As a group, we're not just focused on an issue. We're focused on our values, and on building a movement that brings us together in our work for peace and justice.
Here's a list of some of the issues that we care about. It's by no means comprehensive, but it will give you a good idea where we're coming from:
Also check out this great article co-written by Janine Carmona of One Struggle, One Fight, about racism in the aftermath of Prop 8.
Repeal Proposition 8
On November 4, 2008 election California's voters stripped the LGBT community of the right to marry when voters passed Prop 8 by a 52% margin. By amending the state Constitution, Prop 8 overturned the California Supreme Court decision last year that legalized same-sex marriage.
There are a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn proposition 8. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on March 5, and make its decision about repealing proposition 8 within 90 days of hearing these arguments. The suits say the ballot measure was improperly enacted and is itself unconstitutional because it singles out a minority group for discrimination.
We are marching from San Francisco to Sacramento, March 25-29th to support the repeal of proposition 8. Gay marriage is currently legal in only Massachusetts and Connecticut. Thirty states have laws banning same-sex marriage in their constitutions. The Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA), passed into law in September, 1996 under then-president Bill Clinton, stipulates that states do not need to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. It also says that the federal government does not recognize same-sex marriage for any purposes, meaning that same-sex couples are unable to access the rights and benefits afforded to straight couples at the federal level, including those related to Social Security, survivorship, inheritance, and immigration and citizenship
While we are demanding the repeal of Prop 8, we also believe it's important to highlight other issues related to the larger struggle for economic and social justice.
Economic Justice & Transgender Rights
End discrimination in employment against LGBTQ people. We support an inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act, one that not only prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, but one that also bans discrimination based on gender identity and expression. Only an inclusive ENDA protects transgender and non-gender normative people against employment discrimination. Nationally, a study conducted between 1996 and 1997 found that 37 percent of transgender individuals surveyed had experienced employment discrimination. We strongly believe that LGBTQ communities should come together to advocate for the rights of transgender people. It's all of us or none of us.
Visit United ENDA for more info, and to download an organizers' ENDA toolkit published by the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce.
Access to affordable healthcare is a fundamental right. Poor and working-class people, who are disproportionately people of color in our racially unequal society, should have the same, quality healthcare as the wealthiest amongst us. Moreover, all healthcare plans should be transgender-inclusive. Healthcare pans must provide access to all transition-related services and procedures that transgender people need. And all healthcare plans should be accessible same-gender partners.
As we sink deeper into a recession, unions become even more important to workers' lives. Currently, the percentage of the unionized U.S. population is at a depressing low of 12.6%. We encourage more workers to form unions, as this is one important way that all of us can access better benefits and rights in the workplace, as well as have a voice on the job otherwise denied to us.
Pride at Work, the LGBT group within the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations – one of two major labor federations in the U.S.), "works for full equality for LGBT workers in their workplaces and unions." There are many ways that we in the LGBT community can fight for our rights through unionization, including demanding clauses in our union contracts that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression; demanding healthcare for our partners; transgender-inclusive healthcare; fighting for leaves policies that are as friendly to queer families as they are to straight families; and broadening the definition of the family so that rights and benefits will accrue to people we love other than long-term partners and our children.
Immigrant Rights
Support for the Uniting American Families Act, which would grant binational same-sex couples equal treatment under immigration laws by allowing them to sponsor their partner for immigration purposes (supported by National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Immigration Equality, among others). This Act has been re-introduced into Congress this year. Discrimination in our immigration laws must end.
Visit Immigration Equality for more information.
We recognize that immigrants without papers often live in the shadows, fearing that their immigration status will be found out. People in LGBTQ communities have felt forced to "stay in the closet" from fear of being found out, for fear of being rejected by our families and friends, for fear of being fired from our jobs. So we call for an end to harassment of immigrant communities. Immigration raids and deportations of immigrants have been on the rise, including in San Francisco, which is supposed to he a "sanctuary city," a city that's safe for immigrants to live and work in without fear. Our country needs comprehensive immigration reforms that respect workers' rights, provides for amnesty and an easier and quicker pathway toward legalization for immigrants, and reforms that end the militarization of the border.
Violence
Violence, based on hate and ignorance, impacts LGBTQ people and communities of color in particular. Police murdered Oscar Grant, a 22-year old black man, in the early morning hours on January 1, 2009 in Oakland. This incident, captured on video, represents a larger problem – police harassment and violence against people of color and LBGTQ peoples is endemic, and it must stop.
In addition to police violence, recently there have been a number of other racist, homophobic and transphobic violent attacks. On December 13, four men violently attacked and raped a lesbian woman in Richmond California. In November of 2008 Jose O. Sucuzhanay, an Ecuadorian Immigrant, was murdered in a xenophobic and homophobic attack. In early 2008 in Oxnard, California a 14-year old boy shot to death 15-year old Lawrence King, who had recently said publicly that he was gay. Lawrence had also started wearing mascara, lipstick and jewelry to school, pointing to the fact that his gender transgression also had something to do with the attack. Violence against transgender people is such a frequent occurrence that the Transgender Day of Remembrance, marked annually in November, memorializes transgendered people killed in acts of violence. This past November of 2008 Duanna Johnson, a black transgendered woman, was killed in Memphis. During the previous summer she had been subjected to transphobic police violence. Transgendered people, especially transgendered people of color, face disproportionate violence, and we believe we must make the connection between these acts of violence and political movements and ideas that refuse full equality to minorities.
Visit the Transgender Day of Remembrance for more information.