Hi guys
I apologise if this is too off-topic - or if I'm not posting it in the right place. But since I'm assuming everyone here is either gay or gay friendly
, and since there are probably a fair few Americans on this board, I just wanted to remind everyone that Congress has an upcoming vote scheduled on the FMA or Federal Marriage Amendment, which seeks to
write it into the Constitution that gay marriage AND civil unions should be banned across the United States forever.
We all know why they're doing this: Bush is in trouble, support amongst his conservative base is weakening, the mid-term elections are coming up in November, the Bush administration wants an issue to rally the troops. And they are perfectly happy to use gay and lesbian citizens as their punching bag, as they have done in the past. The sad thing is that it works: nothing gets the fundies excited like the idea of banning same-sex marriage, and organisations like the American Family Association, Focus on the Family etc are already telling their members to flood their Congress representatives with emails saying they support the FMA.
SO - we need to fight back. The vote on the FMA is currently scheduled for June 5. If you go here:
http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/campaign/fma_postcardsyou can have a postcard automatically sent to your Congress representatives telling them you OPPOSE the Amendment. There's also a box you can tick to get email updates on how you can continue to fight against it. If anyone has any other good ideas for how to effectively demonstrate opposition, I would love to hear them: I just thought I'd post this here since it's something simple and quick that everyone can do. Please, if you've got a moment, do take the time (and forward the link on to anyone you know who would be supportive) - the sad fact is that the social conservatives in this country are often the ones who get their way because they are ones who are committed enough to lobby in huge numbers and harrass their representatives. We need to be doing the same!
OK *gets off soapbox* have a lovely day everyone, thanks for listening