OFEC
ISSUES ACTION ALERT ON SJR 38
Dear OFEC Members and Supporters,
A bill has been filed in the Oklahoma Senate. Please
read and take action today!
Karen Weldin
Rodney Johnson
OFEC Co-Chairs
Info@OFEC.org
www.ofec.org
STOP the passage
of anti-GLBT legislation that has just been
introduced
Senate Republican Floor Leader James A. Williamson, R-Tulsa,
introduced legislation, SJR 38, to send a “defense
of marriage” constitutional amendment to a vote
of the people. Williamson’s constitutional
amendment would define marriage as “the union of
one man and one woman,” and would prohibit the
state from recognizing same-gender marriages
performed in other states. The amendment also states,
“Neither this Constitution nor any other
provision of law shall be construed to require that
marital status or the legal incidents thereof be
conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.”
Take Action Now! Tell your senator the you will not
stand for this type of divisive, mean-spirited law
that were designed to single out and marginalize an
entire group of Oklahomans for unequal treatment."
I ask you to tell your senator we will not
marginalize any Oklahoman by voting no on SJR 38.
Take Action!
"MARRIAGE
PROTECTION" AMENDMENT INTRODUCED IN OK SENATE
The following press release was issued
by senator Williamson's office on Friday, January 23.
Senate Republican Leader Introduces ‘Marriage
Protection’ Amendment
Williamson Appeals for Governor Henry’s
Leadership, Support on Issue
State Capitol, Oklahoma City – Senate Republican
Floor Leader James A. Williamson, R-Tulsa, today
introduced legislation, SJR 38, to send a “defense
of marriage” constitutional amendment to a vote
of the people.
“As President Bush noted in his State of the
Union address, the sanctity of marriage is under
assault from activist judges in America today,”
Williamson said. “Amending our state
Constitution is the best way we can ensure
traditional marriage is protected here in Oklahoma.”
Williamson’s constitutional amendment would
define marriage as “the union of one man and one
woman,” and would prohibit the state from
recognizing same-gender marriages performed in other
states. The amendment also states, “Neither this
Constitution nor any other provision of law shall be
construed to require that marital status or the legal
incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples
or groups.”
Williamson said despite recent remarks by Gov. Brad
Henry that additional protections for marriage are
not needed, Oklahoma is at risk of a court decision
like last year’s ruling by the Massachusetts
Supreme Court legalizing gay marriage in that state.
“I asked the Senate’s general counsel to
review the Massachusetts case to determine if an
activist Oklahoma judge could make a similar ruling
based on the working of our state Constitution. The
answer was, yes, there is a risk that this type of
ruling could occur in Oklahoma.
“This is why Oklahoma needs a constitutional
amendment to protect traditional marriage.
Republicans are appealing to Gov. Henry to change his
mind about this important issue and join us in a
bipartisan effort to constitutionally protect
marriage in Oklahoma,” Williamson stated.
Williamson said he also supports legislation by House
Republicans that encourages the U.S. Congress to
provide federal constitutional protections for
marriage.
“Protecting traditional marriage is one the most
important social and moral issues of the day.
Encouraging Congress to take action at the federal
level is a very important part of protecting
traditional marriage in the United States,” he
stated.
Rep. Mike O’Neal, R-Enid, is the House co-author
of SJR 38.
CLARK
VISITS OKC
Wes Clark Brings "True Values Tour"
to Oklahoma
TULSA - Gen. Wesley K. Clark will meet with voters in
Tulsa and Oklahoma City to seal the deal and get
their votes while he discusses his American Values of
strong leadership, faith and family. Events are free
and open to the public and press.
Thursday, Jan. 29 -- Oklahoma City:
Pancakes & Politics
VFW Hall, 4605 S. Pennsylvania
Doors open: 7:45 a.m.
Event begins: 8:15 a.m.
Press Availability: 9 - 9:15 a.m.
CLARK,
JR RETURNS TO OKC
Join Wes Clark, Jr. As he campaigns for his
father
Wes Clark Jr. Meet-n-Greet
Friday, January 30th
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Home of Richard Ogden & Mike McLain
612 N.E. 17th Street
3 blocks south of the State Capitol
EDWARDS
IN OKC
You are cordially invited to join Senator
John Edwards
For his "America Works Best When It Works For
Everyone Tour"
Saturday, January 31
Oklahoma City, OK
Edwards For President GOTV Rally
United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, Local
344
4335 SW 44
1:30
ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
For more information call (405) 525-2000
NLA EVENT
Hello Everyone… NLA-OKC is having
their PPF Fundraiser this coming Saturday night
January 31st at the Finishline from 9 pm – 2 am.
