Porterville City Council needs to hear from you, in your own words ASAP regarding this Tuesday's Resolution written by Cameron Hamilton in which he would have Porterville officially condemn Mark Leno's SB54 bill which clarifies the State's position for same sex couples that are legally married in other states.
And we need you to write and to attend Tuesday's meeting which is sure to be dramatic. We need you if you care about SSM and even if you do not live in Porterville.
Note how former-Mayor Hamilton admits Prop 8 is discriminatory, but that it is fine for "the People" to enshrine discrimination in the law by majority vote.
We have worked for 11 months to educate Council regarding their errors in last September's Resolution urging local citizens to vote for Prop 8.
Now is the time for a great push to get the vote we need.
We have pointed out repeatedly at every public meeting how voting in favor of anti-SSM Resolutions is:
- bad governance,
- destructive to Porterville' s reputation in the economic development industry,
- divisive where we need to be inclusive for the City to be the best it can be,
- not proper for a City Council to consider at all as SSM is a State and Federal matter
We have indications that the vote will go our way -
that means that Hamilton's Resolution will be voted down. That would be a remarkable reversal of last year's unanimous votes.
But we can not count our chickens before they hatch!
Our opposition has been quiet for a while, and I have heard they expect to turn busloads of church goers out to Tuesday's meeting. They were shocked and outraged at the reversal Councilmen Pedro Martinez, Felipe Martinez and Mayor Pete McCracken when they didn't simply rubber-stamp Hamilton's hateful proposal this time.
WE NEED YOUR IMMEDIATE HELP!
The opposition has been flooding all Councilmembers with cut and paste letters. Yes, they can't come to the meetings and they can't write their own damn letters.
But you can!
And you will! :)
The meeting is at 7PM on Tuesday August 4 at City Hall on Main Street in Porterville.
Please write each member, and copy me on the mail so I can keep track of how much mail each is getting. And let me know by email (bcaplan@gmail. com) if you will be attending the meeting.
A major slash to the State Budget made today by the Governor
will result in critical changes to health services for the people of
California. HIV/AIDS programs were drastically compromised by the Governor's
actions. Read the story here: Schwarzenegger
Slashes Health Care To Create A Surplus
The
Get Engaged
Tour , organized by Marriage Equality USA, was a recent set of
meetings held throughout the state of California, including one here in Fresno,
which I participated in with other local LGBT groups and activists. The
meetings solicited communities to come out, listen to results of polling data
concerning public opinion on same sex marriage, and to offer up opinions and
ideas of how the battle for marriage equality should move forward. The tour
ended a couple of weeks ago, with the results shared at a summit held last
weekend in San Bernardino. You can watch some of the video of the summit HERE. (Apparently technical problems resulted in
some video being lost, and be prepared for a difficult time watching some of
the meeting, as the camera was swung and jerked around far too much and audio
is less than great. How about setting the camera up in one place in the back of
the room so we don't get a headache and we can at least follow the
conversation?)
From
virtually all honest accounts, the meeting was not good. Contentious and
divided, there still seems to be no clear strategy in sight. Unite The Fight
called the meeting an utter failure on their blog, going into great
detail about our now fractured movement. The blog hit more than a few nails on
the head when it pointed out that anyone with a different point of view in this
movement is ridiculed and has their head bitten off, and that a few massive egos
are derailing any chance of unity simply because they want to be the ones with
the brass ring in their hand at the end of the ride. (I'll add that I couldn't
find anything on the Unite the Fight site about who runs it, and blog entries
are simply credited to "Unite The Fight". And with such a strong
opinion in the blog about unity and not ridiculing other groups, it seems
strange that in their list of action sites, virtually everyone is mentioned
with the exception of EQCA.)
Click on Read More below for the rest of this article...
Marriage Equality USA has partnered with Interactive Male on the Big Gay Kiss campaign this summer. We have been working with a creative, witty and passionate Canadian named Joe Rachert at this company whose enthusiasm and support reminds me of the love behind the revolution we have all helped kick off together.
