Friday, February 25, 2011
BREAKING: Abortion bill fails in the Senate
HB251 - Abortion - Ultrasound Information was voted down 14-15 in the Senate moments ago! Thanks to everyone that contacted your legislators to help preserve medical privacy.
Defeating DOMA and Moving Forward
Click hereto read entire blog post by James Esseks of the National ACLU’s LGBT Project.
There's lots to celebrate about the Justice Department's statement that it will no longer defend the so-called "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA) in court. That statement makes a few things clear:
1. The Obama administration agrees with what we've been saying for years – that when the government treats gay people differently than straight people, it's got to have a very good reason for the discrimination (this is what courts call applying "heightened scrutiny").
2. The administration agrees that it doesn't have a good reason for respecting the marriages of heterosexual couples while pretending that married same-sex couples aren't actually married (which is what DOMA does, after all).
3. Since the administration doesn't have a good reason for the discrimination, it's going to stop defending DOMA, both in our case and in others. This is a video about our case challenging DOMA that we filed along with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP.)
Up until now, the federal government has taken the position that discrimination against lesbians and gay men is almost always OK, that it's presumed to be constitutional. With yesterday's announcement, the government has recognized that under the proper constitutional analysis, it needs a good reason to treat gay people differently from everyone else.
The shift is quite simply amazing. Amazing to have a government that decides an important issue of constitutional law based on principle rather than politics. Amazing to see a government switch gears when faced with a case that requires it to address the legal issues head-on...read more...
There's lots to celebrate about the Justice Department's statement that it will no longer defend the so-called "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA) in court. That statement makes a few things clear:
1. The Obama administration agrees with what we've been saying for years – that when the government treats gay people differently than straight people, it's got to have a very good reason for the discrimination (this is what courts call applying "heightened scrutiny").
2. The administration agrees that it doesn't have a good reason for respecting the marriages of heterosexual couples while pretending that married same-sex couples aren't actually married (which is what DOMA does, after all).
3. Since the administration doesn't have a good reason for the discrimination, it's going to stop defending DOMA, both in our case and in others. This is a video about our case challenging DOMA that we filed along with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP.)
Up until now, the federal government has taken the position that discrimination against lesbians and gay men is almost always OK, that it's presumed to be constitutional. With yesterday's announcement, the government has recognized that under the proper constitutional analysis, it needs a good reason to treat gay people differently from everyone else.
The shift is quite simply amazing. Amazing to have a government that decides an important issue of constitutional law based on principle rather than politics. Amazing to see a government switch gears when faced with a case that requires it to address the legal issues head-on...read more...
Thursday, February 24, 2011
ACTION ALERT: Help Us Kill HB74
The Conference Committee for HB74 – Validity of Marriages was originally scheduled for 8:45 am, but has been moved to 4:15 pm TODAY. Unfortunately, no testimony will be accepted at the hearing. Of the six members of the Conference Committee, three are original sponsors of the bill (Hicks, Nutting, Kroeker). If the Conference Committee acts fast, HB74 could be back in the House and Senate as early as Friday.
WE NEED YOUR HELP TO KILL THIS BILL!!! We need to immediately get emails to the Representatives and Senators who we must hold in the “VOTE NO” camp on HB74. Below are the legislators who should be contacted right away. (To save everyone time, we won’t email the hard “yes” and hard “no” legislators – they aren’t budging on the issue.)
Legislators are busy individuals and may not have time to read lengthy emails, so please keep your message short and to-the-point. With you help, we can send a clear message that intolerance and discrimination have no place in the Equality State!
Sen. Burns - bburns@dbburns.com
Sen. Coe - hcoe@wyoming.com
Sen. Christensen - lchristensen@wyoming.com
Sen. Driskell - senatedriskill@rtconnect.net
Sen. Emerich - femerich@wyoming.com
Sen. Hastert - jhastert2@wyoming.com
Sen. Hines - jhines@wyoming.com
Sen. Johnson - wajohnsonsd6@yahoo.com
Sen. Landen - blanden@bresnan.net
Sen. Nicholas - nicholas@wyolegal.com
Sen. Ross - tross@wyoming.com
Sen. Schiffer - jschiffe@wyoming.com
Sen. Scott - charlesscott@wyoming.com
Rep. Berger - rberger@wyoming.com
Rep. Blikre - gblikre@wyoming.com
Rep. Bonner - dbonner@wyoming.com
Rep. Brown - kermitbrown@wyoming.com
Rep. Byrd - jbyrd@wyoming.com
Rep. Campbell - rcampbell34@wyoming.com
Rep. Freeman - freeman@wyoming.com
Rep. Gingery - kgingery@wyoming.com
Rep. Greear - mgreear@rtconnect.net
Rep. Harvey - harvey00@tctwest.net
Rep. Hunt - hhunt@wyoming.com
Rep. Illoway - pete_chloeilloway3@msn.com
Rep. Kasperik - nkasperik@wyoming.com
Rep. Krone - skrone@wyoming.com
Rep. Mcomie - dwmcomie@bresnan.net
Rep. Moniz - gmoniz@bresnan.net
Rep. Nicholas - bnicholas@wyoming.com
Rep. Patton - johnpatton@wyoming.com
Rep. Shepperson - lshepperson@wyoming.com
Rep. Steward - jebsteward@union-tel.com
WE NEED YOUR HELP TO KILL THIS BILL!!! We need to immediately get emails to the Representatives and Senators who we must hold in the “VOTE NO” camp on HB74. Below are the legislators who should be contacted right away. (To save everyone time, we won’t email the hard “yes” and hard “no” legislators – they aren’t budging on the issue.)
Legislators are busy individuals and may not have time to read lengthy emails, so please keep your message short and to-the-point. With you help, we can send a clear message that intolerance and discrimination have no place in the Equality State!
Sen. Burns - bburns@dbburns.com
Sen. Coe - hcoe@wyoming.com
Sen. Christensen - lchristensen@wyoming.com
Sen. Driskell - senatedriskill@rtconnect.net
Sen. Emerich - femerich@wyoming.com
Sen. Hastert - jhastert2@wyoming.com
Sen. Hines - jhines@wyoming.com
Sen. Johnson - wajohnsonsd6@yahoo.com
Sen. Landen - blanden@bresnan.net
Sen. Nicholas - nicholas@wyolegal.com
Sen. Ross - tross@wyoming.com
Sen. Schiffer - jschiffe@wyoming.com
Sen. Scott - charlesscott@wyoming.com
Rep. Berger - rberger@wyoming.com
Rep. Blikre - gblikre@wyoming.com
Rep. Bonner - dbonner@wyoming.com
Rep. Brown - kermitbrown@wyoming.com
Rep. Byrd - jbyrd@wyoming.com
Rep. Campbell - rcampbell34@wyoming.com
Rep. Freeman - freeman@wyoming.com
Rep. Gingery - kgingery@wyoming.com
Rep. Greear - mgreear@rtconnect.net
Rep. Harvey - harvey00@tctwest.net
Rep. Hunt - hhunt@wyoming.com
Rep. Illoway - pete_chloeilloway3@msn.com
Rep. Kasperik - nkasperik@wyoming.com
Rep. Krone - skrone@wyoming.com
Rep. Mcomie - dwmcomie@bresnan.net
Rep. Moniz - gmoniz@bresnan.net
Rep. Nicholas - bnicholas@wyoming.com
Rep. Patton - johnpatton@wyoming.com
Rep. Shepperson - lshepperson@wyoming.com
Rep. Steward - jebsteward@union-tel.com
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