Human Rights Campaign Reacts to Prop. 8 Decision

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The Human Rights Campaign released a statement and started a new campaign called "We Won't Back Down." The following statement was released after the decision from the CA Supreme Court and includes their new video.

CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT TAKES STEP BACK FROM EQUALITY
Nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights group responds to court ruling

HRC President Joe Solmonese: “We will not give up until marriage equality is restored in California.”

WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, responded to the California Supreme Court’s split 6-1decision today ruling that Proposition 8, the narrowly approved measure which eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry, is valid. As a result of the court’s decision in Strauss v. Horton, California becomes the first state in the nation to strip away marriage rights for same-sex couples. As same-sex couples and allies from across the country react to the news, HRC is releasing an online, YouTube video set to the song “I Won’t Back Down”: www.HRC.org/California.



“Today’s ruling is a huge blow to Americans everywhere who care about equality. The court has allowed a bare majority of voters to write same-sex couples out of basic constitutional protections,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “This ruling is painful, but it represents a temporary setback. There will be a groundswell to restore marriage equality in our nation's largest state, and HRC will not give up until marriage equality is restored in California.”

One significant effort already underway is a strategic partnership between HRC and California Faith for Equality (CFE), a statewide group established to educate, support and mobilize faith communities on LGBT equality. The partnership joins CFE and its 6,000 supporting faith leaders with both HRC's Religion and Faith Program expertise as well as HRC's National Field Department to broaden, diversify and deepen religious support for marriage equality in California.

“This ruling couldn't be more out of step with what's happening across the country,” said Solmonese, pointing to recent marriage victories in Iowa, Vermont and Maine. “We have no choice but to return this basic question of fairness for the estimated 1 million LGBT Californians back to the voters.”

“While we are relieved that the 18,000 couples who married before the Prop 8 vote will still have valid marriages, it does not in any way remove the sting of this ruling,” added Solmonese.

Over the past decade, public acceptance of marriage equality for same-sex couples has changed dramatically. For the first time, more Americans say they support marriage for same-sex couples (49%) than oppose it (46%), according to the latest Washington Post/ABC poll released in late April.

WHERE MARRIAGE STANDS TODAY:
Twelve states plus Washington, D.C. have laws providing at least some form of state-level relationship recognition for same-sex couples. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont (as of September 1, 2009), and Maine (as of mid-September 2009, pending possible repeal effort) recognize marriage for same-sex couples under state law. Five states—California, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington (as of July 26, 2009, pending possible repeal effort)—plus Washington, D.C. provide same-sex couples with access to the state level benefits and responsibilities of marriage, through either civil unions or domestic partnerships.

Hawaii provides same-sex couples with limited rights and benefits. New York recognizes marriages by same-sex couples validly entered into outside of New York. Legislatures in New Hampshire and New York are considering marriage legislation that would permit same-sex couples to marry in those states, and the D.C. Council has passed legislation that would recognize marriages by same-sex couples legally entered into in other jurisdictions (that legislation is going through a Congressional review period).

IMPORTANT BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

For an electronic map showing where marriage equality stands in the states, please visit: www.HRC.org/State_Laws.

For a summary of the history of the case and for a comprehensive listing of HRC’s work in California on Proposition 8, please visit:www.HRC.org/California.

A breakdown of the ruling and interpretation by the HRC legal team will be available shortly on HRCBackStory.org: http://www.hrcbackstory.org/2009/05/prop-8-decision-analysisprop-8-decision-analysis/

Human Rights Campaign Announces Partnership with California Faith for Equality

The following is a press release from the Human Rights Campaign:

New comprehensive effort to broaden, diversify, and deepen religious support for marriage equality

WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, announced today a new strategic partnership with California Faith for Equality (CFE), a statewide group established to educate, support and mobilize California's faith communities on LGBT equality.

The partnership joins CFE and its 6,000 supporting faith leaders with both HRC's Religion and Faith Program expertise as well as support from the National Field Department to broaden, diversify and deepen religious support for marriage equality in California. The partnership comes on the eve of an expected decision by the California Supreme Court on Proposition 8 which stripped away the right of same-sex couples to marry.

“This is a strategic partnership to not only expand and diversify CFE's impressive statewide work, but to ensure that California voters know that many people of faith support same-sex marriage," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “Religion was too often used as a weapon against us in California, and we know whatever the court's decision, this is critical work in achieving full equality."

