There’s been lots of news around LGBT issues lately.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the “Obama administration reverses Bush policy, backs UN anti-discrimination text on gay rights”.

On Monday Advocates of queer rights protested Florida’s ban on the right of gay people to adopt children, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

In the meantime, The Concord Monitor reports that lawmakers in New Hampshire are debating whether or not to add “gender identity and expression” to anti-discrimination law in the state, which, if added, would positively impact transgendered people the most. Proponents like Lucy Weber, a Walpole Democrat, asserts, “We had testimony about people who had had stellar job reviews and job performance for years and years and years, and who, when they finally made the choice to act on their gender issues, had been fired.” ‘The outcry against the bill, she said, had “given me a deep sympathy for the people who sought protection.”

And in Pittsburgh lawmakers are debating whether or not to add ’sexual orientation’ to anti-discrimination law. “I’m here to tell you and my colleagues that the sky will not fall — the world will not end — if we stop discriminating against gay, lesbian, transgender and bi-sexual people. It will not happen,” said Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, sponsor of House Bill 300.” No shit, shirlock, right? Well, not really since there’s strong conservative opposition that’s making this bill controversial, with some Republican lawmakers and others on the radical right arguing that religious people will be discriminated against if the state outlaws discrimination against gay people.

The 4th annual California Transgender Leadership Summit is planned for March 27 - 29 at UC San Diego.

Go to this website for more information and to register!

Some of the highlights of the summit include an opening plenary on “Making History from Stonewall to Today,” with speakers Susan Stryker and Sylvia Guerrero. And on Saturday there are more than 20 workshops to help people refine their organizing/activist skills. Click on the above link for more info and to download a pdf document of the event schedule.

We are Joe and Frank Capley-Alfano, and we are legally married. We were married during the 2004 Winter of Love, and we wed again last year, when California embraced Marriage Equality legally.

We are a part of One Struggle, One Fight and the March to Sacramento for three important reasons.

First, we believe that Prop. 8 is an unconstitutional revision and not an amendment to the California Constitution, and we stand in solidarity with the other 18,000 same-gender couples that legally married last year in California to ask our State Supreme Court to protect us and other minorities from the tyranny of the majority and to stand for fairness and equality for all.

Second, we want to articulate that Domestic Partnerships and Civil Unions are not the same as Legal Civil Marriage. Domestic Partnerships and Civil Unions are state or local ordinances that stop at the state line, and are trumped by federal legislation, so Domestic Partnership and Civil Unions are inadequate to address and most often don’t address tangible real-life issues like an employee’s union benefits, immigration, and/or taxes which are governed by federal laws. Same-gender couples simply can not and should not be burdened to create a myriad of ad-hoc legal contracts to provide a tiny percentage of the 1,138 legal rights, responsibilities, and benefits that are afforded through one stroke of a pen and an “I do” with legal civil marriage. In short, it is redundant and wasteful to create cumbersome additional institutions, when a perfectly functional one already exists.

Finally, on a personal note, we want to explain why national marriage recognition and civil equality is so important to us.

Frank explains, “Joe is disabled and he can only work part time. As a result, he doesn’t qualify for healthcare through his employer, and private health policies cost too much for our working-class family, because of his pre-existing condition. What is more, he is disqualified from public assistance, because the State of California counts us as legally married.”

He adds, “The situation is devastating to me, because I am watching my spouse slowly loose his ability to walk and I can’t do anything about it. I work for the International Union of Elevator Constructors and my union refuses to recognize my Domestic Partnership and legal civil marriage. They use the Defense of Marriage Act to justify denying equal treatment to my family. All of the heterosexual guys that I work for can add their spouses to their health plan and I want to be treated equally! I am sick of being a second class citizen, because of my and my spouse’s gender. I work just as hard as my co-workers; I humbly and respectfully represent the human face of IUEC in the field every day just like they do, and I pay my union dues just like they do.”

Lastly he said, “It is time that all people are treated with dignity and respect, and we are not going to stop fighting for civil equality until we achieve it: nothing more nothing less.”

Joe stated, “The march seemed sort of ridiculous but also kind of like a perfect fit for us, when we heard about it, because it may be one of the last times that I can actually be a part of anything like this, before I am no longer physically capable. In fact, I am not even actually walking in this event. I am following in one of the support vehicles. Frank is going to march for our family, because I simply can’t.”

