10.23
October 27 Meeting Minutes
The seven meeting attendees agreed on the following Group Focus:
1. Federal Organizing (EAA/District/federal issues)
2. State Cross-dist. Social Issues
3. Out of State Interaction
Our primary focus will be in the first two areas.
Our Process:
It was agreed that we need to be transparent. It was also agreed that we need to provide information to people on the listserv, but we have to be careful not to overwhelm them with too many emails. One option would be have discussions take place on the EqualityNYC blog page and report out on major decisions. The blog page is up and running.
It was agreed that there should be a steering committee. It was further agreed that the steering committee would be comprised of the seven people who attended the October 27 meeting: Todd Fernandez, Joey Nelson, Kevin Beauchamp, Thanh Nguyen, Carolyn Soroka, Clay Fox and Steve Damiano. The steering committee is open to anyone and we encourage others to join.
The following were proposed action teams:
1. Administration (focus on listserv maintenance, meeting space and housekeeping issues)
2. Congressional
· Joey (chair)
· Tif (liaison to EAA)
· Clay (liaison to student groups)
3. State Cross-dist. Social Issues
· Carolyn
· Alana
Action teams could meet (in person, by phone or email) whenever they think it is necessary. The teams could devise strategies and report back to the larger group. Going forward, the larger organizational meetings will take place on the second Tuesday of every month.
Group Policy:
It was suggested that we endorse the Dallas Principles (http://www.thedallasprinciples.org/The_Dallas_Principles/Principles.html). Barring any objections, we could adopt these principles at our November or December meeting.
Organization Name:
It was agreed that our group name would be Full Equality NYC. Joey is looking into registering the domain name
It was agreed that our priority should be working in the NYC Metropolitan Area, but we can partner with groups in other parts of the state as needed.
Our focus should be on coalition building and getting more people involved, particularly around congressional issues.
It was agreed that Tif would circulate ideas on how to help EAA with organization building (he distributed those ideas to the listserv on October 30).
Action Campaigns:
EAA is promoting November 1-8 as a Congressional District Action Team building/week of action.
It was suggested that we try to organize an event in District 8 and ask Jerry Nadler to speak. After discussing the suggestion, it was decided that we are not in a position to organize an event at this time, but that we should begin reaching out to people who might be willing to head up CDATs. Rather than organizing an event, it was agreed that our week of action would focus on researching resources and reaching out to prospective partners.
November 4 Rally:
The big action this week will be on Wednesday, November 4 at 6:00pm in Union Square . The rally will be responding to ballot initiatives affecting LGBT civil equality in three states: Maine ’s Question 1, Washington State ’s Referendum 71, and Kalamazoo , Michigan ’s Ordinance 1856. Another goal of the rally is to put pressure on the NY State Senate to vote on Marriage Equality during their special session called for November 10 (Empire State Pride Agenda has a phone bank scheduled around this issue on Thursday, November 5, 5:30-8:30).
Next Meeting:
Tuesday, November 10, 7:30 pm, at Support Center for Nonprofit Management, 305 Seventh Avenue , 11th Floor (between 27th & 28th Streets)
NEM-NY 10/20/09 minutes
Kevin served as moderator. There were 6 other people present including myself.
1. We started out with my report on Friday 10/16/09 outing for Education Outreach at Flushing High School in Queens when Generation Q led by Marisa Ragonese, director of Queens Community House (QueensCommunityHouse.org / 718 204 5955), distributed flyers and talked to students and anyone who was interested on education about LGBT and homophobia. Press was present, and so were NYPD LGBT liaisons, detectives Thomas Verni and Timothy Duffy.
I spoke with Marisa Ragonese as well as the 2 NYPD LGBT liaisons. All were very helpful. I thought Marisa was a very dynamic activist. I asked her to join NEM-NY and invited her to come talk with us on homophobia and the rise of anti-LGBT violence in her neck of the wood, pending our group’s consensus.
She stressed that there is an absolute need for action by all NYers to help quell this trend in the boroughs. I have to say that I agree with her.
Joey expressed the sentiment that even though Jack Price’s bashing warranted an immediate response from our community which took place last saturday, it’s time to move on. He felt that a visit/talk with us by Marisa would be a waste of meeting time since she would be preaching to the choir. But I highly recommend a collaboration with her for the following reasons:
. She advocates statewide implementation of THE DIGNITY FOR ALL STUDENTS ACT (A.3661/S.1987) which she explains is still not state law in NY. A simple google click confirms her claim:
http://www.wnyalf.org/articles/pdf/Dignity4Students0409.pdf
“Aren’t students already protected from harassment by the law?
No. New York State Education Law does not have any explicit prohibition on harassment of any kind in primary or secondary education. While some New York localities have passed anti-discrimination and harassment policies for their schools, there is no comprehensive statewide protection from harassment in schools under New York state law.”
. I can’t think of a better item to start with if we are looking at LGBT issues to push for state and federal legislation.
“Have similar measures been passed elsewhere?
Yes. 11 states (California, Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin) and dozens of New York localities including Albany, Buffalo, East Hampton, Heuvelton, New York City, Rochester, Saratoga Springs and Yonkers have passed anti-harassment measures for their public schools that include sexual orientation; seven of those states (California, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Maryland, New Jersey and Vermont) also explicitly include gender expression.”
As was NEM, this is for the kids!
When I asked if anyone knew the contents of or any updates on The Dignity For All Students Act, no one present could provide info. So, Joey volunteered to get an update on the bill from Christine Quinn’s office for the next meeting and to post online.
I asked that we look further into this issue.
2. Next, Robin assessed that NO to 1 = Maine Phone Bank should be a priority, at least until Nov 3rd. He has been tirelessly phone banking and urged everyone to participate. It’s EASY! The info he shared:
protectmaineequality.org/call-tools where you can type in access code: 1 no on 1, or call 207/899 1330 for more info. You can also call Robin at 212/582 1628 to get first-hand experience from him.
* Voters are already identified. All we have to do is call to remind them to go vote NO on 1 and ask their friends to do the same. DO IT!
Maine Direct:
http://www.protectmaineequality.org/page.cfm?ID=151&CFID=34172843&CFTOKEN=34490322
Courage Campaign:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/CallForMaine
3. Although he recognized the urgency of NO on 1, Joey recommended that we not wait until after Nov 3rd to focus on group’s business of finding direction and purpose. “I am all phoned out!”, said he :-0) He recommends that we participate in Equality Across America’s meet during Nov. 1st through 8th.
4. Blair moved to assess that we do not have any concrete info to decide anything at this time. We all agreed. So, we moved to recommend the following:
. Everyone please send in their thoughts and ideas on what they would like to see the group focus on, when and how. Sub-committees to focus on different issues to pull together an agenda’s narrative… which will help us set a direction(s) for the group
. Everyone please identify the representatives of their own congressional districts
. More importantly, everyone please identify all LGBT people in their own districts who are able and willing to pursue these representatives once our agenda of issues is worked out
. Identify people who have “thick-skin” experience doing this. Because, well, that’s what it comes down to!
. Please post your thoughts and ideas on our google-group address: nyc-lgbt-equality@googlegroups.com
We will gather everyone’s thoughts and ideas to discuss at a general meeting in “approximately” 2 weeks.
With that, Kevin adjourned the meeting.