The Human Rights Campaign will lend significant resources both on-the-ground and collaboratively to California Faith for Equality. Religion and Faith Director Harry Knox and HRC field staff will assist CFE build capacity for a sustained, locally-driven public education campaign led by California clergy and supported by their congregants.

“We must harness this opportunity and help local clergy build advocacy for marriage equality into their routine work in congregations and train participants to utilize low-cost, high-impact public education that extends their justice ministries,” said Harry Knox, Director of the Human Rights Campaign’s Religion and Faith Program.

“At the core of many people's objection to same-sex marriage is religion,” said Rev. Roland Stringfellow, Bay Area Coalition of Welcoming Congregations. “This collaboration facilitates open and constructive dialogs within faith communities about the inherent worth and dignity of all of God's creation and the shame that is created when people are forced to live without integrity when their lives and loves are not valued.”

“The partnership between the Human Rights Campaign and California Faith for Equality is good news to all who are committed to equality,” said Rev. Abel Lopez, All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena CA. “I look forward to the work we will do together as we combine our energies to reach across differences toward the goal of liberty and justice for all.”

The elements of the partnership include:

--Develop a religious declaration of support for marriage equality that multiple faith leaders can endorse, and use it as a coalition-building tool to attract and build CFE's membership and voice.

--Prioritize those counties where Prop 8 passed or failed by seven percent or less, and build new coalitions while strengthening existing ones.

--Train clergy and lay leaders how to build advocacy for LGBT equality into their routine work with their congregations. Additionally, create a specific tool kit to help people of faith build support beyond their places of worship, and into their families and neighborhoods.

--Identify key religious spokespeople relevant to a local community and give visibility to those clergy and their congregations endorsing marriage equality.

--Create culturally-sensitive as well as denomination-specific material to help religious leaders and people of faith to talk about why supporting marriage equality is consistent with the tenets of their faith. This includes identifying and building coalitions and ties with faith communities of color.

--Work with progressive communities of faith to become volunteers and leaders if a marriage campaign is launched. HRC and CFE believe that communities of faith have much to offer in expanding that statewide, volunteer network.

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.

The mission for California Faith and Equality is to educate, support and mobilize California's faith communities to promote equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and to safeguard religious freedom.

Ashton Kutcher 2010 - Let the Campaign Begin

 

YOU PICK THE CAMPAIGN SLOGAN

If you listened to Episode 5 of my podcast then you understand why I am starting a campaign to get Ashton Kutcher to head home to Iowa and run for Congress. I'm sure you all are more creative than I am and will be able to come up with something better than "Kutcher '10 - Moving Iowa Forward." So come on and play

Name That Campaign
 

Now this is not random. I want him to run specifically against Republican Representative Steve King. If you need some creative fire as to why this is so important I encourage you to listen to the final segment of the podcast for more details but in case you can't let me give you some insight on Rep. King.

• Official Statement on the marriage decision shows King is worried about Iowa becoming a "gay mecca." 

“Iowa law says that marriage is between one man and one woman, yet activist judges molded Iowa’s Constitution to achieve their personal political ends. Ultimately, the people of Iowa should decide whether or not Iowa should allow same-sex marriage, not activist judges handing down extra-constitutional rulings.

“I believe the majority of Iowans are committed to marriage between one man and one woman, one of the essential building blocks of civilization. I will continue to work with the Iowa legislature to pass a Marriage Amendment to the Iowa Constitution, clarifying that marriage is between one man and one woman. Along with a constitutional amendment, the legislature must also enact marriage license residency requirements so that Iowa does not become the same-sex marriage Mecca for America.”

• While speaking at an anti-abortion event King stated that he would like to see people defy the court.
  

“This decision by the [Iowa] Supreme Court puts us in a position where we can either defy the court — which I would prefer to do, but I don’t see the appetite out there to do that,” the congressman said. “If it were up to me I’d say, ‘You made this decision, so now you enforce it because you stepped outside your bounds.’ But the logical approach to this — to get something that we can do —  I think is to pass a constitutional amendment to correct the court.”

• King continues to show his fear of LGBT people and how people will come to the new gay mecca, Iowa, get married and then go back home and spread...well I don't really know but maybe you can understand his fear.

