Inclusive ENDA Introduced! Ask your Representative to Become a Cosponsor! This week, Representative Barney Frank, joined by Reps. Tammy Baldwin and Jared Polis, introduced an inclusive version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) - which would extend the existing federal law prohibiting employment discrimination to protect people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
The bill was introduced by a group of bi-partisan Representatives and it is important that you contact your legislator to become a cosponsor as well. Becoming a cosponsor shows that the Representative will stand firm with our community and helps build momentum for the bill’s passage.
Email your Representative below and ask them to be a co-sponsor of ENDA!Tell me more Talking Points The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. ENDA creates express protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people similar to those available under existing federal discrimination laws for other protected classes of workers.
Neda_(Iranian_protester) Neda Soltani who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a baseej member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had a clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight at her heart. The impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside her chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes.
The videos were accompanied by a message from a doctor, who was later identified as Dr. Arash Hejazi in an interview with BBC, allegedly a front line physician during the Iran-Iraq war, who claimed to have been present during the incident:
"At 19:05 June 20th Place: Kargar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st. A young woman who was standing aside with her father [sic, later identified as her music teacher] watching the protests was shot by a Basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim’s chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes. The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St. The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me. Please let the world know."[1]
URGE YOUR SENATORS TO SUPPORT THE MATTHEW SHEPARD ACT! The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing on the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act for Thursday, June 25, 2009. So your Senators need to hear from you now!
Every hour of every day, at least one hate crime offense is committed somewhere in the United States. Of those attacked, it's estimated that at least 15% of hate crimes are related to a person's perceived or actual sexual orientation or gender identity. Click here to tell your Senators this is unacceptable!
The Matthew Shepard Act would give the Justice Department the power to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated violence. It protects people based on actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.
Please take action today and let your Senators know this bill is important to you!Tell me more Talking Points It's always best to start your e-mail to elected officials with a personal story or thought. (HERE IS A TIP: if you edit the text of the body of an e-mail supplied in an action alert, edit the subject line too so the elected official knows it is personal!!!) This bill, which passed both houses of Congress in 2007 but did not become law, would protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people from bias-motivated hate violence. While all violent crimes are heinous, hate crimes are uniquely destructive, casting a pall of terror over an entire community. They don't just target a single victim. They are designed to "send a message" that an individual and "their kind" will not be tolerated, often leaving large numbers of people feeling isolated, vulnerable and unprotected. Attacks against LGBT people are one of the more common forms of hate violence but, illogically, one of the least protected. Hate crimes as a whole declined 1 percent last year, according to the FBI, but LGBT hate crimes increased 6 percent. Please protect civil rights by giving this bill your full support and attention, and by urging your colleagues to support it as well.
The government of Iran has violently cracked down on the wave of protesters who have taken to the streets over the past week to protest the contested results of the country's recent presidential election.
On Monday up to 1 million people joined together in the largest public demonstrations of opposition Iran has seen in three decades, and protests have continued throughout the week despite threats of violent repression by the government. In response, police and paramilitary forces have beaten large numbers of protestors and a number of people have been fatally shot. More than 100 people are reported to have been detained, including the brother of former President Mohammad Khatami. Iranian authorities have also taken aggressive measures to stem the flow of information about the widespread unrest, blocking cell phone communication, text messaging, email, and many websites used for communication such as Facebook and Twitter. We need to ensure that those at the highest echelons of power in Iran are aware that, despite their best efforts at concealing their bloody crackdown, the global community is monitoring their every move. Help us send the vital message today to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
SUNDAYS of SOLIDARITY - From Stonewall to Cornerstone -
Sunday, June 28, 2009 (40th Anniversary of Stonewall)John Hagee and Cornerstone Church18755 Stone Oak Parkway, San Antonio, TX 78258
Register to Join Us!
Sundays of Solidarity encourages groups of LGBT and allied people around the country to train themselves in nonviolent direct action and communication, and then attend worship services at a church of their choice - a church that is not welcoming and affirming of openly LGBT members and guests(later actions may also include visits to individuals and institutions other than churches). Participants have the option of wearing a lapel button that reads "gay? fine by me." The lapel button serves as a conversation starter - opening dialogue with people in the church about faith, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
Project Launch:
Sundays of Solidarity will launch on June 28, 2009 - the 40th Anniversary of Stonewall -with a visit to John Hagee and his congregation at Cornerstone Church. An open letter has been mailed to Hagee announcing our visit on that date and expressing our desire to meet with him after the services to discuss how we can help him end his religious campaign against the civil rights and well-being of same- gender families, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
Mandatory Training:
9:00 am, Beacon Hill Presbyterian Church1101 West Woodlawn, San Antonio, Texas 787201A mandatory training in nonviolence for all participants will be held at 9:00 am at Beacon Hill Presbyterian Church, 1101 West Woodlawn. All participants in this Sundays of Solidarity event are required to attend this one-hour training. Name tags, lapel buttons ($2.00), and a nonviolence pledge card will be distributed at this training. At the conclusion of the training, we will go directly to Cornerstone Church where we will worship peacefully at the 11:00 am service and afterwards either meet with Hagee (if he accepts our invitation) or engage congregants in conversations about faith, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
Why John Hagee and Cornerstone Church?
Since Stonewall 40 years ago, many people around the nation have changed and come out in support of LGBT equality. But, many religious leaders continue to use their substantial power and wealth to fight against equality. The Mormon and Catholic churches spent millions to support Proposition 8 in California. Mega-church pastors use their pulpits to influence the hearts and minds of their congregants, and their television and radio listeners to turn out the vote on issues such as same-sex marriage, hate crimes legislation, employment nondiscrimination, adoption, and foster-parenting. With powerful political connections, they form partnerships with state and federal legislators that oppose equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.John Hagee is the founder and senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas; a non-denominational charismatic church with more than 19,000 active members. He is the chief executive officer of Global Evangelism Television (GETV), and “John Hagee Ministries,” which telecasts his national radio and television ministry carried in the United States on 160 TV stations, 50 radio stations, and eight networks, including The Inspiration Network (INSP) and Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). He is seen and heard weekly in 99 million homes and is seen in Canada, Africa, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and in most Third World nations.Hagee is founder and National Chairman of the Christian-Zionist organization Christians United for Israel, incorporated in 2006. He has incurred controversy for his comments on Nazism, Catholicism, Islam, Jews, homosexuality, and Hurricane Katrina - which he blamed on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
To see Hagee’s views on marriage equality, go tohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y43CkCzyPq0and watch how is followers applaud at the 1:50 mark.
