What do you feel passionate about? For some Community Alliance readers, it is immigrant rights. For others, it is treating the homeless with dignity and respect. For our keynote speaker at this year’s fundraiser on Dec. 8, it is LGBTQ+ issues.
This paper supports the broad spectrum of progressive social justice activists in the Fresno area by providing a space for them to tell their stories, frame the issues confronting the community and encourage people to become involved in the causes they are passionate about.
The featured speaker at our 2023 fundraiser will be Robin McGehee. A transplant from Jackson, Miss., she received her M.A. in human communication, with an emphasis on public speaking, interpersonal and intercultural communication, from Fresno State. She has been a full-time instructor at College of the Sequoias for more than 20 years and believes that “when we speak, we shape the world!”
Earlier this year, McGehee was appointed by Mayor Jerry Dyer to be the first LGBTQ+ liaison for the City of Fresno.
She helped organize Meet in the Middle for Equality, a statewide reaction to the passage of Prop 8 in California, and co-directed the successful National Equality March in Washington, D.C., in 2009. She helped co-found GetEQUAL—a direct action organization that won marriage rights for gay couples.
She was arrested twice after being handcuffed to the White House fence as a way to draw attention to the needed repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” After the repeal, she was invited by the White House to witness the signing by President Obama in December 2010. She was invited to the White House again in 2022, by the Biden administration, to attend the signing of the Respect for Marriage Act.
Her efforts to speak truth to power have been recognized with the Sheila J. Kuehl Trailblazer Award by the Stonewall Democratic Club of Los Angeles, the Top Dog Alumna Award by Fresno State, the Democratic Trailblazer Award by the Fresno County Democratic Women’s Club and the Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award by the City of Fresno.
She says her greatest accomplishments are her two children and being able to marry her wife on the first day it was legally possible after the Supreme Court made marriage equality a reality for everyone in 2015.
Eduardo Stanley, editor of the Community Alliance newspaper, says that if you want to “keep your independent/progressive newspaper in Fresno alive, join us on Dec. 8 for this annual fundraiser.” The Community Alliance is experiencing a significant growth spurt and needs grassroots community support “for us to achieve our goals,” Stanley said.
“The dream is to become a more influential publication, one that will influence public policy, engage a younger readership through social media posts and expand our Spanish-language content to reach monolingual readers in what is a media desert in San Joaquin Valley rural areas.”
The Dec. 8 fundraiser will be held at the SEIU 521 union hall (5228 E. Pine Ave., Fresno). The event starts at 5:30 p.m. and will include food and special guests. Tickets are available online at eventbrite.com and tinyurl.com/3ke9c4fk or from all staff and board members of the Community Alliance. For more information, contact 559-978-4502 or mikerhodes@fresnoalliance.com or visit fresnoalliance.com.
