HRC Back Story

...and we're BACK!

Happy New Year!!

We're in for quite a ride this year.  After eight long years under President Bush, we are literally in the last days of an administration that aggresively opposed legislation and stood in the way of policies that would advance LGBT equality.  And now, with the January 20 inauguration day soon approaching, we're looking forward to working with the Obama administration to make sure they carry out their promises of LGBT inclusion they made during the campaign.  Of course, we know that real change and progress does not come overnight - or without a fight.  We've got a lot of work ahead of us and we'll need to call upon our members more than ever to ensure that the new administration takes concrete action on our issues. 

If you're not a member of the Human Rights Campaign, now is the time to join us in our fight!

HRC has launched a new membership drive that we're calling "The New Way Forward." Our goal is to add 2,009 new members before Barack Obama takes his oath of office on January 20.

In a recent email message to our supporters, HRC President Joe Solmonese outlined a few key reasons why becoming a member of the Human Rights Campaign is so important at this crucial moment in our movement:

• First and foremost, we will continue laying the groundwork for full marriage equality, including a repeal of Proposition 8. HRC is taking aggressive action against the lies and fabrications that have held back the tide of equality. We can, and we will, show America that honoring love and commitment is the moral thing to do.

• We will fight so that Judy Shepard doesn't have to spend one more year without her son Matthew's life being honored with a hate crimes law that protects ALL of us.

• We will continue building public support for a fully-inclusive workplace protection, so that LGBT people will no longer suffer discrimination or lose their jobs because of who they are.

• We will fight for the freedom to serve openly in the military; for adoption and foster parenting rights; and for transgender equality as a critical piece of our national civil rights vision.

• In weeks to come, you will hear more about HRC's grassroots, online and other campaigns to channel the anger caused by Prop. 8 and pursue our vision of justice – in the states, workplaces, faith communities, college campuses and beyond.

Not all these things will happen in 2009, but this is a moment we must not let slip by. This is the time to join our movement.

We can't do this without you. HRC is only as strong as the members who support and sustain us. JOIN TODAY.

Dear Friends,

As 2008 draws to a close, America is preparing for the change of our lifetime. Like many LGBT Americans, I have dreamed of and worked for this day to come. In 2009, an ally will occupy the White House. Divisive, anti-gay politics are leaving our executive branch. Our Congress will have more allies than ever. And our next Supreme Court justices will respect our fundamental rights. Through our work, our belief, our unyielding commitment to a better future for ourselves and our families, LGBT people helped to make this happen. All of you who attended Camp Equality training, who volunteered in phone banks, who donated your hard-earned money to a pro-equality candidate, and, most importantly, told your friends and family why our rights matter and how their votes can harm or protect them, to all of you I say thank you. 2008 was OUR year to win.

On the same day that America elected a fair-minded president who is a longstanding ally of civil rights and a professor of constitutional law, voters in California, Arizona, and Florida wrote discrimination into their constitutions. In California, Proposition 8 stripped citizens of the rights that the state's highest court had finally recognized last May. On November 5, as our nation celebrated a historic election, our community's grief turned into anger, and anger turned to action.

LGBT people and allies took to the streets and to the airwaves... we were everywhere. Showing the neighbors who had slighted us who we really are—not just families and friends and coworkers worthy of equal rights, but strong, resilient people who will fight for those rights.

My question to you is, will we?

It's the end of 2008, and the opportunities before us are vast. We can finally pass hate crimes legislation covering our entire community and a fully-inclusive ENDA; we can roll back eight years of bad Bush Administration policy on HIV, workplace protections for federal employees, and benefits for families.

In winning the elections, we did not pass these bills or secure these policies. Rather, we earned a fighting chance to pass them. The election opened a door that had long been locked. But what lies beyond the door is not a room full of treasures; no, what's beyond that door, what we're seeing now, is a steep, spiral staircase. What we won in this election is the chance to climb it. It's more than we've had in my memory, but it's not going to be easy.

And my experience tells me that a "fighting chance" is a good way to describe it, because we're going to have to fight for it.

This is a lesson of Prop 8 and of all of the discriminatory campaigns against us. It's the lesson of eight years of roadblocks to our legislation. The lesson is that when our community is getting ready to win, the other side fights hard. And they fight with lies. When we passed hate crimes in the last Congress, the haters rolled out every lie that they would later use to take away our rights in California. We harm religion. We harm children. We take over the schools. We put preachers in jail. The same lies.

In a way, it's comforting. I mean, if it were palatable to be an out-and-out bigot these days, our opponents could simply take out ads that say "hate the gays? Vote yes on 8!" But we are past that today. Today, people will turn against us if they're given a reason to fear us. And the same few lies serve that purpose every time—whether it's hate crimes or marriage at stake.

