Hello everyone,

The Seattle LGBT Equality March and Rally needs your help. We are looking for volunteers to do some canvassing of the Capitol Hill, downtown, Ballard, Wallingford and other districts in Seattle. We need to get our posters and flyers for the march and rally and for the Approve Referendum 71 campaign out ASAP and we are looking for people to help us do just that. We are hosting a canvassing party on Sunday Sept 27th at 1pm at the Olive Way Starbucks. Come meet us and help get the word out.

In addition, Washington Marriage Alliance has a team for the Lifelong AIDS Alliance AIDS Walk this Saturday Sept 26th at 10am. Please join our team, start one of your own, or walk as an individual. This is also a great opportunity to spread the word about both the equality march and Referendum 71. Please join us at Volunteer Park and walk for a great cause. Our friends at Lifelong AIDS Alliance really need the help this year and the AIDS Walk is a perfect way to lend a hand.

Information for the march can be found on our events page, or by going to www.seattleoutprotest.org.  Information for the AIDS Walk can also be found on our events page and at www.lifelongaidsalliance.org. 

Sincerely,
Meighan Doherty
Washington Marriage Alliance founder

- Posted from OnTop Magazine. Sept 23, 2009

Michael Heath, the face of the anti-gay group Maine Family Policy Council, has resigned, Portland’s Fox affiliate, Fox 23, reported.

The group was the first to call for a “people’s veto” on a gay marriage law approved by lawmakers in the spring.

Michael Heath

Heath has been with the socially conservative group for 15 years, serving as executive director since 1994. He previously helped mount two offensives against pro-gay legislation. The first effort was successful, but voters disagreed in 2005 when he attempted to repeal a law that banned discrimination against gay men and lesbians.

In announcing it would fight against the gay marriage law, the group said: “Homosexuality is very sad, and sinful. Maine must not create a culture that winks at something so debilitating on so many levels. To present this ‘orientation’ as benign to impressionable children is the height of arrogance, and surely qualifies as evil.”

In accepting his resignation, the board said Heath had become a “lightning rod.”

Last year, Heath blamed the nation’s financial crisis on gay unions. Writing at his blog (mikeheath.blogspot.com), he said amending state constitutions to ban gay marriage, and eliminating domestic partnerships and civil unions for gay and lesbian couples would make God “crack a smile.”

He also blamed a gloomy summer on gay marriage, saying at his blog, the “moral climate in Maine has caused the sun to hide its face in shame.”

“In May, our elected officials overturned a law of nature, and in its place paid honor to evil and unnatural practices. … How fitting that this eclipse of human reason is mirrored by the disappearance of the sun,” he said.

While the Maine Family Policy Council was the first to speak out against the gay marriage law, it saw its influence quickly fade when the nation’s most vociferous opponent of gay marriage, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), moved in.

Heath says he’s been marginalized in the fight against gay marriage.

- Posted by Washington Families Standing Together, Spet. 23, 2009

The Approve 71 campaign today released polling data that shows the campaign to protect all of Washington’s families and the state’s domestic partnership law promises to be a tough fight that hinges on strong voter turnout and broad voter contact.

Following certification of R-71 on Sept. 2, 2009, the Approve 71 campaign commissioned Greenberg Quinlan Rosner (GQR) to conduct a statewide survey of voters likely to vote in Washington’s upcoming general election.

“We have seen over the years that an increasing majority of Washingtonians support equality under the law for all Washington families,” said Anne Levinson, Approve 71 campaign chair. “But we know that in an off-year
election voter turnout trends to older, more conservative voters, and as much as half of the general population won’t be voting, so we wanted to ask just likely voters about specific ballot language.”

The poll result numbers strongly suggest it will be a close election.

• When voters are read the exact ballot language, they divide 51 percent “approve” and 44 percent “reject.”

“The poll suggests the same trend we’ve seen across the country, the highest margins of support are among younger voters and those who vote less frequently, particularly urban voters,” Levinson said. “The R-71 election is likely to have a very narrow margin and since the measure was certified so late, we only have a few weeks to reach voters to explain what the domestic partnership law is and how it protects families. It is critical that those who support the law turn out to vote.”

Further complicating matters is the fact that when voters are unsure of what a measure is about, they tend to vote “no.” With R-71, supporters of domestic partnership law have the approve position.

“Every voter who cares about ensuring that all Washington families have equal protection under state law must talk to their friends and family about the importance of voting approve on R-71. Thousands of families across the state are counting on us,” Levinson said.