To see Hagee’s views on inclusivity, go tohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVGceWARCXM&feature=related and to hear him blame gays for Hurricane Katrina go tohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDI7pt9KGs4&feature=related There are now 926 known hate groups in this country – a staggering new record - and the teachings of fundamentalist leaders like John Hagee lead directly to the suffering of LGBT people, who are misunderstood, discriminated against, and subjected to ridicule and acts of violence.We must build solidarity with those who support equality for all people. Yet nonviolence also calls us to bring the truth to those who oppose, defile, and even hate us. Hagee is a victim of misinformation, as so many others have been, and we must take our message of hope and love directly to him and his congregation.On Sunday, June 28, 2009, we must peacefully demand that he recognize the separation of church and state, and end his campaign against the rights and well-being of LGBT people and same-gender couples who simply want to marry, raise their children, and live in their communities without fear.Join us 9:00 am on June 28, 2009, at Beacon Hill Presbyterian Church1101 West Woodlawn, San Antonio Texas 787201for the required training in nonviolence before our visit to Cornerstone Church at 11:00 am.
The Diatribe advocating mental anguish and physical assaults against children heard on the Rob and Arnie show was morally reprehensible.
It is the hope of every decent American to live in peace without "BEAT DOWNS" as Rob and Arnie prescribed being a daily ritual.
I do not understand why any company would not immediately remove support on moral grounds unless there are more important issues than defenseless children for your company to consider.
The following companies have pulled their support from KRXQ, not wanting to be associated with two men who laugh about children being abused. These companies listened to the show, and decided it was indefensible. Actions have consequences.
Here’s contact information for the companies, for those who like writing thank-you notes:
[Copy and paste activist email list and note at bottom of post]
Thank you for taking action and offering the only response that Rob and Arnie would take notice of.
By you withdrawing your fiscal support you have demonstrated responsibility and decency. By your response you have set a moral bar for the corporations that have not acted to endeavour to reach.
http://www.robarnieanddawn.com/ UPDATED JUNE 7TH, 2009, 11:50AM TO OUR LOYAL ROB, ARNIE AND DAWN FOLLOWERS, WE HAVE FAILED YOU.
AS A SHOW, AS PEOPLE, AS BROADCASTERS,
WE HAVE SIMPLY FAILED ON ALMOST EVERY LEVEL. WE PRESENTED OUR OPINIONS ON A VERY SENSITIVE SUBJECT IN A HATEFUL, CHILDISH AND CRUDE FASHION; AND THEN, GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO RETRACT THOSE REMARKS, WE DEFENDED THEM. SINCE THEN, YOU, OUR LOYAL LISTENERS, HAVE MADE IT CLEAR TO US THAT WE WENT TOO FAR. THE RESPONSE HAS BEEN OVERWHELMING.
NONE OF YOU SAID THAT WE COULDN’T HAVE OPINIONS, YET SO MANY OF YOU SAID THAT THE WAY WE GAVE THEM CROSSED THE LINE. FURTHER, YOU SAID THAT OUR ATTEMPT TO MASK OUR COMMENTS AS “JOKES THAT WOULD BE UNDERSTOOD BY OUR AUDIENCE,” WAS UNACCEPTABLE. I WOULD SAY NOW THAT IT WAS WORSE THAN THAT, IT WAS COWARDLY. YOU HAVE MADE THAT CLEAR. WE HAVE REACHED OUT TO VARIOUS GROUPS AND ASKED FOR A CHANCE TO MAKE THIS RIGHT; TO RESPOND, WITH THEIR PARTICIPATION, TO THE EDUCATION THAT OUR AUDIENCE HAS PROVIDED US. THAT OPPORTUNITY HAS BEEN GRACIOUSLY GRANTED THIS THURSDAY MORNING, JUNE 11TH. AT 7:30 A.M. THE WORD APOLOGY APPEARS NO WHERE IN THIS LETTER FOR A REASON. WE ALREADY HID FROM DOING THE RIGHT THING ONCE AND WE’RE NOT GOING TO MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN. APOLOGIZING IN A WRITTEN, POSTED STATEMENT IS A FORM OF COWARDICE. WE WILL SAY WHAT NEEDS TO BE SAID THIS THURSDAY. ON A FINAL, PERSONAL NOTE, AS THE LEADER AND OWNER OF THE SHOW, I HAVE MADE THE DECISION THAT WE NEED TO REFRAIN FROM BROADCASTING NEW EPISODES UNTIL WE CAN ADDRESS THIS ON THURSDAY . WE WILL RETURN TO THE AIR AT 7:30 A.M. JUNE 11TH. ROB WILLIAMSROB, ARNIE AND DAWN Copyright 2008"Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning" is a trademark of Williams Broadcasting IncorporatedAll rights Reserved 5345 Madison Ave. Sacramento, CA 94581 (916) 334-7777
**************************** Glaad issued http://glaadblog.org/ a statement tittled " KRXQ Radio Host Rob Williams Declares Failure" in which they state that the Rob Arnie and Dawn show contacted them late Friday asking for a telephone conversation Monday.
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Are Arnie and Rob attempting to milk this event for maximum exposure or are they genuinely repentant?
Rob and Arnie's history leads me to be skeptical, but Rob and Arnie have this opportunity to change their ways.
Autumn Sandeen at Pam's House Blend has posted a article and after the jump goes into step by step procedures to summit a complaint to the FCC regarding the 30 Minute Tirade advocating physical and emotional violence against transgender children broadcast by Rob Williams and Arnie States on KRXQ and KDOT.
According to the Huffington Post article KRXQ Radio Hosts Have History of Obscenity Involving Children: FCC Report the radio station that recently aired a 30 minute diatribe belittling and attacking transgender childern have been fined $55,000 in 2004 by the FCC for it's attacks on womankind and children.
Why are these misogonystic, transphobic and homophobic people at KRXQ still allowed to broadcast? KRXQ offered no apology even after over 10 of major advertisers pulled there support.
The following companies have not removed their ads from KRXQ after learning of this outrageous behaviour.
Please email these companies and voice your condemnation of KRXQ. Please feel free to copy and past this email;
Please pull your advertising from KRXQ Radio in Sacramento.
I listened to KRXQ Radio’s segment about trans-gender children. I can’t imagine anything more cowardly than two grown men advocating violence against children.
Obviously the disk jockeys have the right to their opinions, and the right to voice them. But framing Rob and Arnie’s rant as a First Amendment issue is disingenuous. As a station they are responsible for the ignorance and hatred they promote. People–children–get killed over these issues. There’s more to free speech than the right to mouth off, and more to life than ratings.
Intentionally or otherwise, your continuing advertisements on KRXQ Radio indicate your support of Rob and Arnie’s positions. It is the DTAA's intention considering the present absence of a public retraction or apology from Rob or Arnie, to bring this situation to the forefront of consideration at KRXQ by exerting fiscal pressure.
We hope that you will join with the companies that have already endorsed diversity and equality by pulling your advertising from KRXQ until such time as KRXQ makes a public retraction and apology.
Like a fireman guiding a plume of water faith based GLBT advocacy focuses on the very root and cause of bigotry and ignorance.
LGBT faith advocates that worship with people who oppose us on equality, in their Churches, are accessing the most viable path to successfully opening hearts and may soon share an incredible spiritual link with even our most intense opponent.
In Christianity, historically the most successful and victorious opponents of GLBT rights worships along side of us every Sunday. We might be sharing the same interior walls or be miles apart but we are together none the less at the base of Christ's cross.
Some Christian ministers have become lost and have divided their congregations by encouraging distrust, fear and anger. Yes fear and anger. This is what motivated the originators of the exclusion of people of color in the past, and presently is targeting LGBT people by seeking to deny us from full participation in worship and serving our god.
There is one fatal flaw to that strategy. In the long run anger becomes a barren rock, swept clean of all pretentious facades, exposing to believers of Christ the underlying ugliness of bigotry.
Christians soon recognize hate as contrary to everything we share and love and the process of doubting these unfortunate and misleading ministries begins. A new fertile soil is joined with the rock and our tears nurture the seeds of love and hope.
The when and where this realization begins is up to each and everyone of us.
If we only worship in our LGBT churches the word of Christ will remain muted. If we choose to be a part of this wind and worship on Sundays when we are strong enough to bare our souls at Churches we know reject us, we bring this conversation undeniably to full view.
Choose a Sunday!
Choose a Sunday when you feel strong, put on apparel, {or in my case I'm a transgender woman and I just have to go:} that makes you visible and sit down in a pew. Breath in the moment. You will feel every possiable emotion being emitted from your neighbours. Fear and loathing will be first. These are learned reactions so when people see that you are there to truly worship distrust and fear are discarded. Some may still loath you and object to your very presence and You might be denied communion. Its not easy, but our saviour suffered for us so we us could do this. On that very day you will have accomplished a miracle. You will have touched people deeply by your bravery and faith. You will have introduced and communicated on a personal level our community to people who otherwise would have never known us.
Whether I am going to burn in hell as one Baptist Minister told me or that I am a true disciple of Jesus, as I am convinced we share our faith together. I will go to his church on Sunday and love Jesus Christ as much as if I was in a MCC Church. This is the bridge. Solid as a rock and available for us to cross to victory.
That headline garnered 1000's of views when it last as posted on planetransgender. In an effort to write fairly about our whole community without excluding anyone and without seeming to be self promoting attention hungry radical queer I'll write about Bash Back again.
Why?
Bash Back represents the hunger, sex and anger of our youth. Bash Back does not prescribe to the current tenants most of us do in our effort to fit in.
Bash Back rejects HRC. Bash Back seems to integrate social disobedience with public sexual acts.
All pretty Radical. All stretch your mind and invigorate thought. Without we become vegetables. Bad news for us fruits.
June 5 UPDATE: Verison Wireless has no plans for any advertising and Carl’s Jr.®, Hardee’s®, Green Burrito® and Red Burrito® restaurants pull sponsorship from KEXQ. (see link at botom of post)
UPDATE June 5 Wells Fargo removes logo from KRXQ website and affirms its commitment to diversity. More at bottom of post.
June 2, 2009— In a lengthy May 28 tirade on the Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning radio show heard in Sacramento, California on KRXQ 98.5 FM and Reno, Nevada on KDOT 104.5 FM, hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States verbally attacked transgender children. While discussing a recent story about a transgender child in Omaha, Nebraska and her parents’ decision to support her transition, the two hosts spent more than 30 minutes explicitly promoting child abuse of and making cruel, dehumanizing and defamatory comments toward transgender children. You can listen to the entire segment beginning at 4:48 by clicking this link:http://robarnieanddawn.com/newsite/audiofiles/05.28.09%20Transgender%20Children%20In%20America.mp3 Among the comments made by the hosts: ROB WILLIAMS [11:12]: This is a weird person who is demanding attention. And when it’s a child, all it takes is a hug, maybe some tough love or anything in between. When your little boy said, ‘Mommy, I want to walk around in a dress.’ You tell them no cause that’s not what boys do. But that’s not what we’re doing in this culture.
ARNIE STATES [13:27]: If my son, God forbid, if my son put on a pair of high heels, I would probably hit him with one of my shoes. I would throw a shoe at him. Because you know what? Boys don’t wear high heels. And in my house, they definitely don’t wear high heels.
ROB WILLIAMS [17:45]: Dawn, they are freaks. They are abnormal. Not because they’re girls trapped in boys bodies but because they have a mental disorder that needs to be somehow gotten out of them. That’s where therapy could help them.
ROB WILLIAMS [18:15]: Or because they were molested. You know a lot of times these transgenders were molested. And you need to work with them on that. The point is you don’t allow the behavior. You cure the cause!ARNIE STATES [21:30]: You got a boy saying, ‘I wanna wear dresses.’ I’m going to look at him and go, ‘You know what? You’re a little idiot! You little dumbass! Look, you are a boy! Boys don’t wear dresses.
’ ARNIE STATES [29:22]: You know, my favorite part about hearing these stories about the kids in high school, who the entire high school caters around, lets the boy wear the dress. I look forward to when they go out into society and society beats them down. And they end up in therapy.
To her credit, co-host Dawn Rossi stood up to Williams and States during the segment.
Despite her apparent lack of familiarity with transgender issues, Rossi repeatedly defended transgender people and made an on-air apology for her colleagues’ defamatory remarks. TAKE ACTION NOW!
Please contact KRXQ management in Sacramento, California, where the show is produced and demand that radio show hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States publicly apologize. Call on KRXQ to hold Williams and States accountable for their remarks and establish clear standards to ensure their media platform will not be used to condone or promote violence against any parts of the communities they serve.
To Whom It May Concern, I am writing today to request that you pull your advertising from KRXQ radio station. On May 28th two radio personalities Rob Williams and Arnie States launched into a half hour long tirade where they spoke repeated hate speech and defamation against transgendered men, women, and youth. They spent over half an hour calling transgendered people “freaks” and “weirdos”. On that particular show they appeared to advocate for bashing, both verbally and physically, transgendered people. This bashing was either an attempt to “knock some sense into them” or “let them know that it isn’t right to be that way”. Since that first show the two men have gone back onto the air to address the issue after receiving 100s of mails and phone calls from people and organizations all over the world. In the follow up, they made it abundantly clear that they did not advocate for abusing or hurting children for any reason. They were joking. It was a joke made in poor taste, but a joke none the less. What they did not do, was make an apology for calling transgendered people, of all ages, names. Saying it was their right to do so. People saying that it is ok to use hate speech is what continues to allow it to happen. People like this are what makes people all over the world think that it is ok to bash, whether verbally or physically, someone who is different. And it is not! I am requesting that you pull your advertising if Rob and Arnie do not make a sincere apology, or the station does not fire them. I will be forced to discontinue use of your product and encourage everyone I know to not use your product if you do not send them this message. Thank you for your time.
Please use the share page functionality at the top of this page to alert any of your friends and others who may also wish to take action. When contacting KRXQ, please ensure that your emails and phone calls are civil and respectful and do not engage in the kind of name-calling or abusive behavior. About GLAADThe Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. For more information, please visit www.glaad.org. About GLAADThe Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. For more information, please visit http://www.glaad.org/.
UPDATE: Carl’s Jr.®, Hardee’s®, Green Burrito® and Red Burrito® restaurants pull sponsorship from KEXQ. email I received on June 5, 2009;
Dear Concerned Reader,Thank you for your email. We have pulled all of our ads from KXRQ. Wedid this as soon as the matter was brought to our attention. We appreciate your concern and thank you for contacting CKE Restaurantson this matter.
Regards,CKE, Public Relations Guest Response Line: (877) 799-7827
CKE Restaurants, Inc. (CKE), through its subsidiaries, franchisees and licensees, operates some of the most popular U.S. regional brands in quick-service and fast-casual dining, including the Carl’s Jr.®, Hardee’s®, Green Burrito® and Red Burrito® restaurant brands. The CKE system includes more than 3,000 locations in 43 states and in 13 countries. CKE is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “CKR” and is headquartered in Carpinteria, California.
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Wells Fargo email received on June 5 2009
Thank you for your message. We appreciate your feedback and take such matters seriously.
We are strongly committed to equality for all and we do not tolerate discrimination. When we learned of the inappropriate comments made during the May 28th KXRQ broadcast we immediately removed our logo from the radio station's Web site.
Wells Fargo was not an advertiser on the May 28 broadcast, is not currently advertising with KXRQ, and has not done so for more than a year.
We're proud of our commitment of supporting many organizations that serve our diverse communities - which is consistent with our company values. We very much appreciate your comments.
Diversity is at the core of Wells Fargo's vision and values and Wells Fargo is honored to be on DiversityInc Magazine's Top 50 list for 2009.
Thank you for taking the time to bring this matter to our attention.
Julie Campbell Wells Fargo Communications
The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the Transportation Security Administration Authorization Act (H.R. 2200) this week. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has proposed an amendment to the bill which would prohibit using Whole Body Imaging as the sole or primary method of screening at airport security checkpoints, and would allow passengers the opportunity to choose a full pat down as an alternative to Whole Body Imaging. This is particularly important for transgender people because Whole Body Imaging scanners produce a three-dimensional image of the passenger's nude body, including breasts, genitals, buttocks, prosthetics, binding materials, and any objects on the person's body, in an attempt to identify contraband. These scanners may out transgender people to TSA staff and potentially subject transgender people to further screening at the airports.Call your Member of Congress TODAY and ask that they support the Chaffetz amendment to the Transportation Security Administration Authorization Act. Contact the Capital Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to be directly connected to your Representative. (Find your representative at US House of Representatives website or on our Take Action page.) LEARN MORE Need to know more about Whole Body Imaging? NCTE has put together an FAQ on Whole Body Imaging with more information on the program, how it works, what TSA staff sees through the scanners, and what you can do to avoid airport problems. Thank you to our summer Law Fellow, Patrick Paschall, for his research and writing of this resource.
New Hampshire Becomes 6th State to Legalize Marriage for Gay and Lesbian Couples
Governor Lynch signs bill only hours after legislative approval
CONCORD — Governor John Lynch signed legislation that will give the legal protections of marriage to gay and lesbian couples in New Hampshire . Acting swiftly and decisively, Governor Lynch signed the legislation only hours after the legislature took the final vote on the issue. “Today is a historic day for all Granite Staters,” said Mo Baxley, Executive Director of the New Hampshire Freedom to Marry Coalition. “We applaud Governor Lynch, Speaker Norelli and President Larsen and the leadership of the General Court for making sure that all loving, committed couples have the freedom to marry. Today, our shared values of individual liberty, freedom, and fairness have been upheld.” New Hampshire is now the 6th state in the United States that extends the freedom to marry to gay and lesbian couples. This new law will go into effect on January 1, 2010.
