Update: The room is full with some people having to stand. There's about 250-300 people attending the rally.
Update 2: More people are still arriving. The unions say "we stand up for the people who have always stood up for us."
Update 3: In attendance: HPAE, Local 164, laborers local 592, CWA, Firefighters union district 37, Garden State Equality, Phyllis Salloway-Kaye of Citizen Action
Update 4: Also attending: Amy Goldsmith of the NJ Environmental Federation, SEIU, UFCW, Mike Herson of the Sierra Club.
Join us Wednesday, January 17 at 4 pm in Paramus at a HUGE RALLY of union leaders and progressive activists to support Senator Loretta Weinberg, Assemblyman Gordon Johnson and Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle.
Wednesday, January 17 at 4 pm
IBEW 164 Union Hall Auditorium
205 Robin Road
Paramus, NJ 07652
4 pm: Loretta, Gordon and Valerie hold a pre-rally meeting with progressive activists -- they want to talk to us before the hoopla. A photographer will be present to take photos of each of us with the legislators.
5 pm: The rally itself. A who's who of labor and progressive activists across the state -- it's going to be amazing.
Here's why the event has historic significance: There aren't enough times when we progressives join with our incredible friends from the labor movement in political action. New Jersey, as you know, is per capita the most unionized state in America. And thanks in huge part to Blue Jersey, its bloggers and their other respective organizations, New Jersey right now is the hottest place for progressive activism in America.
Imagine all we can achieve when progressives and labor unite!
This event is also when we progressives, almost all of us staunch Democrats, stand up to a county party machine when it strays from the values of progressive, clean and open government that we cherish by not expressing sufficient support for incredible legislators like Loretta, Gordon and Valerie - reformers and champions of justice everyday in every way.
What an incredible signal we're sending with this event, one that will reverberate politically statewide.
So join us
Wednesday, January 17 at 4 pm
IBEW 164 Union Hall Auditorium
205 Robin Road
Paramus, NJ 07652
Please don't hesitate to be in touch if you have any questions. Best, Steven, cell (917) 449-8918, Goldstein@GardenStateEquality.org.
From time to time, we at GSE get e-mails like the one below, which came in yesterday. Of course the best response may be none. But if you wanted to respond, how would you do it?
Hi:
I am a Christian and I would like you all to consider changing your lifestyles and quit homosexuality.
You know, God did not give us the Bible to stash away in a drawer or in the attic to be forgotten. The Bible is our instruction manual for our everyday life. Please do not choose to continue ignoring the Bible. Every word is true, because God is truth and he says....."the truth shall set you free." Don't let the enemy keep on lying to you and all your members by telling you homosexuality is okay.
He made Adam and Eve and through them they were to multiply throughout the ages. Have you ever wondered what the world population would be if God had made Joyce and Candace? Or, Tom and Michael? It's obvious, the world population would be two very lonely women, or two very lonely men.
God loves all homosexuals and agonizes every day because they will not listen to Him. So, the time is now to turn and follow Jesus, because when we die......it's too late.
As we enter 2007, New Jersey's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community is celebrating one of the great periods of civil rights progress in American history -- even as many other states struggle to fend off LGBTI civil-rights rollbacks. Since 2004, 14 laws advancing the rights of the LGBTI community have been enacted at the statewide and county levels: A statewide domestic partnership law, a subsequent expansion of the law, still further expansions in 10 counties, a statewide transgender equality law, and most recently a statewide civil rights law that gives New Jersey the second strongest protections for same-sex couples in the nation.
No one would dispute that New Jersey is uniquely fertile ground for civil rights progress, no matter the efforts of our state's progressive organizations. By the same token, these organizations have been savvy enough to take advantage of the climate, making our march toward equality move that much faster. Blue Jersey, Lambda Legal, NJLGC, the ACLU, GRAANJ, New Jersey for Democracy, BlueWave, New Jersey Stonewall Democrats and the GLBT Rights Committee of the New Jersey Bar Association, all partnering with Garden State Equality and other organizations, have led the historic march.
That said, when the New Jersey Supreme Court handed down its decision on October 25th, many of us privately acknowledged how difficult it would be to win marriage equality within 180 days. Legislative leaders didn't want history to happen so soon, unfortunately. But as the weeks unfolded, it became clear we could win marriage equality legislation within the next two years or less. Every legislative leader in the Assembly and state Senate wound up endorsing marriage for same-sex couples. At the committee hearings and during floor debate on civil unions, key leaders said marriage equality was a matter of when, not if. Support for marriage equality legislation quadrupled within a few weeks, an unheard-of pace.
Activists, including the Blue Jersey community and the aforementioned civil rights organizations, helped to make all that possible. Because activists fought the good fight -- no, the great fight -- during the immediate post-Supreme Court period, the timing for marriage equality in New Jersey has hastened dramatically. Two years or less from now is no pipe dream.