###

There are now more than 180 community and faith-based organizations, and tens of thousands of people supporting the Approve 71 campaign. Major employers in the region like Microsoft, Boeing, Vulcan, Nike, PSE,
RealNetworks and others have also endorsed the campaign. For a complete list of endorsements and information on the Approve 71 campaign, please visit approve71.org.

Contact:
Sue Evans 253.592.1590 med...@approve71.org
Josh Friedes 206.679.8546 med...@approve71.org

- posted by Joe Mirabella, Seattle LGBT Issues Examiner, Seattle PI, September 22nd, 2009

On a call to bloggers a few minutes ago Josh Friedes from the Approve Referendum 71 campaign shared the results of the first poll specifically about referendum 71. The results are a startling contrast to more general polls released by the University of Washington. When voters are read the exact ballot language, 51 percent approve referendum 71 and 44 percent reject referendum 71. The discrepancy may because this new poll looks only at voters likely to cast ballots in the 2009 off year election. As many as half of all voters don’t vote in off year elections, and those who do tend to be more conservative.

Considering the importance of these rights and obligations to so many Washington families it is troubling the race is going to be so close. If referendum 71 is rejected families will lose vital rights that protect families in times of crisis. You need to vote to approve referendum 71 to keep the domestic partnership law.
Clearly the winner of this election will be determined by voter turn out. We need to turn out the vote and encourage our friends, family and neighbors to vote. If would be a tragedy if families in Washington lost protections because people didn’t mail in their ballots.
Josh Friedes said, “In the 2009 election the question isn’t going to be how much support there is for the domestic partnership law, the question is going to be who votes. There is no question in my mind that the majority of Washington voters want their neighbors families to have the protections contained in the domestic partnership law, but if people don’t vote this election is going to be a cliff hanger. People who support protecting all Washington families need to both vote and remind their friends and family that they too must vote in order to insure that families throughout Washington state do not lose the critical protections by Washington’s domestic partnership law. If this law is not approved, families all across Washington state will be harmed.”
The campaign needs their base to participate in the process. They need volunteers every day. There are always ways to help. If you have a spare hour or two, please consider volunteering.
The approve referendum 71 campaign also needs to raise a lot of money for television advertising. Every contribution is vital to the future of the domestic partnership bill. We all need to do our part or Washington families are in serious danger.

Visit www.approve71.org to find out how you can help.

It has been an amazing ten days. Well over 1200 people came to organizing meetings all across Washington State to discuss how we can work together to protect all Washington families by Approving Referendum 71.

Below are some of the wonderful easy ideas discussed at the meetings that each of us can do. Above all else, we discussed the importance of each of us making sure that our neighbors, friends and family understand how important Approving Referendum 71 is. We must make sure that all Washington families can protect themselves during times of crisis. It has been inspiring to see so many people from all walks of life come to these meetings in solidarity with the LGBT and senior families who will lose basic protections if the domestic partnership law is repealed.

Perhaps the easiest way you can let your friends and family know about Approving Referendum 71 is by forwarding this e-mail to your distribution lists. Thanks!

10 SIMPLE THINGS YOU CAN DO

Phone bank at a call center to spread the word. If you live outside the Seattle/Tacoma Metropolitan area, sign up here to phone bank from home.

Donate online to support the Approve 71 campaign
(or write a check payable to Washington Families Standing Together, and mail it to: Washington Families Standing Together, 603 Stewart St Suite 819, Seattle, WA 98101).

Change your Facebook photo to the Approve 71 icon and talk about Approving 71 in your status messages. If you run a website or blog, please link to Approve71.org with both a text and graphic link. This will be a big help to the campaign to create awareness for the site.

Change your voicemail message to tell your friends and family to Approve Referendum 71.

Print out and distribute informative handouts from our website.

Buy Ref71 Gear such as yardsigns, buttons, T-shirts and bumperstickers at the online Approve 71 Cafe Press store.

Help win over public opinion by writing a Letter to the Editor telling your story, and why your neighbors should Approve Referendum 71. Get started using our online letter writing tool.

Ask the President or the Board of Directors of any organization in which you are a member to endorse the Washington Families Standing Together Approve 71 campaign using this link.

