Clergy Stand For Marriage Equality in Southern Oregon

The First Congregational United Church of Christ in Ashland Oregon will be conducting same gender weddings underscoring their belief for the need of separation of church and state.

“We, as UCC ministers, believe the separation of church and
state is good for the church and for the state”

While the minsiters of the UCC Church will continue to celebrate the sacrament of marriage for all couples who wish to have thier spiritual union belssed by the church, the ministers will not be signing marriage licenses for any couple being married in thier church until they are legally able to sign marriage licenses for everyone.

“At First Congregational United Church of
Christ in Ashland we will no longer sign marriage licenses for any
one until we are able to sign marriage licenses for everyone.”

For more information contact Leslie Stone at lesliestone@ashlandhome.net

LUTN NOT Postponed but…

I really hate to do this, but the weather tomorrow is simply going to be too dangerous for folks to come downtown.  Therefore, we are postponing Portland’s Light Up The Night Vigil for Equality.  As soon as we have a new date, I will post it here ASAP.  Also, check back here this weekend, for some other upcoming events that are being planned right now.

Everyone be safe and stay warm!

UPDATE:  There are a couple of folks who do not want this event to be completely cancelled, so if you feel you can SAFELY make it, there should be others there.  If the weather turns as early as predicted, we WILL cancel completely.   Check back here after lunch tomorrow. BE SAFE!!!!

Light Up The Night

When:

Saturday, December 20th, 5:00 p.m.

Who:

You,  Family,  Friends,  Allies

Where:

Pioneer Square, Portland OR

What:

Silent Candle Light Vigil

Why:

Keeping the issue of Equality from being forgotten. Standing in solidarity to mourn the loss of rights stripped from families.

Questions:

Simply submit a comment to this blog post.

The New Politics of Yes: Yes We Can… Overturn Prop 8

The following article has been reposted in it’s entirety and with permission from the Bilerico Project Blog

Editors’ Note: Guest blogger Torie Osborn has been a social activist for 40 years; She is former Executive Director of the LA Gay and Lesbian Center, NGLTF, and the LIberty HIll Foundation. She is currently Senior Advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and a Durfee Foundation Stanton Fellow.

A Prayer

Thursday was the 30th anniversary of Harvey Milk’s assassination. In his honor, I write this to help move forward the conversation in the wake of Prop 8. It is a loving work in progress. I dedicate it also to my friends who died of AIDS and who are shouting from The Beyond: Do not miss this opportunity to forge transformation from this defeat. Do not forget us!

In particular, I honor Ken Dawson, Connie Norman, Marlon Riggs, Rand Schrader, Mark Kostopolous, Paul Monette, Tom Stoddard, and Gabe Kruks. They never forgot what really matters: love and justice.

Defeat Requires Honesty, Humility and a Longterm Movement Building Strategy

Learning from others

When the devastating violence of 1992’s civil unrest scorched communities of color in Los Angeles, a phoenix rose up from those ashes. Even with formidable external forces tearing them apart, forward-looking Asian, African-American and Latino leaders showed extraordinary leadership: rather than devolve into infighting or finger-pointing, they took a clear-eyed look at their own failures and vowed to do things completely differently. “We have an urgent need to think long-term,” were the words that reverberated, and a fundamental paradigm shift took place. Vowing to move beyond short term and fragmented efforts, diverse leaders in diverse neighborhoods made an intentional, coordinated plan: to retool existing groups or found brand new organizations dedicated to long-term community organizing for real power in their respective neighborhoods and to forge an ongoing multi-ethnic network of trusting relationships.

LIGHT UP THE NIGHT FOR EQUALITY

On Saturday, December 20th, at 5:00 PM, silent candlelight vigils will be held at commercial centers in cities across the country in remembrance of the rights recently lost around the country, and in honor of the rights that one day will BE,  here in Oregon,  and for EVERYONE.

In Portland, we will be gathering for our silent candlelight vigil at Pioneer Square, downtown.

These are the guidelines from Join the Impact, which we are going to stick to, as much as possible:

This will be a peaceful gathering in the spirit of the holidays (This one is a MUST).

We’ll dress alike: make or buy a “Second Class Citizen” t-shirt.

We will stay silent unless asked a question, we will not yell, instigate, or bear signs. Instead, we will let our shirts do the talking and our candles pay our respects.

Bring candles (battery powered if need be).

Two weeks ago, we were noisy all across the United States.  On December 20th, we will let our silence bring home the reality of lack of equal rights as citizens of this country.

Update
The national Join the Impact site has shirts available to order.  We are talking to folks locally to see if we can get them made here.  Suggestions greatly appreciated.

The national site:

http://jointheimpact.wetpaint.com/page/Light+Up+The+Night+For+Equality

See you on the 20th!

What is this moment?

There is a post on the Family Equality Council Blog that I think asks some really important questions.  What are your thoughts?

They say:

Many in our community are wondering whether the anti-family results of Election Day and the national reaction that followed signals a new moment for the LGBT civil rights movement. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen so many LGBT people and straight allies registering their anger in the streets, and not just in the states where these votes took place. In hundreds of cities and towns across the nation, people have stood up, marched and demonstrated with their own expressions of energy and outrage.

They ask:

* Is this a new moment–a Stonewall 2.0, as some are calling it–or just the appropriately sized response to the largest grassroots campaign our community has ever run?

* If it is a new moment, what’s fundamentally different from before? How did Election Day change your perspective or the kinds of actions you’ll take to achieve equality?

* If you could help achieve one concrete thing towards family equality in 2009, what would it be and why?

So what now?

I saw that headline on a local paper’s website today, and thought it an apt title for this post.