As we activists fought for marriage equality after the Supreme Court decision, we tried to be both visionary and practical. On the one hand, we shouted from the rooftops that civil unions are separate, unequal, discriminatory and do not work in the real world. We'll continue to shout that -- it's simply true. On the other hand, behind the scenes we entered negotiations with legislative leaders and their staff to make the civil unions bill as strong as possible. The timing for negotiations was tricky: By talking with power brokers about how to improve the civil unions bill, we didn't want to send a signal that civil unions were acceptable. But once Thanksgiving passed and civil unions hearings were on the schedule, we initiated negotiations with legislators and dove into them with vigor. This, even as we continued our relentless public campaign that generated more than 300,000 e-mails, postcards and phone calls to legislators exhorting them to pass real marriage equality.
Every time we turned up the heat for marriage equality, though we knew the odds were against us, we found our hand in civil unions negotiations was strengthened. Far from pushing power brokers away from the figurative bargaining table, the grassroots campaign made them more receptive.
For starters, legislators accepted Garden State Equality's proposal to include in the law a government commission that will examine how civil unions in New Jersey fall short of marriage equality in providing equality to same-sex couples. It's unprecedented in the national marriage-equality movement: We got built into the law a mechanism that codifies a continuation of our movement for marriage equality. Even better, the commission will issue public reports every six months, far more often than government commissions usually report.
All told, we proposed 20 changes and additions to the civil unions bill. Nineteen of the 20 changes and additions made it into law, including the all-important elimination of language that directly or indirectly defines or describes marriage as between a man and a woman. New Jersey thus became the first state in the country to enact a civil unions law, unlike Vermont and Connecticut, without any quid pro quo ban on marriage equality. That's another boon to our campaign for achieving marriage equality in the next two years or less.
Thus the civil unions bill went from putrid, as we publicly described the early version, to evolving into the best civil unions law in the country, even including an engine for achieving marriage equality soon. We were practical enough, once we got the best bill possible, to nuance our public position. By the time of the legislative committee hearings, we did not oppose the civil unions bill outright, despite being pressed to do so from several quarters. During the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, pro-marriage-equality Senator Bob Martin publicly asked me whether he should vote against the civil unions bill. I responded that the civil unions bill was a significant step forward.
So what was the 20th change to the bill, the one we didn't get? We wanted same-sex couples to be called spouses throughout the bill. We didn't quite achieve that. But we changed the language from the cold, impersonal "parties to a civil union" to "civil union couples." And here's a little secret: "Spouses" is sprinkled in the bill, too.
From our vantage point, activism is about holding a carrot in one hand, and a stick in the other. About generating passion in the streets and about being practical in the lobbies. We don't believe it is mutually exclusive to take a hard-line strategy to engage thousands of New Jerseyans to pressure legislators for 100 percent equality, on the one hand, while negotiating to get the best possible legislation we can, on the other hand. All are the tools of an activist. As some of our distinguished colleagues in activism exhorted us to be practical, that's exactly what was happening behind the scenes.
Practicality, of course, means not merely making demands of our public officials, but also giving back to them. In both the 2005 and 2006 elections, Garden State Equality produced a comprehensive get-out-the-vote operation for progressive candidates across the state, almost all Democrats. Our volunteers staffed 20 campaign field offices in every part of New Jersey. We have also contributed thousands of dollars to pro-equality candidates, again almost all Democrats, including through two Garden State Equality statewide galas for the express purpose of supporting our legislative friends. We know the importance of saying thank you beyond just saying it.
To be sure, people and organizations have different strategies, all of which have met with great success. Not only did legions of activists work successfully together to produce the country's strongest civil unions law, and not only is New Jersey is the best position in America to achieve marriage equality through legislation, but other strategies have worked equallly well. The relentless crusades for Laurel Hester and "Cher," in which Blue Jersey was our cherished coleader, respectively led to 10 counties strengthening their LGBTI rights laws and to the legislature passing a transgender equality law. In the weeks before "Cher-nobyl," legislators had told us the transgender bill was dead in the water for the time being.
In December, the bill passed the legislature by 69 to 5 in the Senate and 32 to 3 in the Assembly, the largest margins in American history by which a state legislature has passed a transgender equality law. As Cher herself would sing, Believe.
Throughout civil rights history, for that matter, activists have won civil rights progress when they had the chutzpah to ask for more, not less. New Jersey did not enact a domestic partnership law in 2004 because activists sought merely domestic partnership. It was because activists insisted on marriage equality.
New Jersey did not expand the domestic partnership law in January 2006 because activists sought merely that expansion. It was because activists insisted on marriage equality.
New Jersey did not enact a civil unions law in December 2006 because activists sought merely a civil unions law. It was because activists insisted on marriage equality.
And New Jersey did not enact the strongest possible civil unions law, one just short of marriage, because activists sought merely the strongest possible civil unions law. It was because activists insisted on marriage equality.
Now watch New Jersey's progressive activists, LGBTI and straight alike, win marriage equality within the next two years or less.
As Franklin Delano Roosevelt told Winston Churchill, it's fun to be in the same decade with you.
I almost never listen to New Jersey 101.5, but when a friend called and told me that Dennis Malloy of "Dennis and Judy" was discussing Corzine's signing of the transgender civil rights bill into law yesterday, I couldn't resist tuning in.
After about five minutes of hearing this right-wing boob expound on how "Comrade Corzine" was preventing business owners from freely discriminating against anyone they don't like, being the loudmouth transgender radio host I am, I just couldn't stand it anymore and picked up the phone...
Join Garden State Equality on Thursday, December 14th in Trenton for the celebration of the final passage of New Jersey's transgender equality bill and also for the celebration of an extraordinary political dynamic:
As the civil unions bill passes both houses on Thursday, key legislators have publicly acknowledged that the new law is merely an interim step toward 100% marriage equality -- and that they expect the legislature to revisit the issue. This, as support for marriage equality legislation has grown from six to 20 legislators since the October 25th Supreme Court decision.
We have the momentum! Thursday begins the next phase of Garden State Equality's marriage equality campaign.
The Assembly session begins at 1:00 pm Thursday. The vote on civil unions will come anytime thereafter. The Assembly will also pass the transgender equality bill -- the Senate passed the bill last week. We'll all be sitting at the gallery in the Assembly.
The Senate session begins at 2:00 pm Thursday. The vote on civil unions will come anytime thereafter. We'll all be sitting at the gallery in the Senate.
When all the votes are done, join Garden State Equality and the Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New Jersey at the Trenton Marriott, a block from the State House, to celebrate passage of the transgender equality law -- and how much closer we are to 100% marriage equality in New Jersey.
Contact: Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality, cell (917) 449-8918
It's Wednesday, December 6th, day two of Garden State Equality's "10 Days of Nonstop Activism for Marriage Equality." We ask you take three actions today.
FIRST, THE BIG MOMENT HAS ARRIVED -- HEARINGS IN TRENTON ARE TOMORROW (THURSDAY) MORNING. CAN YOU MAKE PLANS TODAY TO JOIN US IN TRENTON AT 9:00 AM TOMORROW (THURSDAY) AT GSE'S TRENTON OFFICE, 110 WEST STATE STREET, ACROSS FROM THE STATE HOUSE?
The Assembly Judiciary Committee will hold hearings Thursday morning, December 7th in Trenton on the discriminatory and mistake-riddled civil unions bill that goes out of its way not to acknowledge gay couples as spouses. The Assembly gave us this impossibly short notice to minimize the presence of the pro-marriage-equality community.
We'll meet Thursday at 9:00 am in front of Garden State Equality's Trenton office at 11o West State Street. We'll serve coffee and continental breakfast. We'll brief you on site.
We ask you to take off Thursday morning, if at all possible, to attend and express your opposition to the discriminatory civil unions bill. We also ask you to consider testifying. We have a particular need for testimony from clergy, same-sex couples and parents/families. You do not need to RSVP to attend or testify -- just show up.
SECOND, TODAY WEDNESDAY, PLEASE CALL THE FOLLOWING "BIG THREE" OFFICIALS TO TELL THEM: "Support marriage equality. Oppose civil unions because they don't work in the real world and they discriminate against gay families." TODAY PLEASE CALL:
GOVERNOR JON CORZINE at 609-292-6000
SENATE PRESIDENT DICK CODEY at 973-731-6770
ASSEMBLY SPEAKER JOE ROBERTS at 856-742-7600
THIRD, take a moment to watch the magnificent new commercial for marriage equality produced by our friends at BlueJersey.com, the state's leading progressive blog. This is the first commercial in America to show the difference between marriage equality and discriminatory civil unions. Click on http://www.bluejerse...
Thank you for all you do. Best, Steven (917) 449-8918
Garden State Equality was the first statewide organization to endorse Senator Menendez, who has a 91 percent lifetime rating from the Human Rights Campaign. His election is crucial for a change in control of the United States Senate. Senator Menendez's opponent, Tom Kean Jr. (R), is among the most anti-LGBTI statewide candidates to be nominated by either party in the history of New Jersey politics. Kean Jr. is nothing like his father. Kean Jr. favors a state constitutional ban on marriage equality for gay couples, which would permanently end our campaign for marriage equality in New Jersey. In 2004, Kean Jr. also voted "no" on the state domestic partnership law that provides gay couples less than one percent of what straight couples have.
For the United States House of Representatives:
Linda Stender (D) in the 7th Congressional District, covering parts of Union, Middlesex, Somerset and Hunterdon counties. To check whether you live in Linda's district, visit http://www.lindasten...
This race, among the one dozen closest U.S. House races across America, could determine control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Linda Stender, currently an Assemblywoman, is as progressive, honest and effective a public servant as exists in New Jersey today. She's a strong supporter of the LGBTI community. Her opponent, incumbent Mike Ferguson (R), is viciously anti-LGBTI and joyfully pro-war. He is also obsessed with banning marriage equality in the United States Constitution.
Carol Gay (D) in the 4th Congressional District, covering parts of Mercer, Monmouth, Ocean and Burlington Counties. To check whether you live in Carol's district, visit http://www.carolgayf...
Carol Gay is one of New Jersey's most unshakable supporters of marriage equality. Active in the labor movement, she's a member of the Solidarity Singers of the New Jersey Industrial Union Council that performs at Garden State Equality events. She's running against incumbent Chris Smith (R), a nationally known warrior against every LGBTI civil right imaginable. Smith is favored in this district but your vote for Carol Gay is a must to keep Smith's self-perceived mandate at a minimum.
Garden State Equality endorses the following incumbent U.S. House members who face no serious competition, but who deserve your vote for being among our country's strongest supporters of civil rights for all: Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1st Congressional District); Rep. Frank Pallone (D- 6th Congressional District); Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-8th Congressional District); Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9th Congressional District); Donald Payne (D-10th Congressional District), and Rep. Rush Holt (D-12th Congressional District).
Garden State Equality endorses the following candidates for local office, all more pro-LGBTI, more progressive and more qualified than their opposite party opponents. We note which candidates are openly lesbian or gay because New Jersey ranks near the very bottom of all U.S. states in the number of openly LGBTI people who hold public office.
- Donna Schiavone (R) for borough council in Hillsdale in Bergen County. Openly LGBTI.
- Charles Eader (D) for township committee in Bedminster in Somerset County. Openly LGBTI.
- John Stoltz (D) for township committee in Colts Neck in Monmouth County. Openly LGBTI.
- Tim Eustace (D) for borough council in Maywood in Bergen County. Openly LGBTI.
- Michael Peterson (D) for borough council in Roselle Park in Union County. Openly LGBTI.
- Dana Wefer (D) for Morris County Freeholder.
You may take print this information and take it to the polls with you. This Blue Jerse blog entry is from the Garden State Equality continuing political committee, an independent entity under state election law.
Garden State Equality is pleased to announce that Blue Jersey is the winner of our 2007 Lieutenant Laurel Hester Prize for Citizen Courage. Blue Jersey will receive the Hester Prize at Garden State Equality's Legends Dinner on Sunday, March 4, 2007 at 5:00 pm at the Maplewood Country Club.
The vote of the Garden State Equality board was unanimous. This is the first time the Hester Prize will go to an organization rather than to an individual.
Previous winners of the Lieutenant Laurel Hester Prize for Citizen Courage have included:
In 2005, Lt. Hester herself.
In 2006, Stacie Andree, Lt. Hester's partner; and Dane Wells, the retired Ocean County police officer who joined with Garden State Equality to win domestic-partner benefits for Lt. Hester.
In 2006, Lily McBeth, the teacher who successfully fought the efforts of parents to ban her from the classroom because she is transgender.
Garden State Equality is awarding the Hester Prize to Blue Jersey for being a national model in how a blog can become an unstoppable engine to move society toward equality for all.
No other blog in America has been as passionate a voice for individuals who have faced heartbreaking discrimination. Blue Jersey played a leading role in fighting on behalf of Lt. Hester, Lily McBeth and most recently, "Cher," partnering with Garden State Equality to make their stories known in every home in New Jersey. In each case, justice ultimately prevailed.
No other blog in America has been a stronger champion for marriage equality. Blue Jersey has been relentless in signalizing to public officials that marriage equality is vitally important not only to the LGBTI community, but also to the predominantly straight progressive community.
Garden State Equality will shortly announce more details about the Legends Dinner, at which we will present the Hester Prize to Blue Jersey. Again, the Legends Dinner is on Sunday, March 4, 2007 at 5:00 pm at the Maplewood Country Club.
All of us at Garden State Equality extend our congratulations and heartfelt appreciation to everyone in the Blue Jersey community.
The New Jersey Supreme Court will be handing down its marriage-equality decision after Chief Justice Poritz's last day on the Court -- her last day being tomorrow, Wednesday, October 25th.
Conventional wisdom has been that the decision would have to come down by the last day before the Chief Justice's retirement. But according to the Court's spokespeople, and as some news organizations have now reported, the Court can hand down rulings after a particular justice's last day without nullifying her participation or vote.
In fact, the Court even allows a retired justice to continue participating in deliberations in a particular case, so long as she had sat on the bench in that case, after her retirement.
