Date: Fri, 01 Nov 1996 23:39:32 -0500 From: Maggie Heineman Subject: Nov. 14 Protest; Letter from Rhea Murray Maggie Heineman here, Our website for the Chrysler Campaign is beginning to get noticed. For those of you who don't get to the web, here's a snip from the site, explaining about the National Day of Protest on November 14. Please read this beautiful message from Rhea Murray to Ron Woods, the young man who has been fighting gaybashing at Chrysler for five years. Maggie Heineman webmaster: PFLAG-Talk/TGS-PFLAG http://www.critpath.org/pflag-talk/ The Rhea Murray Website http://www.critpath.org/rhea/ The Chrysler Campaign http://www.critpath.org/chrysler-campaign/ =====================================from the website: Overview Chrysler has refused to give equal rights to gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered Persons, which puts them behind the policies of Ford, General Motors, and the United Auto Workers. In 1990 Chrysler employee Ron Woods helped organize a Cracker Barrel protest in Michigan. The publicity lead to harassment at work. Later he was elected as the first openly gay union delegate. In that capacity he persuaded the union to approve a resolution adding sexual orientation to the non-discrimination language of the contract. Chrysler refused to add the words "sexual orientation" to the contract. Meanwhile, harassment of sexual minority employees continues. In order to convince Chrysler to take steps already taken by other auto manufacturers, there have been protests at Chrysler headquarters and dealerships. A worldwide protest at dealerships is planned for November 14. Articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chrysler Refuses Chrysler has refused to give equal rights to gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered Persons. Chrysler refused to accept the demand of the United Auto Workers to add the two words "sexual orientation" to the contract for equal protection. On October 28, 1996 Wall Street Journal reported Chrysler's excuses for rejecting the United Auto Workers demand by q uoting Tony Cervone, a Chrysler labor spokesman: "Chrysler prohibits discrimination and will not tolerate harassment of or retaliation against any person in the workplace ... by singling out any one group, we would be implicitly excluding others. That's the fundamental reason why we didn't see a need to make the change." The Campaign for Equal Rights at Chrysler rejects this excuse. Chrysler's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered employees live in fear. They will not have respectful treatment and protection until they are specifically named in the contract and all internal company policies. The reason is simple: what we refuse to name, we refuse to recognize. =============================================Rhea Murray's letter: Dear Ron, I heartily applaud you for your Campaign for Equal Rights at Chrysler. I pray that your day of planned nationwide demonstrations at Chrysler dealers will be effective in influencing Chrysler to accept a Memorandum of Understanding to add sexual orientation to the contractual non-discrimination clause. I read with great horror your personal account of the violence and indignities that you suffered as a gay Chrysler employee. Adding further to your assaults on your humanity was the inaction by the company to protect you. I wish I could say that I am surprised that such inhumane conditons exist in our beloved country. Sadly, I am not. As a mother of a gay son who was driven from school at the tender age of 14 because of the same hatred, I am painfully too aware. Like ours, your scars will be a lifelong reminder of your humiliation. I am painfully aware of too much, my brother in the trenches. As the president of a PFLAG chapter in rural southern Indiana, I personally witness the devastating impact this hatred and intolerance has on the lives of my gay brother and sisters. I try to help bind the wounds of gay teens who have attempted suicide, because they see no future for themselve in a land that promises opportunity. I have held the hand of a desperate man who fears he will lose his job, because someone at work suspects he is gay. I have embraced the sobbing man who was kept from his partner's deathbed by his lover's family who could NOT embrace theri love. Their stories, their faces haunt me. Yes, I am painfully aware of too much, my friend. I am, also, painfully aware of the deafening silence across the nation. These are our children, our brothers, our sisters, our friends. Where is the outcry against the injustices they must endure, against the daily diet of prejudice they are forced fed? Nothing must wound them as deeply as our silence, except maybe our asking them to suffer in silence. Often, I hear it said what an impact it would make on the quality of life for our gay loved ones if everyone who was gay came out of the closet. But another thought comes to my mind. A small voice, born from this simple woman's painful awareness, is beginning to whisper, "No more." And it rises in volume. "No More!!" And what if another voice joins mine. "NO MORE!" And another. "NO MORE!!!" And another "NO MORE!!!!" Our collective impassioned voices cry out "NO MORE!!!!" No more will we allow our gay brothers and sisters suffer in silence. We will break the crushing silence and tear down the oppressive walls of intolerance with our cries of "NO MORE!" With the bitter taste of the recent defeat of ENDA and the passing of DOMA still on our lips, we will cry "NO MORE!" Demonstrations at Chyrsler dealers protesting the exclusion of our gay loved ones on November 14th provide us with an excellent starting point for our cries of NO MORE! From that day forward, we will pledge that blatant bigotry will be met with our thunderous cries of NO MORE! And as we collectively step forward and grasp the hand of our gay brothers and sisters to stand with them in their lonely struggle, the world watches. And maybe . . just maybe . . . in this mother's wildest dreams, she will hear her first cry echoed back to her from all the corners of the earth . . . NO MORE! Ron, you do not stand alone. Feel me take your hand and hear my first cry of "No more!" Rhea Murray President of PFLAG Seymour, IN Chapter ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. -Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My page: http://www.critpath.org/rhea/ Lovingly created by: Maggie Heineman ========================================================================