Lindsey and I organized last Saturday’s rally as a call to action.  A call to our community to stand up, be counted, and to get to work on obtaining full equal rights, in Oregon as well as across the country. It is no longer an option for us to depend on someone else to carry the water for us.  If this were a perfect world, we could have marches, rallies and protests every day of every week of the year.  Of course, if this were a perfect world, we wouldn’t be sitting here having this discussion.

Lindsey and I are still in the middle of compiling all of the information we received last Saturday, of people who have declared that they are ready to unite, get to work, and move forward, working for equality.  The news says we had about a thousand people; over half of you signed up for duty.  That is beyond amazing to me.  And like Lindsey and I, most, if not all of you had to get up Monday (or Sunday for some of us!) and go to work.   Have we had time to work for equality?  I would venture that the answer to that, for most of us, is yes.  Why do I say that?  Because since last Saturday, people have been talking to their families, friends, neighbors.  They’ve been talking to co-workers and fellow community members.    I’d bet money people were even talking in church last Sunday morning.

I know that Lindsey and I talk every day about how we are feeling, what we are hearing, and where we want to go next.  We have been in the community, talking to people, to other community leaders, planning.  We made a commitment to our community last week and we are absolutely not going to walk away from that.  After the thrill of rallies, marches and protests wear off, the real equality work begins.  I look forward to it.

THANK YOU!!!

Holy smokes, was the gathering just yesterday? 

We just really want to say thank you to everyone.  Our community leaders who spoke, community members who spoke up (maybe for the first time) and shared their stories.  Not to mention the energy.  A friend of mine mentioned today that he had never been to a civil rights rally before, and had only been to events where anger trumped most any other part of the experience.  We definitely had (and have) some of that, without a doubt.  But what I really felt, along with the positive emotion that always comes about when we come together, was the “ok, this is it; no more excuses, no more playing; what steps do we need to take, and what part do I need to play?” feeling that permeated everything.  A friend made a point to me earlier that, considering what a handful of people around the state managed to pull off, in multiple locations, the thought of what we can do with ALL of us involved, is staggering.  And it is…staggering.  It’s also really exciting and inspiring.  It is time to take this forward, take responsibility for our own equality and our own actions.  It’s just time.

Join The Imapact Rally Information:

Rallies to “Fight the H8” are being held nationwide on Saturday November 15^th beginning at 10:30am in a show of solidarity and support for thousands of our community who have been so deeply effected by these measures.Fight the H8 rallies are being held in Portland, Eugene, Corvallis,  Salem and Medford. Click on each of these Oregon cities for the location of the scheduled gatherings. Just Out has also been publishing ongoing information.

Please read an open letter to all GLBT Oregonians from Basic Rights Oregon Executive Director Jeana Frazzini.

PORTLAND:

10:30 am with Speakers scheduled at noon.

South Park Blocks near PSU

Contact: Debra Porta debraporta(at)netzero.net

Info at: http://pdxjointheimpact.wordpress.com/

EUGENE:

10:30am

Eugene City Hall

777 Pearl St

Info at: www.queereugene.com

CORVALLIS:

10:30am

Corvallis City Hall

120 NW 4^th St

Contact: Faith Reidenbach reidenbach.9(at)osu.edu

Info at: http://jointheimpact.wetpaint.com/page/Corvallis?t=anon

MEDFORD:

10:30am

Corner of East Main St. and South Central Ave.

Contact: Leslie Stone (541) 488-9168 lesliestone(at)ashlandhome.net

Janelle Wilson (541) 552-8328 wilsonjan(at)sou.edu

Info at: http://politigay.posterous.com/press-release-nov-15pdf-adobe

SALEM:

10:30am

Location 1: Riverfront Park in front of the carousel

Location 2: Jackson Plaza at Willamette University

Both groups will march to the Capital Building downtown.

Contact: Michael Miles   blueiceman26(at)gmail.comJoin

Info at: http://www.myspace.com/gaymarriagenow

24 HOURS AND COUNTING!

It is hard to believe that it’s only been 5 days since we began planning this thing.  One day left!

The more that Lindsey and I have talked about what our goals are, and our ideas for how to get there, the more excited I get about the possibilities of what we may be giving life to tomorrow.  Our community has been divided and on the defensive for far too long (one follows the other, maybe?  Hmmm…food for thought there) and I think we are drawing somewhat of a line in the sand this weekend. 

A friend asked me the other day, why weren’t we visible a month ago, well in advance of election night?  Why are we waiting until now to actually get up and be visible and vocal?  Well, my question is this:  When Prop Eight passed in California last week, what was the very first thought (or at least the second) that you had?  I would bet money, that it was something along the lines of “It passed in California?  CALIFORNIA?!  But..but…that’s where San Francisco is!”  It has freaked people out…and rightly so.  California is the perfect example of what it looks like to take equal rights for granted.  We, here in Oregon, are on the verge of doing the exact same thing.  And THAT is our motivation for this gathering tomorrow.  We have some amazing leadership in this state, around the fight for LGBTQ equal rights, and they have been on the frontlines fighting that battle for a LONG time.  Sometimes we pay a bit more attention to them than we do at other times, but how much effort do we really put into our daily lives, not only supporting those organizations, but how much work do we put into our daily lives, talking to people, sharing our struggles and listening to theirs?  How much thought and work do we put into really building bridges and making those allies that we need, in order to win this struggle?  The fight for equal rights doesn’t happen only at the periodic rally, or on election day.  It takes WORK.  And that is what Lindsey and I are committing to, and what we are asking you to commit to, as well; for the LGBTQ community, OUR community, to join together and, while honoring our differences, recognizing that we sink or swim together.  It isn’t up to someone else to fight for my rights for me.  It’s up to me.