Repealing Fayetteville’s Sexual Orientation Gender Identify Law(Part 2 of 2)

 By Duncan Campbell

After the Fayetteville city council passed the Gay-Transgender ordinance on August 20, 2014 the “common sense-common decency” citizens of Fayetteville were more energized that ever.

They woke up a “Sleeping Giant”―the Church. All of us began to realize that together we were like Esther―that we were born for a time such as this.  Even after the marathon council meeting the night before, I asked key leaders to get together to strategize and mobilize for action. We had a conference call with Jerry Cox from Arkansas Family Council, Matt Staver from Liberty Council (First Amendment Rights Legal Advocacy), Stephanie Nichols, Travis Story, Pastor Jeremy Flanagan and other emerging leaders. We decided then to officially organize and move forward with lightning speed.

By Thursday, our legal team was in place and we were working on petition language. This is critical and somewhat difficult for two reasons. The legal language and the title have to be carefully written so as to avoid potential lawsuits challenging the petitions.  There are very few attorneys who know anything about this subject because it is not a common everyday thing to write petitions for special election dealing with ballot issues. We had to call in several other attorneys with experience in this field for consultation. It took 8 days to complete the petitions.

While the legal petition writing process was going on, we also called for a volunteer rally the Sunday afternoon following the passage of the ordinance. We got the word out through everyone’s networks. Those already involved contacted their congregations, friends, and business associates through phone calls, church announcements, flyers, phone calls and texts.

About 350 people showed up ready and willing to volunteer. We shared the vision for this initiative and asked folks to get involved. There were sign-up sheets for various tasks, including petition canvassers, notaries, social media, church liaisons, and pastor advocates. We also had people sign up for canvasser training the next day. About 75 signed up.

Jerry Cox of the Family Council came up from Little Rock to train volunteers. It is not hard to do, but there are some basic rules that need to be followed. Jerry prepared an instructional sheet that gave volunteers all the specifics like making sure you see the individual sign, make sure they write their name , address, etc. clearly, etc. Then we asked how many thought they could recruit and train someone else. Most of them agreed and they recruited and trained By Wednesday we had the petitions printed and were delivering them to churches and volunteers. The media kept asking us what our plan was and where we were going to gather signatures. We didn’t reveal our plan to them. About 15 churches had tables set up this first Sunday and volunteers ready to get signatures. By the next Sunday we had 30 churches and the last Sunday it was 40.

We sent volunteers out into their neighborhoods and into their own circles of friends and associates. The media kept asking and we kept telling them we were simply going to those who wanted to put this issue on a ballot so the people could decide.

The next week we set up teams to go to public places like the Driver License/Auto Tag Center, Post Offices, City Hall and the Farmer’s Market. Ordinance supporters did find our volunteers there and that was where most of the harassment we received happened. A lot of signatures can be found here, so it’s definitely worth the struggle. A few of our volunteers were assaulted by radicals, but no one was seriously hurt.

The last weekend we did a large neighborhood blitz with maps and teams going out all over the city. Hundreds of signatures came in. We were very close to our needed number, but you have to go over the stated goal because some of the signatures will not be validated by the city clerk.  I asked the volunteers the last week to get 500 a day. Volunteers got better as time went on getting signatures. Every day we beat our goals. It was an exciting time with people turning in petitions daily at the Story Law Office.

The next day was Saturday and the City Clerk was open just so we could turn in our petitions.  The city attorney cancelled our city approved press conference that day at City Hall because they were upset we had accomplished our goal after all. We kept the petitions themselves under secure guard and turned in over 5700 signatures. We needed 4095. It was a good day.

Meanwhile those among us running for city council were ramping up their campaigns and many of the volunteers  joined them. Ten days later our petitions were certified and it was official.  There would be a special election on December 9, 2014 to repeal this bad ordinance.

But the mayor, the city attorney and the city council were not satisfied. They tried to change the language on our petition and the title and submit that to the election commission. This type of action is not within their authority and had never been done before. We immediately filed our petition with the county and election commission and they decided in our favor.

