We're in trouble out here in Washington, and I'm asking for your help. This May, the WA legislature passed and Gov. Gregoire signed a bill that expanded WA Registered Domestic Partnerships to be fully parallel to state civil marriages. But on Sep. 2nd, a coalition of radical-right evangelicals managed to get a referendum qualified for the ballot, Referendum 71, which asks voters to approve or reject the new law. WA is now a vote-by-mail state.
There is solid support for DPs in the general WA population, but our support among likely voters in this off-year election is razor thin at 51%. So, we need to motivate our supporters to actually vote. That takes money.
With ballots hitting mailboxes October 16th, our campaign season is only 6 weeks long and hasn't given us the lead time necessary to raise adequate funds before a major donor ban goes into effect on Oct 12. After that date, no donor can contribute more than $5,000 cumulative.
Our opposition hasn't been doing any serious fundraising in the past several weeks, confounding our ability to show our need to our supporters. We suspect that the opposition can do this and are doing this deliberately because they have a big benefactor who will dump big money and/or services into the state for them around the time the major donor ban goes into effect. This of course would undercut our ability to match their effort later in the campaign. The opposition campaign includes local affiliates of Focus on the Family, Family Research Council and Alliance Defense Fund.
We do have something good going for us this week: a set of donors from Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Employees at Microsoft (GLEAM), acting as individuals, have pledged to match each dollar of your donations over the next week, up to $10,000. Please help make sure all Washington families are equal: Donate to the Approve Referendum 71 campaign.
Thank you from one of the 12,202 straight senior citizen and LGBT domestic partners in Washington! We can win this!
Doug Manchester played a relatively unsung, but crucial role in qualifying Prop 8 for the ballot. His $125,000 donation came in at a critical time when the proponents were running out of cash during the signature gathering process.
It is conceivable that Prop 8 would not have made it on to the ballot, if it were not for Doug Manchester. In response to that donation and the poor treatment of his workers a boycott of his hotels was established a year ago, and has now cost Manchester upwards of $7 million in canceled reservations.
He has hired gay heavyweight PR crisis man Howard Bragman to respond to the boycott. Their genius idea was to offer up $100,000 in hotel credits and a $25,000 contribution to any 501c3 organization that supports civil unions.
It was a cynical attempt to try and buy-off and divide the LGBT and labor communities. And it's not working. No way. No how.
Today, the Courage Campaign, Equality California, UNITE HERE and Californians Against Hate have teamed up to launch the "Say No to Manchester" website, asking our members to sign a pledge to uphold the boycott of the Manchester Grand Hyatt and Grand del Mar Resort.
It's a relatively unique campaign with labor and LGBT organizations coming together to support workers rights and equality. These types of coalitions are crucial for building progressive power here in California. Any repeal of Prop 8 will need support from our brothers and sisters in labor and they need our help on their organizing efforts for workers' dignity and rights.
Boycotts don't always work, but this one has been effective, though not perfect. Unfortunately, the California Bar Association has refused to move their annual. Jenny Pizer from Lambda Legal:
"The bar associations recognize that many of their members will not feel comfortable attending conference activities at the Manchester Hyatt given its owner's extraordinary personal support of the campaign that made gay people and their families unequal under law, and undermined the basic rights of all minority groups in California," she wrote.
Of course, Bragman tries to wedge labor and LGBTs.
Bragman added that the boycott was less about LGBT rights, and more about the hotel workers trying to unionize. "The union issues and the boycott and the GLBT issues are apples and oranges," he said. "They are two separate issues. We frankly have a boycott that is being funded and designed by people who have motives other than the GLBT community in an effort to unionize the properties."
Is it inconceivable to Bragman that LGBTs care about workers rights AND their own rights, not to mention the fact that shocker of all shockers, there are LGBT hotel workers? Like I said earlier, we are unified and will not let Manchester divide us, try though they might.
Flip it for the email we sent out to our members today.
For today's story, we will travel far afield from the typical domains of politics or science or law that have so often provoked our thinking into an often overlooked area of human relations:
To which gender do you belong?
