Apply for Camp Courage

From the Camp Courage website:   Inspired by the “Camp Obama” trainings that powered neighbor-to-neighbor organizing across America in 2008, Camp Courage is an intensive two-day training designed to teach the principles and skills of community organizing to activists working to restore marriage equality to California.

Drawing on techniques honed for decades by progressive social movements, Camp Courage teaches empowerment, team building, leadership development, and grassroots organizing skills.  

Camp Courage is designed primarily for new activists or those who have never engaged with the broader community about marriage equality as well as veteran LGBT activists and allies.

WHAT: Camp Courage, for activists and organizers working to repeal Prop 8
WHERE: Fresno, venue provided via email after application is confirmed
WHEN: Saturday, March 7 (8:30 a.m.- 5:30 p.m.) AND Sunday, March 8 (8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.) 
NOTE: There will be a reception on Saturday night, location TBA.

for more information, or to apply to attend visit: http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/applycampcourage

Straight Advocates for Equality

S.A.F.E. is a new, local group that sprung up in the aftermath of Proposition 8 — and thank God they did.  Chances are, we’re going to get to do this whole thing over again on the 2010 ballot and it sure would be nice to have a few more visible friends on our side next time around.  S.A.F.E. has already demonstrated a real commitment to marriage equality and a good deal of organization too, the group had representation at the DOMA protest, the LGBTQQI Townhall, and most recently at the Freedom To Marry event at the Fresno County Clerk’s office.  

From the S.A.F.E. Facebook group site:

With Prop 8 recently passing, we’ve created a group for straight allies of the LGBT/Q community in Fresno, CA. We want to create a space for education, advocacy, and outreach for those straight folks who are interested in equality for ALL. 

S.A.F.E. (Straight Advocates For Equality) is a diverse group of people who are committed to helping our GLBTQ family, friends and community attain their local, state and federal legal & constitutional rights.

Our three main objectives are Outreach, Education and Support:

• To reach out to straight individuals, businesses, houses of worship, etc. and encourage them to ‘come out’ as vocal, visible advocates for equal rights for the GLBTQ community.
• To educate straight individuals, businesses, houses of worship, etc. that full equality for all persons will strengthen families and society as a whole.
• To actively support the efforts of the GLBTQ community in their struggle for fair and equal treatment in this country

Marriage Equality activists at Fresno County Clerk’s office

From GayFresno.com:

Ah, love, sweet love.  And look!  It’s Valentine’s Week!  That week of hearts, roses and cheesy Valentines.   This is the week to sneak that little candy heart to that special person that says “Will U B Mine?”

This is also the week to get married.  How romantic would that be!  The Fresno Mayor has just declared this Celebrate Marriage Week.  How perfect!  A week to celebrate that union of love and togetherness; that sacrament called marriage.

You know, I’m not sure how much more snark I can pull off without my head exploding.  Because today four same-sex couples went before the Fresno County Clerk and asked for marriage licenses and they were denied.  So, this week?  Not so much with the celebration.  No, it was more of a “we can’t believe you people are still trying to make us sit in the back of the bus didn’t we resolve the civil rights issue forty years ago” kind of party.  Except without the party part.

Today was Freedom to Marry Day.  There were about two dozen of us there.  Some of us were there to support.  We had gay supporters and straight supporters.  Straight Advocates for Equality (SAFE) had a table full of information about how straight supporters of gay rights can help out their fellow human beings in their quest for equality.   We had clergy from reconciling and welcoming churches there.  We had Pastor Vickie Armour-Healy from Wesley United Methodist Church and Reverend Bryan Jessup from the Unitarian Universalist Church.  Both were thrilled to be there to show their support of gay marriage and sported buttons saying  “Straight, but not narrow”.

Read the rest and see the pictures and local media coverage at GayFresno.com.  

H/T Jason for the link.

Erase the H8 launches website

Erase the H8 has been one of the most visible and active groups on marriage equality issues in Fresno in the past few months.  They have now brought their activism to the web with the launch of ErasetheH8.com.

From the website:

The ErasetheH8! Campaign is Getting bigger every day. We are a group of people who are dedicated changing the climate here in Fresno. The effect Proposition 8 has had on our lives has been detrimental, and people need to know how it has affected us. What we want is to make a difference; to show people who we are, and that we are all still out here. The more we do, and the more we are able to share with people, the more minds we are able to change. Are you willing to come out? Are willing to stand with us and be heard? 

For more information on Erase The H8′s objectives and events, be sure to visit the website at ErasetheH8.com.

Ballot Initiative language amended to counter church/school argument

This is smart…from a Yes! On Equality press release:

SACRAMENTO – The California-based Yes! On Equality campaign expanded the California Marriage Equality Act today, underlining how marriage equality in California does not threaten state schools or religious institutions.  These previsions were unanimously recommended at the Equality Summit in Los Angeles on the 24th of January.  The initiative set forth seeks to ensure passage of a 2010 ballot initiative enabling equal access to marriage for all Californians in accordance with the California State Constitution.  

The proposed law reads as follows:  

An act to repeal Section 7.5 of Article I of the California Constitution; therefore provisions to be repealed are printed in strike-through text. 
 
Section 1.  Title 
This measure shall be known, and may cited, as the “California Marriage Equality Act.” 

Section 2.   (a) Section 7.5 of Article I of the California Constitution shall be  repealed, stricken, and removed as such: 

Sec. 7.5 Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California

(b) This section is not intended to, and shall not be interpreted to,  modify or change the curriculum in any school. 

(c) This section is not intended to, and shall not be interpreted to, mandate or require clergy of any church to perform a service or duty incongruent with their faith. 

By gathering signatures for the California Marriage Equality Act, Yes! On Equality aims to provide a timely, basic tool to advance equality in California. This campaign seeks to compliment existing grass-roots networks and long-standing community and public- service organizations in California that have struggled to ensure equality for all, and in particular those that have recently fought against Prop 8. The Yes! On Equality website www.yesonequality.com serves as a portal for coalition-building and information for volunteers and everyone interested in marriage equality in California.

Fresno Marriage Equality activists speak at Fresno City Hall

Jason over at GayFresno.com has done a great job assembling the information on yesterday’s proceedings at Fresno City Hall.  Please take a moment to read the articles and watch the video, which is linked from the page (good luck to you mac users, hope you have more success than I).  Make sure you also take a moment to read the prepared comments that are available on the page from Jay Matthew of Erase the H8, Beverly Senkowski of Central California Alliance (CCA), Michael Esswein of Central Valley Yes! on Equality, and Vickye Ashton — these folks did an outstanding job representing our community and we all owe them a debt of gratitude.

Words Matter

cross-posted from The Tuning Fork:

Editor Censors Gay Man’s Obituary

by Matt Algren

I picked up a copy of the new freebie community newspaper last night at the laundromat. They’ve decided to print the headlines in Arial Rounded MT Bold for some reason, but it was otherwise unobjectionable. Objectionable, that is, until I got to the obituaries.

The first one on the page had a picture of a relatively young guy. Turns out he was 50. As I read the family roll call I realized that he must’ve been gay.

Out of Annapolis – Documentary Trailer

From The Tuning Fork:

There’s a new documentary being filmed for release this summer that looks to be a good future resource. Out of Annapolis is being made by LGBT alumni of the US Naval Academy to explain the real-life effect of DADT. 

more about “Out of Annapolis – Documentary Trailer“, posted with vodpod

AFA’s Hate Crimes Lies television program cancelled

Wow, that didn’t take long…

WOW! That didn’t take long!!

From Pam’s House Blend:

WOOD-TV, which was going to air the insulting, inaccurate anti-gay American Family Association propaganda piece “Silencing Christians” (see my prior post, with the video), has decided it won’t air it. An offer to broadcast it at a graveyard time (3PM on a Saturday), was greeted with silence by the AFA, so the program will not see the light of day on the airwaves in Grand Rapids.

AFA’s Hate Crimes Lies

From Bilgrimage:

As a follow up to my last posting about the American Family Association, which notes that AFA has turned its Facebook site into a closed group (http://bilgrimage.blogspot.com/2009/02/targeting-youth-with-anti-gay-lies-afa.html), I’d like to draw attention to a posting at Pam’s House Blend two days ago. Pam Spaulding notes that, identifying itself and “Christians” as “victimized” in contemporary American society, AFA has just launched a Silencing Christians website . Pam links to the AFA site at www.silencingchristians.com.

Pam offers a brilliant breakdown of the site’s bogus claims that “Christians” are being persecuted. As she points out, head to the AFA site, and you’ll see it’s not about Christians at all, but about gays and lesbians—about attacking gays and lesbians in the name of Christianity, and then claiming that one is persecuted when those attacked fight back.

Guess who?

Sound like anybody you know?

…They are easily incited, easily led, rather un-inclined to think for themselves, largely impervious to facts and reason, and rely instead on social support to maintain their beliefs. They bring strong loyalty to their in-groups, have thick-walled, highly compartmentalized minds, use a lot of double standards in their judgments, are surprisingly unprincipled at times, and are often hypocrites.

But they are also Teflon-coated when it comes to guilt….They can be woefully uninformed about things they oppose, but they prefer ignorance and want to make others become as ignorant as they. They are also surprisingly uninformed about the things they say they believe in, and deep, deep, deep down inside many of them have secret doubts about their core belief.

Read more at Pam’s House Blend or download a copy of the whole book (it’s free) here.

2009 Rainbow List of Children’s and Young Adult Books Is Out

From Mombian:

The American Library Association’s 2009 Rainbow List of children’s and young adult books with “significant” LGBT content is now out!

I interviewed the chair of the Rainbow List Committee, Nel Ward, and the article has just appeared at 365gay.com. I can’t crosspost it yet but I hope some of you will go have a read over there.

I’ll refrain from saying much more here, except to briefly note that most of the books this year are about LGBT children and teens. Only one, Michael Harmon’s Last Exit to Normal, has an LGBT parent (a gay dad), and one, Sarah Brannen’s Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, has a character with a gay uncle. Books starring LGBT children and teens are vital, of course; it would just be nice to see more of a balance (and more books for young children, and . . . .) This is not the fault of the Rainbow List Committee; it’s that such books aren’t being published.

Sarah Palin Admits Marriage is a “Business Contract”

cross-posted from Huffington Post’s Big Gay Marriage News Page:

By Lisa Derrick:

Today kicks off Freedom to Marry Week, where LGBTQ+A bloggers will be writing about the the freedom to marry, and supporters of marriage equality have found an unlikely ally in Sarah Palin who said in a her recent interview with Esquire :

[T]here are definitely gonna be tough parts in marriage. You have to look at those tough times and remember that you have essentially a business contract with this person. You’ve signed an agreement: You’re going to be together. And you look at it that way as you work through the tough times, because I guarantee the better time is there on the other side. That’s how we’ve looked at it.

Yup, Palin, that brassy bastion of conservative value, just said marriage is a business contract. She didn’t say “a business contract between a man and a woman,” either.

Denying a class of people the right to enter into a business relationship is discriminatory. It’s time those opposed to same-sex marriage drop their precious word association and realize that there should be one piece of paper that grants the same rights across the board to all adults.

For more of my essay on marriage as a civil contract, click here

Lisa Derrick is La Figa at Firedoglake.com

Marriage Equality Activists speak at Fresno City Hall today

News is just beginning to trickle in.  The Fresno City Council ratified a resolution declaring this week “Celebrate Marriage Week” in Fresno.  The resolution was introduced by new Mayor, Ashley Swearengin.  

From The Fresno Bee:

A group of gay rights activists on Tuesday asked the Fresno City Council for recognition minutes after the council declared this as “Celebrate Marriage Week.”

The group said they supported the idea of celebrating marriage, but encouraged the council to do what was “right and moral.”

“Today so many marriages are in limbo, unsure if the state Supreme Court will invalidate them. I support healthy relationships, whether they are between straight couples or those who are gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender,” said one of the activists, Scott Maldonado of Fresno.

Several members of the group spoke during the public comment period of the meeting. Council members did not reply.

Prop. 8 Supporter Meg Whitman forms exploratory committee for gubernatorial run

 Read more at Pam’s House Blend:

Expression Not Suppression & Cleve Jones in The Bee

From Sunday’s Bee:

When voters passed Proposition 8 and abolished same-sex marriage in California, a lot of young people in the gay community may have felt discouraged. On Saturday, a star of the gay rights movement gave them a pep talk.

Cleve Jones — longtime friend and supporter of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in the state — was the keynote speaker at the Expression Not Suppression conference at First Congregational Church in Fresno. Jones tried to inspire the 275 people in attendance to continue their fight for equal treatment.

“When I came out of the closet, it was a felony for two people of the same sex to have sex,” said Jones, 54. “Don’t ever believe progress doesn’t happen. Change does happen … but only if you do the work.”

read more at  The Fresno Bee:

Uniting American Families Act to be re-introduced on February 12

From Immigration Equality:

 

Great News! Rep. Jerrold Nadler plans to reintroduce the Uniting American Families Act on Feb. 12!

You can make the bill a success by convincing your Representative to support the bill from Day One. Reintroducing the bill with as many cosponsors as possible will show powerful momentum for the rights of gay and lesbian binational couples!

Please call your Representative and ask them to be an original cosponsor of the “Uniting American Families Act of 2009”
It’s easy!

Marriage Equality USA Freedom to Marry Day

Information on Fresno events is available at GayFresno.com

or

Marriage Equality USA, Fresno County Chapter

From Pam’s House Blend:
National Freedom to Marry Day
Date: Feb 12, 2009
Details:

On National Freedom to Marry Day, all Marriage Equality USA® Chapters and Member Organizations will participate in Marriage Equality USA’s National Freedom to Marry Events. Marriage Equality USA® has also partnered with Join the Impact for this national event. Thursday, February 12, 2009, at local marriage counters in cities all over the country, same-sex couples will request marriage licenses at their local County Clerk’s Offices to raise awareness of the harms and impact the inability to marry causes on their families.

Rally at State Capitol, February 16

Just because school’s out, doesn’t mean you can’t get an education…

for more information, visit GayFresno

Freedom to Marry Week: Blogswarm–The Only Agenda is Love

from Mombian:

This Monday, February 9, bloggers in the LGBT community and our allies will be participating in “The Only Agenda Is Love,” a blogswarm in support ofFreedom to Marry Week. By being a part of this effort, you will help contribute to a blogsphere-wide education campaign about ways your readers can help promote fair legislation and rescind anti-equality measures.

We hope you will take a moment to blog on this important issue. Several states, including New York and New Jersey, are poised to consider marriage equality this year. The California Supreme Court will consider the legality of Prop 8 on March 5.

Fidelity

Equality News Bundle

• “A ruling by Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says the Defense of Marriage Act is discriminatory and unconstitutional because it denies partner benefits to spouses of gay federal employees,” read more at Pam’s House Blend.
• “Fred Davie, the openly gay president of Public/Private Ventures,has been named to serve on President Barack Obama’s Policy Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Davie will work to provide objective, nonpartisan advice to the president on a variety of public policy matters, including strategies to increase the effectiveness of social services delivered by community and faith-based organizations” read more at GayPolitics.com
• The No On 8 Executive Committee sat down this week with Equality Camp’s Cathy Brooks to discuss the recent unpleasantness and where we go from here.  Cathy solicited questions via her blogs and several Central Valley activists, including representatives of Erase the H8, Gay Fresno, and Yes! on Equality participated.  You can watch the streams of the interviews here.
• The Mormon Church this week admitted that it spent 100 times more than previously reported, read more at 365Gay.

Freedom to Marry Week: The Other Mother’s blog carnival

From The Other Mother

Next week is Freedom to Marry Week. Who wants to celebrate LOVE?

I hope you will join me in this blog carnival, which we began last year.  The way it works is simple.  Each day next week, post to your blog or facebook page something on these topics, according to the “olde” wedding tradition:

Tuesday, Feb. 10… Something Old

Wednesday, Feb. 11… Something New

Thursday, Feb. 12… Something Borrowed

Friday, Feb. 13… Something Blue

Saturday, Feb. 14… Valentine’s Day: Celebrate Love

Freedom to Marry Week: Web Events

from Freedom to Marry:

People across the country are pledging to take part in 7 Conversations in 7 Days in honor of the 12th annual Freedom to Marry Week, February 8-14, 2009. Join in the pledge today!

Why?  Having conversations is the single most important action you can take towards achieving marriage equality nationwide.

How?  Get involved by joining in any of the 7 different ways to have conversations Feb. 8-14. We will highlight different ways to get involved each day, but feel free to get involved any way possible any day of the week!

Sunday, February 8th: YouTube Challenge

Submit a video to our YouTube Challenge for a chance to win cash prizes.

Christophobia vs. Homophobia