Interactive Male's Big Gay Kiss Contest is the fun contest with a serious message: Kiss for equality and win $10K! Enter the contest now by submitting a video or photo of two guys kissing. Every month, the best photo (as chosen by our judges) will receive a webcam. On November 9, 2009, the best video (as chosen by our judges) will be awarded the cool $10,000 prize! Better still, Interactive Male is donating $5 for every eligible video and $1 for every eligible photo to Marriage Equality USA, to support legally recognized marriage for everyone, whatever their gender identity or sexual orientation.
If you are married, engaged or dating husband material - I invite you to take a moment out from fighting the good fight and just KISS for the cause. I promise it will make you feel better ( : And if you win, you can donate that $10K back to the cause and be the donor you want to see in the world ( :
Lawrence King, at the age of 15, was shot and killed by a classmate on February 12, 2008.
His pre-trial began Monday, July 20th, 2009. Tactics were vivid on the first day.
Vivid, and tragically repetitive.
UPDATE:
JUDGE ORDERS MCINERNEY TO STAND TRIAL FOR THE MURDER OF LAWRENCE KING, STATING
THAT THE MURDER WAS CLEARLY PRE-MEDITATED. CLICK HERE
FOR THE STORY.
Defense attorney Scott Wippert seems to be taking the
path to a gay panic defense
for his client, Brandon McInerney. When questioning one of
the police officers involved, Wippert asked if the officer was aware that King
had been making sexual advances toward McInerney, which "provoked"
him. He added that King "taunted" McInerney with his
"effeminate" ways.
In 2009, the year that would have been Harvey Milk's
79th birthday, 31 years after he was murdered by a man who got off easy because
his lawyers argued he was stressed, complicated by the fact that he had too
much sugar in his system, the infamous "twinkie defense",
it's demeaning to see crazy tactics still being used in courts of law.
And I can see it working in this case. Remember, the
boys were just that, boys, and as such, can often find excuses as flimsy as
this in courts of law. Their minds aren't fully developed yet, they don't have
the judgment that adults are supposed to have. Add to this the fact that King
was dressing in girls' clothing, something Americans can't seem to deal with to
this day, and you can see how this might go. If Americans are still so repulsed
by the idea of flirtation by someone of the same sex that they're willing to
use it as an excuse for cold blooded murder, you can also see how far we, as a
movement, have yet to go.
Something's really wrong with Americans. The fact that
so many other countries are evolving into humans, rather than subjects, should
urge us to some epiphany to the error of our ways. It should be an emergency, what's
happening to Americans whose biology falls somewhere outside pure heterosexuality.
Despite evidence, despite truth, despite the promise of protection from the
constitution and the courts, we've become the only minority in this country who
are not allowed equal rights. And with gay bashings are on the rise and lawyers
still willing to do anything to keep murderers free, who knows how much more
hell we have to go through.
Maybe, just maybe, all this hope that we've put into
the American people is fruitless. Maybe, just maybe, we aren't smart enough or strong
enough to shoulder simple things like human sexuality, or truth. I've learned a
tragic fact in recent years. Maybe, just maybe, Americans, in a slight
majority, are too stupid to move forward.
Read more about the Lawrence King trial by clicking HERE
When I first heard of the federal case for same sex
marriage I agreed with some of the things I read. Maybe this was the wrong
time. Maybe it was doomed to fail, based on the history of other challenges
which weren't supported by a majority on a state level.
I've been there since, wondering what the right answer
is. I still don't know, in terms of legal success. But after reading a recent
article, written by David Boies, one of the lawyers in the case, I'm hopeful.
I've never felt this issue had anything to do with
anyone's personal opinion, as those voting to restrict civil rights, do. This
is a matter of law, of reverence to the words as written in our founding
documents. The reason Christians and others opposed to legal same sex marriage
avoid the constitution is because there's nothing that can help them there. The
constitution only hurts them, destroys them, in fact, supporting none of their
platforms.
Until recently, Americans who denounce
non-heterosexuals and deny us our rights, haven't had much to worry about. It's
only in our very recent history that we've demanded marriage equality. While
it's been tossed around in the past, it's never been anywhere near as big an
issue as it is now, and it's never had such a large group of Americans behind
it. In the past, it wasn't running through conservative minds that certain
legal judgments, which were based on the equality of the constitution, would
open the doors for gay marriage in the future. The idea that non-heterosexual
Americans would demand marriage equality was ridiculous. It wasn't on their
radar.
Somehow, this issue of marriage
equality, which is a simple and clear cut case of equal rights for all
Americans, has been hijacked to the "will of the people". Despite the
fact that the California Supreme Court ruled only last year that to deny same
sex couples the right to the word marriage was to, in effect, deny them
equality, they ignored their own decision and allowed the majority to restrict
the minority. This isn't how law works in this nation. Why did it go that way?
I don't know, but it sound like the lawyers in the Federal Case know exactly
what the truth of this issue is, and they intend to present it.
Even though I'll work with others if a
ballot measure becomes a reality, I don't believe for one second that it's the
right thing to do. It may be our only option at this moment, but it's certainly
not right for us to take equal rights to the ballot box when we denounce others
for doing it. So hopefully a federal case can be heard and can succeed, and put
an end to all this insanity.
The article by David Boies begins with
this...
"When I got married in California in 1959 there were almost
20 states where marriage was limited to two people of different sexes and the
same race. Eight years later the Supreme Court unanimously declared state bans
on interracial marriage unconstitutional.
Recently, Ted Olson and I brought a lawsuit asking the courts to
now declare unconstitutional California's Proposition 8 limitation of marriage
to people of the opposite sex. We acted together because of our mutual
commitment to the importance of this cause, and to emphasize that this is not a
Republican or Democratic issue, not a liberal or conservative issue, but an
issue of enforcing our Constitution's guarantee of equal protection and due
process to all citizens."
Our battle has never been so eloquently
presented as it is in this article, in my opinion. Read the full article HERE
I received the following email today from Molly McKay, the Media Director of MEUSA. Jamie, Jessica, Brock and all others in Porterville, you have made us all proud. If we can keep this momentum going, channel it to other cities, do more outreach and voter contact, we surely will be victorious in 2010. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to everyone's rights and equality. Job well done!
Molly's email:
Team -
I hope you will join me in sending out a statewide shout of support and thanks to Jamie Garza, Tulare County Chapter Leader of Marriage Equality USA and her chapter members who are doing INCREDIBLE defense work in Tulare county. Last night, they successfully defeated an attempt to pass a city council resolution opposing Senator Leno's bill which clarifies that out of state marriages performed prior to Nov 5, 2008 are valid and recognized.
By being a tenacious stand for marriage equality and putting forth their local faces, stories and vocal support at city council meeting after city council meeting - they have successfully raised doubts in the minds of their local electeds about their opposition to marriage equality - and those doubts were in today's local newspaper.
I really want to acknowledge our incredible community leaders thoughout the Central Valley - Jamie and her wife - and so many others - who are out there on the front lines, in places where many aren't out for fear for their personal safety - doing the heavy lifting and being incredibly courageous and strong - Thank you Jamie - you are an inspiration to us all !!
Let's all send good vibes to Whitney Weddell and her team in Bakersfield who are hosting the final stop on the Get Engaged Tour tomorrow night. Together, united, we are unstoppable!! Offense/Defense = forward motion towards our goal.
Introducing our very own Sara Scott. She is a local friend, author and fellow crusader in the equality battle. Among other accomplishments, Sara has just written and published her first book, BloodRite: Dominique. The book officially launches on August 31, 2009 but you can pre-order the book NOW!
Sara has graciously decided to donate 25% of her book sales to the Courage Campaign, starting now through August 19, 2009. So don't delay, support a local author and support our cause for equality all at the same time.
Visit her website atwww.sarasscott.com to find out more about her, the book and also to pre-order your copy today!
Stay tuned for book signing dates and events soon!!
To increase our exposure and visibility in the larger comunity, we are going to try a series of monthly lunches on the town. We will gather in a different community each month. The more PFLAG t-shirts we can have, the better. Any diversity or civil-rights oriented clothing is okay.
WHEN
Sunday, August 23, 2009 12:30 pm
WHERE
Porterville. Restaurant to be determined.