It's a simple question, or so common sense would tell us-either you're male, or you're female.
As it turns out, things aren't quite so simple, and in today's conversation we'll consider this issue in a larger way. By the time we're done, not only will we learn a thing or two about sex and gender and sexuality, we'll also learn how to offer a community of people a level of respect that they often find difficult to obtain.
Pride Month has come and gone, Gentle Reader, with no comment from this desk.
It's not that I'm in some way insensitive to the subject; instead it's more of a desire, once again, to stay off the beaten path.
And in that spirit, I do indeed have a story of Gay History...but it's not from the Summer of '69...instead, this story was already well underway before the Summer of '29.
So put on something très chic and let's head on over to Harlem...at the time of the Renaissance...because it's time to meet Gladys Bentley.
One of the smartest people in politics, gay or straight, is former California State Senator Sheila James Kuehl, the first openly LGBT person ever elected to the California Legislature. She sent out this brilliant analysis of the California Supreme Court Prop 8 ruling in Strauss v. Horton yesterday. Kuehl is thought to be running for Zev Yaroslavsky's Los Angeles County Supervisor seat in 2014 (!) when he is termed out and the 3rd District Seat is open.
Read the analysis, in its entirety, below the fold.
By now, most of us have seen the despicable ad unleashed in several key states this week in response to our two historic victories in Iowa and Vermont.
It was commissioned by the National Organization for Marriage (but only if you’re straight) whose website reveals some of their misleading tactics, thoroughly dissected on Pam’s this morning.
What strikes me most is their desperation. Turning themselves into victims is the only weapon the anti-LGBT industry has left. Yes on 8’s Frank Schubert himself has said that attacking LGBT folks directly doesn’t work anymore. We can be thankful for that, but must we must learn to effectively respond with the truth to this new tactic.
To succeed, opponents of the freedom to marry must convince moderates that loving, married same-sex couples somehow pose them a risk. They must stir up enough fear and doubt that otherwise fair-minded people will err on the side of discrimination.
They claim this is not just about marriage. They’re right.
Next Tuesday, April 14th, Angie Zapata's alleged murderer goes on trial in Colorado. For the first time ever, an anti-transgender murder will be prosecuted as a hate crime in the United States. With the Matthew Shepard Act (or formally "The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009") introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives last week and the bill expected to be introduced in the Senate within the next couple of weeks, this trial is a timely reminder of the need for federal hate crimes legislation.
Free Flight New Media will provide daily updates for this landmark trial at FREEFLIGHTNEWMEDIA@TYPEPAD.COM starting April 13th through the duration of this trial and cross-posted here at Calitics.
LGBT people face unique and severe challenges in the prison system, including serious threats to their safety.
I am thrilled to report that The LGBT Prisoner Safety Act, AB 382, came one step closer to becoming law yesterday, passing the Assembly Public Safety Committee with a unanimous 7-0 vote, winning the endorsement of the entire committee, including five Democrats and two Republicans. Sponsored by EQCA and introduced last month by Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), the bill is designed to prevent violence against LGBT people in the state prison system.
The legislation promotes safety for and prevents abuse and assault against LGBT people in the prison system by including sexual orientation and gender identity on the list of factors that should be considered when classifying and housing prisoners. The current list of factors includes age, gender, type of offense, and prior time served.
If you compare theirs to ours, you’ll notice that both rate the legislators based on their performance on key votes. EQCA only endorses candidates who score 100% on our scorecard, which means they support the entire LGBT community 100% of the time—they go all the way on the freedom to marry and trans inclusivity.
Even though we refuse to compromise, we’ve still managed to get 100% scores for 61 legislators on our last scorecard. The Capitol Resource Institute only gave 18 legislators a 100% score.
Tuesday's Daily Roundup by the Capitol Weekly reports on a new poll which shows a closely divided electorate on the question of whether marriage equality should be allowed in California:
"Voters in California are sharply divided on same-sex marriage, and an amendment to overturn Prop. 8 would depend largely on campaigning and voter turnout, according to a Field Poll to be released today," writes the Chron's Leslie Fulbright.