So this much is clear:
1. There is no deadline for the Court to hand down its decision.
2. There is no correlation between the time it takes a Court to deliver a decision and the outcome of a decision. Our brothers and sisters in Massachusetts went through a similar situation with their marriage equality case. Throughout 2003, the year their case was argued before the court, conventional wisdom had been that the decision would come down by a certain date. The decision came down afterward.
3. It is far from unprecedented for the New Jersey Supreme Court to hand down rulings this long after oral arguments. In fact, the Court is announcing today, Tuesday, October 24th, a decision in a death-penalty case in which the Court heard oral arguments on November 29, 2005.
This is enough to make every citizen of New Jersey recoil in horror: Anti-gay protesters from Kansas are in Morris County, New Jersey today, Wednesday, October 11th, to protest at the funeral of a soldier who died in Iraq on October 1st. The protesters say soldiers are dying because America is too tolerant of gays, believe it or not. The solidier whose funeral they're protesting wasn't even gay.
To read the article in today's Morristown Daily Record, visit www.dailyrecord.com and you'll see the article on the home page.
Reaction from Garden State Equality:
"Today's protest is one of the sickest, most subhuman acts of hatred New Jersey has ever seen," said Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality. "These vile protesters need to go back to Kansas -- here in New Jersey, every Dorothy and every other citizen, whether straight like this soldier, or LGBT like 875,000 citizens of our state, demands equality and dignity. New Jersey is the state that doesn't hate. As human beings, these cretins from Kansas don't even rate."
At 7:00 pm on the day of the New Jersey Supreme Court's decision on marriage equality -- indeed the same day as the decision, just hours later:
Garden State Equality's statewide rally for marriage equality, Unitarian Church of Montclair, 67 Church Street, Montclair, New Jersey.
The New Jersey Supreme Court gives one day's notice, maximum, on which decisions it is handing down the next day. The Court announces its next-day schedule of decisions at http://www.judiciary...
Garden State Equality will post here on Blue Jersey and e-mail those of you on our e-list as soon as we get word from the Court's site or some other way.
The bottom line: Because there won't be more than a day's notice about the decision's timing and night-of-decision rally, please check BlueJersey and your e-mails as often as possible in the days ahead. When
you see our posting or e-mail that the decision is coming down "the next day," please contact everyone you know through calls and e-mails to get them to the night-of-decision rally.
A massive turnout at the rally is a must. If our side wins, our campaign is about protecting the victory from a state constitutional ban on marriage equality. If our side loses, our campaign for marriage equality seamlessly surges forward to pass a marriage-equality statute in the state legislature.
For the complete schedule of Garden State Equality events around the marriage-equality decision and throughout this fall 2006, visit www.GardenStateEquality.org
Any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me at (917) 449-8918 or Goldstein@GardenStateEquality.org.
(From Steven's keyboard to your ears (any eyes.) - promoted by jay lassiter)
This Thursday, October 12 at 5:45 pm sharp, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and Governor Howard Dean do a joint conference call expressly for New Jersey's LGBTI and Progressive communities. You must RSVP online by this Wednesday, October 11 at noon. The online RSVP information is below the fold.
The New Jersey Supreme Court will hand down its ruling on marriage equality for same-sex couples on or before Wednesday, October 25th, the last day of Chief Justice Deborah Poritz's service on the court. That means the ruling will come down on ANY DAY WITHIN THE NEXT THREE WEEKS.
LISTED BELOW are Garden State Equality's three events around the decision, including a big statewide rally on the night of the decision at 7 pm, Unitarian Church of Montclair, 67 Church Street, Montclair, NJ.
These events will take place whether our side wins or loses the case. If our side wins, our campaign is about protecting the victory from a state constitutional ban on marriage equality. If our side loses, our campaign for marriage equality seamlessly surges forward, building on our tremendous momentum of the last four years. We would instantly pivot to passing a marriage-equality statute in the state legislature.
The New Jersey Supreme Court does not give more than one day's notice on which decisions it is handing down the next day. The Court announces its next-day schedule of decisions at http://www.judiciary...
Garden State Equality will post here when notice is posted there or we hear some other way.
Should any of our decision-related events LISTED BELOW conflict with a previously scheduled Garden State Equality event, of course the decision-related events will supercede the other events. Garden State Equality's complete fall schedule is at www.GardenStateEquality.org
When we post that a decision and our statewide rally is happening the next day, please e-mail everyone you know to get them to the rally. There will be very short notice and we're counting on your word of mouth. Thank you so much -- we appreciate all you do. Best, Steven Goldstein, chair, Garden State Equality, Goldstein@GardenStateEquality.org or cell (917) 449-8918.
Garden State Equality's big statewide rally featuring same-sex couples from every county in New Jersey. DAY OF DECISION at 7:00 pm, Unitarian Church of Montclair, 67 Church Street, downtown Montclair. If our side wins the case, this rally is about protecting the victory from a state constitutional ban on marriage equality. If our side loses the case, this rally -- and our entire campaign -- is about passing a marriage equality statute in the state legislature.