ACTION REQUIRED
We hope to be a fairly significant "presence". We will need an accurate approximate number of diners, so we can make arrangements with the restaurant.
If you can attend, please RSVP to Dr. Kathryn Hall (Kathryn.Hall@PFLAG-Tulare-Kings.org) by August 9, with the number of guests in your party, including yourself.
For those of you who didn't get a chance to attend the Leadership Summit after MITM or to attend a local Get Engaged Tour, it's not too late to make your opinion count! Follow the link below and answer a few short questions. This information will be shared next weekend during the next summit. It's said this is where the decision will be made when to go back to ballot. Be a part of the decision and take the survey today.
Tune in to KMPH FOX 26 to watch "FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO" (2007) on Sunday, July 19th at 11 pm.
FILM SYNOPSIS
Can the love between two people ever be an abomination? Is the chasm separating gays and lesbians and Christianity too wide to cross? Is the Bible an excuse to hate?
Through the experiences of five very normal, very Christian, very American families -- including those of former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt and Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson -- we discover how insightful people of faith handle the realization of having a gay child. Informed by such respected voices as Bishop Desmond Tutu, Harvard's Peter Gomes, Orthodox Rabbi Steve Greenberg and Reverend Jimmy Creech, "FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO" offers healing, clarity and understanding to anyone caught in the crosshairs of scripture and sexual identity.
Just a reminder that Porterville LGBTQ will be having a potluck Sat. July 18th to welcome Kayla Bonewell and her partner. They are coming all the way from the Bay area so please help us make them feel welcome. They will be presenting a showing of "Equality U" this Sunday @ 10:15. Both events are at the local UU Fellowship (Address below).
Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship of Porterville
135 E. Harrison (Corner of Harrison Ave. and Fourth St.)
Porterville, CA 93257
Meet at 5:30 p.m. Saturday July 18 th
Eat at 6:00 p.m.
Sunday service is at 10:30 am; coffee and visiting at 10:15 am
135 E. Harrison (Corner of Harrison Ave. and Fourth St.)
Porterville, CA 93257
For additional information call 782-1724
Our website is: http://UUFellowship .homestead. com/UUFellowship .html
July programs coordinated by Terry Crewse
July 19 "Equality U" A feature length documentary following a group of 33 young activists on the Soulforce Equality Ride, a first of its kind, to confront antigay discrimination policies at 19 conservative religious and military colleges. Discussion with John Coffee and Brock Neeley. Ann Marie Wagstaff has been able to get Equality Rider Kayla Bonewell to join us.
We invite recent new attendees at Fellowship to linger a while longer so that we might get to know you better. Ask a member how you can become more involved in the weekly activities. June 21 was not only the summer solstice but also a standout performance by presenter Ann Marie Wagstaff with 28 persons attending the program. Many are involved at Porterville college but others were just interested in the program. A great day!
We will continue meeting throughout the summer whether we have 8 or 28 people in attendance. If you can help in any way with programming, please sign up on the program list clip-board.
We, the member congregations of the UUA, covenant to affirm and promote:
The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in
society at large;
The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
Equality U Run Time: 1 hr 23 min
Equality U is a feature-length documentary following a group of 33 young activists on the Soulforce Equality Ride, a first of its kind, two-month, cross-country tour to confront antigay discrimination policies at 19 conservative religious and military colleges. It is a human story of a group of young people struggling to stand up for what they believe is right. Against the backdrop of the Equality Ride, the film focuses on seven of the “Equality Riders” and two courageous students they encounter along their journey. The Riders, led by Jacob Reitan (23) and Haven Herrin (23), must come to terms with their new role as young activists, deal with internal conflict within the group, and face the daily onslaught from administrators that don’t want them on their campuses. And while most of the young Riders identify as Christian, not all of them do so in the same way, if at all.
At each stop, the Riders exercise “relentless non-violent resistance” and often face arrest for trespassing. They must confront the controversial question: "Do schools ultimately have the right to decide who does and doesn't belong?" But even in the most seemingly unwelcoming campuses, the Riders find straight students who are interested in a dialogue.
