The California-based Yes! On Equality campaign launched a 2010 ballot initiative today (the "California Marriage Equality Act") with the aim of ensuring equal access to marriage for all Californians in accordance with the California State Constitution.
Despite the passage of Proposition 8 in November, 2008 – which effectively banned gay marriage in California and outlawed an estmated 18,000 same-sex marriages – a diverse and growing number of Californians have confidence and hope that marriage equality can and should be recognized.
The proposed law reads as follows: “Section 7.5 of Article I of the California Constitution shall be repealed, stricken, and removed as such: Sec. 7.5 Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California”.
By gathering signatures for the California Marriage Equality Act, Yes! On Equality aims to provide a timely, basic tool to advance equality in California. This campaign seeks to compliment existing grass-roots networks and long-standing community and public-service organizations in California that have struggled to ensure equality for all, and in particular those that have recently fought against Prop 8. The website for the proposed ballot initiative and the Yes! On Equality campaign is www.yesonequality.com, and they are seeking volunteers in all capacities as this campaign grows.
Equality Summit drops restrictions on media
by Rex Wockner
The California Equality Summit, a large gay activist powwow being held in Los Angeles Jan. 24, has abandoned a plan to block media access to portions of the gathering.
The meeting of more than 250 California GLBT activists at the Los Angeles Convention Center will focus on strategizing and organizing to win back same-sex marriage in California.
Internal meeting minutes and e-mails, given to reporters by a disgruntled co-organizer, had made clear that the 53-member organizing committee had decided to prevent reporters from attending at least some portions of the summit.
"Media will have access to cover only a portion of the summit," stated the minutes of a Dec. 18 planning-committee meeting. "Co-chairs will determine which section that is."
The policy was reiterated as late as Dec. 29, when summit coordinator Anne Marks of Equality California informed the planning committee that the summit's co-chairs "have decided not to revisit the committee's decision on media policy."
But after the documents became public and news stories were published on Jan. 5 and Jan. 7, organizers apparently opted to reconsider the decision.
A note published Jan. 13 on Equality California's Web site stated simply, "There will be press access at the entire summit for pre-registered members of the media."
The planned media limits had been controversial because the people who ran the failed campaign against Proposition 8 have been widely criticized for their alleged insularity during the campaign, in which Equality California had the lead role.
Prop 8, passed narrowly by voters on Nov. 4, 2008, amended the California Constitution to wipe out same-sex marriage, which had been legal since June 16, 2008, following a state Supreme Court ruling which found the state's opposite-sex definition of marriage unconstitutional.
Prop 8 itself is now under attack before the Supreme Court as allegedly unconstitutional for a variety of reasons. A ruling is expected in June.
PAM: Autumn will apply for credentials to cover the Summit for the Blend, so we'll keep you posted as to whether she is granted access.
The official press release from the Equality Summit is below the fold.
Here is the press release from the Equality Summit:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 14, 2009CONTACT: Vaishalee Raja, Communications Director
PHONE: 916-284-9187 EMAIL: vaishalee@eqca.orgOver 140 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied Groups to Hold "Equality Summit"
Established and Emerging Community Leaders Collaborate to Win Back Marriage
What: Representatives of over 140 organizations will join together with elected leaders, including members of the California LGBT Legislative Caucus, for the California Equality Summit, to collaborate, share best practices, and plan next steps in the struggle to win back marriage for same-sex couples in California. In addition, researcher David Binder will release and present the results of a study on Prop. 8 voting patterns and influences.
When: Saturday, January 24 at 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. (Opening Session of all-day event)
Where: West Hall, Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 South Figueroa
Who: A variety of groups will attend ranging from leading LGBT-rights organizations like Equality California to pioneer allied civil rights groups such as the N.A.A.C.P to new internet activists like Join the Impact and Equality Action Now. The Summit's keynote speaker, civil rights attorney Eva Paterson, founder of Equal Justice Society, will discuss moving beyond myths about race and moving forward with an inclusive movement. Elected officials confirmed to attend, include State Assemblymember John A. P?rez (D-Los Angeles), State Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), and State Senator Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego). For a complete list of event sponsors, visit www.eqca.org.
