LGBT Advocacy Group Swarms Albany And Its Legislators

As anyone who's been to Albany for the sake of a particular cause, Tuesday is lobbying day (for the regular folk). The LGBT community and its supporters took head and took action by going 2,000 people strong up there to advocate for equal rights and same-sex marriage. With important legislation in committees now deciding the fate of equal rights in New York, their presence was timely to say the least.

From The Times-Union:

This year the event sold out and calls were pouring in of people trying to get tickets. “It was bigger than a Madonna concert,” said ESPA Executive Director Alan Van Capelle in an interview before he took the stage.

Van Capelle noted that most of the buses that brought supporters up were paid for by labor unions. “Organized labor recognizes that you can’t support economic justice without social justice,” he said.

The convention center is filled with cheering supporters, sitting by Senate District, who will meet with individual legislators. It is a concertedly organized affair — Empire State Pride Agenda has arranged for trained “meeting facilitators” to sit in on every meeting between advocates and Senate members and staff. Not every meeting with the Assembly will have similar facilitators. The Assembly passed the gay marriage bill in 2007 and is expected to pass again this year.

Van Capelle said that they have targeted particular Senate districts — Republican and Democrat. They have been polling in the district, organizing residents to talk with particular Senators and advocate.

More and more New Yorkers, whether gay or straight want equal rights across the board. The enthusiasm for the bill cannot be denied and the Republican leadership in the Senate's decision to let Senators vote their conscience was an affirmation of that. Now let's see if all those ESPA supporters can change the minds of just a few Republicans to join the majority of Dems in passing same-sex marriage rights.

Busting Homophobic Myths, One Idiotic Notion At A Time

NOM's ad earlier this month about the "gathering storm" was quite a doozy, striking fear into the hearts of the ignorant and easily-persuadables out there. Sadly, people who use common sense when it comes to this issue know better, but sometimes you need to get the clergy involved to combat the wingnuts who abuse religion to stop GLBT couples from having equal rights.

ESPA Busts The Myths Surrounding Same-Sex Marriage

Although the words "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are written into the Declaration of Independence, achieving those realities have always required hard-fought battles within our society. It is still the case today, as GLBT advocates push for marriage equality so that every couple can have the same rights under the law, no matter if they are gay or straight. There are many obstacles (judicial, legislative) in the path to this goal, and they stem from ignorance that shape people's attitudes about what gay marriage is and isn't. So the Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA) decided to help, and bust through a few common myths that some straight people hold about their gay neighbors.

From ESPA:

• Same-sex couples in New York can get the protections they need for their families without marriage.
• Civil unions and domestic partnerships are the same as marriage.
• If the state allows same-sex couples to marry, religious institutions’ freedom will be threatened.
• Marriage as an institution has remained the same for millennia.
• New York does not have same-sex couples who are legally married.
• The people of New York and their elected representatives are against marriage being extended to same-sex couples.
• Legalizing marriage for same-sex couples will hurt children and force them to be taught about it in early grade school.
• Allowing same-sex couples to marry will cost the state money.

• It is wrong to equate same-sex marriage with the legal marriage between a man and a woman.

There is so much important information in there, so if you still have your doubts about supporting this equal rights agenda please browse through. Gay couples have more than a thousand less rights than straight married couples. Civil unions are also not the same as marriage, just as the separate-but-equal rulings of the past were found to be unequal. So go ahead and click the links above if you agree with any of those statements, or if you know someone else that still thinks that way.