***Protest Maine's Repeal of Same-sex Marriage***
***TODAY, Wednesday 11/4/09, 6pm***
***City Hall, Main Street, Northampton***
Voters, in a mid-term election on November 3 in Maine overturned same-sex marriage.
This is a defeat, but I hope that we can turn our frustration and anger into the determination necessary to continue to organize for full equality on the federal level, which would make votes like these irrelevant.
We should be firm in the just demand that a slim majority of voters (and given turnout of 50% or so, that's just 25% of eligible voters) should not be able to strip a minority group of their rights.
No state has the right to deny its citizens equality, and we can and must press for full civil equality for LGBT people on the federal level.
I am reminded of a line from the letter Joe Hill, the great labor songwriter and member of the Industrial Workers of the World, wrote to this comrade Big Bill Haywood shortly before he was executed in 1915 for a crime he didn't commit, in an attempt by the state of Utah to silence his powerful voice for liberation:
"Don't waste any time in mourning. Organize..."
Despite this setback in Maine, history remains on our side; we must not give up, but keep moving forward.
Pam H, a local fighter for equality, has called a protest at Northampton City Hall at 6pm tonight. We will will be there, and I encourage all of you to come out as well. Now is not the time to mourn this in isolation; it is the time to come together, share our outrage, and talk about the next steps on the road to federal equality.
***TODAY, Wednesday 11/4/09, 6pm***
***City Hall, Main Street, Northampton***
Voters, in a mid-term election on November 3 in Maine overturned same-sex marriage.
This is a defeat, but I hope that we can turn our frustration and anger into the determination necessary to continue to organize for full equality on the federal level, which would make votes like these irrelevant.
We should be firm in the just demand that a slim majority of voters (and given turnout of 50% or so, that's just 25% of eligible voters) should not be able to strip a minority group of their rights.
No state has the right to deny its citizens equality, and we can and must press for full civil equality for LGBT people on the federal level.
I am reminded of a line from the letter Joe Hill, the great labor songwriter and member of the Industrial Workers of the World, wrote to this comrade Big Bill Haywood shortly before he was executed in 1915 for a crime he didn't commit, in an attempt by the state of Utah to silence his powerful voice for liberation:
"Don't waste any time in mourning. Organize..."
Despite this setback in Maine, history remains on our side; we must not give up, but keep moving forward.
Pam H, a local fighter for equality, has called a protest at Northampton City Hall at 6pm tonight. We will will be there, and I encourage all of you to come out as well. Now is not the time to mourn this in isolation; it is the time to come together, share our outrage, and talk about the next steps on the road to federal equality.
