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API EQUALITY – LA: WINS CITY OF LOS ANGELES PRIDE A
OIA Newswire
Los Angeles – Each year, at the end of the month of June, Los Angeles City Councilmember Bill Rosendahl holds a special Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) pride celebration during a meeting of the Los Angeles City Council. As part of that celebration, the councilmember issues a handful of LGBT Pride Month awards, celebrating leaders and role models in the community. The theme of the awards this year is Faces of the New LGBT Movement.
People who have emerged as fresh faces of leadership in the LGBT community in the wake of the passage of Proposition 8 are being honored. API Equality-LA is being recognized for its organizing work in the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) communites. In particular, API Equality-LA was nominated to recognize its work with API Christian and other faith communities, its efforts to ensure that API ethnic media provides balanced coverage on the marriage equality issue, and its work to build a strong coalition between APIs and other communities of color. This is the second award that API Equality-LA has recently received, following on the May 2009 award for its work that was bestowed by the Pride and Heritage Committee in Washington, D.C
"We are thrilled that Councilmember Rosendahl should honor us in this way," said API-Equality Co-Chair Doreena Wong. "We truly appreciate the recognition of our past efforts and the encouragement this provides for our continuing work to win back marriage equality."
API Equality - LA is a coalition of organizations and individuals working to build support for equal marriage rights and fair treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the greater Los Angeles Asian and Pacific Islander community. For more information, call 323-860-7348 or visit, http://apiequalityla.org/. Full Story. [6/30/09]
AG JERRY BROWN SUPPORTS FEDERAL LAWSUIT TO OVERTURN PROP 8
California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a brief in support of the federal lawsuit seeking to overturn Proposition 8 and restore marriage equality to California. > Full Story. [6/15/09]
SAFFIRE--THE UPPITY BLUES WOMEN. FAREWELL SHOW IN SAN DIEGO JUNE 17
SAFFIRE-THE UPPITY BLUES WOMEN CELEBRATE FINAL RELEASE WITH
FAREWELL PERFORMANCE IN SAN DIEGO! > Full Story. [6/10/09]
CELEBRITY CAREER AND LIFE COACH ELAINE LEWIS
ELAINE LEWIS SUCCESS LIFE & CAREER COACHING NEW YORK BASED NOW OPENS IN SAN DIEGO INTRODUCING A SPECIAL PROGRAM FOCUSING ON GBLT LIFE ISSUES > Full Story. [6/10/09]
ACTIVISTS TO PROTEST PROPOSED HIV/AIDS FUNDING CUTS AT STATE CAPITOL
Sacramento – Activists from across California will converge tomorrow to protest proposed cuts to the state budget reducing or eliminating life-saving HIV/AIDS services. The current proposal – offered by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and under consideration by the legislature – would take away $80.1 million for state HIV/AIDS programs, including a proposed $12.3 million reduction to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), the primary source for costly HIV medications to more than 35,000 Californians. By reducing funding to ADAP, the proposal puts thousands of Californians at risk of losing life-saving medications. > Full Story. [6/10/09]
‘EYE-OPENING DRAMA’ “HE ASKED FOR IT” PREMIERES JUNE 12
Award-Winning Controversial Play Takes Bold Look at Gay Relationships in the Internet Age > Full Story. [6/8/09]
CA SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS STUDENT CIVIL RIGHTS ACT
(Sacramento, June 1, 2009) –Today, a Sacramento Superior Court dismissed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate SB 777, the California Student Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination against students on the basis of race, religion, disability, gender, and sexual orientation. The lawsuit was brought by a right-wing group that specifically objected to protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. The court held that the plaintiffs had failed to show any way in which the statute was even allegedly unlawful. > Full Story. [6/3/09]
SAN DIEGO LGBT COMMUNITY CENTER PROFOUNDLY DISAPPOINTED BY CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT RULING
May 26, 2009 – SAN DIEGO – The San Diego LGBT Community Center today expressed deep disappointment in the ruling from the California State Supreme Court, which failed to overturn Proposition 8. While the court did not invalidate the marriages performed for same-sex couples between June and November of last year, today's ruling is a "major disappointment from a court that ruled for full equality just a year ago," said Dr. Delores A. Jacobs, chief executive officer of The San Diego LGBT Community Center. > Full Story. [5/27/09]
EYE-OPENING DRAMA’ “HE ASKED FOR IT” PREMIERES JUNE 12
Award-Winning Controversial Play Takes Bold Look at Gay Relationships in the Internet Age > Full Story. [5/19/09]
HRC ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH CALIFORNIA FAITH FOR EQUALITY
New comprehensive effort to broaden, diversify, and deepen religious support for marriage equality
WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, announced today a new strategic partnership with California Faith for Equality (CFE), a statewide group established to educate, support and mobilize California's faith communities on LGBT equality.
