DontAmmend.com : protests and celebrations for Freedom to Marry Week

[Ian David]

Freedom to Marry Week is Here!
Check our website for Protests and Actions!

Hello from DontAmend.com,

No, DontAmend.com is NOT retreating, and neither are the grassroots activists in our movement!

Let's not see the glass as half -full or half-empty. Let's focus on our victories, and not be scared of our defeats, for in time, the defeats will be reversed.

First of All, congratulations New York! More "activist" judges have ruled that yes, denying us marriage is denying us equality under the law.

We are expecting the California Superior Court decision in a very short time.

And, didn't we all breath a sigh of relief when the media finally challenged the far-right's propaganda, and decided that "gay" marriage was not responsible for the Democrats defeat? (We knew we weren't, but had we been, we would have struggled for full civil rights anyway.)

OK, last week we sat through "The State of the Union," and yes, President Bush, once again called for a Federal Constitutional Amendment.

Well, he certainly is not going to be a "best man" at my same-sex wedding! Actually, the American Public is beginning to see that he is not the "best man" anywhere.

Now, what is all this about a possible "movement backslide" regarding marriage equality?

We know what frightened them.

In the wake of the 11 anti-gay constitutional amendments that passed on Nov. 2nd, some "leaders" in our community suggested that we downplay the issue, if not dump it entirely. Their apparent hope was that if the gay community managed to ignore the issue, it would miraculously go away.

Such wishful thinking conveniently ignores the fact that the anti-gay right has our community in its cross-hairs, and is salivating over the fact that it thinks it finally has an issue it can beat us up over. Without a serious civil rights campaign on our part, they may be right.

But there is no turning back. With an army of grassroots activists standing in the front and the back lines, we know that any organization that does not continue with this issue will be out of step with what is right now making history.

Although we congratulate everyone who has sued on behalf of equal marriage rights, including the attorneys who represent them, we know that we can't just depend on the courts in a few of the more liberal states. And by the way, speaking of "non-liberal states," congratulations to all of the Florida couples who sued. Yes, you did not win for now, but you had the guts to come out and put your families and your faces on television, in the press, in the streets, and in the courts. You did it in one of the most legally backward, yet "gayest" (with regards to population) states in the country. This took great courage.

For Valentine's Day, do we "kiss" our rights goodbye?

* Using adoption law as their starting point, Florida courts and legislators have virtually declared us non-citizens. When the Federal Supreme Court refused to hear the case, why didn't the community take to the streets and protest? Why is the South Florida community so grateful for a weak "domestic partner" benefit in Palm Beach? Why do we settle for crumbs when we are starving? And yes, I lived in Florida many years ago, I know how hard it is. But, it will continue to be difficult until you resist. Remember Stonewall?

* A Supreme Court already conservative to begin with, such as when it handed Bush the 2000 election, appears ready to get more conservative still, when Bush appoints more of its justices.

* Several more states, starting with Kansas, look set to pass more anti-gay constitutional amendments in this fall's elections.

We in DontAmend.com believe that civil rights have always been won by civil rights MOVEMENTS. Not well-dressed lobbyists nor clever attorneys (as important as those are), but mainly by regular folks themselves getting together with their neighbors and friends and protesting the injustices they experience. Yes, we want them to get to "know us" around the water-coolers at work. However, rights were not won in this country by those in charge "tolerating" or even liking us. Rights were won because we got out in the streets. Public demonstrations and rallies put a human face on the issue--stressing that it is real LGBT people's lives on the line.

If civil rights are won by civil rights MOVEMENTS, we need, first and foremost, to build that movement. Rallies not only get our message out, using the mainstream media to communicate to far more people than we could if we paid for expensive ads, they also recruit new people to our movement.

It is with this movement building strategy in mind that we invite you and your friends to please join us at the Freedom to Week activities in your area. Please click this Link-www.dontamend.com to see what's been scheduled.

If there are not such activities in your area, please consider organizing a PRO-equal marriage rights event in your area on the anniversary of the start of equal marriage rights in Massachusetts, May 17th. Please contact us if you would like help with publicity materials for your event and general suggestions on how to organize it.

Thank you,

Robin Tyler, Executive Director, The Equality Campaign, Inc. (DontAmend.com)
[e-mail]

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[Deep13]

1. The more attention you draw to this issue...

...the more likely the Rs in Congress will feel they have to push it. Right now it has no chance and is in the same box as the flag burning amendment. Keep it on the radar and people will become irritated. People generally do not support this issue. In Ohio, the state went for Dumbass by a few points, but the ban on gay marriage passed 3 to 1. That means it was supported by Ds, Rs and people who are not particularly religious. It set the gay rights agenda back thirty years.

There will not be gay marriage in America generally for another fifty years. People generally are simply not ready for it. If this amendment passes, you will not have gay marriage ever. Sure, people in Boston don't mind the idea or in S. California either. I am talking about the bulk of the country.

I don't see where the harm is in gay rights, but I am not the average voter.