Randall Kinnear will be our Emcee and we will have
several entertainment acts performing during the
night. There will be someone selling tickets
for drawings during every entertainment section and
of course, jell-o shots will be sold in the
Finishline and Copa all night long…
Every penny made will go to the PPF Fund and be
divided in half and sent to both the NCSF and the
LA&M. We invite all you other kinky
Oklahoma folks out to join NLA-OKC in raising some
money for two very worthwhile Lifestyle organizations.
We’ll be there until 2 am so come late if you
have to… but please come…
The PPF Fund is an exciting way to support two
fantastic organizations dedicated to protecting the
past and future of our Community. How can you support
this cause?
You can make a donation directly to either
organization by snail mail (at the address listed
below). Please make your check payable to either
Leather Archives & Museum, National Coalition for
Sexual Freedom, or send a check for each! You can
also make a direct donation to either organization
electronically at http://ppffund.org.
The preferred way to support this event is to attend
the MANY PPF events that will be scheduled across
North America. The clubs and bars hosting these
events will commit to donating a portion of the event
proceeds to this cause.
Why should you donate to the LA&M or the NCSF
through the PPF Fund, instead of directly?
On Saturday, January 31, 2004, across North America
we are asking that everyone involved with a club,
munch, bar, etc., get their Community involved by
hosting an event at the local Leather/Kink friendly
bars on this date. We would like a portion of these
proceeds to be donated equally to the LA&M and
the NCSF through the PPF Fund. Get involved! Be part
of this North America – wide fundraising event!
If you're interested in attending a PPF event, are a
bar or nightclub owner who would like to host an
event, or a Leather club that would like to organize
a PPF night: Then please contact us now! We have a
calendar of PPF events, and can tell you what's
happening in your area. Or, we can list your PPF Fund
event on our calendar.
The first night scheduled for PPF Fund events is
January 31, 2004. This inaugural event will benefit
both the LA&M and the NCSF. We'll then have
events on a quarterly basis, benefiting one and then
the other.
These organizations need the support of our community
in order to protect our history, as well as our
future freedom. If we don't help them, no one will.
So please... "Give `till it hurts"
Tammie Nelson, International Ms Leather 2003
John Schmitt, Indiana Leather editor, Midwest Ursine
Beneficiaries:
Leather Archives & Museum, http://leatherarchives.org
National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, http://ncsfreedom.org
Thanks so much
for your support. And feel free to crosspost
this to other lists as you feel they are appropriate.
In Leather Pride,
~Michelle
NLA-OKC Co-Chair
Tribal Fire
Vendor Coordinator
LLC Board
Member
OFEC
ACTION ALERT
OKLAHOMA FREEDOM AND EQUALITY COALITION
www.ofec.org
Info@ofec.org
***ACTION
ALERT***
Please
contact the Leadership of the Oklahoma House of
Representatives to urge them to STOP the passage of
anti-GLBT legislation that has just been introduced.
It is important that you identify the bill number and
short title when you contact each legislator's office.
Larry Adair, Speaker
Phone: 405-557-7394
Fax: 405-557-7445
email: adairla@lsb.state.ok.us
Danny Hilliard, Speaker Pro Tempore
Phone: 405-557-7412
Fax: 405-962-7648
email: hilliardda@lsb.state.ok.us
Jari Askins, Speaker-elect
Phone: 405-557-7327
Fax: 580-522-3969
email: askinsja@lsb.state.ok.us
Call or Write Today!!! Ask them to stop these
measures that discriminate against GLBT Oklahomans
and their families.
HB 2207 - Graves - Same gender marriage
recognition
HJR 1045 - Graves - Constitutional amendment - same
gender relationships
HR 1027 - Balkman-Cargill - Disapproval of US Supreme
Court ruling invalidating state sodomy laws
For more information and to track the bills' progress
go to www.oglpc.org/actioncenter.htm
CONTACT
YOUR LEGISLATOR NOW!
Dear editor:
Nine states seek further punitive measures to ensure
that discrimination continues in these 50 brave
united states towards gays and lesbians.
Does hatred of gays/lesbians have no bounds?
Our tax money will be collected without trace of
embarrassment, yet civil and social programs paid for
with our taxes will be denied to us. Our observance
of all laws will be expected, yet the observance of
our dignity and humanity will be vehemently denounced
as bestial and ungodly!