He continued, “What I hope will come of this event, is that our group will travel through the heartland of California and through municipalities, where other historically discriminated against groups carved out a home for themselves against great odds. I hope that we learn about the struggles of those groups and from them personally. Further, I hope to understand, learn, and grow from their stories and experiences, taking those lessons back to my community in an effort to utilize the collective knowledge of those that have gone our way before, in our current struggle against Prop. 8. Finally, I hope that we can give back to the communities that we are passing through as well by volunteering, making donations, supporting local businesses, and by bringing light to their struggles, as our own. After all there is really only One Stuggle One Fight, and it is our collective human struggle and human fight to flourish in peace and harmony.”

This comes directly from an announcement made by the National Black Justice Coalition:

Moving Beyond History: LGBT Civil Rights in a Post-Racial America?
A National Dialogue with the National Black Justice Coalition

“Our National Town Hall focusing on the intersection of race and sexual orientation is only a few weeks away! Moving Beyond History will be a conversation between African American lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people and mainstream LGBT organizations. This groundbreaking discussion will be held on March 28th, 2009 at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, CA.

African-American LGBT people find themselves at the center of a controversial action taken by the NAACP—but this time, the nation’s oldest civil rights group is advocating on their behalf. The passage of California’s Proposition 8 has forced the realization of the gay rights struggle as central to the goal of civil rights for all Americans, and last week this resulted in action, with the groundwork in place for meaningful progress. In a historic action the NAACP wrote California legislators asking them to overturn Prop 8. This national dialogue is particularly important given the racial tensions revealed in the aftermath of the passage of Proposition.”

Click here for more information.

Organizers with the March to Sacramento took to the streets on March 4th, joining thousands of others at the “Eve of Justice” march from the Castro to the Civic Center. This protest happened the night before the Supreme Court of California was set to hear the oral arguments around the repeal of Prop 8. Thousands returned to protest in San Francisco on March 5 as the Supreme Court heard the oral arguments about whether or not to repeal Proposition 8, the initiative that stripped away the right for gay people to marry last November. The Supreme Court has 90 days to issue a decision, but several news outlets are reporting that the prospects of the Supreme Court actually overturning prop 8 aren’t looking so hot.

Check out BeyondChron’s article, Repealing Prop 8: Ballot May Be Last Option, by Paul Hogarth for an analysis.

While not terribly hopeful about the Supreme Court actually overturning Prop 8, Hogarth does highlight the newly-galvanized LGBT rights movement that has sprouted up since last November’s election, pointing out the formation of new grassroots groups fighting for the rights of LGBT communities. Among these groups? One Struggle, One Fight and the upcoming March to Sacto.

What’s amazed me is how many groups organically sprouted out of Prop 8’s passage. Join the Impact is still going on strong, and One Struggle, One Fight is planning a March to Sacramento at the end of the month. The Courage Campaign is building the grassroots infrastructure we’ll need to run a successful statewide campaign, and a new group – And Marriage for All – is doing the critical outreach to communities of color. And I’d be remiss not to acknowledge what Marriage Equality USA and Molly McKay has done for years, cultivating a network of grassroots chapter leaders through the state.

In its reporting about the protests, The New York Times published a photograph with a sign for the March to Sacto that Heather Tomkins made. Check it out:

Another article in The San Jose Mercury News focuses on One Struggle, One Fight and our March to Sacramento: Same-sex marriage supporters rally around Supreme Court hearings, by Jessica Lipsky.

And if you can read German check out this article that mentions us: Auf den Spuren von Harvey Milk

Last night, I was invited by our friends at Pride At Work to meet with the San Francisco Labor Council and share with them about One Struggle, One Fight and the March to Sacto.

The SF Labor Council represents more than 100,000 union members and their families who belong to over 150 affiliate unions. I met with their Executive Committee in a board room at the Plumber’s Building. It was definitely intimidating at first, meeting in front of the representatives of Organized Labor in San Francisco. But I was there with the blessing and support of Howard Wallace, a long time organizer of LGBT Labor, who represents Pride At Work on the Labor Council.

The members of the Council were extremely welcoming. When Howard introduced me, they all took time to introduce themselves and tell me about their respective unions.

I shared with them a bit of my personal story. I told them that I moved here from Tennessee about three years ago because, as a gay man, California was a place where I could be equal and free. The passage of Prop 8 last Novemeber was an attack on my hopes for what living in California would be like, and I’ve been working hard with the growing movement to repeal Prop 8.

But for us at One Struggle, One Fight, we don’t stop at marriage equality, or even at LGBT rights. We’re trying to build a movement of movements, and we want to be in solidarity with other struggles for social and economic justice. And it only makes sense…so many of us queer folk are working people ourselves, and we’re directly impacted by issues like healthcare and living wage. We’ve got expensive student loans that keep us in debt. And these issues are even more challenging for us than for straight people, because we don’t have the right to marriage and all of the economic benefits that come with it.

