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   Act On Principles has created new tools to make sure you can find out where your Senators and Representatives stand on ALL of the LGBT legislation as designated by the Equality Caucus. We are currently in the process to ensure all 535 voting members of Congress receive a survey directly from Act On Principles. However, we need your help to ensure that the various offices in the House and Senate complete the survey, and provide the information that we need. Public Whip Count Tools:Instructions for Contacting Congress1. Contact the Congressional offices that you want to get information from. Call the District or Washington office using information from www.house.gov or www.senate.gov. Let them know that you are sending them a survey on LGBT legislation. 2. Provide the appropriate survey for the office that you are contacting. Use the US House of Representatives survey for Representatives. Use the US Senate Survey for Senators. 4. Ask the staffer or Member “Hi, I would like to know if you can fill out a survey on where you stand on all pieces of LGBT specific legislation as designated by the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus. I am asking that you provide the position based on the accepted whip count terminology.” 5. Collect survey(s) from the Congressional office(s) you have contacted. You might have to do follow-up calls and emails. 6. Share the information that you collected with Act On Principles in one of the following three ways: a.) Enter information into appropriate Public Whip Count for Act on Principles at www.actonprinciples.org. B.) Email or scan responses to whipcount@actonprinciples.com. c.) Fax to 305-723-0299. Your encouragement and persistence to get your Representatives to fill out the survey will be helpful in gathering information for our Public Whip Count. Act On Principles will be creating special webpage to list all of the members who have completed the survey as requested. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact us.
Get ready for this campaign to rock the world of anti-gay New York Senators. Cynthia Nixon joins the cause, giving my favorite quote in any LGBT advocacy video that I have ever seen before: “We’ve tried the carrot, now its time for the stick!”
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Unite and Fight: Strategizing for LGBTQ Civil Rights and Equality *** REGISTRATION CLOSES THIS FRIDAY AT NOON *** Schedule Available Online (subject to change) Please visit our website at: *********************************** On the weekend of March 12–14 activists from across the Midwest will gather to discuss and debate many of the issues we currently face as a movement today. Check out the blog listed above for the full program (subject to change). In addition there will be artists performing and showing their work, music, dancing and lots of time to hang out and socialize with other LGBTQ activists and allies in the region. Don’t miss the opportunity to build unity and meet new activist friends in Chicago, March 12–14, 2010. Featuring: If you’re not in Chicago but in the Midwest, join us via conference call on Sunday, March 7th from 6-7:30 pm CST. Click the link below for call in information. http://eaamidwestconference.wordpress.com/
(No Ratings Yet) From a FaceBook friend of Act On Principles: Massachusetts became the 1st state to sue the U.S. government on July 8, 2009 over the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denies married same-sex couples all 1,138 federal marriage benefits. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley contends in the lawsuit that DOMA “constitutes an overreaching and discriminatory federal law.” You can view the full complaint here: http://www.mass.gov/Cago/docs/press/2009_07_08_doma_complaint.pdf Marriage Equality has also been the law of the land in Connecticut since November 12, 2008. We ran a campaign in August of 2009 urging then Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to defend state law — marriage equality. AG Blumenthal promptly responded to our campaign, “We are monitoring Massachusetts’ action and listening to views and opinions expressed by advocates on all sides of the issue.” However, before AG Blumenthal could make a final decision he has decided to not run for reelection and is instead running for Senate. Thus far, there are 3 Democrats and 3 Republican who have announced their candidacies for Attorney General. Since marriage equality is indeed the law in Connecticut, we are asking those 6 Attorney General candidates if they will follow Massachusetts’ lead and stand up for the citizens and laws of their state by filing a lawsuit against the federal Defense of Marriage Act. FYI, in addition to the Attorney General having a duty to defend state law, defending marriage equality just so happens to be the politically expedient action to take. The majority of Connecticut citizens support marriage equality and those numbers continue to grow. http://www.columbia.edu/~jrl2124/Lax_Phillips_Gay_Policy_Responsiveness_2009.pdf So let’s ask all 6 Attorney General candidates if elected, they would defend state law, marriage equality, and file a lawsuit against DOMA! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=355072194694
