Posts Tagged ‘Minnesota’

Love Wins Big at the Ballot Box

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Nov 07, 2012

Pinch me! I, like many of you, still can’t believe that this moment has finally arrived.

Yesterday, voters in Maine and Maryland affirmed marriage equality at the ballot box. Minnesota became the first state in the country to reject writing discrimination into its state constitution. And, while the ballots are still being counted, marriage equality appears headed for passage in Washington State. These outcomes may influence the U.S. Supreme Court when it considers the constitutionality of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. After working for more than a decade for LGBTQ equality, I’m ecstatic to say that the United States has reached the tipping point. We are poised to take our place among the other nations of the world who stand on the side of love.

But wait–there’s more! Wisconsin voters elected Tammy Baldwin–the first openly-LGBTQ American, and a woman of profound integrity–to the U.S. Senate, offering new hope and a shining example of success to young people who are hoping that it will get better, who will know they can achieve anything. Electoral outcomes in New Hampshire and Iowa mean marriage equality is most likely safe in those states, and the composition of Colorado’s legislature could mean new possibilities for relationship recognition for same-gender couples. Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins has retained his seat after anti-gay forces tried to oust him for joining in a unanimous 2009 decision for marriage equality.

Of course, whether we are Republicans and Democrats, all of us understand that when it comes to advancing equality for LGBTQ people in our nation, there was simply no contest between President Obama and Governor Romney. Hopefully, with President Obama’s leadership, we will never again have a sitting president who does not support full equality for LGBTQ people in our country.

Friends, Election 2012 is our moment. Love wins big!

Of course, our victories go much further than just LGBTQ equality. Voters in my home state of Maryland became the first in the nation to ever vote on a DREAM Act measure at the ballot, signaling resounding approval for providing in-state tuition to undocumented residents. Minnesota voters rejected a regressive voter ID amendment. And voters in two states–Colorado and Washington–said yes to decriminalizing marijuana. In an ideal world, this could indicate a shift in our national conversation about drug laws that disproportionately affect poor communities of color.

As these victories set in, however, we remember that this is really about people, and our love for one another. “Gratitude” is the number one word I am hearing emerge from the mouths of those who had so much invested in outcomes yesterday.

So today, let us all offer our gratitude to one another for our collective work to bend the arc of the world towards greater love and justice.

In faith,

Dan Furmansky
Former Campaign Manager
Standing on the Side of Love

The message above went out on Wednesday, November 7, 2012 to Standing on the Side of Love supporters. You can sign-up for these emails here.

Tags: ballot measure, Constitutional Amendment, Dan Furmansky, decriminalization, election, Election 2012, Election Day, Maine, marriage equality, Maryland, Maryland DREAM Act, Minnesota, Tammy Baldwin, voter ID, voter suppression, voting rights, Washington State

Take Action for Marriage Equality

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Oct 23, 2012

When my wife and I were married in the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Richmond, VA, two years ago next month, we celebrated our love and our commitment openly with our family and friends in our spiritual home. At the same time, we knew that we would not be receiving any of the benefits and protections from the state and federal government we would have received had we been a man and a woman. So in lieu of gifts, we asked our guests to make donations to support Equality Virginia.

With just two weeks left until Election Day, there is great hope that 2012 could be a tipping point for LGBTQ equality at the ballot box. Voters in Washington, Maine, and Maryland have the opportunity to approve marriage equality laws, while Minnesota voters will hopefully vote “no” to writing discrimination into their state constitution.

No matter where you live, you can take action to support marriage equality. Click here to get involved.

There are several innovative programs that allow marriage equality supporters across the country to take action. The Human Rights Campaign has developed a revolutionary “Call4Equality” tool that harnesses the power of Facebook to connect you with people you know in these states. The tool automatically creates personalized call lists and scripts for you to drum up votes and volunteers. For the more travel-inclined, you can work on one of the equality campaigns through United for Marriage’s “Volunteer Vacation” program.

Please join me in standing on the side of love this election season. Click here to find out how you can speak out for marriage equality no matter where you live.

Two years ago, my wife and I knew that Virginia was, and still is, a long way from voting to approve marriage equality. But this year in Washington, Maine, and Maryland, we have a real chance – a chance to make it clear that attitudes have changed – that the majority of Americans now support the right of everyone to marry the person they love. And, in Minnesota, we have a shot at saying “no” to defining marriage according to a few people’s view of what love should be. Help us seize this opportunity. Please take action for marriage equality today.

In faith,

Annette Marquis
LGBTQ & Multicultural Ministries Program Manager
Unitarian Universalist Association

The message above went out on Tuesday, October 23, 2012 to Standing on the Side of Love supporters. You can sign-up for these emails here.

