Friday State Sweep

Equality North Carolina's executive director, Ian Palmquist, was invited to the White House for a reception honoring Pride Month.


The Tennessee Equality Project's Grand Divisions blog discusses two types of incremental progress for LGBT equality, what we gain and what we lose.

Equality Florida and the ACLU will give a joint town hall and training on adoption, June 18 and 19.

Election Day revealed support for LGBT and pro-equality candidates in California, reports Equality California. Nearly all of their endorsed candidates won their primary fights.

TransOhio lists some of the presenters for their upcoming 3rd Annual TransOhio Transgender & Ally Symposium, August 13 - 15, 2010.

And


Empire State Pride Agenda emphasizes the importance of straight allies in the workplace through their Pride in My Workplace program.

A reading of the Prop. 8 trial transcripts will be performed June 18 and 19 at the Brody Theater in Portland. 25% of the proceeds will go to benefit Basic Rights Oregon. read on

It's May - Whip Around the States

Students for a Fair Wisconsin reached out to faith leaders.

Small towns are leading the education effort for marriage equality, writes Basic Rights Oregon.

Indiana Equality has many good events coming up.

Equality California notes that the closing arguments for the Prop. 8 trial are set for June 16, 2010.

TransOhio's May newsletter is available online.

A candidate for Tennessee's 8th congressional district who wants to keep "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and laughed about "taking care of" homosexuals in the military, complains that he's being attacked by liberals.

Equality North Carolina reminds you that we need to push and lobby for ENDA. read on

Mid-Week Roundup

"You can't support equality and gay bait." Equality Texas calls out homophobic behavior by Democratic incumbent in primary race.

Equality Maryland introduces a new field director.

The Tennessee Equality Project looks at gubernatorial hopefuls positions on adoption.

There's more to celebrate in Florida than close (35 votes!) win in Gainesville mayoral election. Equality Florida tells us that an equality champion has won a seat in Congress in yesterday's runoff election.

Fair Wisconsin announces four-day intensive training by ally Gay and Lesbian Leadership Institute coming to Minneapolis in June.

Empire State Pride Agenda follows up on teenager's suit against school district for bullying in their weekly sweep.

And there's more,

LGBT community marches in the San Jose Tet parade, reports Equality California.

Indiana Equality let us know that Judy Shepard will be giving a free and public talk in Indianapolis.

The Philippine Supreme Court has ruled to accredit a gay political party challenging a national election (from Equality South Dakota).

Basic Rights Oregon co-hosts an Elton John tribute night. It's a benefit, so break out your rhinestone glasses for equality.

Equality North Carolina congratulates Iowa on its first year of marriage equality.
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State Roundup

TransOhio posts a call for works on transmasculine sexuality.

Indiana Equality posts a video on why it's time for a change.

If you missed National LGBT Health Awareness Week, read about it on Equality North Carolina's blog.

Equality Maryland follows the attempt of a House representative to impeach Attorney General Gansler for Gansler's opinion supporting marriage equality.

Equality California meditates on Cesar Chavez' legacy to all of us.

Empire State Pride Agenda swept the blogs last week.

Equality Florida urges members to take action to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" by signing on to a letter to Senator Bill Nelson.

And the Federation made it possible for thirteen LGBT families from across the country to take part in the White House Easter Egg Roll!
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Midweek Roundup

Equality Maryland celebrates marriage equality in nearby DC.

Empire State Pride Agenda's news sweep catches Harold Ford's decision to drop out of senate race.

TransOhio puts out a call for scholars to develop research on LGBTQI issues in education.

Basic Rights Oregon takes a stand against racism and police violence.

Equality North Carolina looks at changes in public attitudes towards lesbians and gay men in the military.

In Michigan Michigan Equality and Triangle Foundation announce their merger.

Equality Florida covers pressure on state to repeal anti-gay adoption laws. read on

Freedom to Marry Week 2010

It's the thirteenth anniversary of Freedom to Marry Week. in 2010 there are five states that have marriage equality - Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and New Hampshire. The District of Columbia is on the way to join them.

Freedom to Marry has information about the celebrations going on across the country and a great FAQ about marriage equality.

Celebrate, tell your stories February 8 - 14 and every other day of the year for equality.
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Morning Around the States

Indiana Equality promotes a Mass Call Out to advertise LGBT resources at Indiana University.

The Tennessee Equality Project's Grand Divisions Blog uncovers opposition to transgender inclusive anti-discrimination policy at Middle Tennessee State University.

Equality Florida covers President Obama's speech in Tampa, supporting equal benefits for same-sex couples.

