Subject: *M*: Anti-DOMA letter and information
From: [email-masked] (DRAGO design)
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 1996 09:36:01 -0700

I updated the anti DOMA letter to include the ENDA issue and simplified the
other info a little to make it more likely to get people into action.

Just e-mail, fax, forward this to any one who might support our cause.
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URGENT URGENT URGENT URGENT URGENT URGENT URGENT URGENT URGENT URGENT URGENT
URGENT

Dear ____________________,
We would like to ask for your support in this issue. A lot may depend on it
for us personally.

The information below is pretty self-explanatory. They put DOMA (Defense of
Marriage Act) on a fast track in Congress and are trying to push it through
before the end of the month. If the vote took place now, it would pass with
an overwhelming majority of votes. If we can help it, this must not happen!

Please do what you can directly and spread the word to others to do the same.

Thank you very much for your support.

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BACKGROUND INFO AND INSTRUCTIONS

We had really put our hopes on the possibility of same-gender marriage
becoming legal, but now, especially on a Federal level, this looks more and
more doubtful.

                                   ***
People can help by writing letters *OPPOSING* DOMA (Defense of Marriage
Act) to President Clinton, both Senators (in California Dianne Feinstein
and Barbara Boxer), and the Representative. You can either write your own
letter or use the sample letter enclosed.

***If you use the sample letter, please fill up the blank space with
additional arguments of your own or from the SAMPLE ARGUMENTS list
below.***

When you're finished, send all the letters (in one envelope) to the same
address:

Human Rights Campaign
Att'n: Nancy Buermeyer
1101 - 14th Street NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20005

HRC will count the letters (important in the lobbying battle) and deliver
them to Capitol Hill for you.
                                  ***

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                            SAMPLE ARGUMENTS use sentences from here or let
these ideas inspire your own!

CIVIL RIGHTS ARGUMENTS

This is probably the premiere Civil Rights issue of the 1990s, and is
easily the most important Civil Rights issue in American history for
lesbians and gays. This issue is historic, and we will not let it go away
until we have equal rights.

Would you like to be counted in the future among the George Wallaces of the
1990s or among the Martin Luther Kings?

Like Rosa Parks 40 years ago, lesbians and gays are no longer willing to
sit on the back of the bus! We will not give up or be silent until we can
legally form families like all other Americans.

Like all Civil Rights issues, this requires leadership and vision on the
part of our elected officials, not spineless "politics as usual." I fully
expect you to use your leadership skills and vision to defeat this bill.

Convicted murderers and sociopathic criminals are guaranteed the right to
marry by decisions like Turner v. Safley (US Supreme Court, 1987), that
establish marriage as one of everyone's most fundamental rights. How can
any sane person deny this right to loving, law-abiding same-gender couples
while conceding it to criminals in prison?

Civil Rights cannot depend on opinion polls. If we had waited for public
opinion to approve of interracial marriages, these would have been illegal
until the 1980s.

The government cannot discriminate arbitrarily against any person or group
without a compelling and logical reason. A "tradition" of discrimination-as
exists in this country against same-gender couples, is not a reason to
continue that discrimination.

Lesbians and gays pay equal taxes and deserve equal rights!

This bill is like a cross burning on the lawn of lesbian and gay Americans.
It reminds them to "keep in their place" and that there are still "lynch
mobs" of gay bashers to keep them in the closet.

FAMILY ARGUMENTS

"Traditional families" could not possibly be threatened by healthy, loving
same-gender couples with full legal rights.

Lesbian couples are on average less promiscuous and more long-lasting than
straight couples.

Lesbian and gay citizens are uniquely denied the right to live our family
life responsibly. We can only enjoy the responsibilities and benefits of
civil marriage if we marry someone we DO NOT love and to whom we ARE NOT
united by bonds of attraction. We can enjoy certain legal protections if we
enter into a hopeless and unstable marriage with a member of the opposite
sex, but are denied these protections if we form a stable, caring family
with the person we love. This is madness and cannot possibly serve any
state interest.

If an American citizen falls in love with an opposite-gender foreigner,
they can get married, and the foreigner is allowed to stay in the country.
A same-gender couple in the same situation would not be able to get
married, and essentially they would be divorced by government when the
foreigner is forced to leave. Forced divorces are reminiscent of Nazi
Germany.

The arguments used 30 years ago against interracial marriage are virtually
the same as those used today by religious-political extremists against
same-gender marriage. Can't we learn from history?

