Tag Archives: Joe Solmonese

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a message from Joe Solmonese …


Human Rights Campaign


I know you must have been disappointed when you saw my earlier email tonight saying that the U.S. Senate stopped action on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal, the discriminatory law that bans gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. This news certainly draws attention to the actions the President can take to end the discharges, and it’s important that we continue to urge him to do so. Aside from that, I also wanted to share some late breaking news that keeps congressional repeal as a possibility THIS YEAR.

After the failed vote to bring up the Defense Authorization bill today, two champions for repeal – Senators Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins – announced that they would introduce repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as a stand-alone piece of legislation. While passing this new bill will be an uphill battle, it is another chance for a durable legislative solution.

Over the past few days we’ve seen a number of senators speak out for repeal and it’s clear that under the right circumstances, we can get above the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. What got in the way today was procedure.

Thankfully a bipartisan group of senators has committed to finding an alternative method of achieving repeal. We encourage all senators to take up this bill and pass it quickly so that the military has the power to implement a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

I’ll be in touch in the coming days to give you ways to get involved and help pass this stand-alone bill to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The fight for open service has had many twists and turns but until “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is left in the dustbin of history we will never give up the fight.

Thank you,

Joe Solmonese
Joe Solmonese
President

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Bullying judges


Human Rights Campaign

Bullying judges?

NOM targeted three independent Iowa justices to send a message:

Follow our radical anti-gay agenda – or else.

Stop NOM

The nation’s #1 anti-gay organization just struck a blow to our nation’s courts.

In 2009, every Iowa Supreme Court justice agreed that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. This election season, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) set its political bulls-eye on ousting three of those justices. On Election Day, all three lost.

It was a calculated warning shot aimed at judges nationwide, all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court: Either you cast aside centuries of judicial independence and rule according to our radical, anti-gay ideology – or we’ll come get you.

We may not always see eye to eye with Chief Justice Roberts, but we can all agree that judges should be independent. NOM’s actions were a blatant, ideological assault on our nation’s courts. Iowa’s judicial retention elections were created to prevent fraud, misconduct or malfeasance. They were never intended to allow one hate group and its fringe allies to dump $600,000 into a state over a single — and unanimous — decision they didn’t like.

But that’s exactly what happened. Last month, NOM’s president Brian Brown said: “If the people of Iowa… remove these judges, there will be reverberations throughout the country all the way to the United States Supreme Court.”

Wow. Is that an ultimatum? That’s how bullies operate.

It gets worse. Marriage equality is in jeopardy. As NOM’s Brown boasted post-election: “We now have the ability to roll back same-sex marriage in Iowa and New Hampshire and pass a constitutional amendment in Minnesota.”

It’s time to speak out, like HRC and the Courage Campaign are doing at NOMExposed.org. NOM cannot be allowed to dismantle our independent judiciary. Iowa can’t be a beginning. It must be an end. Tell Chief Justice John Roberts to stick up for the judiciary and decry this attack on our independent court system.

A fair and independent judiciary is important for all Americans, and crucial to protecting the rights of LGBT people. Learn about what HRC is doing to educate the next generation about our judicial system at www.hrc.org/equalityinthecourts.

NOM’s gone rogue. It’s slash-and-burn, no matter the consequences. Being anti-gay is one thing. Tearing down our justice system is something quite different.

Enough is enough.

Sincerely,

Joe Solmonese
Joe Solmonese
President

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After suicides, Mormon leader rants against gays


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Human Rights Campaign

 


The recent suicides of several gay teenagers have made national headlines. Yet this is the moment – of all moments – that a top Mormon leader decides to broadcast a verbal rampage against gays to millions of viewers.

I couldn’t believe it either. Boyd K. Packer, the second-highest leader in the Mormon Church, said in a sermon broadcast to millions last Sunday that same-sex attraction is “impure and unnatural” and can be overcome, and that same-sex unions are morally wrong.

Do we need more proof than the suicides of teens as young as 13 that words like these can do unimaginable damage?

We cannot stay silent. By speaking out together, we can show the Mormon Church hierarchy that it has literally risked the lives of children by inciting their tormentors. And we can ensure that the young people who heard this sermon know that it is scientifically wrong and profoundly misguided.

Speaking before 20,000 people and broadcasting to millions more, Packer said same-sex unions are morally wrong and “against God’s law and nature” – and that the church hierarchy would continue to support marriage bans like Proposition 8 (which was funded largely by Mormons).

It makes me physically sick to think how many young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender kids had to sit in those pews and listen to that venom.

Comments like these are exactly what makes young LGBT kids think there’s no way out but suicide – that their parents will reject them, that their communities will shun them, and that living openly will bring pain or violence – that even God looks on their very identity as a sin to be “overcome.”

And these lies fuel the bullying, harassment, and violence that plague our schools.

Packer’s lies have been disproven over and over again by science and by the spiritual experience of Americans who know their LGBT neighbors and care about them. We know sexual orientation cannot and should not be changed and that two people falling in love is beautiful, not evil.

But unless we refute these lies whenever groups like the anti-LGBT National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and the Mormon Church repeat them – whether through letters like this or projects like HRC‘s www.NOMexposed.com – we risk another young person hearing them and believing that LGBT people are “defective.” And that belief contributes to violence and suicide.

Americans are sick of the Mormon hierarchy trying to dictate what they should believe. They know commitment and love when they see it. That’s why they are turning away in droves from limitations on their friends’ and neighbors’ freedom to marry.

Thank you for helping take a stand for the truth.

Sincerely,

Joe Solmonese
Joe Solmonese
President