Please join us for lunch with out Houston City Controller Annise Parker on Satruday, June 13, 2009. Annise is the leading candidate to become the city's next mayor and the nation's first openly-LGBT elected mayor of a top 10 American city! With your support, we'll score a touchdown, hit one out of the park, secure a slam dunk win for equality and our shared progressive values in Houston this year. CLICK HERE to join the host committee, make a contribution to help off-set the cost or provide an RSVP for this special event. Lunch Host Committee$250 : Rock Star$100 : Gold Star$50 : Rising StarGeneral Admission: FREE CLICK HERE to join the host committee, make a contribution to help off-set the cost or provide an RSVP for this special event. All proceeds raised through the host committee and from event contributions will be split 50/50 between the Young Democrats of America, designated for LGBT Caucus activities, and National Stonewall Democrats. We welcome the financial support and attendance of local Stonewall Democrats members and supporters.This is an informal lunch.Annise Parker is a businesswoman and neighborhood leader. She has served the people of Houston for the last 11 years - first on the City Council, and for the last five years as City Controller. She spent 20 years in the oil and gas industry before entering public service. Annise has worked closely with Mayor Bill White and many other leaders to keep Houston moving forward - with sound economic policy, not divisive politics. And in that time the local economy has created more jobs than any other major American city.Annise and her life partner, Kathy Hubbard, have been together since 1990. They have two children. For more information about City Controller Annise Parker and her candidacy for mayor of Houston, please visit:http://www.anniseparker.com/home/ Help us promote this event. Invite your friends using our Facebook event page! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=75669155781 Jun 13 2009 - 11:45am - Jun 13 2009 - 1:00pm
What happened at the Stonewall Riot? What happened on June 28th 1969 that so incensed the transgender, lesbian and gay patrons of this small innocuous tavern to precipitate such violent social disobedience? Why is our 'Stonewall' constantly respectfully referred to worldwide in countries that are experiencing their first LGBT rebellions?
The Dallas Texas GLBT community is hosting a march and gathering on June 28 2009 to commemorate and perhaps recall the spirit of defiance and sacrifice that bought our current freedoms. It will also be a time to realize civil rights are not given, they are earned. In this moment we all are pilgrims on the front line of civil rights!
I was alive in 1969, but being only 11 and living in rural Ohio, we were just hearing about a fancy new 'fast food' called 'McDonald's' and something called a four lane super highway'!
What I do remember is the highlight of a train trip with a transfer at Grand Central Station in New York NY. We arranged this unsupervised stop so I could fill my suit case with torrid R rated periodicals obstinantly to look at the briefly clad women. But in the back of those tabloids, when no none was looking, I could sneak a peek at people like me! People who were not the same as everyone else. People who said there bodies did not confirm their true selves and changed their sexual organs!!!
Now we have the Internet super highway, a wayback machine of sorts.
In 1969 gay people or 'faggots' as some of my own family and neighbors called me were the targets of unending and merciless harassment and brutality by civilian thugs and the police. As a form of intimidation police and right wing groups rountinely conducted raids of establishments that served LGBT people. Photographers were always at hand to document the stricken faces of our brothers and sisters as they were shackled and lead to paddy wagons. The fallout in 1969 of having your picture eyes downcast in shame was career ending social and marital suicide.
What were the people feeling in 1969? The same as you and I except now we have rightfully earned a communial sense of accomplishment and pride.
Thanks to the brave souls who escaped unharmed and those who stood up to tyranny we can now in our own country be gay proud and loud. We owe nonjudgmental unconditional gratitude and our very freedom to the souls who were at Stonewall tavern.
"On May 15-17, 2009 in Dallas, Texas twenty-four thinkers, activists, and donors gathered to discuss the immediate need for full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender people in the United States. Collectively we prepared The Dallas Principles."
The California Supreme Court will decide on the validity of prop 8 and the existing 18,000 same-sex marriages that have been performed during the months of May-November this Tuesday May 26th. Thousands of people will converge in cities nationwide in an effort to celebrate the decision, or to show their disapproval and rage while showing solidarity with a national movement for federal protections.Day of Decision Nationwide organizing effort to respond to the courts decision, check for a city near you! Meet in the Middle for Equality California activists will head to more conservative Fresno to demonstrate.
Dallas Texas
Queer LiberAction
Rally in Celebration or Protest at 7:00pm on the Day of the Decision WHAT IS IT?
When the CA Supreme Court announces their decision on Proposition 8, we must act! We are calling you to join us for a rally in celebration or protest on the day of the decision. Protests will occur nationwide and our voices will be heard! We hope that we will come together in celebration, but must know that even in celebration we have many more battles to win and need to unite on the day of decision in one loud voice.
Rally:Time: 7:00 pm
Place: Meet on the corner of Oaklawn and Cedar Springs
AP Press "Ireland braces for report on Catholic child abuse"
DUBLIN – A commission report into the abuse of thousands of Irish children in Roman Catholic institutions is published Wednesday after a nine-year investigation repeatedly delayed by church lawsuits, missing documentation and alleged government obstruction.
The Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse will release a 2,575-page report in an attempt at a comprehensive portrait of sexual, physical and emotional damage inflicted on children consigned to the country's defunct network of reformatories, workhouses, orphanages and other church-run institutions from the 1930s to 1990s.
Most of the children were ordered into church care because of school truancy, petty crimes or because they were the offspring of unwed mothers. Many faced regimes of terror involving ritual beatings and intimidation. But until the investigation came along, thousands of survivors said they had nowhere safe to tell their stories — because swathes of Irish Catholic society sought to label them liars.
Some of those victims say they feel hopeful now that vindication might be at hand.
Christine Buckley, who was one of the first to break silence in the early 1990s on the church's institutional abuse of children, said the report's verdict on church and government failings should demonstrate "whether the journey for justice, undertaken by so many and for so long, has at last been successful."
She, like many campaigners, said it was critical that the truth of their brutal childhoods be placed indisputably on the public record after decades of dispute from the religious orders — principally the Christian Brothers and Sisters of Mercy nuns — that ran Ireland's 19th century-era industrial schools and other state-funded refuges for Ireland's most vulnerable children. Most closed in the 1970s.
Typically, children at such facilities stopped receiving any formal education by age 12. But they kept generating income for the religious orders through their teens with their mandatory, unpaid labor on farms, in laundries and as domestic cleaners.
In Buckley's case, she was consigned to a Dublin orphanage in the late 1950s because she was the child of a single Irish mother and Nigerian father; children born out of wedlock typically were placed for adoption or into state care.
All the girls at her former Sisters of Mercy-run home, Goldenbridge, were expected to manufacture 60 rosary necklaces a day or suffer humiliation or beatings.
Officials of the Sisters of Mercy, Christian Brothers and more than a dozen other orders implicated in sexual, physical and emotional abuse of children all testified to the commission. None was willing to comment this week in advance of the report's unveiling.
