Your Gaydar

After the House voted to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Michael Mitchell, Executive Director of the National Stonewall Democrats, wrote an open letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, urging him to keep the Senate in session until the people's work is done- especially until Senators vote on repeal of DADT.

We can't wait any longer. Sign your name to this open letter from the Stonewall Democrats to Sen. Reid, today. When you sign the letter, you'll be sending a clear message to the majority leader that this time is now for repeal and the country and our men and women in uniform can't wait.

Join me and sign your name to the open letter to Sen. Reid and keep the Senate in session till DADT is repealed.

Follow this link to sign the letter: https://services.myngp.com/ngponlineservices/petition.aspx?X=bdaCOKGsAVY=

EQCA's hard-hitting television ads about Meg Whitman and Steve Cooley
vowing to support Prop. 8 in court have garnered national attention.
Tonight these ads start running on CNN, FOX News and MSNBC in
Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Palm Springs.
And a Spanish language version is being released later this week. We
need your help to keep them on the air.

Keep the ads on the air and the pressure on Meg and Steve.

Every dollar you give goes to ensuring that Californians know that Meg
and Steve want to spend millions of your and my tax dollars defending
Prop. 8 in federal court, while allowing vital services like education
and emergency services to suffer from cuts.

If you haven't seen the ads or emailed Meg and Steve, click here:

http://tinyurl.com/2e74ewo

Our state can’t afford to waste taxpayer dollars on defending Prop. 8
in court.  Please give today, even if you’ve given before, and sign
our petition to Whitman and Cooley telling them to keep California on
the right side of equality.

Yesterday was a real triumph for the LGBTQ movement.

Hundreds of people turned out for "The Big Commit," an effort spearheaded by local DC organizers to fight back against the hatred and fear that the National Organization for Marriage has been spewing all summer. GetEQUAL, along with Kate Clinton, asked you for your sign suggestions, and hosted a sign-making station where your recommendations were brought to life.

See a few of the event pictures here: www.getequal.org/bigcommit

But more important than the signage was the sense of community created at the event. Local organizers were joined by about 500 attendees to recommit ourselves to the fight for full equality. As Mara Kiesling from the National Center for Transgender Equality reminded us, "We know from history that we will always win, but we will have to fight."

Will you join GetEQUAL? Will you join them in countering hate with love? In countering fear with hope? In countering apathy with passion? 

GetEQUAL is continuing to build a critical mass of people willing to take bold action for LGBTQ equality. Will you invite your friends to join the GetEQUAL community?

Click here to invite your friends via email, Facebook, or Twitter: www.getequal.org/bigcommit

Thank you so much for your ongoing support. GetEQUAL will soon be asking people to take action in their communities to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" -- as well as ongoing social and cultural organizing -- but they need as many people as possible to join them in that work and to commit to taking bold action.

Ask your friends to join GetEQUAL in the fight for full equality!

Get Out! Get Active! GetEQUAL!

Renew your commitment to achieve equality for LGBT Californians and
sustain the efforts of EQCA to ensure legal and civil rights for LGBT
Californians.

FEATURING
A catered event hosted by
Joyce Rowland & Pamela Morgan

Includes entertianment and valet parking.

Hosted Vodka bar by Blue Angel Vodka

Saturday, August 21
2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

At the Rancho Santa Fe Home of
Joyce Rowland & Pamela Morgan
Address provided upon ticket purchase

HOST: $5,000
CO-HOST: $2,500
TABLE HOST: $1,500
INDIVIDUAL TICKETS: $150

To get you started, Freedom to Marry has created a short video that
touches on important issues like the so-called Defense of Marriage Act
(DOMA) and anti-gay measures like California's Prop 8.

Watch the video, then share it with family and friends:

http://freedomtomarry.org/PrideVideo

Last week, Freedom to Marry members proved their commitment to ending
marriage discrimination. More than 1,000 of you them the Freedom to
Marry Action Survey and provided critical feedback that they're using
to build their campaign to win marriage nationwide. A key part of that
campaign is building majority support for marriage.

You can help. Take a moment to check out their newest video. Then post
it to your Facebook profile, tweet it on Twitter, and email it to
friends.

"As Americans, it is our birthright that all people are created equal
and deserve the same rights, privileges, and opportunities. Since our
earliest days of independence, our Nation has striven to fulfill that
promise. An important chapter in our great, unfinished story is the
movement for fairness and equality on behalf of the lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. This month, as we
recognize the immeasurable contributions of LGBT Americans, we renew
our commitment to the struggle for equal rights for LGBT Americans and
to ending prejudice and injustice wherever it exists.