“We have no residency requirement in Iowa law, which means that people can come from all over this country — a man and a man, a woman and a woman — it could be, I suppose, a father and a son or a mother and a daughter,” he said. “They can come to this state and get married and then go back to the state where they reside. And then what they will do — and this will be a national effort — is file suit in their own state. They will press those states to recognize Iowa’s marriage law. If that happens, in each of these courts, it puts a lot of pressure on and breaks down the defense of marriage that has been created by most of the states.
“We have a real problem here in Iowa, and we’ve become the embarrassment of the nation. But we don’t need to proliferate that embarrassment to the rest of the country. We can at least save the rest of the country from the mistake made by the Supreme Court justices here in Iowa.”

• King has been working with Maggie Gallagher, president of National Organization for Marriage (NOM) to make calls to Iowa citizens encouraging them to call their representative and ask them to get an anti-gay marriage amendment passed. NOM is the organization that is spreading fear about gay marriage in the video "The Gathering Storm." These calls are a one way street since they first ask do you support the decision. Anyone that says yes is hung up on. Apparently King is not interested in seeing what his constituents really think.

• Some other great quotes to show how Rep. King thinks are below and are from Think Progress

King compared gay people to unicorns and leprechauns. "Unicorns, leprechauns, gay marriages in Iowa -- these are all things you will never find because they just don’t exist."

King sought to uphold anti-gay employment discrimination. "The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) would force employers to hire homosexual employees."

King refused to say 'Happy Ramadan.' In 2007, King refused to vote for a harmless resolution recognizing the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

King insisted homosexuality was just a "behavior." Declaring that "homosexual marriage is not a civil right," King said sexual orientation "is a self-identified behavior, not an immutable characteristic."

Unfortunately King seems more concerned about the culture wars than the main problems Iowa, and the rest of the country are facing. This is of course the economy. According to a study by The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law,

Our analysis projects that giving equal marriage rights to same-sex couples will have a positive impact on the state budget of approximately $5.3 million per year and a revenue gain to state businesses of over $53 million per year during the first three years that marriage is extended to same-sex couples. The analysis shows that same-sex marriage is not just good for same-sex couples, but good for the state budget and economy, too.

Huh, I could see why that would cause some fear because we would be giving the elected officials more money to spend ... oh wait that's probably not why he's scared. Now I understand that some of that money is because the gays will be flocking to the new mecca and spending their money...oh wait that's probably not it either.

Ok so I think you all understand why Rep. King needs to go. Now why would I pick Ashton Kutcher? Well it would be an extremely tough district for a Democrat to win. (Yes I am assuming he Kutcher would run as a Democrat). But I think he could put up a huge fight. Look at the money he could raise on social media alone just by asking for $5. Plus, what house with a teenage girl (or gay man) wouldn't want Ashton Kutcher on their lawn - in sign form of course.

Not to mention the guy is smart and has been talking politics quite a bit lately. He spoke out against Prop 8 and even made a point to talk about how he couldn't believe this was even an issue and screamed of a blatant separation of church and state problem. Also, I think he isn't so far to the left that he could speak to both sides. Last November on "Real Time With Bill Maher", Kutcher spoke about where he is politically,

"I would say that I'm a fiscally conservative individual, in general, and probably very socially liberal, but there really isn't a party that exists for that. So I'm a little bit in between. I wasn't that far away from looking at John McCain as a viable candidate for myself, because I sit somewhere in the middle. But, as soon as a Sarah Palin comes onto a ticket, it turns me away so feverishly."

So come on everyone let's get this ball rolling and Name That Campaign! I know you all have some good ideas on this so leave them in the comment section so we can get King out of Congress.

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• So far, so good on first day for marriage equality in Iowa (mydd.com)
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Day of Silence - Stop the Bullying

Bullying is a huge problem in America today. One of the most recent stories is of 11 year old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover. He was bullied daily which included being called gay and being told he acted like a girl. Carl ended up taking his life by hanging himself with an extension cord.

Carl would have turned 12 today which just so happens to be the annual Day of Silence held by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN). The Day of Silence is a student-led national event that brings attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools. Students from middle school to college take some form of a vow of silence in an effort to encourage schools and classmates to address the problem of anti-LGBT behavior. The event is designed to illustrate the silencing effect of this bullying and harassment on LGBT students and those perceived to be LGBT.

Here is a video with Lance Bass talking about the Day of Silence



The interesting thing about bullies are they function on fear and thinking the victim will remain quiet. Most of what is talked about is the bullying done by children. However, since the election and all the coverage of Prop 8 interesting things have happened.

