Defeat the Phelps Petition

[MuseRider]

For all who are nearby and interested. I have the contact info so PM me if you are.

Subject: Come to the Campaign Kick-Off January 31 to Defeat the Phelps
Petition

Hello:

After the city council voted in November to not allow discrimination based
on sexual orientation in the city's hiring and employment practices, Fred
Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church started a petition to get the law
repealed and bar the city for 10 years from protecting people in Topeka from
discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.
He and his church members used misleading tactics to get enough signatures
on the petition to put his proposed discriminatory law to a vote of the
people. Most likely, the ballot initiative will be on the April 5th ballot.

We cannot let Fred Phelps run our town into the ground!! We know that the
majority of Topekans are fair-minded. In fact, 62% of them support
protecting people from discrimination based on sexual orientation in all
areas, not just city hiring practices. We need to educate these people
about what the ballot initiative will do, and get them to vote "no".

But to do this, WE NEED YOUR HELP!

We are kicking off our campaign against the ballot initiative on January
31st at 6:30pm. We are having a meeting to bring everyone up to speed about
the measure and get people on board to help defeat it. The meeting will:
1) Educate everyone about the ballot initative
2) Lay out the campaign strategy
3) Put out a request for help with various aspects of the campaign including
volunteering, fundraising, etc..

++ PLEASE JOIN US ON JANUARY 31st at 6:30PM FOR THIS CAMPAIGN KICKOFF!! ++

The meeting will be held at Central Congregational Church at Huntoon and
Buchanan.

Please contact Erin to let her know if you
can bring a snack to share!

Pass this information along to all of your fair-minded friends and ask them
to come as well.

*****If you can't attend********
If you can't make it on January 31st but would like to volunteer between now
and April please contact Erin at the above contact information.
Additionally, even though volunteer time is our greatest need we also need
money to finance the campaign. If you are able to send a donation, please
make it out to Equal Justice Coalition and send it to:

Equal Justice Coalition
PO Box 5806
Topeka, KS 66605

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. I will send a donation

best of luck to you and please keep me posted.

[MuseRider]

4. Thank you!

Lets hope enough people show up to do the work.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. If I wasn't so far away,

I would be there helping. I despise Phelps and everything he represents. He is an embarrassment to the entire state.

[sui generis]

2. so, let me see if I have this right:

if Phelps manages to get this passed, then I can fire anyone who works for me for being straight, right?

Whew. That definitely takes the pressure off of the employee review. If you want to fire someone, just fire them for their gender identity or expression.

If you want to keep them from living in your neighborhood, ask them if they're straight when they apply for a mortgage and then tell them that you don't do mortgages for heteros, thanks to Fred Phelps.

Why don't these people get that this is a two edged sword? It's REALITY. Even if I were a straight business owner and I didn't like an employee but could find no other reason to terminate him or her, I'd just use their overt heterosexual-ness as the reason, and the law would be forced to back me.

[MuseRider]

3. I have not read it

yet but that is a good point and I will bring it up. It is just so stupid and this community is so terrorized by Phelps that they just might pass it because it does not affect them personally. Most people here just want to live and let live and really could care less if you are gay or straight.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. What I have noticed

is that the media seems to ignore him here in KC. I see him around town and have heard he was here protesting at funerals, etc., but the local press gives him zero coverage. And I think that is a good thing.

[MuseRider]

7. He wouldn't get any

here either if it wasn't for the government stuff. He had actually become good for business, people stop in to support who he is picketing.

[CatholicEdHead]

9. Lawsuits?

Woundn't this open up businesses up to many lawsuits? Wouldn't there be other laws (e.g. Federal) for workplace discrimination that could be cited even if the local ordinace is overturned?

[MuseRider]

10. This is one thing

I have brought up to a few people who were not willing to vote against it by saying it did not matter, it was illegal. Yes, our tax money would be used over and over as this issue went higher up in the court system. It took Cincinatti 11 years to get rid of this thing. I am not certain the arguements I made worked on the few that brought this up though, they were pretty dead set against equal rights for gays from the get go. Sad, it has been tough making all these calls. I will update if I ever have the time.

[atommom]

8. I'm glad to see people taking a stand against Phelps.

If I lived closer, I'd be there too. I hope that the opposition is successful. He's such an extremist that even the fundies may not really wish to be associated with him and his "ballot initiative." That's my hope, anyway. :eyes:

I wish the national press would stop giving him so much attention. He feeds on it.