LGBT Americans have enriched and strengthened the fabric of our
national life. From business leaders and professors to athletes and
first responders, LGBT individuals have achieved success and
prominence in every discipline. They are our mothers and fathers, our
sons and daughters, and our friends and neighbors. Across my
Administration, openly LGBT employees are serving at every level.
Thanks to those who came before us -- the brave men and women who
marched, stood up to injustice, and brought change through acts of
compassion or defiance -- we have made enormous progress and continue
to strive for a more perfect union.

My Administration has advanced our journey by signing into law the
Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which
strengthens Federal protections against crimes based on gender
identity or sexual orientation. We renewed the Ryan White CARE Act,
which provides life-saving medical services and support to Americans
living with HIV/AIDS, and finally eliminated the HIV entry ban. I also
signed a Presidential Memorandum directing hospitals receiving
Medicare and Medicaid funds to give LGBT patients the compassion and
security they deserve in their time of need, including the ability to
choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and
make medical decisions.

In other areas, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
announced a series of proposals to ensure core housing programs are
open to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
HUD also announced the first-ever national study of discrimination
against members of the LGBT community in the rental and sale of
housing. Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services has
created a National Resource Center for LGBT Elders.

Much work remains to fulfill our Nation's promise of equal justice
under law for LGBT Americans. That is why we must give committed gay
couples the same rights and responsibilities afforded to any married
couple, and repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. We must protect the
rights of LGBT families by securing their adoption rights, ending
employment discrimination against LGBT Americans, and ensuring Federal
employees receive equal benefits. We must create safer schools so all
our children may learn in a supportive environment. I am also
committed to ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" so patriotic LGBT
Americans can serve openly in our military, and I am working with the
Congress and our military leadership to accomplish that goal.

As we honor the LGBT Americans who have given so much to our Nation,
let us remember that if one of us is unable to realize full equality,
we all fall short of our founding principles. Our Nation draws its
strength from our diversity, with each of us contributing to the
greater whole. By affirming these rights and values, each American
benefits from the further advancement of liberty and justice for all.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of
America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution
and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2010 as
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon all
Americans to observe this month by fighting prejudice and
discrimination in their own lives and everywhere it exists.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day
of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and
thirty-fourth.

BARACK OBAMA

Last week, GetEQUAL asked you to you to join them in demanding that
ExxonMobil reinstate sexual orientation and gender identity in its
nondiscrimination policy after ripping it out in 1999. They're happy
to report that more than 3,000 others joined you in taking action;
however, those signature made no impact on ExxonMobil.

On Wednesday, Dallas GetEQUAL activists gathered outside the annual
ExxonMobil shareholders meeting to ensure that shareholders put a face
to their discriminatory policy. While they were kept outside by
police, Richard Miller of the Dallas Peace Center delivered those
3,000+ signatures to shareholders at the meeting. Without your help,
they would not have been able to show ExxonMobil how many people
around the country care about this issue!

Despite those signatures, ExxonMobil shareholders voted down a change
to their employment policy, showing all of us why it's important for
the grassroots to keep pushing corporations to do the right thing.
GetEQUAL will continue to fight for workplaces free of discrimination,
at ExxonMobil and elsewhere. And they will continue to work toward a
federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that will end the
need to take action with individual corporations.

NEXT STEPS: If you haven't already, please sign their letter to
Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanding a floor vote for ENDA, so that
corporations like ExxonMobil can no longer legally discriminate.

Get Out, Get Active, GetEQUAL!

Great news for everyone who believes in truth and transparency in
politics.  The Mormon front group, the National Organization for
Marriage (NOM) was ordered yet again to turn over the names of its
donors to the Maine election last November.  NOM was the biggest
contributor to that campaign by far, giving nearly $2 million to take
away marriage equality.  NOM is required under Maine election law to
report the names of everyone who contributed $100 and more, and they
have refused to do.  They have not released any donor names.

Fred Karger and Californians Against Hate filled a complaint last
October against NOM with the Maine Ethics Commission, which led to an
ongoing investigation against the Washington, DC based group.

“NOM has refused to comply with state election laws throughout the
country,” said Fred Karger.  “They think that they are above the law.
In spite of spending millions of dollars to hide the source of their
funding, they are foiled once again.

“NOM and the Mormon Church are also under investigation in California
(Case # 08-735) from a complaint that we filed after Proposition 8
passed.  The Mormon Church appears to have hid the true value of what
it spent in that election.  When they get caught, their response is to
sue the states that are investigating them.  Fortunately, the courts
will not allow them to break the law.”

Read article, "Judge: Gay Marriage Repeal Funders Should Turn over
Donor Information" here:

http://www.mpbn.net/News/MaineNewsArchive/tabid/181/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3483/Ite...

To read Judge Rich's entire opinion, click here:

http://www.med.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Rich/2010/JHR_05232010_1-09cv538_NOM_v_M...