Towards African-Americans, such rabid hatred and self-serving
manipulation of the legal system was known. Will the
lynching of gays and lesbians be next? Will crowds
gather around such spectacles grinning and posing for
shameless photographs as they did during the Amerikan
lynching era?
Nothing will bring back Mathew Shepard or the others
who have been made totems of homophobia. Their deaths
must be vindicated by our united actions towards
ending discrimination based on sexual orientation.
We must not be satisfied with what exists--we must
strive for what is possible!
Now! Now! Now! Our time has come to once and for all
ensure that our humanity is respected as it deserves.
Everyone reading this must do what they can to keep
our freedom momentum going forward out of the closet,
out of the shame of poor self-esteem, and towards our
full development as human beings of this world! You
must contact, repeatedly, your elected and appointed
officials to let your views be known. Information for
making this contact is available at: www.oglpc.org/actioncenter for any state legislature or
government office in the USA.
James Nimmo
LETTER
TO THE EDITOR
When will I not be an American any longer?
How ironic that religion is so often used as a
battering ram against human rights. But the dream of
equality persists precisely because it's built on a
theological foundation. It's sacred as well as
secular. And in the end, hopefully, this root value
will be our salvation. Concerning the court case in
Mass. I noticed immediately that the religious Reich
were all using the phrase "Everyone has an equal
right to marry. No matter if they are gay or not. Any
man can marry any woman." This was a part of all
of the talk shows. The religious Reich had already
prepared the talking points. What this made me
understand, like a light that had been flipped on,
occurred when I was listening to Elizabeth Birch that
same evening and it was this.... MARRIAGE WILL NOT
CHANGE. MARRIAGE IS A COVENANT INVOLVING THE CHURCH.
HOMOSEXUALS WILL CONTINUE TO BE MARRIED IN THE CHURCH
OF THEIR CHOICE. WHEN "THEY" ATTEMPT TO
SPEAK ON THE ISSUE ABOUT HOW IT WILL DESTROY THE
INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE, OUR RESPONSE SHOULD BE
"WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF RELIGION, WE
CAN MARRY WITHIN OUR CHURCH ALREADY. YOU HAVE NO
RIGHT OR POWER TO MAKE MY CHURCH CONFORM TO YOURS"
WE ALSO HAVE THE FREEDOM FROM RELIGION SO WE SHOULD
BE FREE TO MARRY WITHOUT THE CHURCH. All of these
religious fundamentalists don't seem to understand
what they themselves are saying. Fundamentalists
think that a civil arrangement will affect their
religious covenant. Shouldn't fundamentalist worry
more about the religions that allow same gender
marriage?
When will the "light" turn on for the
fundamentalist? When fundamentalist demand their
religious superstitions have the control of the
American constitution, our constitution will fight
back. If fundamentalist get to push their
agenda then we all will benefit. The constitution
will win. All of us must be recognized as equal. Each
time amendments or any laws that are made to exclude
a single person from enjoying the promise made by our
founders and the guarantee of the constitution, the
efforts to destroy lives has failed. I am not a
leftist. I am a liberal. I believe liberals are the
blessed. Liberals most closely follow the teaching of
Jesus. The people that are on the far left and the
far right are the least American of all of our
citizens. Those who want to pervert the constitution
to their religious or anti-religious philosophy are
the traitors to all of us. The debate should be
allowed. But not at the expense of all Americans that
believe in the vision of a free people that our
founders hoped for.
I am completely torn on the issue of the
fundamentalist taking control of our America. Is that
what will have to happen to make the American people
understand what it is like to live in a theocracy? A
place where peoples lives are controlled by religious
superstitions? Where the leaders talk to their god
and god answers? (I find it so odd that God spoke so
seldom to his son, yet there are people alive today
that have a conversation with him every day. Where
are all of the new chapters in the Bible? God's new
words should be added to the book!)
Must the United States be place where their god tells
them what to do other people? A place where their god
is better than your god? Read the book "A
Handmaid's Tail." It is a fiction book that
details what appears to be going on in our America
today. A book that details what happens as soon as it
is decided that America is a nation that is
controlled by religious superstition (Protestant
fundamentalism). Is this what will have to happen?
They came and took my neighbor away and I said
nothing…………….it might be me
next…………
Edward Kromer
Oklahoma City
OKLAHOMA
GLBT LEADERS ENDORSE DEAN
Over 100 Oklahoma Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and
Transgender Leaders have endorsed Governor Howard
Dean, candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination
for President of the United States.
"Governor Dean has been the only candidate to
back up his speech with action, by signing Vermont's
civil union law - and he stood with us through the
political fallout that came with it, " says
Keith Smith, a National Board Member of the Stonewall
Democrats.