Tags: Annette Marquis, ballot measure, election, Election 2012, Election Day, LGBT families, LGBT rights, LGBTQ, Maine, marriage amendment, marriage equality, Maryland, Minnesota, same-sex marriage, Unitarian Universalist Association, UUA, washington

Rev. Kent Hemmen Saleska: “Homosexuality & Hospitality”

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May 05, 2012

This fall, a proposed amendment to the Minnesota state constitution, which bans marriage except between one man and one woman, will go to referendum. Many of the amendment’s fundamentalist proponents justify their views by quoting Biblical passages. In response, Rev. Kent Hemmen Saleska, the minister of the UU Church of Minnetonka in Wayzata, Minnesota, made a video series entitled “Homosexuality and Hospitality” that offers a more welcoming interpretation of these oft-cited verses.

Rev. Saleska says of this project, “I do not believe that anyone needs the Bible to support the rights of people who are BGLT, but with so many conservatives and fundamentalists out there who misuse and misunderstand Biblical passages in order to condemn same-sex marriage and homosexuality, I wanted to offer a faith-based, theologically and Biblically sound response. So in this video, I use many of the same Biblical passages that fundamentalists do, but I offer a different view, a view of welcome and hospitality.”

Tags: Bible, hospitality, LGBT, LGBT families, marriage amendment, Minnesota, Rev. Kent Hemmen Saleska, UU Church of Minnetonka, welcome

At the Dentist: Fighting the Marriage Amendment

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Apr 03, 2012

Rev. Meg Riley, Sr. Minister at Church of the Larger Fellowship and one of the founders of the Standing on the Side of Love campaign, is crossing borders in the unlikeliest of places: her dentist’s office. Facing an odious constitutional amendment on the Minnesota ballot this November that would ban marriage for same-gender couples, Rev. Meg is not remaining silent.

Change-makers rarely do!

Here’s a video Rev. Meg made about talking to her dental hygienist about the marriage amendment.

This is such a fantastic story of self, story of us, story of now. Pass the video on, or make your own!

As Terri Burnor said on Rev. Meg’s facebook page:

Love! I especially appreciate your reminder that convos with people who think differently can be made meaningful (and safe) when we go beyond labels and find commonality. It also makes me wonder if we shy away from reaching out to the “other” because we think we have to change their mind to make the convo “worth it.” How freeing to release that unrealistic goal and instead find ways to simply relate to each other.

Agreed, Terri.

MN Governor Mark Dayton recently told a crowd of LGBT and allied advocates that he had a dream that Minnesota would become the first state in the nation to reject a constitutional amendment banning marriage for same-gender-loving couples.

May it be so.

Tags: amendment, Church of the Larger Fellowship, gay, GLBT, LGBT, marriage, Minnesota, Rev. Meg Riley

Love in the Balance–Minnesota Lobby Day

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Mar 21, 2012

The message below went out on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 to Standing on the Side of Love supporters that live in Minnesota. You can sign-up for these emails here.

I don’t think I could have believed, till just that moment arrived when 2,000 people woke up on a cold February morning in 2006, and poured in to St. Paul from all over the region. They were coming to an interfaith rally at the Capitol against a Minnesota marriage amendment to legislate love.

As I stood at the microphone in the heart of the Rotunda, offering words of welcome to this record-setting crowd of gentle, angry people, I really came to believe in the power of people of faith standing for love and signaling a change of heart in Minnesota. I could see the power radiating in the faces of Methodists, Lutherans, UUs, Jews, UCCs, Baptists and more as we called so clearly for faith, for family and for fairness. Our legislative allies told us they could feel it too, and they told us that morning helped shift Minnesota history.

You can stand with us for Love. You can help shift Minnesota history again, into being the first state to say NO to a constitutional marriage amendment.

Interfaith organizers like us were successful in turning back the bill championed by then state Senator Bachmann, and for five years our state was in an uneasy limbo. An amendment could come again. But each year more congregations were becoming welcoming, more people of faith were standing on the side of love. How would the balance be struck?

As we now know, despite significant faith organizing, frequent action in the halls of the legislature and thousands of messages and calls to legislators, the five year uneasy truce ended last May.

Now voters will have the question put to them this November: Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota? Yes or No. That’s it. Love in the balance, at the tipping point.

We at the Minnesota UU Social Justice Alliance (MUUSJA, which we affectionately say as “moose-jaw”) were central to the 2006 success, and have stayed committed to interfaith organizing for LGBTQ equality ever since. As organizers and advocates, as a public voice for our UU values, it is so important for us to continue to believe, as we have for over ten years now, in the power of faithful voices working collectively for social change. We can proudly and lovingly claim our liberal religious imperative to create a just, sustainable, and peaceful world.

So I’m asking you to take a big step. I’m asking you to take some time off work, or set aside tasks you might ordinarily do on a March Thursday and travel to St. Paul — whether traveling a few blocks or the many miles of the prairie. Again this year, as in 2006, we need your loving presence, your gentle, angry witness for equality and against division, against separate and unequal.

OutFront Lobby Day and our evening Interfaith Community Worship are both Thursday, March 29th in St. Paul. Click here to help move Minnesota voters towards love. Click to be part of the interfaith community voting NO in NOvember on the anti-marriage amendment.

We’ve seen love’s power many times. We believe. I believe. Join us as we signal a big, big change of heart in Minnesota! See you in St. Paul on March 29th!

In faith,