"The poll of 761 registered voters shows 48 percent in favor of a constitutional amendment to allow same-sex marriages, with 47 percent opposing and 5 percent undecided.
"The California Supreme Court is currently considering challenges to Prop. 8, the initiative passed by voters in November that banned same-sex marriage. Proponents say that if the court doesn't side with them, they will work on a measure to overturn the ban."
Though views on same-sex marriage vary greatly according to age, geography, political party and religious preference, the numbers overall are almost equally split."'
Opinions haven't changed much since November,' said Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo of the election where 52 percent of voters approved Prop. 8. 'The closeness of the divide suggests it would depend on the quality of the campaigning and voter turnout.'" Dan Walters reads the poll and writes: "It could be argued that gay rights groups had their best shot in 2008 as they sought to defeat Proposition 8 and allow an earlier Supreme Court decision, validating same-sex marriage, to stand. It was an extremely high-turnout presidential election in which Democrats dominated from the White House down."
It's likely that 2010's voter turnout will be millions of voters smaller and somewhat less liberal than the 2008 electorate, although it's not certain yet whether a pro-gay marriage measure would be on the June primary ballot, whose turnout would be even lower, or on the November general election ballot."
If the Supreme Court were to uphold Proposition 8 and gay rights groups were to seek a 2010 measure, only to lose again, their cause could be stalled for many years."
So, what do you think? If the California Supreme Court does not overturn Proposition 8, should we try and repeal it in 2010 or 2012? MadProfessah votes for going forward on November 2010. I seriously question Dan Walters' views on this topic since he has been so wrong before.
There are some other interesting facts in the crosstabs of the poll:
According to the poll, Democrats favor same-sex marriage by 63 percent and 32 percent oppose. Republicans are 70 percent opposed and 24 percent in favor. In the San Francisco Bay Area, those polled are 64 percent in favor and 31 percent opposed. In Los Angeles County, 55 percent favor and 40 percent oppose. Voters aged 18 to 39 favor gay marriage by 55 percent while those 65 or older are 58 percent opposed, according to the poll.
In preparing this post, I can't but help use the first-person perspective because the impact that Camp Courage in Fresno had on me personally as a facilitator is so profound that distancing myself from it would, not only be difficult, but wrong in how I should communicate what needs to be told about the amazing change that is happening in Fresno, CA.
For the sake of time in telling this story, I first need to direct you to my Op-Ed on the first Camp Courage in LA so you can know what Camp Courage is and what it's about. This exact same model was brought to Fresno, but effectively expanded upon over the course of two days.
On Saturday morning, we facilitators anxiously waited for our pre-assigned group to arrive through the conference room doors, excited to know who we would be working with for the whole weekend. The expected 160 and more attendees were randomly divided into groups to help mix it up, and I was curious to see whom I and the rest of the facilitators would get. Many of us had either been to the energized Camp Courage in LA or had worked at several Camp Obamas, whose model Camp Courage has adopted. So we were expectant of the same amount of energy.
On Sunday, I attended an event in at the home a gay couple named Curtis Chin and Jeff Kim at a loft in downtown Los Angeles which brought together Asian American LGBTs and their allies to support Judy Chu's run for the 32nd Congressional District seat. The event was attended by the first LGBT person of color to be elected to the California Legislature, John Pérez who introduced the current member of the State Board of Equalization to the assembled crowd of about 75 attendees. Other people in attendance were Cary Davidson, Board President of Equality California, Vincent Wong and Andrew Ogilvie (Board Members of The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force), Marshall Wong and Doreena Wong (Board Co-Chairs of API Equality Los Angeles) and Rita Gonzalez (Board President of Bienestar).