Empire State Pride Agenda notes the first Congressional Hearing on DADT in 17 years and an analysis of the Prop. 8 trial from Slate.com

Finally Equality California and California Church IMPACT support a bill by state senator, Mark Leno, that allows clergy to refuse to perform same-sex marriages. This bill is expected to reassure those faith communities who are afraid that marriage equality will force them to go against their beliefs. read on

No Marriage Equality for NJ, Garden State Equality Heads Back to Court

Garden State Equality Chair and CEO Steven Goldstein delivered the remarks below at a news conference in Trenton on Thursday, January 7, 2010, after the New Jersey Senate’s vote on the marriage equality bill.

With today’s vote in the state Senate, the New Jersey legislature defaulted on its constitutional obligation to provide same-sex couples in New Jersey equal protection, as unanimously mandated by the New Jersey Supreme Court in 2006. That’s why we at Garden State Equality are here with our partner Lambda Legal, which has an extraordinary track record of advancing LGBT civil rights in the courts. Now our organizations will announce major news. Our side is going back to court to win marriage equality.

We’ll hear from Lambda Legal in a moment. Let’s be clear about what this news means. We are not waiting out the term of any new Administration to bring equality to same-sex couples in our state.

In 2006, the New Jersey Supreme Court told the legislature it could enact marriage or another structure that provides the equal protection of marriage. But the civil union law failed to do that. Too often, civil union couples too often cannot visit loved ones in hospitals, make medical decisions for their partners or receive equal health benefits from employers. Hospitals and employers have treated civil union couples differently because they’ve been labeled differently. Children have been treated differently at school because their families are labeled differently.

In recent months, including today and at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in December, New Jersey legislators publicly recognized these failures. They publicly acknowledged that the civil union law has not provided equal protection. That’s important. New Jersey legislators themselves said it. Our opponents in the legislature said it.

In other words, though we didn’t achieve our final victory today, we’re better positioned than we were a few months ago to win marriage equality. So if you’re wondering how we feel, it’s complicated. On the one hand, we resent, more than you can imagine, remaining second-class citizens a bit longer. On the other hand, the ball has moved forward. The public record for the courts is mighty, and we’re closer than ever to winning.

In 2006, New Jersey enacted an experiment called civil union. In 2010, New Jersey has a mountain of proof that the experiment has failed.

Now let’s talk about what happened politically.

Things didn’t go our way in the legislature because of one factor: Governor Corzine lost reelection.

After his win in November, Governor-elect Christie persuaded a number of legislators to reverse their support of the bill. Before the election, nearly every neutral observer in New Jersey thought marriage equality was certain to become law in lame duck. It became the zeitgeist in Trenton, with good reason. In contrast to today’s outcome, before the election we had votes to spare in the Senate, including from a number of Republicans.

But the election changed everything and our national opponents changed nothing. They didn’t do much or spend much in New Jersey. As you saw from our thousands of members at the State House these past few weeks who symbolized the massiveness of our campaign, we overwhelmed our opponents on every front – but one. Our opponents had the Governor-elect on their side, and that’s all they needed to have. It’s ironic given that marriage equality wasn’t even an issue in the election, and that the candidates who favored marriage equality together won a majority.

All this said, we extend to Governor-elect Christie an outstretched hand. He will be the Governor of all of us. We ask him to continue the tradition of his Republican predecessors, Christie Whitman and Tom Kean, who always kept an open door to the LGBT community. And though we differ with the Governor-elect on marriage equality, we also seek to explore with him and his Administration the issues on which we may have agreement and can work together.

No political party should write off any constituency. And no party should take any constituency for granted either. Our fundamental right to equality should never have been left to sudden death overtime by the party to which the LGBT community and our allies have been unstintingly loyal and have given so much.

To be clear, we will continue to support those who support us. Over the past five-and-a-half years, the separate Garden State Equality political committee has provided thousands of campaign volunteers and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for supportive candidates through contributions to the organization, or through contributions from individuals directly to candidates.

Of course, when we exceed politicians’ expectations in ways they like, we never hear, you’re going too far, your fervor is too much. That double standard, which other minority communities have heard in their own fights for equality, hurts deeply. And it hurts everyone who stands for equality, including supporters in the majority.

Now there will be a sustained response not only from the LGBT community, but also from straight progressive voters who have been our equal partners. Marriage equality stopped being just a gay issue long ago.

To those who let us all down, here’s our policy: Don’t ask, don’t expect. You can’t take progressives’ money and volunteers with one hand, slap us in the face with the other, and then act astonished when we declare our independence. The marketplace of democracy runs along a two-way street.

