Community encouraged to mass for Freedom to 22 sign accord for Civil Rights, Community and Movement: Marry rally Vol. XIV, No. 2
Set for Valentine’s Day at County Courthouse Gay people and friends, who met as a group for the first time in January, have taken the name of Inland Northwest Equality and already announced their first event: a rally in support of same-sex marriage. The Freedom to Marry Rally is scheduled on the lawn of the Spokane County Courthouse Feb. 14 at 4:30 p.m., announced Brooke Powers, the group coordinator. Valentine’s Day has been designated nationally as Freedom to Marry Day and Spokane’s rally will coincide with similar events elsewhere in Washington and all across the country. Powers encourages everyone in the gay community to participate. “Bring friends,” she urged. “While our ‘brothers and sisters’ rally in Olympia, we need to make our voices heard on this side of the mountains.” Members of Odyssey Youth Group will make signs, Powers said, but she encourages rally participants to design their own slogans. Banners may be mounted to poles, but signs must be hand-held. For security reasons, signs on sticks are not allowed, she said. Inland Northwest Equality is a coalition of individuals and organizations that desires to increase awareness in the larger community of the need for gay equality and justice, through public education, outreach and advocacy. Meetings are scheduled monthly on the first and third Tuesdays. The group will next meet Feb. 15 in the lobby of the Community Building, 35 W. Main Ave., at 5:30 p.m. Powers said the group is “in the process of affiliating” with the statewide group Equal Rights Washington. Inland Northwest Equality members, she said, also are considering the possibility of counteracting any federal legislation that may be proposed to amend the Constitution to ban samesex marriage by defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. She said the group also plans to contact state legislators to urge them to support the Cal Anderson Civil Rights Bill, HB 1515, which would add sexual orientation to the state law against discrimination. Anyone interested in joining IN Equality is asked to e-mail their name, e-mail address, phone number and any organizational affiliation to Brooke.PJALS@gmail.com.
Serving the Gay and Lesbian Community of the Inland Northwest
February 2005
Gay State of the Union
A statement of unity on key priorities and goals for the gay community has been hailed by some as “unprecedented,” given the history of competition among the groups. Among the principal points, the groups pledged to work together to: ■ achieve hate crimes legislation, ■ secure immigration rights for partners of gay Americans, ■ end the ban on gay men and women openly serving in the military, ■ pass employment nondiscrimination laws, and ■ fight state and federal constitutional amendments that would ban same-sex marriage. The accord was issued in mid-January in a conference call representing 22 gay rights organizations. The announcement was seen as an effort to quell pessimism over what some say was a disappointing 2004 election and to show unity within the gay community. But all was not unity. Some national organizations expressed disappointment at being excluded from drafting the paper. Others were critical that the pledge listed gay marriage as its last goal. Joan Garry, executive director of GLAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) who moderated the call, said there was a desire to move quickly with the official document in an effort to allow gays to hear from leaders at the beginning of 2005. Although the statement is labeled “Civil Rights, Community, Movement,” Garry
Joan Garry
dubbed it a “state of the union” for the gay community. “There are hundreds of (gay) organizations around the country and we fully expect that many of these groups will use this statement as their own, as
Pride Foundation tunes in on Emerson shareholders The Seattle-based Pride Foundation, which has been instrumental in persuading General Electric, McDonald’s and, most recently, Wal-Mart to include sexual orientation in their company Equal Employment Opportunity policies, has now turned its attention on a large, international conglomerate with interests in telecommunications, energy, engineering and tools. On Feb. 1 – for the fourth time since 2001 – the foundation co-filed a resolu-
tion at the annual shareholders meeting of Emerson to include sexual orientation in the company’s nondiscrimination policies. Headquartered in St. Louis, Emerson employs 107,000 people. It’s ranked as the nation’s 93rd largest public company employer and reported sales of $15.6 billion in 2004. Pride Foundation estimates its Shareholder Activism Program has affected some 1.2 million workers nationwide since its inception in 1997.
a launching pad to talk with their constituents in the coming year,” Garry said. She stressed that it is important for people to realize the organizations speak with one another and the purpose of the document was to send a message on behalf of a diverse group of organizations. Garry later in the month announced she will step down as the GLAAD’s chief executive when her contract expires on June 15. All of the leaders in the accord agreed that there photo courtesy of GLAAD would be no retreat from the issue of gay marriage, even though it was the last item featured on the list. Winnie Stachelberg, political director of the Human Rights Campaign, urged that not too much be read into the order of priorities, noting that marriage will continue to be a top priority. “I think this is a list that we put together and the drafter said that the orContinued on page 2
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