Our job is to beat back those same lies. Every time. When hate crimes comes up for a vote in 2009, will those of us who are standing up against the Prop 8 haters come out against those who would kill this bill? We must. We must stand up. We must never forget that even as we focus on the right to marry and the economic and spiritual benefits that it brings, we have a duty to protect our entire community's right to live without fear of being attacked for who we are. And we have a duty to stand up in this fight, and win it, because passing hate crimes legislation ten years after Matthew Shepard's death is a step toward marriage and every other community goal.

And like a spiral staircase, each step upward is a step in full circle: back to facing our enemies, back to the same set of falsehoods that every campaign against us uses, back to the same slanders, the same tired old bigoted players. But I do believe that we are climbing upward, even though we have not yet achieved so many of our goals. More Americans support marriage than ever before, and even in California, Prop 8 succeeded by far less than another anti-marriage initiative just eight years ago. Young people, LGBT or not, overwhelmingly believe in our rights, and are increasingly fighting for them. Employers are treating our families equally; faith communities are embracing us. Although we find ourselves facing the same people again and again, I truly believe that with each year that passes, we do so from higher ground.

But we cannot reach the top if we do not keep the heat on the other side, calling them to task. We cannot reach the top if we do not invest the same energy, time, and even anger into federal laws and policies that we have invested in fighting Proposition 8.

I know that especially after losing California, it is difficult to imagine how working on hate crimes, or an inclusive ENDA, or family benefits, or fair federal workplace policies, is going to move the ball forward for marriage. But it's clear to me that this is our path—upward and around, steadily and surely. It's clear to the right wing, which is why they try to block every measure that would help our community at all.

Martin Luther King once said that faith is taking the first step when you don't see the whole staircase. Many of you took that first step in speaking out against Proposition 8, or volunteering for Barack Obama, or coming out. Our equality—in our families, in our workplaces, and in our communities—is that staircase. It is linked together, and one measure follows from the next.

In this holiday season, we too, the LGBT community, are linked together with one future, one path, and one monumental task: to fight hate with truth. That is the next step that we will take together.

Happy holidays, and a happy new year.

Warmly,

This following is from HRC Legal Fellow Sarah Warbelow.

Every year, federal courts make decisions that have a direct impact on students.  The decisions cover topics ranging from free speech rights to school integration policies to athletic opportunities. In 2004, HRC received a grant from the Open Society Institute to create the Justice for All program, an investigation into the relationship between federal courts and civil rights with a special focus on the LGBT community. Most recently, Justice for All has provided a curriculum guide to more than 500 educators across the country.

Students often find after learning about significant court cases that they disagree with their classmates, both on the importance of these cases and on whether these decisions bring negative or positive changes. As part of our effort to facilitate critical thinking by students, the Justice for All program has developed an essay contest to encourage students to share their thoughts.

U.S. High school students are invited to explore “How Civil Rights Decisions Affect my Educational Experiences” in a 400-600 word essay. The winner will get his or her essay published on HRC’s Justice for All website and receive a special certificate, an HRC t-shirt, and recognition in Equality magazine. Submissions are due no later than December 15th.

To learn more about the essay contest, find out about Justice for All program resources, or to request a curriculum, please visit www.hrc.org/justiceforall.

The same day a Florida circuit court ruled its ban on gay adoption unconstitutional, Candace Gingrich, HRC's youth and campus outreach senior manager, made an appearance tonight on MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" to continue the dialogue on Prop 8 and the fight for marriage equality.  During her segment (#1 on the Countdown, BTW), Candace made the important point that allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry does not threaten anyone's marriage and is not something people have to fear.

Watch the video here: 

Candace also published a must-read letter to her brother Newt Gingrich that has been viewed over 260,000 times since it was posted on Huffington Post this past weekend:

I recently had the displeasure of watching you bash the protestors of the Prop 8 marriage ban to Bill O’Reilly on FOX News.  I must say, after years of watching you build your career by stirring up the fears and prejudices of the far right, I feel compelled to use the words of your idol, Ronald Reagan, “There you go, again.”

However, I realize that you may have been a little preoccupied lately with planning your resurrection as the savior of your party, so I thought I would fill you in on a few important developments you might have overlooked. 

The truth is that you’re living in a world that no longer exists.  I, along with millions of Americans, clearly see the world the way it as - and we embrace what it can be.   You, on the other hand, seem incapable of looking for new ideas or moving beyond what worked in the past. 

[...]

What really worries me is that you are always willing to use LGBT Americans as political weapons to further your ambitions.   That’s really so ‘90s, Newt.    In this day and age, it’s embarrassing to watch you talk like that.   You should be more afraid of the new political climate in America, because, there is no place for you in it.

In other words, stop being a hater, big bro.

