NGLTF endorses LGBT March
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force endorsed the October march on Washington.
Tags: Gay And Lesbian Task Force, Lesbian Task Force, March On Washington, National Gay And Lesbian Task ForceNGLTF endorses National Equality March
From NGLTF:
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, a leader in building grassroots lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) political power, endorses the National Equality March, which will be held in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 10–11. Thousands of people from across the country will march and rally in front of …
Tags: Equality, Gay And Lesbian, Gay And Lesbian Task Force, Gay Lesbian, Lesbian Task Force, National Gay And Lesbian Task Force, Ngltf, Rally, Washington D CGays Step Up Efforts to Reverse Gay-as-Godless Stereotype
A groundbreaking survey about the faith lives of gay Americans that the Barna Group put out last week got surprisingly little attention. In my latest God & Country column for U.S. News Weekly, I tied the Barna survey’s fascinating portrait of gay religious life to the gay rights movement’s recent efforts to ratchet up outreach and messaging. Much of the work is aimed at reversing the gay-as-Godless stereotype.
Here’s the top:
Though he was raised in the United Methodist Church, Harry Knox knew he couldn’t become a minister in his denomination because it doesn’t ordain openly gay members. He enrolled in a seminary of the more liberal United Church of Christ but was eventually denied ordination anyway. “My whole career as an activist is an accidental ministry,” says Knox, 48, who now works at the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay rights group. “I would rather be a local pastor.”
Instead, since 2005, Knox has built HRC’s “religion and faith program,” which works to combat the stereotype of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community as antireligious. “For far too long, LGBT organizations did not put religious allies at the forefront of our efforts,” Knox says. “That’s a mistake we’re making less often now.”
Those religious allies may be more plentiful than most Americans think. A Barna Group survey out last week shows that most gay Americans lead pretty robust faith lives. While 72 percent of straight American adults describe their faith as “very important” in their lives, so do 60 percent of gays and lesbians. Almost as many, 58 percent, say they’ve made a personal and ongoing commitment to Jesus Christ.
And though they are much less likely than straights to share the beliefs of born-again Christians—which comes as no surprise, since most churches in the born-again tradition condemn homosexuality—the Barna survey found that 27 percent of gays do hold those beliefs. “Many in the Christian community assume there’s this significant gap between heterosexuals and homosexuals in terms of faith beliefs and activities,” says George Barna, the country’s top pollster on religious issues, who supervised the survey. “While there are statistically significant differences, it’s the narrow size of the gap that’s most surprising.”
The poll unleashed a torrent of hate mail, mostly from believers furious with Barna’s conclusion: that many gays are Bible-believing Christians. But more and more gay rights organizations are joining HRC in stepping up efforts to highlight the faith beliefs of many gay Americans, largely through religious outreach programs. And some religious traditions and denominations are taking steps to welcome gay and lesbian members.
Gay rights activists say that the 2004 election, when voters in 11 states passed gay marriage bans that were heavily promoted through churches, was a wake-up call. To help counter the image of the gay marriage battle as a fight between gays and religious Americans, HRC, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and other national gay rights groups quickly hired religious outreach staff.
Read the full story here.
See Gays Step Up Efforts to Reverse Gay-as-Godless Stereotype
U.S. News & World Report
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National Gay and Lesbian Task Force applauds Census Bureau’s plan to count married same-sex couples
Task Force staffers have been meeting with officials from the White House, Census Bureau and Commerce Department to press for this policy reversal
WASHINGTON, June 20 -The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force applauds reports that the U.S. Census Bureau will count married same-sex couples in the 2010 census, reversing an earlier decision made under the Bush administration. Previously, same-sex couples only had the option of checking off ‘unmarried partner,’ which will remain an option. The Task Force has played a leading role in getting the Census Bureau to change course. Task Force staffers have been pressing for a reversal of the discriminatory policy in meetings that started in late 2008 with the Obama transition team, continuing later with officials from the White House, Census Bureau and Commerce Department.
tatement by Rea Carey, Executive Director National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
“This is a huge win for our community. Our community and allies stood up and refused to allow same-sex marriages, our
families and our children to be rendered invisible in the picture of our country provided through the census.
“After months and months of pressure through the grassroots campaign we waged and our in-person meetings with administration officials, the U.S. Census Bureau has reversed policy and will be accurately counting the thousands of same-sex couples who have worked so hard to have their love and commitment recognized.
“This gives us hope that we will also be able to get the federal government to include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the data and reporting on other critical issues, including those having to do with our health, economic issues, safety and life circumstances. As a married person myself, I look forward to filling out the census form, knowing that my family will be counted accurately.
“We would like to thank Gary Gates of the Williams Institute for his years of work and for partnering with us to educate the administration on this critical issue of visibility for our community.”
The Task Force’s work leading to this victory
The Task Force has been working for months to secure a reversal of the discriminatory policy.
* Task Force staff met with Obama transition team members to educate them about this critical issue, and to provide concrete ways for them to make this change.
* Task Force staffers, including Executive Director Rea Carey and Policy Institute Director Jaime Grant, have been pressing for a policy change in meetings that started in late 2008 with the Obama transition team, continuing later with officials from the White House, Census Bureau and Commerce Department.
* In February, the Task Force Policy Institute convened 20 leading lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights organizations to meet with top census outreach officials. In this meeting, the groups collectively refused to engage in community outreach on the census until the anti-marriage policy was reversed.
* The Task Force partnered with the Williams Institute to provide officials from the White House, Census Bureau and Commerce Department with research essential to making this change.
* The Task Force undertook a major grassroots campaign to both educate the public on this issue and to apply pressure to the administration.
* The Task Force worked with key elected officials to provide them with
information so they could write letters to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and
the incoming director of the Census Bureau to advocate for change.
* The Task Force is part of a coalition of researchers and advocates
crafting a community education campaign to launch following the change of
policy.
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Gay bishop says faith groups key to NH gay marriage vote
New Hampshire became the sixth state to legalize gay marriage on Wednesday (June 3) in part because faith leaders testified that the measure would not impinge on religious rights, according to V. Gene Robinson, the state’s openly gay Episcopal bishop.
When credible Christians, Muslims and Jews advocated for same-sex marriage, it “had a lot of sway with legislators in terms of giving them cover,” said Robinson. “Our message was loud and clear: religious organizations have nothing to fear from civil marriage for same-gendered folks.”
Robinson, who was elected bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, joined his longtime partner in a civil union last year. Under the New Hampshire law, their union will automatically be considered a marriage on Jan. 1, 2010.
“I’m still about 30 feet off the ground, hovering somewhere on high,” Robinson said in a conference call with reporters on Thursday.
The legislation signed by Gov. John Lynch on Wednesday contains explicit legal protections for religious groups that object to same-gender relationships and makes Rhode Island the only state in New England that does not allow gay marriage.
Robinson said separating the civil and religious aspects of marriage and making clear that religious groups would not be required to sanction same-gender weddings was key to the effort.
“We made sure that our … bill here stated and overstated and restated the fact that no religious liberties would be abridged in the embrace of civil marriage — that no religious institutions would be required to do anything against its own beliefs,” Robinson said. “It largely undercut the argument from the other side.”
Two separate studies released on Wednesday concluded that anti-gay marriage groups relied heavily on religious language to successfully push for ballot initiatives in Michigan in 2004 and California in 2008 that outlawed gay marriage.
“A religious opposition requires a religious response,” said the Rev. Rebecca Voelkel of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and an author of one of the reports.
Robinson said, “I think it’s about emboldening legislators to see people like them who identify as Roman Catholic or American Baptist or Methodist or Lutheran (and) say `OK, this … is clearly a person of faith, so despite what the denomination says as a whole I’ve got a fairly firm piece of ground to stand on here.”
See Gay bishop says faith groups key to NH gay marriage vote
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What Does the Top-Secret California Marriage Polling Reveal?
At 11:30am PST today, an umbrella group of gay organizations like the Courage Campaign, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Marriage Equality U.S.A., and Equality California will deliver the results from its polling of where California’s voters stand on same-sex marriage. Yes, this is the same data Fresno organizers wanted to keep secret. To those involved, the data is of utmost importance, because it could determine whether to push for a ballot measure overturning Prop 8 in 2010, or whether the analysis shows we should wait until 2012, or even head in another course of action. The results of the poll will be delivered over a conference call (only media are invited to join). But Queerty received a preview of what to expect.
“Opinion on marriage for same-sex couples in California is almost evenly divided, with opponents holding a 1% to 2% edge,” says the data from the Poll4Equality Coalition, which conducted the survey. Depending on how you look at it, that’s either good or bad news. Bad, because it shows we still have more convincing to do. And good, because it shows there’s only a small margin to overcome.
But knowing the state is nearly evenly divided on gay marriage, the important information the poll delivers is: If we’re going to put the issue on the ballot, how do we phrase the wording?
When asked, “Do you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose allowing same-sex couples to be legally married?,” the survey found 47 percent saying “favor” and 48 percent saying “oppose.” The data shows “support increases if the language specifically includes a provision that says no clergy will be required to perform a service that goes against their faith,” according to the the document provided to Queerty.
As for the 2010 vs. 2012 issue? “Modeling turnout scenarios for 2010 and 2012 indicate that there is a small advantage to same?sex marriage supporters in a 2012 electorate. This is based on a considerably higher turnout that is expected in 2012 due to the Presidential election. However, the additional voters that will come to the polls in a Presidential election are divided in their view of marriage for same?sex couples. Voters
that will only turn out in a 2012 scenario are divided between younger voters who strongly support same?sex marriage and older Anglo, Latino and African American religious voters who are opposed to marriage for same?sex couples. While our modeling does indicate that 2012 will provide an extra 1?2 points of support for a marriage equality ballot measure, this difference may be impacted by many other factors in the larger political landscape at that time.”
See What Does the Top-Secret California Marriage Polling Reveal? Queerty
See What Does the Top-Secret California Marriage Polling Reveal?
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All in God’s Family: Creating Allies for Our LGBT Families Launched
WASHINGTON, May 11 - Leading organizations today released a curriculum designed to help faith communities support and embrace lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and their families. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Institute for Welcoming Resources, COLAGE and Family Equality Council announced that this multimedia curriculum will go a long way in providing the necessary tools to make faith communities affirming of LGBT people and their families.
“While many churches have done very well welcoming individual lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members into their midst, many have not done so well with LGBT families,” says the Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, Institute for Welcoming Resources and faith work director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. “But LGBT families deserve the same love and honor as all of God’s beloved families. This curriculum helps congregations extend God’s extravagant welcome to all of God’s families - especially LGBT families.”
All in God’s Family includes concrete tools to educate faith leaders, including a step-by-step guide to supporting LGBT families of faith and tools for facilitating group learning, community dialogue, Bible study and community action planning to highlight LGBT families in our communities. Additionally, the curriculum includes Families Like Mine, a book about adults with LGBT parents written by Abigail Garner, whose father is gay; the youth-produced documentary In My Shoes: Stories of Youth with LGBT Parents; and a CD containing the phototext exhibit “That’s So Gay: Portraits of Youth with LGBT Parents.”
“I know many LGBT parents who struggle with faith,” says Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of Family Equality Council. “It can be difficult to find a congregation that feels welcoming and supportive. Though they want raise their children in a community that shares their values and beliefs, LGBT parents also want their children to be embraced. That’s why we partnered to put together All in God’s Family: Creating Allies for our LGBT Families. We know there are thousands of congregations out there that want to embrace our families. We want to give them the tools to do so more fully.”
“For youth and adults with LGBTQ parents, finding a faith community where your family is respected and reflected can be a challenge,” says Meredith Fenton, COLAGE program director. “COLAGE is pleased to be a partner on All in God’s Family: Creating Allies for our LGBT Families and invites your faith community to use these tools to move beyond acceptance to full inclusion and celebration of LGBTQ families.”
All in God’s Family: Creating Allies for Our LGBT Families can be acquired for a suggested donation of $50.00. As a special promotion, the first 50 congregations to request the curriculum will receive it for free. All in God’s Family: Creating Allies for Our LGBT Families can be acquired at www.WelcomingResources.org.
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Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey Attends White House Forum on Health Reform
WASHINGTON - March 6 - National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey was among those participating in yesterday’s White House health-care reform summit convened by President Barack Obama.
Statement by Rea Carey, Executive Director
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
“The White House Forum on Health Reform was a powerful start to reforming health care and how our country views health generally. With Sen. Ted Kennedy in the room, people couldn’t help but be inspired to focus on solutions. In the coming months, the macro themes and issues raised at the summit will work their way through to concrete policy and funding decisions that will affect the day-to-day lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The Task Force will be working to make sure our needs, lives and families are not left behind. For example, how families are defined will be critical to ensuring full coverage of LGBT people, our partners/spouses and our children. The days when we must pay taxes on domestic partner health benefits must end.
“Other issues of great concern to LGBT people are the need for inclusive services; quality health care for those who are not employed; funding for community-based health centers with culturally sensitive services; addressing the ‘preexisting conditions’ barriers that far too many in our community face by having to move from job to job due to lack of employment protections or barriers faced by transgender people; and the racial and economic disparities that have plagued the existing system.
“Our community has a great deal at stake in the outcomes of this process but we also have a lot to offer in terms of solutions, creativity and engagement - after all, our community created an entire infrastructure of HIV/AIDS care when the government was unwilling to take action in ways that addressed the scale of the problem.”
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The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force builds the political power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community from the ground up. We do this by training activists, organizing broad-based campaigns to defeat anti-LGBT referenda and advance pro-LGBT legislation, building the organizational capacity of our movement and generating groundbreaking research through our Policy Institute.
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LGBT activists ready for new rights battles
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s annual conference for some 2,000 community leaders and organizers over the weekend helped recharge the batteries of advocates following tough losses on anti-gay ballot initiatives in California and three other states, according to these articles. “People came here on tenterhooks. Now we can send our people home with a renewed energy and renewed purpose,” said conference organizer Sue Hyde. The Denver Post (2/2) , The Fresno Bee (Calif.)/The Associated Press (free registration) (1/30)
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Gay rights leaders express hope for future
(Denver, Colorado) Some 2,000 LGBT civil rights activists from across the country are headed home with a new sense of propose following a four day national conference in Denver.
The Creating Change conference sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is the nation’s largest annual convening of LGBT rights …
Tags: Civil Rights Activists, Creating Change Conference, Denver Colorado, Express, Gay And Lesbian, Gay And Lesbian Task Force, Gay Lesbian, Gay Rights Leaders, Lesbian Task Force, Lgbt Rights, National Gay And Lesbian Task Force
