I cannot prevent anyone from getting angry, or mad, or frustrated. I can only hope that they’ll turn that anger and frustration and madness into something positive, so that two, three, four, five hundred will step forward, so the gay doctors will come out, the gay lawyers, the gay judges, gay bankers, gay architects … I hope that every professional gay will say ‘enough’, come forward and tell everybody, wear a sign, let the world know. Maybe that will help.

Harvey Milk spoke those words in 1978, with the intent that we, as the future, and as the wiser and ever so progressive generation, would take heed, and stand with our brothers and sisters in the struggle, faces as rainbows in the face of adversity. And together we would move towards the society that Milk, and so many allies like him had all their lives dreamed for us. Yet, the harsh reality is that we have been hesitant in the full force fight that we were to ignite in the minds of the systems, structures and societies of oppression that we face daily. And that hesitancy has let far too many of our brothers and sisters in the community of all colors and ages, fall through the cracks of our solidarity and they remain there for us to remember and mourn their loss. In doing that we often have to take a moment to stop and reflect on past efforts in the movement and analyze victories as well as losses. In that analysis we often observe oppression breaking us down through division. The division of intersection, class, racial standing and culture and majorly color.

That is why May 22nd, at noon sharp, in all our colors, Equality Across America, Full Equality Now! DC, Listen UP Live, the Lifestyle Power Players and many more allies and ally organizations will march to the Metro and ride right up to the White House. We urge all organizations to alienate the usual acts of charity and join all of us on that day in solidarity! for justice! for all! We are asking organizations, organizers and the much more than ordinary to:

1. Pick a color to represent your cause! (Wear it, paint it, rep it, wave it, graffiti it!)

Red represents HIV/ AIDS Awareness
Orange represents Repeal of the Defense Against Marriage Act
Yellow represents The Homeless LGBTQI Youth
Green represents The Repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
Blue represents The Employment Nondiscrimination Act and Transgender Inclusion
Purple represents Bisexual Inclusion
Pink represents Women’s Health Services
Black represents the Lack of Diversity in the LGBTQI Movement
Grey represents Immigration Rights
White represents People of Faith

2. Make some signs to send your message!

3. Find a convenient Metro stop to gather as a group {and possibly find folks to get on the bandwagon}!

4. MEET US AT THE WHITE HOUSE!
 Saturday, May 22, 2010
 12:00pm - 2:00pm
 The Metro to the White House
 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest
 Washington, DC

 
We will speak out and demand that our colors be recognized in unity, and our Human Rights be acknowledged, NOW! There we will "paint" a picture of the problems that really matter to the citizens of the United States of America! We will "illustrate" the importance of full federal equality in ALL matters governed by civil law in ALL 50 states! We will remind Obama that his White House is in its entirety supposed to be a "canvas" of change! Please note that all parties involved have committed that no one in attendance will do anything that is cause for/will result in any arrest.

All parties interested in endorsing and/or participating in this event should direct their inquiries to aiyi’ This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

    

Dupont Circle Becomes Burial Ground For Homophobia

WASHINGTON, DC- Equality Across America (EAA), Full Equality Now! DC (FEN!DC) and Listen UP Live are taking action in solidarity to bring death to discrimination. On May 17, 2010, The International Day Against Homophobia, hundreds will gather at the Dupont Memorial Fountain all clad in Black and band-aids.

Here Lies Homophobia: An Action for Awareness intends to pay respect to the victims of other's ignorance by transforming Dupont Circle into a burial ground. Participants and passerbys will witness activists lying in silence and stealth under headstones in memoriam. Ultimately, rising in solidarity to honor the stories of the fallen and symbolize the strength of survivors who have been victims of homophobia domestically and internationally.

“I am humbled at the opportunity to serve as proxy for the faces of the fallen”, says Aiyi’nah Ford a Governing Board Member of Equality Across America. She is among one of several notables who will die-in. The families of Tony Perkins, Ty’nia Mack and Jason “Jaysen” Mattison, Jr. have all been invited to speak among the other victims and survivors at the vigil. The program will also include a eulogy delivered by spoken word artist SolSis and an original song by local LGBTQI youth activists. This event will kick off FEN!DC’s week of local actions to conclude on Harvey Milk's birthday, May 22, 2010.  Equality Across America (EAA) launched the call to action during the Winter of 2009.

 

Who: Equality Across America, FEN! DC and Listen UP Live

What: Here Lies Homophobia: An Action for Awareness

Where: Dupont Memorial Fountain in Dupont Circle

When: Monday May 17, 2010  from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

 

For further information please write This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or tune in to Listen UP Live on BlogTalk Radio at www.blogtalkradio.com/listen-up.

From the DC Agenda:

The U.S. Senate approved by unanimous consent a resolution condemning harshly anti-gay legislation pending in the Ugandan parliament.

Equalicon flyers are now available for download!

Print some off and pass them out or post them around town:

11 x 17	8 x 11
Half Page	Quarter Page

 

Welcome to the new FENDC.org! We've just launched our new website, so take a look around. Our site is a work in progress and will continue to improve and evolve over the coming weeks. Your feedback is welcome.

We're ramping up for EQUALICON!  We join with grassroots organizations holding LGBTQI conferences across the country, connected through Equality Across America's vast network. FENDC is initiating this activist and educational conference for the Mid-Atlantic region. It's time to bring our huge regional LGBTQI community to the same table to learn from each other, strategize together, and plan the next regional steps we'll take to fight for FULL equality.

Here's what you can do to get involved!

•      Register NOW! Let us know we'll see you on April 17.
•      Get the word out about EqualiCon - invite friends, fellow students, fellow activists, family, co-workers... help us bring everyone to the table.
•      Become a part of conference planning and/or programming.  You can work on our conference committees. Propose sessions. Perform at our art show. Co-sponsor the event. We have many opportunities to bring you on board.

Connect with us and let's work together for full equality.. NOW!

Newsweek interviewed Lt. Dan Choi about civil disobedience and the fight for full federal equality.

From Equality Across America:

Equality Across America (EAA), a national grassroots network of LGBTQ and allied activists, extends solidarity to Dan Choi and all those arrested from GetEqual in SF and DC taking action to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell and to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. We call upon all members and allies to demand the immediate release without charges of Choi and his collaborator, including Cpt. Jim Pietrangelo (SF activists have all been released). According to pre-trial services in Washington, D.C., they will be arraigned Friday afternoon and charged with "failing to obey a lawful order."

Further, as last weekend's EAA Midwest regional gathering of nearly 300 expressed, there are at least hundreds, if not thousands, ready and willing to take coordinated action for full equality. Let's plan and mobilize together for full equality—in unity there is strength! Post your solidarity and other actions at equalityacrossamerica.org.

Join Full Equality Now! DC (FENDC) in coalition with LGBTQI rights activists, student groups, organizations, community members and allies to organize and build a D.C. Metro Area LGBTQI Activist and Educational Conference with a proposed date of April 17.  

From Immigration Equality:

On Sunday, March 21st, Immigration Equality supporters from across the country will gather in the nation’s capital to take part in the 2010 March for America, a massive mobilization to call on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform this year.

Please make plans to join us in D.C. and send a visible, and vocal message that comprehensive reform must include LGBT families, too!

On Wednesday, January 27, 2010, Full Equality Now! DC Coordinating Team member Colin MacDonald testimony on behalf of FENDC to the Board of Elections and Ethics to ensure that the city does not put its citizens' rights to a vote. In a hearing on whether the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009 was proper subject matter for a referendum, MacDonald delivered testimony detailing why such a ballot measure would violate local law and the spirit of our constitutional republic. Read the full text of his testimony by clicking "read more."

Good afternoon, members of the Board.

My name is Colin MacDonald and I represent Full Equality Now DC, formerly the Host Committee for the National Equality March.

The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009 finally corrects a long-standing error in this great city’s otherwise excellent record on human rights. By equally recognizing the substantively-identical relationships that same-sex couples have as compared to opposite-sex couples, the city ensures that it is in line with its own Human Rights Act of 1977.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons form a group which has historically faced enormous societal animus. As recently as 2003, it was illegal in fourteen states for two adult men to engage in consensual sexual activity. Across the country and here in the District of Columbia, LGBT people are subjected to harassment, assault, and in the worst of cases, murder, on the mere basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Many of these acts are excused by some under the weak claim that somehow their orientation or identity poses a threat. These acts clearly illustrate that some members of society seek to marginalize LGBT individuals out of their own prejudice.

However, there has yet to be a single study of a scientific nature to be accepted by the mainstream scientific community which suggests that LGBT persons are less capable of having stable relationships, contributing to a productive community, raising children, or leading healthy and happy families. Thus, we see that the desire for restriction of marriage to only include opposite-sex couples comes not from a legitimate interest in protecting some element of society, but rather from a desire to discriminate against a group on the basis of their sexual orientation.

To deny a couple access to a marriage license due to both partners being of the same sex when all other conditions for marriage are met is discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and is a heinous violation of the protections enshrined in the Human Rights Act. While the recent act of the Council alleviated that contradiction, a ballot proposition cannot, and should not be permitted to attempt to, restore it, no matter how popular such a restoration is amongst the public.

Not only would allowing this referendum to be voted upon violate the Human Rights Act’s clear statutory protections, it would undermine the basic principles of our constitutional republic held to be paramount since we originally earned our independence in which the rights of individuals to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness reign supreme. This Board, therefore, should ensure the desire for simple majority rule is not held in higher regard than the basic protections we have enshrined in the governing documents of both this District and this nation.

Thank you.

Full Equality Now DC rises in solidarity with LGBTQ Ugandans targeted by homophobic legislation being drafted by members of the “The Family,” a U.S.-led right wing group with more than 10,000 cells worldwide.Protest The Family’s Homophobic and Right Wing Agenda! 

This Wednesday: Come learn how to get involved in the fight to end homophobia from DC to Uganda in the new year! Join us as we make signs to prepare for our upcoming action.

The international fight against homophobia continues in the new year as activists continue to oppose the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 in Uganda, which intensifies the persecution of LGBT Ugandans.  If the bill passes, gay men and lesbians convicted of having sex would be sentenced to
life imprisonment at a minimum.  It has been revealed that the religious right in the United States has played a role in the introduction of the bill.
 
Join Full Equality Now! DC on Wednesday, January 27 as we discuss why we opposed the Metro ads on display last year, and as we make final preparations for our new campaign in opposition to the US right-wing group "the Family" and their role in the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009 in Uganda. We cannot allow any group to advocate discrimination or restrict anyone’s civil rights, whether in DC or in Uganda.  Together let's take action to fight against bigotry and stand up for equality.

Wed, Jan 27 |  7 pm  |  Metropolitan Community Church (5th and Ridge NW,
Convention Ctr. Metro.) FullEqualityNowDC.org  |   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

December 27, 2009

The letter to WMATA previously posted on our website was a draft letter that has had several revisions over the past week and has yet to be finalized. To this day FENDC has had no correspondence with WMATA regarding the discriminatory Stand for Marriage DC ads. We posted the draft letter in the spirit of organizational transparency, to raise public awareness about the ads and to encourage community feedback on the matter. We regret not clarifying that the letter was a draft and that our intention was to gather community input before deciding how to move forward. We welcome all LGBTQ community members, organizations, and allies to join Full Equality Now D.C. on Wednesday, January 6, 7 pm at Metropolitan Community Church in Washington DC to discuss how we can come together in the fight for equal rights.

Full Equality Now DC stands by our position that we have the right to express our discontent with discriminatory advertisements, especially those placed on a publicly-funded transit system. Our intent was not to contest Stand for Marrige DC`s right to freedom of speech but rather to express our dismay at the content of their message as well as WMATA`s decision to allow discriminatory messages on publicly funded buses. Furthermore we are hearten by the fact that our actions have created further dialog about LGBTQ rights and freedom of speech in the District.

Join us to debate the matter and determine our next steps.

In solidarity,
Full Equality Now! DC

Meeting: Full Equality Now DC meeting

When: 7 pm, Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Where: Metropolitan Community Church
474 Ridge Street NW
Washington, DC 20001-4622

Contact Full Equality Now DC at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

On Saturday, December 14, 2009 at 7:00pm at the Kennedy Recreation Center, the Campaign for All DC Families will hold a rally in support of the anticipated vote the next day by the DC City Council to give final approval to marriage equality in the District of Columbia. We hope you can make it out. Having a call from the community demanding marriage equality sends a powerful message and allows us to capture control of the papers on the morning of the vote. We are cosponsoring this event and we need volunteers! Read more for information on specific volunteer opportunities the day of and leading up to this exciting event.

On the day of the event, we will need the following kinds of volunteers: