NEWS RELEASE
November 3 , 2004

EQUALITY MARYLAND
Contact: Dan Furmansky, Executive Director
Phone:    Office 301-587-7500
Toll Free in Maryland: 888-440-9944
Cell    301-461-4900
Email:  dan@equalitymaryland.org

POST-ELECTION MESSAGE

Dear Friend of Equality,

I write this email to you with a mix of pain, sadness and anger, but I write in hopes of placing the results of yesterday's defeat at the ballot box into the appropriate context. While 11 states have voted to write discrimination into their constitutions, and we do as a community need time to absorb and mourn this setback, we should not allow this to overshadow the bigger picture.

Yesterday, there were some great victories for equality. Ten years ago, the citizens of Cincinnati, OH passed an anti-gay law that has prevented the city from passing any legislation to protect gays and lesbians. Yesterday, Cincinnati voters repealed the measure by 54 percent to 46 percent.

Three states - North Carolina, Idaho and Missouri -for the first time have elected an openly gay official to the state legislature. Now, these states will be less able to discount the LGBT community, as members of the community will have a place at the table.

The election of Barack Obama in Illinois and Ken Salazar in Colorado - both opponents of the federal marriage amendment - was a victory against opponents who used marriage equality as a wedge issue in the campaign. In states from Illinois and Indiana to Connecticut, House seats were claimed or retained by legislators who fought opponents that used the marriage issue as a wedge in the campaign.

Last night was a big win for equality in Massachusetts. The 50 incumbents who opposed the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage all won re-election. In addition, pro-equality candidates won six of eight open seats where the opponent was in favor of the constitutional amendment that would bar marriage equality for same-sex couples. And two outstanding LGBT leaders took on anti-gay incumbent legislators and won. "Last night's victories in Massachusetts were truly historic and have national implications," said Marty Rouse, campaign manager for MassEquality.

The Republican Party's attempts to use same-sex marriage to garner more votes from the African-American community did not translate into votes. Eighty-nine (89%) of African-American voters supported John Kerry.

In Oregon, the only state with the financing to run a competitive campaign against the anti-gay ballot measure, 43 per cent of the people voted not to amend the constitution to bar same-sex couples from marriage.

Most importantly, in states that passed anti-gay ballot measures, the LGBT community is not responding with defeat. "We may have lost the popular vote today, but we have clearly won on the issue of fairness and equality," said Jeffrey Montgomery, Executive Director of Triangle Foundation. "The campaign over Proposal 2 has advanced the movement for recognition of the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in ways that no other opportunity has afforded in the last decade.[Our opponents] helped us to move ahead by compelling thousands of our fellow citizens to consider GLBT equality and support our right to fair treatment. While those who waged this campaign of hate prevailed at the polls, they have intensified and hastened the march toward the day when all of us, gay or otherwise, will achieve equal status and equal opportunity."

Like many issues facing our country today, marriage equality remains a divisive one. And yet, according to exit polling, more than a majority (61%) of those Americans who voted supports legal recognition of same-sex couples. Just a few years ago, Vermont's Civil Union law was public enemy #1 for the religious right across the country. Now, even individuals like George W. Bush, who has used gay Americans as political pawns like no president before him, has stated his support for the rights of states to grant civil unions. The irony, of course, is that his support of the federal marriage amendment says otherwise. But the movement on this issue is clear. More Americans than ever are coming to understand that discrimination against gays and lesbians and their children is wrong, and that all families deserve the same rights and protections.

Now more than ever, in states like Maryland where fair-minded people are the majority, the LGBT community must unite to set an example for the rest of the country. For every Arkansas, there is a Massachusetts. For every Ohio and Missouri and Oklahoma, there can and will be a New York, a Connecticut, and yes, a Maryland.

Never forget: Our visibility is our power.

In partnership and equality,

Dan Furmansky
Executive Director