Talk to all your friends, family members and neighbors about the importance of voting to Approve Referendum 71. Think of how many people you interact with everyday, and think of how many conversations you can have about Ref 71. Ask people to take the pledge to Approve Referendum 71, and forward this e-mail to them so we can remind them to vote.

For more great things you can do check out:

WWW.APPROVE71.ORG

Facebook icons are under Spread the Word at the top, and handouts are under Handouts on the right.

-Posted by Joe Mirabella at September 22, 2009, Seattle PI Reader Blogs

Anti equality activists representing the reject 71 campaign released a pamphlet yesterday featuring the Ozzie and Hariet family as their ideal American family. Their central argument is that by allowing equal treatment under the law for ALL Washington families, their ideal is somehow spoiled.

From the pamphlet:

On the cover is a photo of the most traditional American Families [sic] from the 1950′s television series, Ozzie & Hariet. David and Ricky Nelson really had it pretty good. They had a normal mother and father and grandparents. We simply want this for tomorrow’s children and families.

The myths of the idealized 1950s family are false. The reality was not so picture perfect. African Americans were forced to drink from separate drinking fountains. Women rarely enjoyed their own lives and careers. Consequently substance abuse was chronic as women tried to medicate their depression. Spousal abuse was prevalent, but it was not even considered a crime until the 1960s. Those who dared to be honest about their sexual orientation were regularly committed to asylums and forced to have lobotomies with an icepick through the eye, including at Western State Hospital in Washington.

The Nelson family could not even live up to their own myth. For example, Ricky Nelson lost his virginity when he was 14 to a prostitute. And his brother David divorced after having two children with his first wife.

As Lurleen notes at Pam’s House Blend not even the those trying to hurt Washington families live up to their own ideal:

Rep. Matt Shea is divorced, campaign manager Larry Stickney has divorced twice and married three times, and I have it on good authority that campaign attorney and strategist Stephen Pidgeon is on his fourth marriage, leaving children dotted across several states. Did the many children these men produced have the benefit of their biological father at home?

I bring this up not because it is my business how these people live their lives, but because they claim to be the moral authority on the picture perfect family — a family that never existed and never will. Television is different than reality.

If anti equality activists took a moment to look at reality they would realize that our state has a variety of families — some with single parents, others with a mom and dad, some with aunts and uncles raising children, and some with two moms or two dads. There are even families with no children at all. This is the way it always has been and always will be. All these families have one thing in common. They need basic laws to protect their families in times of crisis. By providing these laws we are strengthening the family and society. We must approve referendum 71 to protect ALL Washington families — anything else would be immoral.

- By Becky Pallack
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona
Published: 09.17.2009

Domestic partners are being eliminated from state employee benefits just a year after they were added to the benefits plan.
A bill signed by Gov. Jan Brewer redefined a “dependent,” canceling the rule change made by Gov. Janet Napolitano that allowed domestic partners to receive benefits.
Also eliminated are children of domestic partners, full-time students ages 23-24 and disabled adult dependents. The legislation is in legal review.
About 800 state employees are affected, according to the state’s administration department.
UA President Robert Shelton planned to issue a memo to college employees today alerting them to the change in benefits.
“We need to come up with a way this university can aid these individuals in buying separate coverage,” Shelton said at a staff meeting Tuesday. “Because they’re employees here, they qualify for benefits here, they should just like all of us do — and in this case they’ve been eliminated through a bill that I’m tempted to characterize but will restrain myself from certain adjectives.”
The legal review will determine when the benefits will change, said Alan Ecker, spokesman for the state’s Department of Administration.
It costs the state $3 million to cover domestic partners and $625 million for other employees and their dependents, Ecker said.
Liz Sawyer, a UA staff member, said the exclusion is “deplorable and it’s tragic.”
Sawyer is a spokeswoman for OUTReach, a staff group that lobbies for domestic-partner benefits at UA.
Last year 170 UA employees signed up for domestic-partner benefits, she said. Forty were same-sex couples and the remainder were unmarried, opposite-sex couples, she said.
Shelton’s support for finding alternative coverage when benefits are taken away has been “tremendous,” Sawyer said.
“It’s a real step backwards for this university in terms of being able to compete for the best people,” Shelton said. “I don’t know of any other of our competitive universities that are put in this situation. It’s extremely worrisome.”
Contact reporter Becky Pallack at bpal...@azstarnet.com or 807-8012.

By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk September 21, 2009

Carrie Prejean, the former Miss California, has suggested that divine intervention made her publicly criticise gay marriage.

