When Prop 8 passed in 2008, California voters defied all expectations and banned same-sex marriage with a constitutional amendment. In the face of this defeat, the Leadership LAB was established at the LA LGBT Center to embark on a radical project – knocking on voters’ doors to learn why and make a case for love.
About Us
Deep canvassing was born – and can be boiled down to two key skills: Vulnerability and curiosity. Rather than having transactional conversations that make political points, deep canvassing relies on an exchange of vulnerability, which we know how to do best through personal storytelling. Over the past 14 years, the Leadership LAB has revolutionized how we talk to voters through a variety of national campaigns that impact the LGBTQ+ community, including anti-trans bathroom bills, abortion access, and racial prejudice.
Approaching voters with emotional honesty and vulnerability.
Committing to curiosity rather than assumptions or judgment.
Staying grounded in our real lived experiences instead of opinions.
Our Team
Eden started deep canvassing as a volunteer with the Leadership LAB during the last midterm election in 2018, and when she calls this work life-changing, it’s because it changed hers. Growing up in Texas, she didn’t come into her queer identity until her mid-twenties and discovered how much of a disconnect can form when we don’t talk openly with others about how politics impact our lives.
Eden has now helped increase voter turnout to protect LGBTQ rights in door-to-door campaigns across the country, in battleground states such as Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania during the 2020 Presidential Election, becoming an expert in deep canvassing and training others in this work along the way. Most recently, she has taken over as Field Manager of the program, leading a robust and skilled volunteer team through this November election and into an exciting new chapter for the LAB.
Jackie joined the Leadership LAB in February of 2022. Although this is their first campaign deep canvassing with the LAB, they have been committed to engaging with community members through personal door-to-door conversations, with prior work organizing through local community organizations in their hometown of East Los Angeles. Joining this team was a dream in the making since embracing their queer identity in their early twenties.
Jackie is passionate about collective action and civic engagement to change the political landscape to an equitable future for all. Working alongside this devoted team of volunteers, they’re invested in making an impact in this upcoming election and beyond!
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Maria is a queer daughter of working-class, Vietnamese refugees. Her parents’ story of displacement and migration shaped her into becoming a historian-activist. She received her B.A. in American Studies and History at the University of Notre Dame and her MPhil in World History at the University of Cambridge. She currently teaches history at Orange Coast College and has guest lectured at Scripps College on postcolonial, feminist, and queer histories of Southeast Asia and its diaspora. Her research and teaching has shaped her broader interests in combating the power imbalances that are present in the historical archives and that influence whose stories are represented and whose identities matter.
In her new role as Field Organizer at the Leadership LAB, Maria hopes to blend her work in academia with her experience in activism. As a long-time volunteer and deep canvasser with the LAB, she has coached fellow volunteers on crafting and eliciting stories that connect voters’ real lived experiences with their vote. Maria believes that the LAB’s method of exchanging personal and vulnerable stories at the door will help volunteers and voters feel empowered to participate in our country’s democratic process and will help forge stronger bonds between the LGBT Center and the communities we canvass.