 

This letter from HRC's Candace Gingrich responding to her brother Newt calling Prop 8 protestors "gay and secular fascists" is cross-posted on Huffington Post:

Dear Newt,

I recently had the displeasure of watching you bash the protestors of the Prop 8 marriage ban to Bill O’Reilly on FOX News.  I must say, after years of watching you build your career by stirring up the fears and prejudices of the far right, I feel compelled to use the words of your idol, Ronald Reagan, “There you go, again.”

However, I realize that you may have been a little preoccupied lately with planning your resurrection as the savior of your party, so I thought I would fill you in on a few important developments you might have overlooked. 

The truth is that you’re living in a world that no longer exists.  I, along with millions of Americans, clearly see the world the way it as - and we embrace what it can be.   You, on the other hand, seem incapable of looking for new ideas or moving beyond what worked in the past. 

Welcome to the 21st century, big bro.  I can understand why you’re so afraid of the energy that has been unleashed after gay and lesbian couples had their rights stripped away from them by a hateful campaign.   I can see why you’re sounding the alarm against the activists who use all the latest tech tools to build these rallies from the ground up in cities across the country. 

This unstoppable progress has at its core a group we at HRC call Generation Equality. They are the most supportive of full LGBT equality than any American generation ever – and when it comes to the politics of division, well, they don’t roll that way.  18-24 year olds voted overwhelmingly against Prop 8 and overwhelmingly for Barack Obama.  And the numbers of  young progressive voters will only continue to grow.  According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning, about 23 million 18-29 year olds voted on Nov. 4, 2008 – the most young voters ever to cast a ballot in a presidential election. That’s an increase of 3 million more voters compared to 2004.

These are the same people who helped elect Barack Obama and sent a decisive message to your party.  These young people are the future and their energy will continue to drive our country forward.  Even older Americans are turning their backs on the politics of fear and demagoguery that you and your cronies have perfected over the years. 

This is a movement of the people that you most fear.  It’s a movement of progress – and your words on FOX News only show how truly desperate you are to maintain control of a world that is changing before your very eyes. 

Then again, we’ve seen these tactics before.  We know how much the right likes to play political and cultural hardball, and then turn around and accuse us of lashing out first.   You give a pass to a religious group – one that looks down upon minorities and women – when they use their money and membership roles to roll back the rights of others, and then you label us “fascists” when we fight back.   You belittle the relationships of gay and lesbian couples, and yet somehow neglect to explain who anointed you the protector of “traditional” marriage.    And, of course, you’ve also mastered taking the foolish actions of a few people and then indicting an entire population based on those mistakes.    I fail to see how any of these patterns coincide with the values of “historic Christianity” you claim to champion.

Again, nothing new here.  This is just more of the blatant hypocrisy we’re used to hearing.

What really worries me is that you are always willing to use LGBT Americans as political weapons to further your ambitions.   That’s really so ‘90s, Newt.    In this day and age, it’s embarrassing to watch you talk like that.   You should be more afraid of the new political climate in America, because, there is no place for you in it.

In other words, stop being a hater, big bro.

President-elect Obama's transition team has newly published their vision of support for the civil rights and LGBT community in a straightforward - and timely - plan outlined at Change.gov.

This series of supportive statements on key LGBT issues, including the full repeal of DOMA, is an encouraging sign that our community will indeed have a seat at the new administration's table:

Support for the LGBT Community:

"While we have come a long way since the Stonewall riots in 1969, we still have a lot of work to do. Too often, the issue of LGBT rights is exploited by those seeking to divide us. But at its core, this issue is about who we are as Americans. It's about whether this nation is going to live up to its founding promise of equality by treating all its citizens with dignity and respect."

-- Barack Obama, June 1, 2007

The Obama-Biden Plan:

• Expand Hate Crimes Statutes: In 2004, crimes against LGBT Americans constituted the third-highest category of hate crime reported and made up more than 15 percent of such crimes. Barack Obama cosponsored legislation that would expand federal jurisdiction to include violent hate crimes perpetrated because of race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or physical disability. As a state senator, Obama passed tough legislation that made hate crimes and conspiracy to commit them against the law.
• Fight Workplace Discrimination: Barack Obama supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and believes that our anti-discrimination employment laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. While an increasing number of employers have extended benefits to their employees' domestic partners, discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace occurs with no federal legal remedy. Obama also sponsored legislation in the Illinois State Senate that would ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
• Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples: Barack Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples. Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions. These rights and benefits include the right to assist a loved one in times of emergency, the right to equal health insurance and other employment benefits, and property rights.
• Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage: Barack Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006 which would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman and prevented judicial extension of marriage-like rights to same-sex or other unmarried couples.
• Repeal Don't Ask-Don't Tell: Barack Obama agrees with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili and other military experts that we need to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The key test for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness to serve. Discrimination should be prohibited. The U.S. government has spent millions of dollars replacing troops kicked out of the military because of their sexual orientation. Additionally, more than 300 language experts have been fired under this policy, including more than 50 who are fluent in Arabic. Obama will work with military leaders to repeal the current policy and ensure it helps accomplish our national defense goals.
• Expand Adoption Rights: Barack Obama believes that we must ensure adoption rights for all couples and individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation. He thinks that a child will benefit from a healthy and loving home, whether the parents are gay or not.
• Promote AIDS Prevention: In the first year of his presidency, Barack Obama will develop and begin to implement a comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy that includes all federal agencies. The strategy will be designed to reduce HIV infections, increase access to care and reduce HIV-related health disparities. Obama will support common sense approaches including age-appropriate sex education that includes information about contraception, combating infection within our prison population through education and contraception, and distributing contraceptives through our public health system. Obama also supports lifting the federal ban on needle exchange, which could dramatically reduce rates of infection among drug users. Obama has also been willing to confront the stigma -- too often tied to homophobia -- that continues to surround HIV/AIDS. He will continue to speak out on this issue as president.
• Empower Women to Prevent HIV/AIDS: In the United States, the percentage of women diagnosed with AIDS has quadrupled over the last 20 years. Today, women account for more than one quarter of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses. Barack Obama introduced the Microbicide Development Act, which will accelerate the development of products that empower women in the battle against AIDS. Microbicides are a class of products currently under development that women apply topically to prevent transmission of HIV and other infections.

NOTE FROM CHRIS: My colleague Trevor Thomas reminded me that the above outline is identical to Obama's statement of support for the LGBT community that he posted on his campaign site months ago. In other words, President-elect Obama has been declaring his support for LGBT inclusion since the beginning of his campaign - and he's essentially reiterating his long-held vision for expanding LGBT rights now as he prepares to become the next president of the United States.  That's a great point to note. Thanks, Trev!

Over a hundred staff, faculty, and students from the University of California San Francisco Medical Center gathered on Wednesday to hear a star-studded cast of campaign leaders, including HRC's National Field Director Marty Rouse (pictured below with California Supreme Court marriage case plaintiffs Stuart Gaffney and John Lewis). 

Other speakers included executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, Joel Ginsberg, and California State Assemblyman Mark Leno.  Tim Kelly, a professor of pediatrics, blasted the Yes campaign for its deceitful, manipulative use of children in their campaign ads.  Scenes from the rally were used nationally in the CBS evening news on Thursday. 

The UCSF campus has raised over $136,000 for the HRC California Marriage PAC, including an additional $7000 in the last two days.

 

Today, Sue LaVaccare, a member of HRC's Board of Governors, and Carmen Salgado, co-chair of HRC-LA's Diversity subcommittee spoke to hundreds of youth, ages 14 to 23 at Models of Pride in Los Angeles about voting No on Prop 8 and about the work of HRC! 

The youth LOVED the No on 8 pins and stickers and talked about giving them to their parents. They also took hundreds of HRC pamphlets on coming out. 

Some teachers, parents and adult community leaders also stopped by to ask questions, take HRC pamphlets and No on Prop 8 buttons and Stickers.

Here are pictures from the event:

[Left: Jackie Barriga, Kennedy Barriga and Desiree Garcia. Right: Carmen Salgado talking to MOP attendees.]

[Left: Carmen Salgado talking to MOP attendees. Right: Sue and Carmen after a successful day at MOP.]

This quick report comes to us from Beth Ann Lennon, the HRC Campaign College participant working in Alaska on the Mark Begich U.S. Senate campaign.

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Greetings from Alaska!  Featured here is the Anchorage field staff – the roughest, toughest organizers in America, including yours truly the HRC Campaign College recruit, Beth Ann Lennon.

When we head out to canvass, the temperature is usually below twenty degrees and we have to keep an eye out for roaming bears or moose. But we are ready and willing to do whatever it takes to send Ted Stevens packing and send Mark Begich to Washington as one more fair-minded voice in the U.S. Senate.

Actors Sean Penn (pictured, left), James Franco, Josh Brolin, Diane Lane, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna and others hit the red carpet on Tuesday at San Francisco's Castro Theatre for the world premiere of Gus Van Sant's  "Milk", the long awaited film on the life of Harvey Milk, America's first openly gay elected official.

The mix of Hollywood and political stars, including San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, District Attorney Kamala Harris, Assemblyman Mark Leno, and City Treasurer Jose Cisneros, were greeted by reporters and flashing lights -- and hundreds of marriage equality supporters demonstrating against Prop 8. Our very own Rachel Balick even took part in the rally with Terry McGuire, one of our field organizers (pictured, bottom right).

Marty Rouse, HRC's national field director, sent us a few photos from the streets:

To get the full effect of the No on Prop 8 rally at the premiere, you have to watch this video: