Pride Agenda Field Organizer Todd Plank braves the Rochester elements to build support for LGBT rights.
Showing posts with label local LGBT activism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label local LGBT activism. Show all posts
Friday, March 14, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
Today's noontime rally in Rochester
Over 75 people showed up for the first of two rallies today outside the Monroe County Office Building to protest the County Executive’s appeal of a unanimous court ruling that requires New York State (and Monroe County of course) to recognize legal out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples. Turnout exceeded everyone's expectations and our local organizer Todd Plank tells us the crowd will be even larger for the 4-6PM rally.
See coverage of the rally from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle here and from R News, the 24-hour local news station, here. Below are several pictures from the rally. The first one below is of Lisa Golden and Pat Martinez who were married in Canada. Pat (center right) initiated the lawsuit against Monroe County Community College after it refused to extend health benefits to Lisa (center left).
Many thanks to photographer Billijo Wolf who sent us the great pictures!
See coverage of the rally from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle here and from R News, the 24-hour local news station, here. Below are several pictures from the rally. The first one below is of Lisa Golden and Pat Martinez who were married in Canada. Pat (center right) initiated the lawsuit against Monroe County Community College after it refused to extend health benefits to Lisa (center left).
Many thanks to photographer Billijo Wolf who sent us the great pictures!
Turn out for today's marriage actions in Rochester!
In response to Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks appealing the recent mid-level court decision saying that New York State must respect legal out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples, local supporters of marriage equality are holding two actions today in front of the County Office Building in downtown Rochester.
Monroe County residents are holding these actions because of a number of things Maggie Brooks said when she announced the appeal on Friday -- from calling same-sex couples with legal out-of-state marriage licenses “unmarried” to saying that extending married “benefits to same-sex couples is to ignore the will of the people of Monroe County and New York State.”
Local same-sex couples, their families, clergy, friends and others will be coming out to show there is strong support for marriage equality in Monroe County, despite what Maggie Brooks chooses to say, and to talk about why marriage for all families in New York is important.
So take down these details and show your support!
Monroe County Office Building
37 West Main Street
Rochester, NY
12 noon – 1 PM
4 PM – 6 PM
For more information about both actions call our Western New York field organizer Todd Plank at 585-278-4190.
P.S. -- We’re not sure where Maggie Brooks gets her notion about “the will of the people of Monroe County and New York State.” The State Assembly passed marriage equality legislation last year by a vote of 85-61 and this is the chamber that represents “the people” last time we checked. Three out of five Assemblymembers whose districts are entirely within Monroe County were also on the “yes” side of that vote. Polling too does not back up Brooks’ assertions about “the people.” Our last poll showed 53% of New Yorkers are for marriage equality and polls other groups have done always show support for marriage out in front of any opposition to it.
P.P.S. -- Unlike many of the most populous counties in New York State, Monroe County still refuses to offer domestic partners health benefits to its employees. Need we say more?
Monroe County residents are holding these actions because of a number of things Maggie Brooks said when she announced the appeal on Friday -- from calling same-sex couples with legal out-of-state marriage licenses “unmarried” to saying that extending married “benefits to same-sex couples is to ignore the will of the people of Monroe County and New York State.”
Local same-sex couples, their families, clergy, friends and others will be coming out to show there is strong support for marriage equality in Monroe County, despite what Maggie Brooks chooses to say, and to talk about why marriage for all families in New York is important.
So take down these details and show your support!
Monroe County Office Building
37 West Main Street
Rochester, NY
12 noon – 1 PM
4 PM – 6 PM
For more information about both actions call our Western New York field organizer Todd Plank at 585-278-4190.
P.S. -- We’re not sure where Maggie Brooks gets her notion about “the will of the people of Monroe County and New York State.” The State Assembly passed marriage equality legislation last year by a vote of 85-61 and this is the chamber that represents “the people” last time we checked. Three out of five Assemblymembers whose districts are entirely within Monroe County were also on the “yes” side of that vote. Polling too does not back up Brooks’ assertions about “the people.” Our last poll showed 53% of New Yorkers are for marriage equality and polls other groups have done always show support for marriage out in front of any opposition to it.
P.P.S. -- Unlike many of the most populous counties in New York State, Monroe County still refuses to offer domestic partners health benefits to its employees. Need we say more?
Friday, February 1, 2008
Road trip to Hobart and William Smith Colleges
On Monday this week I traveled with Alan, our Executive Director, to Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS) in Geneva, New York. Right next to Seneca Lake, it’s a beautiful campus and a great place to get an education.Alan’s visit and speech Monday night was sponsored by HWS’s Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning. First-year student John Monaghan, who has contributed to this blog, was the driving force behind making it all happen.
While Alan talked a lot about LGBT issues and what it means day-to-day to not have rights and responsibilities that New York gives to everyone else, his focus was just as much about how age and experience (not having it that is) should never be seen as a barrier to making a real difference on an issue a person really cares about. Alan himself is not too many years removed from the ages of HWS students so a big part of HWS having Alan there was to have a real life example on campus of someone they can easily relate to who can talk about the nuts and bolts of what it really means to “make change happen.”
This, plus next week’s Presidential Primary and the excitement everyone was feeling about the national focus on their generation and the role they’re playing in the elections, made for a great discussion.
Before the event, HWS President Mark Gearan and his wife Mary opened up their home to a smaller group of students, faculty, alumni and parents for a dinner and informal Q&A session between students and Alan.
Our thanks go to John Monaghan, President Gearan and Katie Flowers, the associate director of HWS’s Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning, for having us on campus.
Go here to read the piece the Colleges posted on Alan’s talk.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Elmira: on the leading edge of the LGBT rights movement in New York
Yes you read it right. Elmira is not just the home of Mark Twain and Tommy Hilfiger. It’s also where the “radical” notion of equality and justice for LGBT New Yorkers is being debated and -- from how we see it -- the local LGBT community is winning.
Over the past year or so there have been a number of incidents in and around Elmira that have put our lives and our relationships up on the public stage for open debate and the responses, not surprisingly, have been both positive and negative.
Late last year, a gay man was attacked near a bridge by two men, who were later caught and charged with a hate crime. It was the first such anti-gay bias crime reported in Elmira. In response, Mayor John Tonello organized a community rally to protest hate crimes of any type and urged everyone to accept and value LGBT people.
Then there is Elmira’s Pride celebration. Now in its fourth year, Pride has been a work in progress. Our Field Director Nora Yates attended the first one in 2004 along with several hundred members and friends of the Elmira LGBT community. She told us later that there were also a large number of police present to guarantee everyone’s safety as no one was quite sure what the reaction might be to such an open demonstration of LGBT Pride in Elmira.
This year the Mayor took part in the celebration for the very first time as a continuation of the city’s show of support for LGBT people. On the flip side, the religious right also showed up. Seven protesters wearing T-shirts that said “Liberated from Sin” tried to disrupt the celebration by blocking the stage and putting on a show of praying and scripture reading.
Two months later in a nearby town, a high school student was sent home for wearing a T-shirt saying “gay? fine by me.” The school principal said the shirt violated the dress code. The school district’s attorney disagreed and reversed the decision, but not before a debate began about free speech in schools and whether people really are “fine” with us.
Then in October an insurance sales person put up a sign in the window of his office that said, “Save the kids – Say no to gay marriage in NY.” It got a lot of attention from both supporters and critics, none of whom hesitated to make their views known, including a local lay preacher who spoke out to say religion should not be used to justify bias against LGBT people.
Just about all of this was covered in the local paper, the Elmira Star-Gazette, which would not have happened just a few years ago. The Star-Gazette practically never mentioned our issues or talked about our lives. And on the very rare occasion when it did, such as it’s 2003 editorial on the Massachusetts marriage court decision, its viewpoint was archaic and out-of-step with what any other newspaper in New York was saying.
These days the paper does talk about our lives and our issues. The coverage is impartial, as it should be, and there are actually pro-gay opinion pieces being written by the paper’s columnists. Furthermore, it has also published a stream of letters from readers expressing a whole range of viewpoints in the aftermath of the above-mentioned incidents.
The Mayor deserves a great deal of praise of course for being a real leader and appealing to the better instincts of the people of Elmira. The Star-Gazette is also to be thanked for no longer pretending that we don’t exist.
The local LGBT community, though, is where the most praise must go. They’ve been the catalyst for forcing the change that’s happening. It’s not easy being out in a smaller community and the process of winning broader acceptance always results in push back, which as we’ve seen can come in the form of protests from religious zealots and, tragically, even violence.
All in all though, the public debate happening in Elmira over LGBT issues and LGBT lives is a great development. It’s a vital and necessary step to getting to that place where LGBT people can be out and accepted for who we are.
So our thanks go out to every one of you in Elmira who is working to make your community a better place. You are the leading edge of our fight for equality and justice in New York State and you make us all better.
Over the past year or so there have been a number of incidents in and around Elmira that have put our lives and our relationships up on the public stage for open debate and the responses, not surprisingly, have been both positive and negative.
Late last year, a gay man was attacked near a bridge by two men, who were later caught and charged with a hate crime. It was the first such anti-gay bias crime reported in Elmira. In response, Mayor John Tonello organized a community rally to protest hate crimes of any type and urged everyone to accept and value LGBT people.
Then there is Elmira’s Pride celebration. Now in its fourth year, Pride has been a work in progress. Our Field Director Nora Yates attended the first one in 2004 along with several hundred members and friends of the Elmira LGBT community. She told us later that there were also a large number of police present to guarantee everyone’s safety as no one was quite sure what the reaction might be to such an open demonstration of LGBT Pride in Elmira.
This year the Mayor took part in the celebration for the very first time as a continuation of the city’s show of support for LGBT people. On the flip side, the religious right also showed up. Seven protesters wearing T-shirts that said “Liberated from Sin” tried to disrupt the celebration by blocking the stage and putting on a show of praying and scripture reading.
Two months later in a nearby town, a high school student was sent home for wearing a T-shirt saying “gay? fine by me.” The school principal said the shirt violated the dress code. The school district’s attorney disagreed and reversed the decision, but not before a debate began about free speech in schools and whether people really are “fine” with us.
Then in October an insurance sales person put up a sign in the window of his office that said, “Save the kids – Say no to gay marriage in NY.” It got a lot of attention from both supporters and critics, none of whom hesitated to make their views known, including a local lay preacher who spoke out to say religion should not be used to justify bias against LGBT people.
Just about all of this was covered in the local paper, the Elmira Star-Gazette, which would not have happened just a few years ago. The Star-Gazette practically never mentioned our issues or talked about our lives. And on the very rare occasion when it did, such as it’s 2003 editorial on the Massachusetts marriage court decision, its viewpoint was archaic and out-of-step with what any other newspaper in New York was saying.
These days the paper does talk about our lives and our issues. The coverage is impartial, as it should be, and there are actually pro-gay opinion pieces being written by the paper’s columnists. Furthermore, it has also published a stream of letters from readers expressing a whole range of viewpoints in the aftermath of the above-mentioned incidents.
The Mayor deserves a great deal of praise of course for being a real leader and appealing to the better instincts of the people of Elmira. The Star-Gazette is also to be thanked for no longer pretending that we don’t exist.
The local LGBT community, though, is where the most praise must go. They’ve been the catalyst for forcing the change that’s happening. It’s not easy being out in a smaller community and the process of winning broader acceptance always results in push back, which as we’ve seen can come in the form of protests from religious zealots and, tragically, even violence.
All in all though, the public debate happening in Elmira over LGBT issues and LGBT lives is a great development. It’s a vital and necessary step to getting to that place where LGBT people can be out and accepted for who we are.
So our thanks go out to every one of you in Elmira who is working to make your community a better place. You are the leading edge of our fight for equality and justice in New York State and you make us all better.
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