Monday, November 30, 2009

Progressive Update--11/30/2009--Out4Immigration

There is much inequality for the GLBT community. One area of inequality is immigration to the US. A non-gay couple, since they can marry and have their marriage recognized in the US, with one US citizen, can petition to have the other member of the couple immigrate to the US. However a gay couple (whether married outside the US (or inside) or not), has no such right.

Out4Immigration is an all grassroots organization and our letter writing campaign is now in its 40th week.

This week, we are focusing on Senator Thomas Carper (D) of Delaware.

Senator Carper recently stated in a Delaware News Journal article that he was unfamiliar with the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA). The article was about bi-national couples in Delaware forced apart because of our nation's discriminatory immigration laws.

Please take action to help familiarize Senator Carper with the UAFA!

Click the link below to send an e-mail to Senator Carper, and please also forward this on to family and friends, and share on Facebook, Twitter, etc... We need as many people to sign this each week as possible, and the change.org link makes doing this quick and easy!

http://www.change.org/ideas/2008/view_action/urge_sen_carper_to_support_the_uniting_american_families_act

Interested in doing more? Click the link below for more ways you can support UAFA:

http://www.change.org/ideas/2008/view_blog/actions_to_take_to_get_more_support_for_uafa

Senator Thomas Carper
513 Hart Senate Office Building
District of Columbia 20510-0801
Phone: (202) 224-2441
Fax: (202) 228-2190

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Progressive Update--11/04/2009

Matt Kerbel Speaks—Tomorrow at 7pm at DelDems HQ (directions at http://www.deldems.org/ht/d/sp/i/725590/pid/725590), Villanova political science professor and author/authority on politics and the media will speak at the monthly Progressive Dems of DE meeting (http://www.progressivedemsdel.com/). Matt’s most recent book, NetRoots (http://books.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?WRD=netroots+kerbel&box=netroots%20kerbel&pos=-1) is great. I have quoted Matt several times in the past, most often leading up to a national election, and his insight has been spot-on. You don’t want to miss this!
Come and Be Heard—Organizing for America (the successor to Obama for America), a national, grass-roots organization, is hosting a listening session this Saturday in Newark from 11am to noon. For more information, go to www.my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/listeningtour/gpch7g. You can also go to (http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/search_simple?source=sidenav) to find an event near you.
Where Have I Been?—I have been a bit ‘off the grid’ for several weeks. Part of the reason is that I needed a breather after the fall election, and the Delaware legislative session that ended on June 30th. The Health Insurance Reform effort has been grueling, frustrating, and exciting (I especially liked the smack-down that the Delaware Democratic Party unleashed on Senator Tom Carper, reminding him that Delaware Democrats expected him to represent them, and not insurance companies, by supporting strong public health insurance option).
I have been a regular reader of www.delawareliberal.net, and a frequent contributor. This website is dynamite for keeping readers informed on primarily state, but also national, issues, from a liberal perspective. The primary contributors are GREAT (the conservative trolls are mostly annoying but sometimes amusing/pathetic). I have begun infrequent reading of www.dailykos.com, which is a national liberal site. My (thus far only) posting can be found at http://www.dailykos.com/user/GrapeSodaMan .
I have also begun using Twitter to post thoughts, primarily political in nature. You can find me at http://twitter.com/PBaumbachDE, and if you’d like, you can ‘follow’ me, and get my postings emailed or text’d to you.
I continue to post to my blog, http://paulprogressive.blogspot.com/, and post there at times without sending emails. Why? Blast emails are very time consuming (or at least I am very time-inefficient in composing/sending them).
I therefore expect to stay in this current mode for now, posting regularly to DelawareLiberal (PBaumbach is my name there), Tweeting occasionally (twice a month?), adding to the blog (monthly?), and sending a blast email (every other month)? Given that, consider how you would like to be kept in the loop, if at all.
Equality for All, Relationship Equality—We have achieved some very good progress in this area in the past year. In June we were able to get sexual orientation added to the Delaware laws that forbid discrimination. Last month the Obama administration added sexual orientation, gender identity and expressions added to the federal hate crimes laws. Several states have begun to recognize domestic partnerships/civil unions for same-gender couples. There are two areas that I would invite you to work on. Two groups that I really like, due to their work on this area is www.hrc.org, and www.aclu-de.org.
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT)—It appears that this is close to moving forward (repeal of DADT). There is a petition at http://votevets.org/pages/?id=0026. A bill is in the works in Congress. This awful policy is WAY overdue to be eliminated.
Uniting American Families Act (UAFA)—This bill will permit same-gender partners to sponsor their partner to become a US citizen, in the same way that an opposite gender partner can currently sponsor their partner (spouse) to become a US citizen. A local Newark couple is being deported this month due to this inequality. Visit http://www.immigrationequality.org/template.php?pageid=2 Contact your congress members and urge them to support the Uniting American Families Act in immigration reform. Make a donation to Out4Immigration or Immigration Equality so others can be informed of the issue and encouraged to work for fairness.