Members and friends, today was not an outcome lost, but rather a juncture in an otherwise glorious road to justice. Since Garden State Equality’s founding in 2004, New Jersey has enacted 210 LGBT civil rights laws at the state, county and local levels, a national record. We have 64,000 members – LGBT and straight alike – who have improved the lives of millions. A watchdog organization, eQualityGiving.com, just ranked New Jersey #1 in America for LGBT rights, tied with three other states, and we haven’t even won marriage equality yet.

But we will soon. Cesar Chavez said it best. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the people who feel pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours.

Before I introduce our colleagues from Lambda Legal, some thanks are in order. Thank you to all our Senate sponsors, including prime sponsors Loretta Weinberg and Raymond Lesniak. We appreciate Loretta and Raymond beyond measure for their indefatigable leadership, and extend to them our love. We thank Senators Bill Baroni and Nia Gill – unwavering voices for justice at our committee hearing. We thank all our Assembly sponsors, including prime sponsors Reed Gusciora, Valerie Vainieri Huttle, John McKeon and Mila Jasey. We thank our Governor Corzine and Speaker Roberts for their support. And let me say this about Governor Dick Codey: He’s been an extraordinary champion of equality who kept his word about a Senate vote. Every progressive in New Jersey should view Governor Codey as a hero.

We thank the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Human Rights Campaign, Gill Action, the Civil Marriage Collaborative, the Arcus Foundation and Freedom to Marry, which have given us resources and wisdom. We thank our partners at the state level, including the ACLU of New Jersey, BlueWave, Democracy for America, New Jersey Citizen Action, New Jersey Stonewall Democrats and the state’s progressive voice on the web, Blue Jersey, to which we owe so much.

We thank our spectacular field staff who joined us from across the country. We thank our executive committee, board, staff and donors who make Garden State Equality possible. We thank the New Jersey Lesbian and Gay Coalition for its decades of groundwork. We thank all the supportive staff in the legislature and executive branch. We especially thank our thousands of volunteers – the stars of Garden State Equality – who rallied at the State House and worked in our offices and in the field throughout the year. And if I may, I thank my partner Daniel and all the loved ones of our staff and volunteers who have supported us and sacrificed so much.

Most of all, we thank our colleagues at Lambda Legal, without whom our march toward equality would never have gotten this far. We’re thrilled to reunite with our partner Lambda Legal in the next stage of the battle. Please welcome Leslie Gabel-Brett, Lambda Legal’s director of education and public affairs.
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We'll Be Back, and We'll Win

crossposted from Equality North Carolina's blog

Waking up this morning to the news that Maine voters narrowly approved a measure overturning the marriage equality law passed by the legislature was a kick in the gut. The memory of California's Prop. 8 last year is still fresh.

My thoughts go out to all the families in Maine who will continue to be denied dignity and equality under the law. Many of us will need time to grieve over the fact that a majority of our fellow citizens would vote to deny lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people their full civil rights.

And yet, I'm also encouraged by what happened in Maine. Just under half of voters — tens of thousands of people — voted for marriage equality. While it wasn't enough, let's not forget that just fifteen years ago, few Americans had even heard of the concept of marriage equality for same-sex couples.

We've come a long way fast. And, despite the heartbreaking setback of yesterday's vote, the momentum is still very much on our side.

I also find hope in the phenomenal campaign that the No On 1 team ran. They talked one on one with tens of thousands of voters. They put the faces and stories of same-sex couples and families at the forefront. They engaged leaders from local elected officials to the Governor in the fight for marriage equality.

We even had a number of Equality North Carolina supporters who went up to Maine to help out, and many more who made calls to Maine voters from their homes.

Of course, after some time to grieve, we should look at what worked well and what could be done better next time. But I suspect that in the final analysis we'll see that the work No On 1 did won over thousands and thousands of voters to our side.

The state just wasn't quite there yet. But it will be.

A little history: Maine voters went to the polls four times to vote on nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation. The first three times they rejected it. But Equality Maine didn't give up, and the state legislators who believed in fairness didn't give up. Now it's the law of the land.

We've got to keep fighting in Maine and in every state.

Yesterday, voters in Washington state approved comprehensive domestic partnerships, and in Kalamazoo, Michigan, voters rejected vicious attacks on the transgender community to support the city's nondiscrimination ordinance.

New York and New Jersey have a real chance of passing marriage equality legislation this year. The Federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would protect many workers from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, could become law in the next few months.

All of that's going to take a lot of hard work.

Rest assured, if we do that work, we'll win marriage back in Maine, California, and, eventually we'll win our full civil rights in states like North Carolina and the whole nation. We know how to do it.

I'm in it to win it. Are you?And here is the rest of it. read on