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(No Ratings Yet) From Project 1138: What Is Project 1138?: Project 1138 is designed to increase public awareness of the 1,138 federal marital benefits and protections denied to same-sex couples as the result of marriage inequality. How Did It Originate?: On September 5, 1996, Congressman Henry Hyde sent a request to the General Accounting Office of the United States. In it, he asked how many federal benefits were contingent on marital status. In response, the GAO identified 1,049 federal laws in which martial status applied. January 31, 1997 letter to Henry Hyde In January 1997, Senator Bill Frist asked the GAO to update this number. Due to changes in laws over the previous seven years, the number of federal benefits had increased to 1,138. January 23, 2004 letter to Bill Frist Share Your Story! Here is the latest story shared on the site: Wednesday, March 3, 2010 Michael & Tony http://www.1138project.blogspot.com/
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From Dr. Jillian T. Weiss at Bilerico On Tuesday, March 16, there will be a lobby day specifically for ENDA in Washington, D.C.. LGBT people and allies from around the country who support ENDA will be there. I will be there. Will you? It is particularly important to ENDA that people attend from the eight states in which Senators are on the fence. If you live in one of these states, you hold the fate of ENDA in your hands. If you are from one of these eight states, and you are a currently-unemployed LGBT person who is unemployed because of job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, the Bilerico Project would like to help you get there. * Alaska This is too important to be limited to only middle or upper class people who can afford a ticket. Bilerico is excited to be partnering with PFLAG National to support PFLAG’s policy work in order to bring people with stories of discrimination to Capitol Hill. If you would like to donate to help this effort, we would welcome your assistance. More info after the jump. I cannot guarantee that we will be able to accommodate you, but I will make every effort to accommodate all those whose presence would make a difference. Please be as specific as possible in your email about how your presence would make a difference. Include your name, email address and telephone number. The subject line should read “DC LOBBY DAY ASSISTANCE REQUEST.” The deadline is tomorrow, March 5, 2010 at midnight Pacific. To make a donation to this effort please make your checks payable to PFLAG National with a memo line that reads for PFLAG’s policy work. Checks may be mailed to 1828 L St., NW, Suite 660, Washington, DC 20036. You can also donate online but be sure to mark it in honor of PFLAG’s policy work so we know where to apply the funds. There is no deadline for this, but we will need to have the funds in hand shortly in order to use it for the ENDA DC lobby day. Please also send me an email to let me know that you have done so at jillian@bilerico.com so that we can keep apprised of progress.
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As of this morning, for the first time in history, same-sex couples will line up outside the DC Superior Court to apply for marriage licenses. There are so many lessons to be learned from this battle, but I think it is important to note three that really stick out in my mind. First, unlike we have seen on a federal level, incremental change works if, and only if, you see true incremental steps towards equality year-after-year that build upon each other. It took a truly dedicated group of activists in DC to continuously add legal increments towards full marriage equality (and not just promises year after year) to create the opportunity to force full marriage equality. Second, if not for Republican-turned-Independent openly gay councilmember David Catania who was willing to be bold and stand up to an onslaught of criticism from other communities within DC and from our community and force the issue on principle we would not be where we are today. Third, if not for a group of young activists (who were called politically naïve and worse by the supposed “savvy” and “sophisticated” politicos) who created their own organization and refused to back down and bravely took on the entrenched powers in DC we would not be where we are today. I say all this because last year when Councilmember Catania and the the new activist organization DC For Marriage began to force the issue we heard a chorus of criticism that claimed that forcing the issue would alienate, Latinos, women, poor people, church-goers, the Catholic Church, middle-class workers, Congress, African-Americans, etc…..and that forcing the issue would set us back 20 or 30 years, but Catania and others refused to back down and took a principled stand. Sadly, people in our own community said that standing up for principle was a sure way to lose and that we needed to be realistic and pragmatic, others claimed that we needed marriage equality in at least half the states before forcing the issue or we would assuredly lose the battle here at home. We now have marriage equality in the District of Columbia—and last I checked, the sky has not fallen. Have some people been alienated? Sure. Are there discriminatory attitudes and beliefs more important than our families equality? Nope. Will there be a backlash? Sure. But, that is a by-product of exerting leadership and actually fighting for change and is bound to happen no matter what you do to minimize the impact. (And, it is important to note, that lots of work was done to build bridges but discriminatory beliefs and attitudes did not paralyze Catania and others.) Kudos to those in DC and around the country that are willing to show real leadership and are willing to fight and demand for our equality. The time has come.
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From Equality Across America:
