HRC Blog

Today the HRC New York PAC announced the endorsement of nine candidates for the New York State Senate in its first round of endorsements. These challengers and incumbents are all supporters of marriage equality and their election will put New York on a path to fairness and equality for same-sex couples in the state. Equal marriage is within our grasp in New York and these candidates are the key to that victory. Fair-minded New Yorkers were crushed at the marriage defeat last year and now is the time to put that anger into action and elect these courageous leaders.

Providence Mayor David Cicilline attended Rhode Island pride this past weekend. He is now running for Congress, hoping to join Tammy Baldwin, Barney Frank, and Jared Polis as openly gay members. The Mayor took time on Saturday to say hello to the HRC volunteers as he greeted the thousands who attended Rhode Island Pride in Providence.

This weekend, Tony and I partnered with Equality Hawaii at Honolulu Pride. With over 500 people in attendance, we collected postcards to send to Governor Lingle, urging her to sign the recently passed civil unions bill. With the bill on the verge of passage, everyone was ready and excited to celebrate a victory. Some said, “this is what a pride celebration should be about; celebrating the successes that the community has won.”

In August 2009, with an overwhelmingly positive vote from the city council, Bowling Green, Ohio, passed two ordinances providing broad civil rights protections. The ordinances protect individuals from discrimination on specific bases, including sexual orientation and gender identity, in housing, public accommodations, employment, and public education. The existing ordinance bans discrimination only based on race, color, or creed. Unfortunately, a successful recall petition drive has placed both ordinances on the November 2, 2010 ballot for a public referendum.

Today, we were visited by representatives from Montana Conservation Voters and Forward Montana – two wonderful allies in our struggle for equality in Montana. The Human Rights Campaign has worked with MCV since 2006 to elect progressive members of the Montana legislature and they dropped by the office to talk about coordinating efforts again this year.