Why: "We want to bring together the largest and most diverse group of organizations and leaders possible so we can work together to win true equality for all Californians," says Geoff Kors, Executive Director of Equality California, who conceived the summit as a way to coordinate efforts, maximize resources and foster activism.
Media Note: There will be press access at the entire summit for pre-registered media attendees. To receive press credentials, please visit: http://www.eqcai.org/credentials. The deadline is January 19. Credentials will be sent out by January 21. Plenary sessions will be webcast at www.eqca.org. For more information, contact Vaishalee Raja at 916-284-9187.
Will $500,000 Earmark for Controversial Ministry be Used to Fight Voodoo and Satan in Haiti?
By Ken Avidor
Senator Amy Klobuchar (MN-D) has sponsored an earmark for the Halloween-hating Minnesota Teen Challenge Ministry. According to the website on another ministry, Minnesota Teen Challenge are about to embark on a mission to reverse what they describe as 200 years of Satanic rule in Haiti.
According the Adoration Church (Savage, Minnesota) website, the Halloween-hating Minnesota Teen Challenge Ministry is considering opening a "leadership training center" in Haiti:
Some key leaders from MN Teen Challenge traveled to Haiti in early 2008. After seeing the incredible poverty and desperate living conditions that are all too common throughout Haiti, visiting the prison systems and having an audience with the President of Haiti and other government, business and church leaders a dream was born...It would be interesting to know who some those "key leaders" of MNTC were (more on that later).The Dream...Haitian Leadership Training Center
A transformational program which breaks the downward cycle of poverty, failure, and sin, and which expands the Kingdom of God by equipping male young adults to become godly leaders in Haiti. Minnesota Teen Challenge seeks to be an organizing catalyst that develops alliances with other Christian organizations in order to fully train and mentor students in discipleship, social justice, morality, economic development and servant leadership skills.
In earlier diaries, I've posted quotes from MNTC newsletters that indicate that the MNTC leadership seems to think they are locked in a Manichean struggle with Satan, Pokemon and Harry Potter. Keep in mind there's quite a few congressional representatives led by Senator Amy Klobuchar who think this epic battle between good and evil is worth funding with a $500,000 earmark.
If you scroll down that same Adoration Church web page about Teen Challenge's Haitian project, you come to this brief, but odd history of Haiti beginning with Haiti's struggle for independence:
A Basic Overview of Haiti:Haiti is a small Caribbean country that shares an island with The Dominican Republic only a 90 minute flight from Miami, Florida - a short distance, but a world apart. This island could be a tropical paradise but has fallen far short throughout its turbulent history. Crime is rampant throughout the nation, but most notably in the capital city of Port Au Prince (where we will be much of the time). This former French colony overthrew their French slave owners through the only successful slave uprising in modern history and the nation of Haiti was born. While the revolution against slavery was commendable, the manner in which it was achieved was deplorable.
On August 14, 1791, a group of houngans (voodoo priests), led by a former slave houngan named Boukman, made a pact with the Devil at a place called Bois-Caiman. The founding fathers and others present vowed to exterminate all of the white Frenchmen on the island. They sacrificed a black pig in a voodoo ritual with hundreds of slaves drinking the sacrificial pig's blood. In this ritual, Boukman asked Satan for his help in liberating Haiti from the French. In exchange, the voodoo priests offered to give the country to Satan for 200 years and swore to serve him. On January 1, 1804, the nation of Haiti was born and thus began a new demonic tyranny.
Since that time, Haiti has suffered oppressive poverty, unsanitary conditions, natural disasters and civil war. The nation has a long and sordid history of violence, poverty and has been plagued by political and natural disasters, theft, corruption, drug traffic and in spite of an endless supply of foreign aid to the country; Haiti remains the poorest and most needy country in the hemisphere. The average annual income of approximately $300 USD for a typical Haitian family of five or six members. One half the population is thought to be illiterate and the life expectancy is only 52 years. With unemployment over 70%, most adult men have never held a job in their lives. Haitian poor live day-to-day, generation-to-generation without hope of life getting any better. For them, the long night of unrest seems relentless.