Howard Wallace introduced a resolution to the Labor Council, affirming that “an injury to one is an injury to all” and offering the Council’s official endorsement of the March to Sacramento to repeal Prop 8. And the best part…without a moment’s hesitation, the Council unanimously approved the resolution!

Harvey Milk reached out to Organized Labor to help build the movement for LGBT equality and civil rights. We are very proud to carry on in that tradition. Thanks much to the SF Labor Council for your support!

Workers need unions to improve their benefits and protect their rights, but current US labor law makes it way too hard for workers to form unions. The Employee Free Choice Act, which I hope will pass through Congress and get signed by President Obama this year, would make it easier for workers to form unions. This comes straight from the AFL-CIO, one of two major labor federations in the U.S.

What is the Employee Free Choice Act, you ask?

“The Employee Free Choice Act, supported in 2007 by a bipartisan coalition in Congress, would enable working people to bargain for better benefits, wages and working conditions by restoring workers’ freedom to choose for themselves whether to join a union. It would:

* Establish stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations.
* Provide mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes.
* Allow employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.

Check out the AFL-CIO’s Q &A for more info by clicking here.

Also download Pride at Work’s “Fact Sheet for The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community.”

According to this document, “There are no federal job non-discrimination protections that protect on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. In 30, and 37 states respectively, it is legal to fire someone on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Since 1975, unions have been bargaining contracts with non-discrimination protections that include these categories.”

Contact your senator (202-224-3121) and congressional representative (202-225-3121) and ask them to Co-Sponsor the Employment Non-Discrimination Act — which provides federal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity — and the Employee Free Choice Act.

This comes directly from the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE):

“NCTE in collaboration with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has already heard from more than 6,000 transgender and gender non-conforming people about the discrimination we face. We need you to be part of this historic study that will provide critical data that we need as we advocate for fully transgender inclusive policies.

There are only two days left for you to be included in the largest ever study of transgender people and our experiences of discrimination. If you haven’t filled out the survey yet, please do so now. We need you. If you have already taken the survey, thank you. Please encourage others to fill it out as well.”

To fill out the Spanish-language survey, click here.

To fill out the English-language survey, click here.

I was raised in a family that has been members of the Mormon Church since the 1840s.  I joined One Struggle, One Fight after hearing about them at one of the rallies after Prop. 8 was passed. I felt like an outsider in the gay community after the passing of this very unconstitutional & hateful proposition.

I have known the Mormon churches’ stand on gay people from a very young age and have come to terms with not being accepted by them, but I still identify as Mormon. I understood the anger of the gay community towards the Mormon Church for there role in Prop. 8, as I was very angry and hurt by it also. Although, I was very saddened by the gay communities reaction to ME at rallies on Nov. 7th and 15th. While holding a sign in rainbow letters that read “Gay Mormon Against Prop. 8” several people came up to me yelling “Fu*# the Mormons”, “Go Home” & “Go back to Utah”. At this point I knew I had to do something to try to build bridges between the majority of the gay community and minorities within the community, ie; Gay Mormons, Gay people of color, Transgendered people…

Once I heard about One Struggle, One Fight’s vision for a bridge building march from San Francisco to Sacramento I knew I had to be a part of it. I went home that night and researched it, found the website and signed up. I encourage everyone that wants to see equal rights for ALL to join us in this march and show that “We will NOT be Divided”!

I marched with the Milk Club at the Harvey Milk 30th Memorial March in November, 2008.

Ok, that’s not entirely accurate. Harvey Milk was assassinated in 1978, but the political organization that he started lives on.

During his epic campaigns for public office, Harvey Milk began the San Francisco Gay Democratic Club, an out & proud political organization. Renamed the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club after his death, the Milk Club continues the tradition of queer progressive politics in San Francisco and carries on the legacy of Harvey Milk.

At One Struggle, One Fight, we share many of Harvey’s core values - not just about lesbian & gay rights, but about solidarity with other groups in their struggles for social and economic justice. It is now my great pleasure to announce that, at tonight’s General Membership meeting, the Harvey Milk Club *unanimously* endorsed the March to Sacramento! It’s an honor to wear that name, and we’re very proud to add it to our growing list of endorsers!

During the meeting, we also heard from Rob Arnow about the campaign for clean elections and campaign financing nationally, as well as from Eileen Hansen and Joe Lynn about the impact of the state’s budget cuts on the San Francisco Ethics Commission. District 11 Supervisor John Avalos - one of the progressive Sups who the Milk Club helped elect this year - was also on hand to help us understand the local budget crisis.

Again, a big thanks to the Milk Club! And if you or your organization are interested in endorsing the March to Sacramento, please click here.