Garden State Equality and three legal organizations present a telephone town meeting on the legal impact of the Supreme Court decision. ONE DAY AFTER DECISION at 7:00 pm, dial 1-800-566-8440, then enter code 479740. With lawyers from Garden State Equality, Lambda Legal, the ACLU of New Jersey, and the LGBTI Rights Committee of the New Jersey Bar Association.
Garden State Equality's post-decision rally in South Jersey. TWO DAYS AFTER DECISION at 7:00 pm, Trinity Episcopal Church, 207 West Main Street, Moorestown.
Below in this posting, Garden State Equality, joined by our friends at New Jersey Stonewall Democrats, lists six LGBTI field offices across the state at which we encourage you to volunteer for pro-equality candidates for U.S. Congress between now and Election Day, Tuesday, November 7th.
This volunteer program is open to everyone who believes in equality, whether you are LGBTI or straight.
The offices are in Jersey City, Montclair, Scotch Plains, West Trenton, Ocean Grove and Cherry Hill, so you're likely to find a location just minutes away.
But first, some background:
Two years ago, the 2004 elections marked a painful time for the LGBTI community across America. In one of the most hateful campaigns ever, Karl Rove and the national right-wing demonized LGBTI families state by state by state. The hatemongers didn't merely go after our freedom to marry. They campaigned to abolish laws that give LGBTI Americans any rights, from domestic-partnership laws, to the ability to adopt children, to our inclusion in even the most elementary anti-discrimination laws.
The 2006 elections are a whole different story. We now have the best chance in many years to win back both houses of the U.S. Congress -- and it all comes down to New Jersey.
If U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, a steadfast champion of equality, doesn't win in November, we don't have a prayer to take back the U.S. Senate. What an irony that would be: Pro-LGBTI candidates for Congress are surging everywhere in America, even in the reddest of "red" states -- yet it could be New Jersey, the most progressive state in America, that keeps the U.S. Senate in the hands of those who want to strip the LGBTI community of our most fundamental human dignity.
Indeed, the stakes for us in New Jersey are higher than anywhere else in America: When we win marriage equality -- whether in the next four weeks through a court victory, or in the next four years through our legislature's passing a statute -- our victory will completely erased if the hatemongers keep control of the U.S. Congress and finally succeed in banning marriage equality in the U.S. Constitution.
So friends, this election involves way more than choosing between two candidates -- though on its own merits, the choice is clear between pro-LGBTI U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and his Republican challenger Tom Kean Jr., who voted against the domestic-partnership law in 2004. This election is about the bigger picture nationallly and about advancing our civil rights in New Jersey.
Garden State Equality and New Jersey Stonewall Democrats therefore ask you to volunteer in one of the six offices below, as soon as possible and as often as possible between now and Election Day, November 7th.
So we can keep track of who our volunteers are --and can remind our leaders of the political power of the LGBTI community and our progressive allies -- we ask everyone interested in volunteering to contact Jeff Gardner, Vice Chair of Garden State Equality and director of our Election 2006 field operation, at jeffpgardner@gmail.com or cell (973) 951-7081.
These campaign offices are open every day, every weeknight and even on weekends -- and Jeff will be able to check for you in advance. Again, contacting Jeff, allowing us to keep track of our volunteers, is crucial. The next time we're in a dogged fight for our civil rights, we want to say to public officials and party leaders, "We stood up for you with these great volunteers, so now stand up for us."
Thanks, everyone, from all of us at Garden State Equality and our friends at New Jersey Stonewall Democrats -- the campaign offices are below. Best, Steven Goldstein, chair, Garden State Equality
Jersey City
Hudson County Democratic Organization
74 Oakland Avenue
Montclair
Smith & Mullin law firm
240 Claremont Avenue
Scotch Plains
Linda Stender for Congress campaign headquarters
211 Park Avenue
West Trenton
Communications Workers of America Local 1034
1 Lower Ferry Road
Ocean Grove
Century 21 Coastal Realtors
67 Main Street
Cherry Hill
USBW Local 152
5 Executive Plaza
To volunteer, contact Jeff Gardner, Vice Chair of Garden State Equality and director of our Election 2006 field operation, at jeffpgardner@gmail.com or cell (973) 951-7081.
This posting is by the Garden State Equality political organization, not the Garden State Equality Educational Fund.
In response to another post, a member of the Blue Jersey community made a suggestion with all good intentions. If the LGBTI community were to lose the marriage-equality case -- a ruling that will come down before Chief Justice Deborah Poritz retires on October 26th and about which we remain hopeful of winning -- why, then, don't we seek to expand the domestic partnership law but not call it marriage?
That's something for which Garden State Equality and New Jersey's LGBTI community would never settle. If our side loses the case, we would pivot immediately to fighting for a marriage-equality statute.