Marriage is for stable relationships, not for procreation. If this weren't
true, childless marriages like Bob Dole's and Newt Gingrich's would be
invalid!

Tens of thousands of children are being raised by same-gender couples, and
more will be in the future. How is it fair to deny these kids the stability
and benefits provided by having married parents: health care coverage,
clear-cut custody arrangements, etc.? All kids need this stability in their
lives.

It is in the public interest to see that ALL adults, not just children, are
involved in caring, permanent family relationships. When people marry, they
legally take responsibility for each other and provide a "PRIVATE safety
net" to each other in case of bad times, so they do not have to rely on the
PUBLIC safety net. This is why infertile couples and couples who do not
want children are given marriage licenses.

If you are really interested in defending marriage and family, I suggest
that you make it mandatory that all couples receive counseling before they
are granted permission to get married or to be divorced. Also you should
require that each couple take parenting courses before being allowed to
have children.

CONSTITUTIONAL / POLITICAL ARGUMENTS

The so-called "Defense of Marriage Act" is blatantly unconstitutional.
Marriage is an issue that has always been decided by the states and is
currently being resolved by the states. The federal government has no
business intruding here.

With a legislative calendar as crowded as Congress now has, with the real
business of running the country at hand, this bill stands out in its
uselessness, regulating something, same-gender marriage, that isn't likely
even to exist for several years.

This bill is obviously a desperate political ploy by the GOP to find an
attention-grabbing issue for this November. It only distracts from the real
work the Congress has to do. This is a state, not a federal issue.

The sponsors of this bill in Congress are hypocrites. While claiming to
defend the "traditional family," many are on their second (Bob Dole) and
third (Bob Barr) marriages, many without children. Do Congresspeople really
want their families publicly held to the same strict standards they claim
lesbians and gays can't meet?

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                                    CONTACT INFO
     [Remember, use this IN ADDITION to sending in the letters, if you can
do more
                       IT'S THE LETTERS THAT ARE CRITICAL!]

Sen. Barbara Boxer

WASHINGTON:
E-mail: [email-masked]
Phone: (202) 224-3553
Fax: (202) 228-1338

SAN FRANCISCO
Phone 415 403 0100
Public fax 415 956 6701

LOS ANGELES
Phone 310 414 5700
Public fax 310 414 0980

SAN DIEGO
Phone 619 239 3885
Public fax 619 239 5719

FRESNO
Phone 209 497 5109

Sen. Dianne Feinstein

WASHINGTON:
E-mail: [email-masked]
Phone: 202 224-3841
Fax: 202 228-3954

SAN FRANCISCO
Phone 415 536-6868

LOS ANGELES
Phone 310 914-7300

SAN DIEGO
Phone 619 231-9712

FRESNO
Phone 209 485-7430

President Bill Clinton
Phone: (202) 456-1111
Fax: 202 456-2883 or 202 456-2461
E-mail: [email-masked]

Other Senators:

Phone: 800 962-3524 (Christian Coalition pays, ***but remember, they also
get sent your phone number in the process, to telemarket you or whatever
some day***)or 202 225-3121

And for as long as it lasts, you can call any Congressperson through the
Congressional Switchboard, and the Christian Coalition will foot the bill
(***but remember, they also get sent your phone number in the process, to
telemarket you or whatever some day***) -- just call 800 962-3524.

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                                 SAMPLE LETTER
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:

______________________________

______________________________

______________________________

________________________, 1996

To: __________________________

    Washington, DC

Dear ______________________

I am writing you to ask you to forcefully OPPOSE the misnamed "Defense of
Marriage Act." This legislation, co-written by religious-political
extremist Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, is an
obvious
election-year ploy to score political points by scapegoating a minority
group. It is an unprecedented intrusion by the federal bureaucracy into
defining marriage, which since the founding of our republic has been
regulated by the states, and makes a mockery of the idea of limited
government.

If you see that DOMA cannot be stopped could you at least advocate that the
ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) would be attached to it. This may
well decrease the chance that DOMA would pass, and DOMA, in its current
form should never be allowed to pass. Please let me know what action you
intend
to take regarding this legislation. I and numerous others will remember for
MANY YEARS the quality and direction of leadership you show on this
fundamental civil rights issue.

Sincerely,

_____________________

JBWiley at DRAGO design: Mac consulting, design & production, training and
other FUN stuff! 510-204-9612

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