Friday February 10, 2006 SGN.org |
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Volume 34 Issue 06 |
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Sunday, Mar 21, 2010
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IN THEIR OWN WORDS: Washington Won't Discriminate |
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| IN THEIR OWN WORDS: Washington Won't Discriminate | |
| Statewide campaign launched to defeat Tim Eyman's anti-Gay referendum and initiative
by Anne Levinson - Chair of Washington Won't Discriminate [Editor's Note: In Their Own Words is a new column, where individuals and community organizations will tell the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community what they will do to defeat Tim Eyman's anti-Gay referendum and initiative.] A statewide campaign is being organized to defeat the referendum and the initiative. I am honored to be chairing this effort. There are many other leaders from our community who have been involved in the defeat of past anti-discrimination efforts who are helping to organize the campaign, such as Marsha Botzer, Audrey Haberman, Laurie Jinkins and George Scarola, to name a few. As a former judge and former deputy mayor, I know how important it is that we have strong laws against discrimination of any kind. After 29 years of legislative proposals, Washington law now protects all of us from discrimination in employment, housing and banking. And I firmly believe that most of the good people of the state of Washington agree that we should all be treated fairly. This campaign will include the LGBT community from across the state as well as a broad based coalition including communities of color, faith-based communities, business leaders, the women's community, labor, the disability community and a wide range of other fair-minded people who do not believe in discrimination of any kind. Business, labor, religious and political leaders, and many others worked hard to pass the anti-discrimination law in Olympia and will work hard to ensure that the law is not repealed and these hard-earned rights taken away. They all understand that basic civil rights should never be put at risk by initiatives and referenda. There may be a third discriminatory measure on the ballot also sponsored by Tim Eyman, directed at further limiting affirmative action (I-914). If so, we will want to work in close collaboration with folks working to defeat that. We are just getting started, so bear with us while we are forming the campaign, and we'll hit the ground running. We've already had requests from many people wanting to help, including helping with efforts aimed at keeping people from signing. We would love to see lots of people involved in voter education and registration efforts. There are two important things folks can do that would be really helpful in this first week or two: Collect contributions - large or small - to get us launched. The name of the campaign is "Washington Won't Discriminate". We will have a electronic payment option on our website very soon. Until then, you can mail checks to: Washington Won't Discriminate PO Box is 21971 Seattle, WA 98111 We will need your name, address, phone and email address. If the amount is over $100.00, we must also have your employer, occupation and city of employment. There is no limit on contribution amounts for an initiative/referendum campaign (until the final three weeks). To volunteer, please log onto our website - www.washingtonwontdiscriminate.org. Let us know if you would be willing to help with voter registration; if you have professional or social organizations, church, temple, mosque or workplace groups we can reach out to and how to best get in touch with them; if you would be willing to hold a house party; or if you belong to a labor union or other group that might be willing to endorse, provide volunteers or contribute to the campaign. We expect that progressive, fair-minded Washington voters will see these proposals for what they are and reject these divisive, mean-spirited proposals. Please join us in any way you can. |
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