The partnership joins CFE and its 6,000 supporting faith leaders with both HRC's Religion and Faith Program expertise as well as support from the National Field Department to broaden, diversify and deepen religious support for marriage equality in California. The partnership comes on the eve of an expected decision by the California Supreme Court on Proposition 8 which stripped away the right of same-sex couples to marry.
"This is a strategic partnership to not only expand and diversify CFE's impressive statewide work, but to ensure that California voters know that many people of faith support same-sex marriage," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. "Religion was too often used as a weapon against us in California, and we know whatever the court's decision, this is critical work in achieving full equality."
The Human Rights Campaign will lend significant resources both on-the-ground and collaboratively to California Faith for Equality. Religion and Faith Director Harry Knox and HRC field staff will assist CFE build capacity for a sustained, locally-driven public education campaign led by California clergy and supported by their congregants.
"We must harness this opportunity and help local clergy build advocacy for marriage equality into their routine work in congregations and train participants to utilize low-cost, high-impact public education that extends their justice ministries," said Harry Knox, Director of the Human Rights Campaign's Religion and Faith Program.
"At the core of many people's objection to same-sex marriage is religion," said Rev. Roland Stringfellow, Bay Area Coalition of Welcoming Congregations. "This collaboration facilitates open and constructive dialogs within faith communities about the inherent worth and dignity of all of God's creation and the shame that is created when people are forced to live without integrity when their lives and loves are not valued."
"The partnership between the Human Rights Campaign and California Faith for Equality is good news to all who are committed to equality," said Rev. Abel Lopez, All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena CA. "I look forward to the work we will do together as we combine our energies to reach across differences toward the goal of liberty and justice for all."
The elements of the partnership include:
--Develop a religious declaration of support for marriage equality that multiple faith leaders can endorse, and use it as a coalition-building tool to attract and build CFE's membership and voice.
--Prioritize those counties where Prop 8 passed or failed by seven percent or less, and build new coalitions while strengthening existing ones.
--Train clergy and lay leaders how to build advocacy for LGBT equality into their routine work with their congregations. Additionally, create a specific tool kit to help people of faith build support beyond their places of worship, and into their families and neighborhoods.
--Identify key religious spokespeople relevant to a local community and give visibility to those clergy and their congregations endorsing marriage equality.
--Create culturally-sensitive as well as denomination-specific material to help religious leaders and people of faith to talk about why supporting marriage equality is consistent with the tenets of their faith. This includes identifying and building coalitions and ties with faith communities of color.
--Work with progressive communities of faith to become volunteers and leaders if a marriage campaign is launched. HRC and CFE believe that communities of faith have much to offer in expanding that statewide, volunteer network.
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.
The mission for California Faith and Equality is to educate, support and mobilize California's faith communities to promote equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and to safeguard religious freedom. > Full Story. [5/15/09]
LGBT PRISONER SAFETY ACT PASSES ASSEMBLY WITH BIPARTISAN SUPPORT
Bill Sponsored by EQCA and Introduced by Assemblymember Ammiano Now Moves to Senate > Full Story. [5/12/09]
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