(Loretta Weinberg represents the future of NJ's Democratic party, and Ferriero is making a big mistake in trying to push her out. - promoted by jmelli)
On this, Blue Jersey's one-year anniversary, it seems like the right time to look ahead to a watershed moment for our progressive community in 2007. It's in Bergen County, where state Senator Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck, Hackensack, Englewood), one of the greatest progressive champions of our time, a woman who has sponsored and fought fiercely for every major progressive bill in the legislature since her election to the Assembly in 1992, may well be primaried by the Bergen County Democratic machine.
Brace yourself for one of the most cynical, most disgusting political schemes ever whipped up by the U.S. Congress -- a scheme that could kill thousands of New Jerseyans living with HIV and AIDS, perhaps someone you know and even love. In a moment we'll tell you how you can e-mail Garden State Equality's prewritten letter to your members of Congress, enabling you to take action now. It will take just seconds -- but first allow us to explain the dire situation.
Congress is about to reauthorize the Ryan White Act -- the federal funding law for HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment -- by forcing mind-boggling funding cuts upon states like New Jersey, New York and California. But especially upon New Jersey, which ranks FIFTH IN THE NATION IN REPORTED CASES OF HIV AND AIDS.
And which states will receive significantly increased funding under the planned reauthorization of Ryan White? States like Alabama and North Carolina. States with a tiny fraction of the HIV and AIDS caseload that New Jersey has.
Let's be real: The Republican-controlled Congress is showing favoritism to Republican states. The result will be the utter decimation of AIDS prevention and treatment programs in New Jersey, including impeding the heroic work of New Jersey's extraordinary statewide HIV and AIDS organization, Hyacinth.
Hyacinth, which you can visit at www.Hyacinth.org to learn more and even make an online donation in their website's "What Can I Do?" section, may be the nation's most effective HIV and AIDS service organization. This, even though Hyacinth's government funding is painfully insufficient as it is. What our friends at Hyacinth achieve with so few resources is one of the great social-service successes of our time.
Already down to the funding bone, Hyacinth, as well as the other AIDS service providers in New Jersey, have not an ounce of room to absorb the cuts proposed in Congress.
Make no mistake: THERE WILL BE NEW JERSEYANS WITH HIV AND AIDS WHO WILL DIE BECAUSE OF CONGRESS' MASSIVE FUNDING CUTS TO NEW JERSEY. That is no exaggeration.
The most grotesque part of all?
CONGRESS' REAUTHORIZATION PLAN WILL WREAK THE MOST HAVOC -- UNBEARABLE HAVOC -- ON WOMEN AND PEOPLE OF COLOR WITH HIV AND AIDS IN NEW JERSEY.
Among all U.S. states, New Jersey ranks #1 in the percentage of people with HIV or AIDS who are women.
56 percent of all New Jerseyans with HIV or AIDS are African-American. One in every 63 African-Americans in New Jersey is living with HIV or AIDS, compared to one in every 775 whites in New Jersey. AIDS is the fifth biggest killer of African-Americans in New Jersey. AIDS is the fifth biggest killer of Latinos and Latinas in New Jersey.
So how dare we not tell it like it is? Congress' new Ryan White reauthorization plan has bone-chilling implications of sexism and racism. It is vile.
WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?
The wonderful Congressman Frank Pallone (D-Monmouth and Ocean Counties), one of America's greatest champions of equality and of the rights of people with HIV and AIDS, has introduced a bill to reauthorize the Ryan White Act for one year at its long-existing funding levels -- meaning the horrible cuts to New Jersey's HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment programs would be avoided for now.
We at Garden State Equality now ask you to go to http://eqfed.org/cam... to e-mail our prewritten letter to your member of the U.S. House and to New Jersey's two U.S. Senators. The letter asks them to vote for Congressman Pallone's bill that is fair to New Jersey -- and to vote no on the evil "Barton Bill" that would decimate HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment funding for New Jersey.
Please e-mail our letter now, not later today. We are racing against time: Congressman Pallone's bill will come up for a vote likely within the next 48 hours, and both houses of Congress must reauthorize the Ryan White Act by September 30th. THIS IS OF URGENT, GRAVE CONSEQUENCE TO THE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ACROSS NEW JERSEY WHOSE LIVES ARE AT STAKE.
Again, please go to http://eqfed.org/cam... to e-mail letters to your members of Congress. This may be one of the most important political actions you ever take. It could save the lives of thousands.
With deep gratitude,
Steven Goldstein
on behalf of all of us at Garden State Equality
Goldstein@GardenStateEquality.org
Cell (917) 449-8918
www.GardenStateEquality.org
(This is absolutely shameful. The DSC leadership has some serious explaining to do. - promoted by jmelli)
but all of you in the progressive community are our heroes, and we thank you with all our hearts. I'm talking about what happened this weekend at the State Democratic Convention. Hi, everyone, from Steven Goldstein. Allow me to fill you in, with apologies to those of you who attended the convention already know.
