It’s 1:30 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon in Fresno, and three newly hired organizers and I are preparing for our “Stop the Initiative” pledge-gathering shift.

The goal is to talk with shoppers at Wal-Marts, Targets, and other public areas and ask as many supporters of the freedom to marry as possible not to sign the “Limits on Marriage” initiative If the measure qualifies for the November ballot and passes, it would change the state Constitution to forever ban same-sex couples from marrying in California.

It was just the second week that the broader statewide campaign known as Equality for All had opened up shop, including here in Fresno. In just 10 days, the Fresno team had grown considerably. Our team was a passionate motley crew of organizers and activists from many backgrounds and walks of life; leading the effort in Fresno was Trina, the former field director from Equality California in San Francisco, and Kian, a fellow Task Force field organizer from Los Angeles. Both put their lives as they knew them on hold for two months to move to Fresno and launch the campaign. Also joining the team were three local Fresnans who had just recently been hired as organizers; one of them, Vanessa, a recent college graduate and Chicana activist, was my partner in the field.

We head out to our turf, which is a busy Wal-Mart located in Clovis, a nearby suburb largely known for its strip malls and staunch conservatism. We approach the store and see that the paid signature gatherers, who are carrying the “Limits on Marriage” initiative, have beaten us to the punch; the two of them have set up large plastic tables right next to the store exit and are taking up all of the prime space for talking with customers. Vanessa and I try to position ourselves within the boundaries of our six square feet of free speech space to engage with customers effectively.

During my 10 years at the Task Force, I’ve worked on many ballot measure campaigns and spoken with thousands of strangers face to face about LGBT issues. Nothing had quite prepared me, though, for the experience of going toe to toe with our actual opposition. It really galled me to know that these two guys were profiting from trying to ban me and my boyfriend from marrying. Vanessa and I started campaigning with shoppers, loud and proud. Every shopper exiting Wal-Mart was greeted with, “Hi, do you support the freedom to marry for lesbian and gay couples?” If they did, we motioned them over toward our clipboards so that we could ask them not to sign the “Limits on Marriage” initiative and to sign our pledges supporting the freedom to marry. Pretty quickly, few shoppers were engaging with the other side while many were engaging with us.

It was exciting to be out on turf standing our ground while also out-hustling the opposition. Every time a shopper passed by, we were the first to capture their attention with our opening question. Meanwhile, as more and more shoppers came to sign our petition, the signature gatherers became increasingly discouraged. It began with longer and longer smoke breaks, where they often left their petitions unattended for up to 30 minutes at a time. Later, they tried to intimidate us into not talking with voters; one signature gatherer, who at 6 feet 5 inches, sporting both a tattoo and a cowboy hat, already had a stereotypical veneer of intimidation, regularly planted himself in front of me to try and stare fear into me. Hour after hour we remained focused on engaging with shoppers, not the other side. By 5:30 p.m., they began packing up their tables to leave for the day; a friend of theirs passing by noticed they were closing shop and commented that they were leaving unusually early since they typically stay until 7 p.m. In this moment, victory was ours!

As our day came to a close, we counted our pledges — 25 new supporters of the freedom to marry! We headed back to campaign headquarters to share our stories, tally up our results and recruit new volunteers to join us in asking voters to stop the initiative.

The Task Force has teamed up with Equality for All to recruit and train hundreds of volunteers statewide to help stop the “Limits on Marriage” initiative. To sign up to volunteer or find out more about how you can help, visit www.equalityforall.com [1].

Dan Hawes recently spent 11 days traveling through Sacramento and Fresno working with Task Force staff dedicated to the Equality for All campaign.

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