During the commission's investigations, oral evidence was collected from more than 1,000 people chiefly in their 50s to 70s — several hundred of whom traveled back to Ireland from as far away as the United States and Australia — who described childhoods of terror and intimidation.
The Christian Brothers delayed the investigation for more than a year with a lawsuit that successfully defended their members' right to anonymity in all references in the report — even in cases where individual Christian Brothers have already been convicted of sexual and physical attacks on children.
The Catholic Church's practice of protecting the sexual predators in their parishes and schools, rather than the children who suffered at their hands, has fanned several waves of outrage in once-devout Ireland starting in the mid-1990s.
The damage done to the church's reputation here has exceeded, in scope and political impact, even what happened in the United States, which suffered its own wave of abuse-coverup scandals in the past decade.
Ireland's first major pedophile-priest scandal, in 1994, triggered the collapse of a government. In 1999 former Prime Minister Bertie Ahern issued an apology for the state's failure over decades to defend children's rights in church-run facilities.
Ahern established both the fact-finding commission and a panel that has already paid out damages averaging nearly euro65,000 ($90,000) each to 12,000 abuse victims. The taxpayer, not the church, has footed most of that bill.
"The depth and duration of the abuse endured by our children in these institutions beggars belief," said Maeve Lewis, executive director of an abuse-victims support group called One in Four.
Through out history there has been a need for society to pigeon hole people who live outside of what is generally accepted as 'normal'. The APA is currently inflicting great harm on one such group now.
Transgender people have long been stigmatized and marginalized by the APA which then profits from this diagnosis.
The truth is the APA is causing anguish and suicide.
APA protest speaker Dr. Madeline Deutsch
We are calling on the APA to make an official statement that all Gender Identities and Expressions are natural human variation, and not disease or mental illness. And for the APA to reshape the upcoming DSM V version to remove stigmatizing and problematic portions of the diagnosis "Gender Identity Disorder."
Wednesday May 20 is the Statewide GENDA Call-In Day - It’s Time to Act! You are receiving this e-mail because the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) has been passed by the Assembly and has enough support to be passed by the Senate. The time is NOW to take action and make our final push to get the Senate to vote to end discrimination against transgender New Yorkers. We need you to get on the phone and call the lead Senate sponsor Tom Duane and your Senator to tell them that you want them to bring GENDA to the Senate floor and pass it. We’re in the final stretch and it is vital that they hear from you.
You can reach Senator Tom Duane at (518) 455-2451 and you can find your State Senator’s Albany phone number here.
GENDA would amend the state's human rights law to include anti-discrimination protections based upon gender identity and expression, providing crucial civil rights protections for transgender New Yorkers by banning discrimination in housing, employment, credit, public accommodations, and other areas of everyday life.
With more than half of the Senators indicating their support for GENDA, we know that we have enough votes to get it passed in the Senate if it comes to the floor for a vote. So now is the time to call Senator Duane and your State Senator!
Talking Points:
Reach Tom Duane at (518) 455-2451 and find your Senator’s Albany phone number here. Call their offices on Wednesday to tell them that the time is now to end discrimination against transgender New Yorkers.
Remember to give them the number of the GENDA bill (S.2406).
Ask your Senator to vote for GENDA, and ask lead Senate Sponsor Tom Duane to bring the bill to the floor for a vote now.
Tell them about the broad support for GENDA statewide, including: 78% of New York voters Unions representing 2.1 million working New Yorkers 27 Fortune 500 companies based in cities like Rochester , Corning , New York City and White Plains . 344 clergy and lay leaders, representing over 20 different denominations Working together, we can make this happen! Start making those phone calls now!
Yesterday, we received word from our colleagues at the Triangle Foundation that the Michigan House Judiciary Committee passed the hate crime bills, HB 4835 and HB 4836 last week. This was thanks in no small part to organizations and individuals in Michigan that sent in letters of support on very short notice.
The bills were then referred to the House floor with a recommendation for a YES vote. We anticipate that the full House will vote on the bills TOMORROW, May 20th.
To learn more about Michigan�s Hate Crimes Legislation, click here.
Unfortunately, the committee passed the bills along straight partisan lines. While a straight party line vote in the full House will guarantee us a victory there as well, there is no reason that the bills should be partisan. It is likely this change of heart (NO Committee member opposed, and more than 50% of the Republicans in the House voted for identical language six months ago), was in large part the result of a national email campaign by our opposition who is committed to excluding �sexual orientation� from the legislation.
This is an issue of public safety. We hope that the Committee vote is not a signal that Republicans as a whole can be swayed by such a campaign, and that this effort will remain broadly bi-partisan when presented for a House vote tomorrow.
Now is the time we need you to take action. First, contact your State Representative and urge them to support the Michigan hate crimes legislation, HB 4835 and HB 4836. Then share this information as widely as possible. We must not let the hate-filled emails and phone calls legislators received go unanswered.
When contacting your Representatives, make sure to tell them that you support HB 4835 and HB 4836 and hope that they will support it as well. You might also add that you see this as a public safety issue that should not be permitted to fall prey to partisan bickering and one-upmanship. The important thing is that they hear from you!
Click here to contact your Representatives. There is no reason you can�t contact other Representatives. Many current Representatives have plans to seek higher office, particularly in the Senate, so contacting every Representative from your County (or the State), can be almost as important to them as if you were already a constituent.
Thanks for your support, together we can make this happen!
Thank you, Father Jenkins for that generous introduction. You are doing an outstanding job as president of this fine institution, and your continued and courageous commitment to honest, thoughtful dialogue is an inspiration to us all.
Good afternoon Father Hesburgh, Notre Dame trustees, faculty, family, friends, and the class of 2009. I am honored to be here today, and grateful to all of you for allowing me to be part of your graduation.
I want to thank you for this honorary degree. I know it has not been without controversy. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but these honorary degrees are apparently pretty hard to come by. So far I’m only 1 for 2 as President. Father Hesburgh is 150 for 150. I guess that’s better. Father Ted, after the ceremony, maybe you can give me some pointers on how to boost my average.
I also want to congratulate the class of 2009 for all your accomplishments. And since this is Notre Dame, I mean both in the classroom and in the competitive arena. We all know about this university’s proud and storied football team, but I also hear that Notre Dame holds the largest outdoor 5-on-5 basketball tournament in the world - Bookstore Basketball.
Now this excites me. I want to congratulate the winners of this year’s tournament, a team by the name of “Hallelujah Holla Back.” Well done. Though I have to say, I am personally disappointed that the “Barack O’Ballers” didn’t pull it out. Next year, if you need a 6′2″ forward with a decent jumper, you know where I live.
Every one of you should be proud of what you have achieved at this institution. One hundred and sixty three classes of Notre Dame graduates have sat where you are today. Some were here during years that simply rolled into the next without much notice or fanfare - periods of relative peace and prosperity that required little by way of sacrifice or struggle.
You, however, are not getting off that easy. Your class has come of age at a moment of great consequence for our nation and the world - a rare inflection point in history where the size and scope of the challenges before us require that we remake our world to renew its promise; that we align our deepest values and commitments to the demands of a new age. It is a privilege and a responsibility afforded to few generations - and a task that you are now called to fulfill.
This is the generation that must find a path back to prosperity and decide how we respond to a global economy that left millions behind even before this crisis hit - an economy where greed and short-term thinking were too often rewarded at the expense of fairness, and diligence, and an honest day’s work.
We must decide how to save God’s creation from a changing climate that threatens to destroy it. We must seek peace at a time when there are those who will stop at nothing to do us harm, and when weapons in the hands of a few can destroy the many. And we must find a way to reconcile our ever-shrinking world with its ever-growing diversity - diversity of thought, of culture, and of belief.
In short, we must find a way to live together as one human family.
It is this last challenge that I’d like to talk about today. For the major threats we face in the 21st century - whether it’s global recession or violent extremism; the spread of nuclear weapons or pandemic disease - do not discriminate. They do not recognize borders. They do not see color. They do not target specific ethnic groups.
Moreover, no one person, or religion, or nation can meet these challenges alone. Our very survival has never required greater cooperation and understanding among all people from all places than at this moment in history.
Unfortunately, finding that common ground - recognizing that our fates are tied up, as Dr. King said, in a “single garment of destiny” - is not easy. Part of the problem, of course, lies in the imperfections of man - our selfishness, our pride, our stubbornness, our acquisitiveness, our insecurities, our egos; all the cruelties large and small that those of us in the Christian tradition understand to be rooted in original sin. We too often seek advantage over others. We cling to outworn prejudice and fear those who are unfamiliar. Too many of us view life only through the lens of immediate self-interest and crass materialism; in which the world is necessarily a zero-sum game. The strong too often dominate the weak, and too many of those with wealth and with power find all manner of justification for their own privilege in the face of poverty and injustice. And so, for all our technology and scientific advances, we see around the globe violence and want and strife that would seem sadly familiar to those in ancient times.
We know these things; and hopefully one of the benefits of the wonderful education you have received is that you have had time to consider these wrongs in the world, and grown determined, each in your own way, to right them. And yet, one of the vexing things for those of us interested in promoting greater understanding and cooperation among people is the discovery that even bringing together persons of good will, men and women of principle and purpose, can be difficult.
The soldier and the lawyer may both love this country with equal passion, and yet reach very different conclusions on the specific steps needed to protect us from harm. The gay activist and the evangelical pastor may both deplore the ravages of HIV/AIDS, but find themselves unable to bridge the cultural divide that might unite their efforts. Those who speak out against stem cell research may be rooted in admirable conviction about the sacredness of life, but so are the parents of a child with juvenile diabetes who are convinced that their son’s or daughter’s hardships can be relieved.
The question, then, is how do we work through these conflicts? Is it possible for us to join hands in common effort? As citizens of a vibrant and varied democracy, how do we engage in vigorous debate? How does each of us remain firm in our principles, and fight for what we consider right, without demonizing those with just as strongly held convictions on the other side?
Nowhere do these questions come up more powerfully than on the issue of abortion.
As I considered the controversy surrounding my visit here, I was reminded of an encounter I had during my Senate campaign, one that I describe in a book I wrote called The Audacity of Hope. A few days after I won the Democratic nomination, I received an email from a doctor who told me that while he voted for me in the primary, he had a serious concern that might prevent him from voting for me in the general election. He described himself as a Christian who was strongly pro-life, but that’s not what was preventing him from voting for me.
What bothered the doctor was an entry that my campaign staff had posted on my website - an entry that said I would fight “right-wing ideologues who want to take away a woman’s right to choose.” The doctor said that he had assumed I was a reasonable person, but that if I truly believed that every pro-life individual was simply an ideologue who wanted to inflict suffering on women, then I was not very reasonable. He wrote, “I do not ask at this point that you oppose abortion, only that you speak about this issue in fair-minded words.”
Fair-minded words.
After I read the doctor’s letter, I wrote back to him and thanked him. I didn’t change my position, but I did tell my staff to change the words on my website. And I said a prayer that night that I might extend the same presumption of good faith to others that the doctor had extended to me. Because when we do that - when we open our hearts and our minds to those who may not think like we do or believe what we do - that’s when we discover at least the possibility of common ground.
That’s when we begin to say, “Maybe we won’t agree on abortion, but we can still agree that this is a heart-wrenching decision for any woman to make, with both moral and spiritual dimensions.
So let’s work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions by reducing unintended pregnancies, and making adoption more available, and providing care and support for women who do carry their child to term. Let’s honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded in clear ethics and sound science, as well as respect for the equality of women.”
Understand - I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away. No matter how much we may want to fudge it - indeed, while we know that the views of most Americans on the subject are complex and even contradictory - the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable. Each side will continue to make its case to the public with passion and conviction. But surely we can do so without reducing those with differing views to caricature.
Open hearts. Open minds. Fair-minded words.
It’s a way of life that has always been the Notre Dame tradition. Father Hesburgh has long spoken of this institution as both a lighthouse and a crossroads. The lighthouse that stands apart, shining with the wisdom of the Catholic tradition, while the crossroads is where “…differences of culture and religion and conviction can co-exist with friendship, civility, hospitality, and especially love.” And I want to join him and Father Jenkins in saying how inspired I am by the maturity and responsibility with which this class has approached the debate surrounding today’s ceremony.
This tradition of cooperation and understanding is one that I learned in my own life many years ago - also with the help of the Catholic Church.
I was not raised in a particularly religious household, but my mother instilled in me a sense of service and empathy that eventually led me to become a community organizer after I graduated college. A group of Catholic churches in Chicago helped fund an organization known as the Developing Communities Project, and we worked to lift up South Side neighborhoods that had been devastated when the local steel plant closed.
It was quite an eclectic crew. Catholic and Protestant churches. Jewish and African-American organizers. Working-class black and white and Hispanic residents. All of us with different experiences. All of us with different beliefs. But all of us learned to work side by side because all of us saw in these neighborhoods other human beings who needed our help - to find jobs and improve schools. We were bound together in the service of others.
And something else happened during the time I spent in those neighborhoods. Perhaps because the church folks I worked with were so welcoming and understanding; perhaps because they invited me to their services and sang with me from their hymnals; perhaps because I witnessed all of the good works their faith inspired them to perform, I found myself drawn - not just to work with the church, but to be in the church. It was through this service that I was brought to Christ.
At the time, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin was the Archbishop of Chicago. For those of you too young to have known him, he was a kind and good and wise man. A saintly man. I can still remember him speaking at one of the first organizing meetings I attended on the South Side. He stood as both a lighthouse and a crossroads - unafraid to speak his mind on moral issues ranging from poverty, AIDS, and abortion to the death penalty and nuclear war. And yet, he was congenial and gentle in his persuasion, always trying to bring people together; always trying to find common ground. Just before he died, a reporter asked Cardinal Bernardin about this approach to his ministry. And he said, “You can’t really get on with preaching the Gospel until you’ve touched minds and hearts.”
My heart and mind were touched by the words and deeds of the men and women I worked alongside with in Chicago. And I’d like to think that we touched the hearts and minds of the neighborhood families whose lives we helped change. For this, I believe, is our highest calling.
You are about to enter the next phase of your life at a time of great uncertainty. You will be called upon to help restore a free market that is also fair to all who are willing to work; to seek new sources of energy that can save our planet; to give future generations the same chance that you had to receive an extraordinary education. And whether as a person drawn to public service, or someone who simply insists on being an active citizen, you will be exposed to more opinions and ideas broadcast through more means of communications than have ever existed before. You will hear talking heads scream on cable, read blogs that claim definitive knowledge, and watch politicians pretend to know what they’re talking about. Occasionally, you may also have the great fortune of seeing important issues debated by well-intentioned, brilliant minds. In fact, I suspect that many of you will be among those bright stars.
In this world of competing claims about what is right and what is true, have confidence in the values with which you’ve been raised and educated. Be unafraid to speak your mind when those values are at stake. Hold firm to your faith and allow it to guide you on your journey. Stand as a lighthouse.
But remember too that the ultimate irony of faith is that it necessarily admits doubt. It is the belief in things not seen. It is beyond our capacity as human beings to know with certainty what God has planned for us or what He asks of us, and those of us who believe must trust that His wisdom is greater than our own.
This doubt should not push us away from our faith. But it should humble us. It should temper our passions, and cause us to be wary of self-righteousness. It should compel us to remain open, and curious, and eager to continue the moral and spiritual debate that began for so many of you within the walls of Notre Dame. And within our vast democracy, this doubt should remind us to persuade through reason, through an appeal whenever we can to universal rather than parochial principles, and most of all through an abiding example of good works, charity, kindness, and service that moves hearts and minds.
For if there is one law that we can be most certain of, it is the law that binds people of all faiths and no faith together. It is no coincidence that it exists in Christianity and Judaism; in Islam and Hinduism; in Buddhism and humanism. It is, of course, the Golden Rule - the call to treat one another as we wish to be treated. The call to love. To serve. To do what we can to make a difference in the lives of those with whom we share the same brief moment on this Earth.
So many of you at Notre Dame - by the last count, upwards of 80% — have lived this law of love through the service you’ve performed at schools and hospitals; international relief agencies and local charities. That is incredibly impressive, and a powerful testament to this institution. Now you must carry the tradition forward. Make it a way of life. Because when you serve, it doesn’t just improve your community, it makes you a part of your community. It breaks down walls. It fosters cooperation. And when that happens - when people set aside their differences to work in common effort toward a common good; when they struggle together, and sacrifice together, and learn from one another - all things are possible.
After all, I stand here today, as President and as an African-American, on the 55th anniversary of the day that the Supreme Court handed down the decision in Brown v. the Board of Education. Brown was of course the first major step in dismantling the “separate but equal” doctrine, but it would take a number of years and a nationwide movement to fully realize the dream of civil rights for all of God’s children. There were freedom rides and lunch counters and Billy clubs, and there was also a Civil Rights Commission appointed by President Eisenhower. It was the twelve resolutions recommended by this commission that would ultimately become law in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
There were six members of the commission. It included five whites and one African-American; Democrats and Republicans; two Southern governors, the dean of a Southern law school, a Midwestern university president, and your own Father Ted Hesburgh, President of Notre Dame. They worked for two years, and at times, President Eisenhower had to intervene personally since no hotel or restaurant in the South would serve the black and white members of the commission together. Finally, when they reached an impasse in Louisiana, Father Ted flew them all to Notre Dame’s retreat in Land O’Lakes, Wisconsin, where they eventually overcame their differences and hammered out a final deal.
Years later, President Eisenhower asked Father Ted how on Earth he was able to broker an agreement between men of such different backgrounds and beliefs. And Father Ted simply said that during their first dinner in Wisconsin, they discovered that they were all fishermen. And so he quickly readied a boat for a twilight trip out on the lake. They fished, and they talked, and they changed the course of history.
I will not pretend that the challenges we face will be easy, or that the answers will come quickly, or that all our differences and divisions will fade happily away. Life is not that simple. It never has been.
But as you leave here today, remember the lessons of Cardinal Bernardin, of Father Hesburgh, of movements for change both large and small. Remember that each of us, endowed with the dignity possessed by all children of God, has the grace to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we all seek the same love of family and the same fulfillment of a life well-lived. Remember that in the end, we are all fishermen.
If nothing else, that knowledge should give us faith that through our collective labor, and God’s providence, and our willingness to shoulder each other’s burdens, America will continue on its precious journey towards that more perfect union. Congratulations on your graduation, may God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.