Instead of the gays being silent we have taken to the street. We have said, "Enough!" We have begun to demand our equality. Interestingly enough in the wake of the huge loss in California, gay marriage has seen huge wins in the last month alone. This includes Vermont becoming the first state to legalize marriage through the legislature and not by a court decision.

So what does this do to the bully? Just when the bully thinks his victim is beaten down so much he sees that maybe there is some strength left. So he does this....

James Dobson, former leader of Focus on the Family, starts a website to counter the Day of Silence. The site is called True Tolerance. The site encourages parents to fight the schools and try to shut down the events. The site is pure bullying. Filled with lies and playing on fear to motivate others to join in the bullying.

Then there is this video.



And of course the video by the queen of bullying, Maggie Gallager - President of the National Organization for Marriage.




Just looking at the website by Dobson and these videos it becomes clear to me why we have such a bullying problem in our schools. If these are the examples kids are getting then we have a very long road ahead of us to try and fix the bullying problem in America.

Before the 2008 Day of Silence Lawrence King, a 15 year old, was shot and killed by a classmate because he was gay. This year Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover killed himself for being called gay. Clearly the grownups have not figured out that their actions and words have consequences.

The children are watching. Please, adults - Maggie and James that means you, stop the bullying. It really is hurting our families and our children.

LGBT People To Hold Tax Day Events Across Country

As tax day approaches it provides another reminder of the discrimination LGBT people face on a day to day basis. When Prop 8 passed rock star Melissa Etheridge made a statement that she would not pay her California taxes this year. She felt since her right to marry was taken away and she was being treated as a second class citizen then why should she be expected to pay.

Well I don't know if Etheridge plans to follow through on that statement but for most of us we can't afford the legal consequences of that type of protest. But we can hang out near post offices while others are dropping off their taxes. The following media alert was released to announce events all across the country.

Tax Season Serves as a Reminder How the “Defense of Marriage Act” Harms Same-Sex Couples and Costs Taxpayers Billions of Dollars

Take action by visiting www.taxday2009.com

WASHINGTON – As millions of Americans file their income taxes, a coalition of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy groups call attention to the tax inequities facing same-sex couples as a result of the state and federal laws that refuse to  recognize or extend civil marriage protections to same-sex couples.  Marriage Equality USA, Join the Impact and the Human Rights Campaign have collectively organized a series of events at U. S. Post Offices across the nation to highlight the ongoing moral and financial costs of denying marriage equality to same-sex couples—as well as the consequences paid by all Americans as a result of these discriminatory state and federal laws.

“Each tax season, same-sex couples sit at their dining room tables and are forced to live a legal lie by checking ‘single’ despite their decades together and then arbitrarily dividing up their joint household’s income, expenses, and dependents,” said Molly McKay, Marriage Equality USA Media Director.  “Then we write checks to the IRS for social security taxes, knowing that when we die our families will not even have access to any of the family ‘safety net’ benefits provided in the form of social security survivor benefits, estate tax deferral, and other programs that we help fund through our tax dollars and that only heterosexual couples and their children will enjoy.”

“The tax inequities faced by loving, committed same-sex couples make them less able to care for each other and their families,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.  “Even same-sex couples in states that do legally recognize their unions are penalized by the federal government simply for building a family with the person they love.  This is an injustice that can and must end.”

“Whether couples are married, civil unioned or have no state protections under state law, all same-sex couples in the United States are treated as ‘single’ under federal law.  The U.S. Census has declared that they will not recognize married same-sex couples as “married” in the 2010 Census.  We cannot allow our community to be erased,” said Amy Balliett, co-founder of Join the Impact.  “Tax season is yet another time where same-sex couples are reminded that despite abiding by the requirements of American citizenship by paying our taxes, we are still are treated as second class citizens.”  

A study produced by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) debunks the myth that granting same-sex couples the freedom to marry would cost the government money. In fact, it would save taxpayer dollars.  Same-sex couples are not the only ones paying for marriage discrimination, all taxpayers fund this discrimination which amounts to as much as $1 billion nationwide. To read the CBO study, visit www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=5559&sequence=0.

Founded in 1998, Marriage Equality USA is a national grassroots organization whose mission is to secure legally recognized civil marriage equality for all, at the federal and state level, without regard to gender identity or sexual orientation .  For more information go to www.marriageequality.org

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.

Join the Impact is a national grassroots organization whose mission is to empower grassroots direct action across the nation.  For more information go to www.jointheimpact.com