Humanitarian and government officials are renown for being corrupt. Haiti is a haven for the drug trade. Haiti currently has United Nations Peace Keeping Force to help maintain peace and security. The U.N., foreign governments and a variety of mission and humanitarian organizations have poured countless resources into Haiti, the poorest country in this hemisphere. In spite of mountains of foreign assistance, these initiatives do not seem to take root and produce lasting fruit in this spiritually dark voodoo culture. Internationals with long standing ties to Haiti remain frustrated and skeptical of lasting change happening on this Caribbean island. Haitians that profess some level of allegiance to Jesus Christ have been characterized by fraud, theft, and spiritual elitism within a highly-fractured Christian community.
Even in a brief history of Haiti, there ought to be some mention of foreign military interventions and 19 years of American occupation, not to mention the crippling debt Haitians have been forced to pay as a price for their emancipation.
From the outset Haiti inherited the wrath of the colonial powers , which knew what a disastrous example a Haitian success story would be. In the words of Napoleon Bonaparte: "The freedom of the negroes, if recognised in St Domingue [as Haiti was then known] and legalised by France, would at all times be a rallying point for freedom-seekers of the New World." He sent 22,000 soldiers to recapture the "Pearl of the Antilles".France, backed by the US, later ordered Haiti to pay 150m francs in gold as reparations to compensate former plantation and slave owners as well as for the costs of the war in return for international recognition. At today's prices that would amount to $18bn. By the end of the 19th century, 80% of Haiti's national budget was going to pay off the loan and its interest, and the country was locked into the role of a debtor nation - where it remains today.
Any prospect of planting a stable political culture foundered on the barren soil of economic impoverishment, military siege and interna tional isolation (for the first 58 years the US refused even to recognise Haiti's existence). In 1915, fearing that internal strife would compromise its interests, the US invaded, and remained until 1934.
If those who now preach compromise had practised those values in the past, Haiti might have nurtured the kind of political traditions that could withstand its divisions today. Haiti is a reminder of how Western democracies have wilfully amassed their wealth on the backs of impoverished dictatorships.
I'm guessing that Craig Sulentic, a board member of MNTC and Adoration Church's "connection" to the MNTC Haiti project would prefer to blame Satan for Haiti's woes rather than Western democracies as he is a campaign donor to ultra-right-wingers Norm Coleman and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.
As further proof of the right-wing bent of the Adoration Church, the churches web site links to the ex-gay ministry Exodus and right-wing, anti-gay Focus on the Family:
Exodus - A worldwide Christian organization called to encourage, stengthen, unify and equip Christians to minister the transforming power of the Lord Jesus Christ to those affected by homosexuality. They are the largest Christian referral and information ministry dealing with homosexual issues in the world today. They offer monthly newsletters, annual conferences, speaking engagements and online services.
If you are not familiar with Exodus, watch the excellent video about so-called ex-gay ministries at IN THE LIFE:
What is interesting about the timing of the NTC's mission to exorcise the Devil in Haiti, is that one of MNTC's former board members, Frank Vennes Jr. and his lawyer has been caught in the complicated web of fraud surrounding the Ponzi scheme... a scheme that has cost MNTC millions of dollars forcing cutbacks and layoffs. Frank Vennes Jr. has not been charged with a crime, but the DOJ claims they have evidence that Vennes was aware that something was amiss back in December, 2007... the same month that Congresswoman Bachmann wrote a letter to George Bush requesting a pardon for Frank Vennes Jr.... which is also around the time somebody at MNTC (according to the Adoration Church) got the idea that opening a "Leadership Training Center" in Haiti was a splendid idea:
Some key leaders from MN Teen Challenge traveled to Haiti in early 2008
...and according to the Livesay Haiti blog, those "key leaders" are down there in demon-possessed Haiti right now:
The Board of Directors from MN Teen Challenge are headed down here on Friday to scout locations and fact find...
The folks from MNTC will be battling Satan's evil hordes for a week according to the itinerary (see below). But it appears that they will also be having a "fun day" (nice of Satan to allow that).
As I gaze out past my computer here in Minneapolis at the raging blizzard outside my window... As I contemplate the predicted below-zero temperatures (11 below tonight and minus 3 for a high tomorrow), I wish I too had enlisted to fight in the U.S. taxpayer-subsidized struggle with Satan on the sun-drenched sands of the Godless Caribbean like the valiant board members of Minnesota Teen Challenge.
Related:
* MN: Senator requests $500K earmark for Christianist program tied to ex-gay ministry
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