Take the Pledge to Prevent an Anti-Gay Constitutional Amendment in Illinois
The religious right has been on a crusade to turn back the clock on rights for gays, women and any other people who don't fit their rigidly constructed theocracy. In 2008, they might once again try for a referendum to put hate in the Illinois constitution.
Recently they passed an anti-gay constitutional amendment in nearby Wisconsin, making 25 states where Lesbians and Gays are now official second class citizens, where our people are losing health, pension and other benefits that came with the meager partnership rights that we had previously won. In 2008 there likely will be a referendum on the Massachusetts state ballot to overthrow equal marriage rights in the one state where we have them.
If the bleeding away of our rights is to stop, regular folks like ourselves will need to organize and demonstrate for them -- to say NO MORE! This is the way rights have always been won in the past. This is the way we must defend them -- and expand them -- today.
If an anti-gay constitutional amendment gets on the ballot in Illinois, all of us must mobilize to defeat the measure through large rallies, actions at the marriage license bureau, and other non-violent ways. Should the citizens of Illinois then vote to put hate into the constitution, we must take the extraordinary step of occupying the marriage license bureau.
Such a vote would not automatically put the anti-gay amendment into the constitution -- the legislature would have to do that. But the legislature could cave into "public opinion" unless we energetically respond to the anti-gay vote. We must be prepared to respond with a powerful demonstration of our refusal to go quietly into the night -- an occupation of a government office which is as much our right to have access to as anyone else's.
Please sign our pledge to stand up to the religious right's attacks on Lesbians and Gays.
I, __________ (please print your name), pledge to help occupy the marriage license bureau if the voters pass a referendum advocating an anti-gay constitutional amendment here in Illinois. I understand that this may involve a risk of arrest, but that in the history of our country, civil rights progress has often only been won by breaking unjust and bigoted laws.
Signature:Street Address:City / State / ZIP:Telephone number (s):Email address:
Please return to: Gay Liberation Network, 4404 N. Magnolia, Suite 420, Chicago, IL 60640
Info: LGBTliberation@aol.com