Can this small group of activists sow the seeds of dialogue as their bus rolls down the highway? How will the road change them? For the Riders that identify as both Queer and Christian, how will the journey challenge or transform their faith? And what happens to the outed gay students they encounter and then leave behind?
Incorporating verité footage, interviews, and personal video journals recorded by the six central Riders themselves, Equality U focuses on the personal stories of our lead characters and the journeys they take during this foray into activism. The story comes through their eyes. They’ll make mistakes and they’ll have conflict with the outside world and amongst themselves. Equality U looks closely at their personal struggles over the course of the entire tour, allowing us an intimate portrait of a group of young people on the forefront of social change.
Kayla Bonewell
Equality Rider
Life as a graduate theology student at liberal, San Francisco-area Pacific School of Religion is a far cry from Kayla's conservative Christian family in Oklahoma. Knowledgeable about all facets of Bible scholarship, Kayla is a devout Christian... an identity which she struggled to hold on to while coming out. Now, embraced by her faith community, she boldly states her case that being gay and Christian are not mutually-exclusive, but will her own faith be tested due to conflict with her family, making Equality Ride too heavy a burden to bear?
Shelby Knox Redux
July 23, 7:00 PM
649 S County Center Rd
Disciples of Christ-Visalia
As states across the country debate whether to allow gays and lesbians to marry, Disciples of Christ-Visalia is asking how faith plays a role in fostering greater inclusiveness of LGBT individuals. On Thursday July 23 at 7:00 PM at 649 S County Center Rd Rm #13, community members will come together for a screening of a new documentary that directly addresses this issue. Hosted by Disciples of Christ-Visalia and the New Community Ministry (an LGBT ministry), this free event is one of a handful of screenings taking place in cities across California between now and August.
Shelby Knox Redux, by Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt, profiles a teenager who, despite a conservative Southern Baptist upbringing, advocates for comprehensive sex education and gay rights in her school and community. After leaving for college, she returns to her native Lubbock five years later to check in with her friends, community, and formerly ambivalent parents. Building from the 2005 film The Education of Shelby Knox, Shelby Knox Redux takes viewers on a journey of personal awareness, faith, family, and transformation.
See preview at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B27YJxGkDz4
“The Christian faith is based on the principles of loving and serving one another, without bias or judgment,” says Shelby Knox, subject of the film, “this film brings a unique opportunity for congregations and communities to begin an ongoing dialogue about how to enact these tenets in a modern era.”
Disciples of Christ-Visalia screening, and will be followed by a Panel Discussion featuring. The Discussion will focus on Faith, Acceptance and building bridges. A Resource Guide will also be provided to attendees interested in learning more about Christian perspectives on inclusion of lesbian/gay/bisexual transgendered Christians. After the passage of Prop 8 and the intense debates on the subject of marriage, how does the church remain faithful concerning issues of sexual orientation? Does faith create a climate of violence toward’s marginalized people?
As political battles over same sex marriage rage throughout the nation, many Christian congregations have been forced to think about sexuality in the context of their faith. Rev. Niel Climer says, “The question for us is not about being right or wrong on the subject, but the gospel call of being in relationship with other people. Even those folks we disagree with or may even be a threat to our values. The goal of this event is not change one’s opinion’s, but a hope to change one’s posture. We seek to be a bridge builders in our community.” This screening is part of the Welcoming Conversations Project, a California statewide initiative led by Active Voice, a San Francisco-based media strategy organization, The project seeks to spark faith-based dialogue and reflection about sexuality and inclusion in churches and communities across the state, and foster better teen-parent relationships around these issues..
For information about:
· The Visalia event or to RSVP, please contact Niel Climer of Disciples of Christ-Visalia at docvisalia@sbcglobal.net or 627-6362, or visit www.visaliachurchonline.com
· The state-wide Shelby Knox Redux Welcoming Conversations Project, contact Shaady Salehi at shaady@activevoice.net or 415-287-0474
The original documentary The Education of Shelby Knox visit www.shelbyknox.com
Lawrence King
When I first heard of the federal case for same sex
marriage I agreed with some of the things I read. Maybe this was the wrong
time. Maybe it was doomed to fail, based on the history of other challenges
which weren't supported by a majority on a state level. 