When she spoke, Judy Chu gave a number of reasons why she expects to win the race, the first was Experience. She has been representing different portions of the 32nd district for 23 years, having been elected 9 different times in School Board, City Council, Assembly and state Board of Equalization races. The second reason was Money. She said that her goal was to raise $750,000 and has so far raised $425,000 and Governor Schwarzenegger has until Tuesday to announce when the Special Election will occur (which is likely to coincide with the statewide special election already set for Tuesday May 19th). The third was Endorsements, especially Labor. She has been endorsed by all three assemblymembers who represent portions of the 32nd Congressional District: (Chu's husband) Mike Eng (49th AD), Kevin de Leon (45th AD where MadProfessah lives and serves as an elected representative on the Democratic State Central Committee) and Ed Hernandez (57th AD).
In addition, she said that she has been endorsed by all 7 of the 7 police officers associations in the district as well as 75 elected officials who represent portions of the 32nd CD while "her opponent" has only 10 elected officials. In addition, Chu has been endorsed by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, which has identified 40, 000 union households in the district. In a 15% turnout election, it probably takes less than 20,000 votes to win the Democratic primary, which is tantamount to winning the election in such a Democratic-leaning CD.
Chu never actually mentioned Gil Cedillo by name until she was asked by an audience member how many other people were running and then she explained that there are 5 other people running but characterized her and State Senator Cedillo as the two "major candidates" in the race. She invited people to her campaign kick-off event on Saturday March 14th.
The 32nd Congressional District contains 10 separate cities: El Monte, South El Monte, West Covina, Azusa, Covina, Rosemead, Baldwin Park, Monterey Park, Duarte and Irwindale. It is estimated to be 60% Latino and 20% Asian. However, it looks like ths CA-32 race is going to be hard-fought but not as racially divisive as the CA-37 race was in summer 2007 between African Americans (Laura Richardson) and Latinos (Jenny Oropeza) over the the late Juanita Millender McDonald's seat that was won by Richardson.
Some news was made at the 45th Assembly District elections on Sunday January 11th where MadProfessahwas elected to the California Democratic State Central Committee. State Senator Gloria Romero who last week announced that she would not run for Hilda Solis' soon-to-be-vacant seat in the 31st Congressional district was present at Arco Iris Restaurant in Highland Park and while there she endorsed current LA Unified School District Board President Monica Garcia as her immediate successor to the 24th State Senate district. This must have been something of a surprise toAssemblymember Kevin De León, whose chief of staff was in the room and running the DSCC elections. De León is termed out in 2012, but surely he was hoping to be promoted to the upper chamber and would have considered running for the 24th District seat in 2010.
Since I live in both AD-45 and SD-24 as well as Garcia's Los Angeles school district (#2) I will be keeping close tabs on this race.
Monica Garcia has a lesbian sister and was very outspoken in her opposition to Proposition 8. I know that she is very close to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and has been seen as his strongest surrogate on the school board. De León is also a favorite of the Mayor's, and is often described as "the BFF" of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez.
So there has been quite a tempest in a teapot brewing over the reports that the Equality Summit set for January 24th at the Los Angeles Convention Center to discuss how to obtain marriage equality in California will not be completely open to the media.
People on LGBT blogs have been howling that this is just another example of the NO ON PROP 8 folks trying to be "secretive" and keep out the netroots and community-based activists.
All the major LGBT blogs Joe.My.God, Pam's House Blend, TowleRoad ran with the story which was clearly fueled by longtime lesbian activist Robin Tyler who was unhappy when the vote on whether to not have a strategic planning summit open to the media had gone against her wishes and resigned in protest.
As someone who is on the call and is still on the Planning Committee for the Equality Summit let me tell you the real deal. Only one blog got it right and it isn't one that you would expect...
I am re-posting this diary for Bruce Hahne (a NO ON 8 "super-volunteer") who posted it on Daily Kos earlier today. It deserves to get much wider attention. I like the fact that it not only includes criticisms of the NO ON PROP 8 campaign from an insider but also recommendations on what to do in the next anti-gay ballot measure campaign. I asked Bruce for permission to re-post it to Calitics and he gave it freely.
