. It is a community asset and we have to keep our eye on the prize."

Equality California issued a press release on Oct. 10 announcing Palencia's departure. The release said that the organization would "release a transition plan by the end of the week," when Palencia is scheduled to leave his position.

The release contained no information regarding the reason for the change of leadership, but the text did offer praise to the outgoing executive director.

"During his tenure with Equality California, Roland Palencia did important work to build diverse and inclusive coalitions and engage and reconnect our movement," the group's Board Chair, Cathy Schwamberger, said. "That work has helped to position our movement to fight back against attacks on the LGBT community and protect advances in equality-the effects of which will impact our movement for years to come.

"We are grateful for his service to Equality California and his contributions to our movement and wish him the best in all of his future endeavors," Schwamberger continued.

Adviocate.com reported that Palencia told the San Francisco Chronicle that he was leaving for purely personal reasons.

"I literally made a personal decision that I wanted to move on," Palencia said. "There's really nothing more to it."

Advocate.com also reported that the group had cut back on staff, and noted, "Palencia's departure comes as opponents of a new gay history law, SB48, are trying to qualify a referendum to repeal the measure before a Wednesday deadline.

"Equality California has been preparing to defend the law," Advoate.com added.

The Equality California media release contained a statement from Palencia.

"Equality California serves a critical role in the movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality in the state of California," he said. "Over the next year, the movement in California faces a unique set of challenges that demands leadership uniquely positioned to take those challenges head-on, strengthen the organization and bring together the diverse parts of our movement into a powerful force for change.

"It's been my privilege to serve as the Executive Director of Equality California and I will continue to be an avid and involved supporter of EQCA and its work for equality," Palencia added.

When Equality California was searching for Kor's replacement, the group's "board members [came] under criticism for not meeting face to face with ordinary gays and lesbians" as part of the process, reported LA Weekly in a March 31 "Queer Town" blog posting that went up shortly after Kors announced his departure. "That hire will affect the rights and lives of some 850,000 gays and lesbians in California."

The article called Kors "intelligent and hard-working," and noted that he "shaped Equality California from a small state lobbying outfit to the very influential group that it is today." But the article also took note of the fact that other GLBT parity advocates harbored resentments against Equality California for what they saw as the group's, and Kors' autocratic style.

"Equality California never really convinced legislators on their own [to pass a bill], but inevitably something would pass--and they'd send out a press release taking all the credit," openly gay former California State Sen. Sheila Kuehl told LA Weekly. "I never thought they were team players. They would take credit, and it was more credit than they earned."

Still, as a Jan. 6 LA Weekly article noted, fans and detractors alike acknowledged the huge difference that Equality California had made under Kors' leadership.

"During Kors' reign, the state has become one of the most gay-friendly in the country," the article noted. "Among its many pro-gay laws, California offers expansive domestic-partnership rights for gay and lesbian couples, hate-crimes protections and antidiscrimination protections in the workplace.

"Supporters and even critics of Kors don't think it's a coincidence that these political victories happened on his watch," the article went on.

"Over the past decade, Equality California has strategically moved California from a state with extremely limited legal protections for LGBT individuals to a state with some of the most comprehensive civil rights protections in the nation," the release noted. "Equality California has passed more than 80 pieces of legislation and continues to advance equality through legislative advocacy, electoral work, public education and community empowerment."