Dean's GLBT supporters plan to reach out to the gay
community throughout the next month, since that
community has been a cornerstone of Dean's campaign
since the early days.
Volunteers will be actively recruiting and
identifying voters for a massive "Get Out The
Vote" push within the GLBT community.
The following GLBT leaders in Oklahoma have publicly
endorsed Governor Dean:
Marty Newman, John Gibbons, Dr. Shirley Hunter, Keith
Smith, Lee Burrus, Rhonda Rudd, Rodney Johnson, G.G.
George, Philippe Beaudette, Joe Quigley, James Nimmo,
Rex Ball, Nick Post, Tony Foss, Steven Edwards, Paul
Bashline, TJ McKinsey, Edward Kromer, Bob Lemon,
Chrys Lemon, Carmen Coronado, Karen Parsons, Pam
Paul, Diane Deason, Corky Green, David Nickell,
Karen Weldin, Clyde Pierce, Dorothy Alexander, Paul
Barby, Jayshree Naidu, Mark Henricksen, Wanda
Chapman, Dee Corley, Sonja Martinez, Preston White,
David Davis, Sherry Maxwell, Kathy McKean, Susann
Bain, Eotree Palmer, Stan Simpson, Jon Harle, Tim
Gillean, Ken Draper, Floyd Martin, David Paddock,
Phillip Cyr, Duane Moore, Joe Freeman, Will Decker,
Sarah Scanlon, Carmen Coronado, Dena Link, Kent Doss,
Terry Dennison, Rick Chappell, Rex Mendenhall, Jon
Tipton, Jason Anderson, Toby Vanrakan, Walter Oaks,
Dallas Williams, K. Brad Douglas, Julian Vasek, Gabe
Coppinger, Christian Pellesehi, Steve Callahan, Buzz
Anderson, David L Clark, Craig Travis, Jason
Krottinger, Douglas Redus, Matthew Opalka, Tamara
Knight, Pam Lowery, Gayla Barker, Lee Morgan, Robert
Winders, Angelo Rodriguez Jr., Raven Delray, Steven
Lofton, Felicia Fontaine, Phil Burke, Jess Brent
Barnes, Robert R. Nixon, Rob Morrison, Martin Berry,
Ed Walker, Gary Davis, Pearl Pearson, Glenn Ladd,
Lewis Cleveland, Jesse McGee, Jr., Ben J. Williams,
Patrick Mahoney, Jeffrey Askins, Jacob S. Nielsen,
Monty Jacobs, Al McAffrey, JT Estrada, James K
Richardson, Jeff Thompson.
2003:
THE YEAR IN REVIEW NOW ONLINE!
It's all here, taken from the front
page of GayOKC.com! From Jim Roth's swearing-in to
the Oklahoma campaigns of the Democratic presidential
candidates and the GLBT activists who are making them
happen, and all the events that made 2003 a historic
year in our community and hold enormous promise and
potential for good and ill in 2004: including the
City Council's removal of all restrictions on the
banner program, GLBT impact on the City Council
races, The Laramie Project, hate crimes
bills, the PNI "Peace Train", PFLAG OKC,
the Oklahoma Republican Party platform, Rick
Santorum, Stonewall Democrats, Soulforce in Oklahoma
at the Oklahoma Methodists conference, Rev. Gene
Robinson, Howard Dean, Lawrence v Texas,
Fred Phelps pickets Billy Graham, the Cathedral of
Hope disaffiliating from MCC, the Democratic
presidential forum in Stillwater, reorganization of
the Cimarron Alliance Group, the Norman
Transcript printing a same-gender union
announcement, OKC Public Schools superintendent Bob
Moore's letter to Joe Quigley stating in writing that
it is against district policy to discriminate against
GLBT students, the first ever GLBT History Month
display at NW classen High School, Kirk Humphrey's
resignation as mayor so he can run for the Senate,
the "Love Won Out" conference, the
Massachusetts Supreme Court decision regarding Gay
marriage and the response from Oklahoma legislators,
Brad Carson's support for the Federal Marriage
Amendment and the Central Oklahoma Stonewall
Democrats' decision not to support his campaign for
re-election, Jacqueline Gatewood's "Diversity
House" project and the announcement of a
statewide coalition of GLBT organizations in Oklahoma!
Part One:
January - June
Part Two:
July - September
Part Three:
October - December
2002
IN REVIEW STILL ONLINE!
www.gayokc.com/yearinreview2002.htm
THANKS
FOR VISITING!
i 