A few days later we were facing a lawsuit by the ACLU. They made all kinds of false claims, such as we had misled petition signers, our ballot title was wrong, we missed our deadline for signatures by one day, etc. Prayer, strategy and a great legal team, as well as God’s favor for a righteous judge and an unexpected power outage all worked to our advantage. When asked by the ACLU lawyer during the trial about our claims that this ordinance would restrict religious liberties, I answered with one word, “Houston!” The next day the judge dismissed the lawsuit and we were ready to go.

We still had to get through the General Election, which was also the city council election.  There we saw one of our candidates get elected and another one in a run-off. The next thing we knew the HRC hired 8 Democratic National Committee political operatives to come to Fayetteville to fight us. They spent a lot of money getting their candidate elected in the run-off. We barely lost that race by 146 votes. It set a record for city run-offs.

Several members of our team were part of the Chamber of Commerce and I began to talk with the Chamber President early on. They came out publicly on our side 4 weeks before the special election.

Now we were in the last month before the election. Alice Patterson and Mark Gonzales called from the National Black Robe Regiment and asked if we wanted them to send MD Sias to help us. We gratefully accepted and he was here in a couple of days. Shortly after M D arrived we got an office to work out of from Covenant Presbyterian Church and we organized the details of the campaign. From neighborhood canvassing, phone calls, to social media, we worked hard to get out the vote.

Because the local media was mostly on the side of the ordinance supporters, it was tough trying to change the narrative in the community as a whole. During this time we were continuing to recruit volunteers, especially for neighborhood canvassing and phone calling. We had a team member who donated all the printing and another one donated all the signs. We had 100 large signs around town and 500 small yard signs. M D went out on Wednesdays and Sundays delivering flyers to churches.

Mark Gonzales was here on the ground for many days, advising, encouraging and strategizing.  Alice came and stayed for the final week, encouraging, writing, providing wisdom. The National Black Robe Regiment is truly a genuine, hands-on ministry. They contributed heavily to our cause with extremely valuable and powerful experience, manpower, ministry, money and wisdom. We could not have done it without them. Seriously.

One week before the election we had a pastors’ breakfast at a large, mostly Black church, sponsored by the Family Research Council (FRC). Among others, Mark Gonzales, Pastor Charles Flowers (from San Antonio), Jerry Cox and Dave Welch (one of the 5 Houston pastors subpoenaed) spoke. It was a very powerful meeting and helped turn the tide with some pastors and ramped things up with others. FRC did a great job―an essential part of the puzzle. The same night we had a volunteer rally with the same speakers. The influence and message from Charles and Dave, with their experiences in San Antonio and Houston helped our volunteers see the extreme importance of what we were doing. Mark Gonzales motivated people to get out there and fight.

Two days later we had a powerful prayer meeting at the Fayetteville Prayer Room. This entire movement has been fueled by prayer. Some infiltrators came from the other camp, but they couldn’t stand the presence of God.

The last week was a whirlwind of activity with more signs, more flyers, more doorknockers, more phone calls, more, more, more. The last few days we produced and ran T V ads, radio ads and newspaper ads. We even recruited poll watchers because of the reputation of the other side.

At the end of the day on Tuesday, December 9, 2014 we were all waiting at the Marriot in a room we rented for the watch party when the word came in from the election commission. The early vote had us behind by 500. Then, with a lot of anticipation we all waited for the final results. They came in early about 9:00 PM. It was 52% FOR Repeal (us with 7,523) and 48% them (with 7,040). We won!!!!! God led us into winning this battle and He gets the glory. Now the rest of the cities around the nation can be encouraged. If the church stands up with courage and strength, mobilizes around spiritual leaders who are following God, and works together we can beat the Goliaths. The other side spent 5 times what we did. What they didn’t have was God and His people and the power of the Kingdom. “May His Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it already is in heaven.”