Each Friday at the convention, different constituencies have different Caucus meetings. This year, three organizations, Garden State Equality, New Jersey Stonewell Democrats and the Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New Jersey, produced the LGBTI Caucus. We decided to do something different -- to present an entertainer at the end of our Caucus meeting. We had an open bar and hired a Cher impersonator. Last year's LGBTI Caucus attracted 8 people. This year's attracted more than 100.
You, our progressive friends, would have attended without the bells and whistles and we love you for it. But many others in the room came who wouldn't have otherwise; they said so. And we got a chance to talk to them about our issues. In a Caucus that began at 6:00 pm, "Cher" only came on at 6:52 pm. It was hardly as if serious business weren't being done.
But before the event started, Diane Legriede, the executive director of the State Democratic Committee, pointed to "Cher" and said the following:
"We cannot have THAT walking in the hallway."
"You cannot have THAT inside your Caucus."
"The State Committee will not have someone like THAT attending dinner -- THAT cannot come inside the ballroom."
"What if the press sees THAT -- what if they report on THAT in tomorrow's papers?"
Diane delivered these statements as a diatribe in the hallway, ironically, drawing attention to an intolerance that was far more embarrassing than anything around her. She was also completely unself-conscious about referring to a transgender person repeatedly as THAT -- as not even a person -- while standing right next to Barbra Casbar, a member of the transgender community who is a leader in the three organizations sponsoring the Caucus.
Garden State Equality's big statewide rally featuring same-sex couples from every county in New Jersey: DAY OF DECISION at 7:00 pm, Unitarian Church of Montclair, 67 Church Street, downtown Montclair.
This rally will occur just hours after the decision -- that same night. If our side wins the case, the rally is about protecting the victory from a state constitutional ban on marriage equality. If our side loses the case, the rally will kick off Garden State Equality's campaign to achieve marriage equality through legislation.
Garden State Equality and three legal organizations present a telephone town meeting on the legal impact of the New Jersey Supreme Court decision: DAY AFTER DECISION at 7:00 pm, dial 1-800-566-8440, then enter code 479740.
The ultimate in news you can use: Lawyers from Garden State Equality, Lambda Legal, the ACLU of New Jersey and the LGBTI Rights Committee of the New Jersey State Bar Association assess the legal impact of the New Jersey Supreme Court decision on LGBTI New Jerseyans and our loved ones.
Garden State Equality's post-decision rally in South Jersey: TWO DAYS AFTER DECISION at 7:00 pm, Trinity Episcopal Church, 207 West Main Street, Moorestown.
New Jersey’s public officials are allowing discrimination to spread as rapidly here as in any other blue state in America. As we await the New Jersey Supreme Court decision on marriage for same-sex couples, you may surmise I'm referring to marriage inequality. But this weekend, Blue Jersey readers, I'd like to talk to you about a different discrimination emergency – that which our state's transgender community is facing. Employers are refusing to hire our transgender citizens, even firing them, without fear. Unlike one-third of the United States, New Jersey has no statute protecting transgender citizens from discrimination.
You don't have to look far for victims. One of them is progressive leader Jacqui Charvet, who spent her entire life in New Jersey, never wanting to live anywhere else, until discrimination recently forced her to move thousands of miles away. Jacqui was an active member of Garden State Equality and had been communications director of the Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New Jersey, the state's transgender organization. She was as devoted to progressive activism in New Jersey as they come.
By profession, Jacqui was and remains a computer technician and web designer. When she began her job search in 2002, she applied to companies across the state. As she received rejection after rejection, some employers were painfully honest: They would not hire Jacqui because she is transgender. It didn't matter that she has impeccable credentials, state-of-the-art knowledge and one of the warmest, most engaging personalities imaginable. Employers could not get past their own prejudice. One potential employer sneered right in Jacqui's face: We won't hire you because we're looking for a real woman.
Jacqui's stack of rejections piled up into the hundreds, as did her days of not having a job. In fact, years passed without Jacqui's being able to surmount New Jersey's discrimination emergency against the transgender community. She was unemployed in 2002. 2003. 2004. 2005. 2006.
After all those years of pain, Jacqui finally found a job earlier this year – in Florida of all places. Imagine that: Jacqui was able to conquer discrimination by moving from New Jersey, which we at Garden State Equality call The State That Doesn't Hate, to Florida, the State That Doesn't Rate on any progressive scale. The biggest loser is New Jersey itself, now experiencing a brain drain with the loss of Jacqui and other qualified transgender citizens who have had to leave the state. Adding insult to injury, Jacqui's got Jeb Bush.
Join us Wednesday, January 17 at 4 pm in Paramus at a HUGE RALLY of union leaders and progressive activists to support Senator Loretta Weinberg, Assemblyman Gordon Johnson and Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle.