The post is (VERY LONG) and divided in two parts:
PART I: Problems with the no-on-8 campaign
and
PART II: Recommendations
(The impact has been joined. - promoted by Dante Atkins (hekebolos))
Yes, Ventura, there is a Progressive Left--and it came in force today for Join the Impact. It's a common joke here that we live in "Ventucky", though our situation less resembles that of the deep South and more that of a clinging outpost of Red, stuck between the swaths of Blue that are Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. We have the gag-worthy Gallegly as our representative, and even unprincipled liars like Tony Strickland somehow manage to attract over half the population here to vote for them. True, the demographics have been changing with voter registrations to match, but that has translated neither into electoral gains nor significant grassroots activity in the Democratic and progressive community--though that is changing due to the tireless efforts of people like our new VCDP Communications Director Brian Leshon.
But today a sea of Blue washed up on the Ventura shores in front of the Old San Buenaventura Mission to let Ventura and all of California know that yes, we do exist. And no, we're not taking it lying down anymore. Unfortunately, the pictures here don't do the crowd justice; an amateur photographer is emailing me some pics that I'll be putting up as soon as I get them.
Xposted on mydesert.com, the online edition of the Desert Sun
Rally this afternoon in Palm Springs and tomorrow afternoon in Beaumont to protest the unconstitutional removal of 'fundamental right to marry' for gays and lesbians:
Beaumont City Councilmember Roger Berg was 'arrested' for assault on a woman during a No on Proposition 8 demonstration in Beaumont on Monday, November 3, 2008. In an interview on Tuesday, Betty McMillion, Riverside County Democratic Central Committee chair told BluePalmSpringsBoyz, that Berg had been placed under 'citizen's arrest' by the victim and that police reports had been filed against him. Additionally, a minor filmed and audioed the aggression and has turned copies over to Beaumont police and the District Attorney's office for further investigation.
During Election 2008, spontaneous rallies took place around Beaumont, a city in the San Gorgonio Pass region of Riverside County, midway between Palm Springs and Redlands. A handful of young adults and older teens would gather at major intersections and crowds would gather to protest Proposition 8. Monday was just such a demonstration.
Portions XPosted 8/3/2008 11:23 AM PDT on MyDesert.com
According to one of my activist friends, a former deacon of a religious extremist church in Utah, who attends an evangelical megachurch in the Coachella Valley in order to monitor its adherence to the tax code as it applies to its tax exempt status, churches across America today began '100 Days of Prayer' against Marriage Equality and cajolled their members and attendees to vote in favor of Proposition 8 and defeat gay marriage at the polls in November.
Proposition 8 is an amendment to the California State Constitution that would ban Marriage Equality and would dictate that marriage is only between 'a man and a woman.' Prop 8 is another in a long line of attempts by out-of-state religious extremist organizations that attempts to further the religious extremist agenda as a step towards fomenting theocracy rather than democracy in the United States of America:
(Proposition 8) (a)mends the California Constitution to provide that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: The measure would have no fiscal effect on state or local governments. This is because there would be no change to the manner in which marriages are currently recognized by the state. (Initiative 07-0068.) (Full Text)
From the pulpit of the church, directly in violation of the principles of the separation of church and state, church leaders discussed the impending vote on Prop 8 and advised members to not only 'pray' for the success of the proposition, but to also vote for Prop 8. My friend advises that in churchspeak, this use of the term 'pray' means 'send money.'
as her immediate successor to the 24th State Senate district. This must have been something of a surprise to Assemblymember Kevin De León, whose chief of staff was in the room and running the DSCC elections. De León is termed out in 2012, but surely he was hoping to be promoted to the upper chamber and would have considered running for the 24th District seat in 2010.
Yes, Ventura, there is a Progressive Left--and it came in force today for Join the Impact. It's a common joke here that we live in "Ventucky", though our situation less resembles that of the deep South and more that of a clinging outpost of Red, stuck between the swaths of Blue that are Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. We have the gag-worthy Gallegly as our representative, and even unprincipled liars like Tony Strickland somehow manage to attract over half the population here to vote for them. True, the demographics have been changing with