Prejean was sacked in June for breaching her contract.

Former Miss California Carrie Prejean suggested God had a hand in her comments

Before being dethroned, she had caused controversy by saying marriage should be between “a man and a woman” at the Miss USA pageant in May.

Blogger Perez Hilton was one of the judges. When he asked her directly whether same-sex marriage should be legalised in all US states she replied: “In my country, in my family, I do believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offence to anybody out there. But that’s how I was raised”.

Speaking at the Values Voters Summit in Washington on Friday, Prejean insisted: “God had a plan for me that day.”

She continued: “I’m so proud of the answer that I gave. God chose me for that moment.

“I was a woman who stood up for the truth and people don’t want to admit that. I had the courage and the bravery that a lot of people don’t have.

“I am not defeated, they have not defeated me. They can say whatever they want about me and my faith,” she said. “I always wanted to leave a legacy of courage and boldness and to show that to young people.”

- This post submitted by HRC Policy Assistant Jonathan Monteith, Sept. 19th. 2009 www.hrcbackstory.org

Thirteen years ago today, President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) into law. It was a difficult moment for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, and the consequences continue to be felt every single day. While a series of state-level victories in the fight for marriage equality have finally enabled tens of thousands of loving, same-sex couples across the country to join in marriage over the last few years, DOMA blocks the federal government from recognizing a single one. Millions of Americans are denied federal recognition of marriage and the protections and responsibilities that come with it – Social Security survivors’ benefits, equal treatment under U.S. immigration laws, the right to take leave to care for a spouse, and more.

Lawmakers and LGBT leaders introduce the Respect for Marriage Act to repeal DOMA last week on Capitol Hill

On this unhappy anniversary for LGBT Americans, it is important to acknowledge the considerable progress that has been made in turning the page on DOMA. Just last week, we saw the U.S. House introduction of the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and restore the rights of all lawfully married couples—including same-sex couples—to receive the benefits of marriage under federal law. The RMA also provides same-sex couples with certainty that federal benefits and protections would flow from a valid marriage celebrated in a state where such marriages are legal, even if a couple moves or travels to another state.

President Clinton himself has come a long way on the issue. During last week’s press conference hailing the introduction of the House DOMA repeal bill, RMA lead sponsor Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) read a statement from the former president:

“Throughout my life I have opposed discrimination of any kind. When the Defense of Marriage Act was passed, gay couples could not marry anywhere in the United States or the world for that matter. Thirteen years later, the fabric of our country has changed, and so should this policy.”

The Respect for Marriage Act currently has 95 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives. The Human Rights Campaign is currently working to increase the number of co-sponsors to build support for the bill and ensure the federal government respects all marriages.

- LGBT Issues Examiner Eric Ross, 9/16/09

Gavin Newsom has been trailing in the polls for governor recently, but that may change really soon since he was just endorsed by former president Bill Clinton. Clinton chose to back San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom for California governor over state Attorney General Jerry Brown. Even though it’s still early in the race, Clinton’s endorsement is huge.

“In 1992, Bill Clinton beat Jerry Brown in California by 7 points,” said Art Torres, a former state lawmaker who headed the California Democratic Party for 14 years. “He then beat Bush by 13 points in the general, and then in last year’s presidential campaign, Hillary [Clinton] beat Obama by 9 points including a 67-to-32 margin among Latinos.”

Clinton also carried 43 of the state’s 58 counties when he ran against Brown in 1992. “California is still Clinton country in many ways,” said state Sen. Alex Padilla and chairman of Newsom’s campaign. “We are proud supporters of Barack Obama, but we have not forgotten what the Clintons did for California.”

Newsom and Clinton will participate in two events together in Los Angeles on October 5, the Newsom for California campaign announced yesterday. Details for the events are still in development and will be released in the forthcoming days; however one is expected to be a public event in East L.A. and the other is expected to be a fundraiser in Los Angeles.

What does this alliance mean for the LGBT community? Well, Newsom strongly believes in LGBT equality and made national headlines in 2004 when he directed the San Francisco city-county clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples even though same-sex marriages were not legal in California. Clinton also supports LGBT rights and yesterday, he endorsed the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and allow same-sex couples to be recognized by the Federal government. Could this new and public alliance help Newsom win the election? Could it increase the odds of repealing Proposition 8 in 2010, and ultimately restore marriage equality in California? What are your thoughts readers? Leave your comments below.