Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 09:08:03 -0400 From: Maggie Heineman Subject: Pennsylvania ACTION ALERT; anti-marriage bill Distribution: pa-expose, ftr-pa, pa-motss, lglv-list, marriage-list, alert-list, cappy-list, capsuto-list, pflag-talk, pad Yep. some of you will receive MANY COPIES. After this, I will be sending only to pa-expose and "my-pa-marriage-alias" --Maggie The news of the impending Pennsylvania anti-marriage legislation was reported yesterday on KYW, the all news station in Philadelphia. It is time for Pennsylvanians to call their state representatives and state senators to ask them to work within their party to make sure that this legislation, about to be introduced, is killed. Even if you usually ignore action alerts, I urge you to make a phone call this time- and follow it up by a letter. WE CAN WIN THIS!! Last month Chris Wogan in Philadelphia backed off because of phone calls. It really does make a difference. What happened is that a graduate student called Wogan's Philadelphia office to ask about his opinion on same-sex marriage. The staffer said that he would check, the answer came back that Wogan opposed same-sex marriage and might introduce a bill opposing it. Joe Perksinson, chair of the Philadelphia Freedom to Marry Coalition, then made a call. Same thing happened -- staffer checked, answer came back, Wogan opposed same-sex marriage and might introduce a bill. On March 11, I broadcast a special issue of "Pennsylvania Expose" titled "Heads Up -- Pennsylvania Anti-Marriage Bill" It contained a piece on William Devlin, our Philadelphia Christian-Right homophobe. (reprints available) Interesting things began happening. 1. Chris Wogan's Philadelphia office told Joyce Mullins of Au Courant that they were being deluged with phone calls. 2. Chris Wogan's Harrisburg office told Chris Young of the League of Gay and Lesbian Voters that the rumor that Wogan was going to introduce legislation was untrue. mmm... Frankly, I have often doubted whether these alerts of mine prompt people to action, but Joe Perkinson is convinced that Wogan actually did back down because of my alert and subsequent phone calls. You get my drift? Please realize that although we are about to become the 32nd State with an anti-marriage bill. The legislation has been killed in 13 states. It is easier to kill legislation than to pass it. It is very important that legislators around the commonwealth realize that there is strong opposition to this. The op-ed pieces will begin to fly. Father Paul Washington, the esteemed Civil Rights leader, has written a statement-- anyone with media connections work to get Father Washington's statement commentary pages around the state? Please make a phone call at the end of this week (wait until after tomorrow's election so they have time to pay attention to you). Please follow up with a letter. Letters count more than phone calls, and you can enclose literature. Visits are the best. Do you need to know how to reach your legislator? Do you have the literature? Do you want someone to accompany you to a visit with your legislator? Do you need talking points? Get in touch with your local anti-marriage coalition (Philadelphia, Western Pa -- I hear one is forming in Central PA as well). I'll be posting to pa-expose and to "my-PA-marriage-alias" I'm not going to be constantly posting to ftr-pa, lglv, or pa-motss, because you don't need the duplicates. Nor to pa-explv (the low volume list, which *is* getting this alert). If you want to be kept up to date, please contact me about getting onto either pa-expose@critpath.org or "my-PA-marriage-alias." At 11:12 PM 4/21/96 HST, ramsey@math.hawaii.edu wrote: > FIERCE PARLIAMENTARY MANEUVERING, CONT'D > > The week has been a wild roller-coaster for h.e.r.m.p and its >allies. At the Philadelphia marriage conference Saturday 4/20/96 Evan Wolfson, chair of the national Freedom to Marry Coalition, ducked my question about a possibility of a constitutional amendment in Hawaii.-- Evan didn't breathe a word of any of last week's Hawaiian roller-coaster to the Philadelphia conference. The gist of Evan's answer was that people in Hawaii are working on the situation there, and we as Pennsylvanians must not let the Hawaiian struggle be a distraction from the work that we need to do in our state. Maggie Heineman Communications Working Group Fight the Right Network ========== permission to repost ==========