Welcome to Rainbow Foot Soldiers. We're a grassroots group founded in Tucson Arizona as a response to "checkbook activism" - our goal is to allow people to interact and take action on issues of importance to the LGBT community, to share information and news, and to enlist the aid of other activists around the nation and around the world on issues of vital local importance.
Since its inception in early 2009, RFS has organized two rallies in the Tucson area including the Candlelight Vigil on the eve of arguments in the Prop 8 Supreme Court hearing and the Day of Decision rally and march following the release of the decision by the Supreme Court of California.
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open group / 1 members
NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION:
NATIONAL MARRIAGE COUNTER SIT-IN FOR MARRIAGE EQUALITY
Gay Recruiters, in Bloomington Indiana, having been profoundly inspired by the courageous actions of our brothers, sisters and straight allies at the Marriage Clerk sit-ins in Denver (http://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=DpsIPMdvHfA )
and San Diego (http://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=_iGQgmV6cd8) on May 26th and 27th
and Chicago on Valentine’s Day (http://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=P127n3Ocuzg),
will - in solidarity - be staging a Marriage Counter Sit-in for Marriage Equality in Bloomington, Indiana during the week of June 29th 2009 (Exact date and time to be announced soon!). We ask you to JOIN US in a national campaign fighting for the greatest civil rights issue of our time!
In honor of the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots; in memory of our great LGBT civil rights movement leaders* Harvey Milk, Del Martin, and Barbara Gittings; and in tribute to our current living legends of the LGBT civil rights movement*, Frank Kameny and Phyllis Lyon (*and others too numerous to mention!) – we urge our LGBT brothers and sisters along with our Straight Allies to respond to our National Call to Action during the week of June 29th entitled:
National Marriage Counter Sit-in for Marriage Equality
While we believe strongly in the Dallas Principles as a broad outline for the unremitting and uncompromising struggle for our complete and inherent civil rights on par with all other Americans, we additionally feel that peaceful nonviolent civil disobedience as practiced by Gandhi, Martin Luther King, César Chávez, Rosa Parks - and many others whose memory we so deeply revere - is necessary to obtain our FULL civil rights. We find this especially true in a period of stagnation and backsliding such as we are experiencing all too clearly in today’s headlines which find President Obama now supporting DOMA.
While we believe that respectful, dialogue and discourse has a key place in our fight, we believe - as MLK did - that our struggle will unnecessarily persist for many more years without the concomitant use of peaceful nonviolent civil disobedience. The decades have proven these methods - courageously practiced by our predecessors - to have been the correct complement to public discourse. Now OUR moment has arrived. In emulating our heros of history, Destiny now leads us to honor their courage with our own! For those who feel this is the wrong tactic, we urge you to study the inspirational words of Martin Luther King which he issued in his Letter from Birmingham Jail. In these relevant excerpts, we have found truths for the ages which inspire us in our national call to action:
“You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling, for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks to so dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored…
“The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation…
“…My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily…
“…We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied…
“…One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all…
“…I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate….who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection…
“…One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream …thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.”
Given that the Stonewall Riots began on June 28th 1969 and continued for the following 5 or 6 days, we believe the week of June 29th is the perfect time to celebrate their 40th Anniversary with our historic nationwide protest for Marriage Equality.
Sisters, Brothers and Allies, we know that the time is short. But we also believe in the incredible organizing potential of our community powered by the unquenched thirst for our full civil rights under the law!
We feel magic in the air! We feel Destiny calling us to be part of this historic moment - our moment - in history. Now is the time, as President Obama said, for those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put our hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
Now is our time for FULL equality under the law. Not later, not next year, not next decade – NOW is our magic moment in history.
So we ask you - across the nation in your town or city - to GET BUSY NOW planning your own Marriage Counter Sit-in for Marriage Equality in the best traditions of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, César Chávez and the lunch counter sit-ins of the 50’s and 60’s!
For those who believe such a nationwide campaign is impossible, we can only invoke the words of Margaret Mead:
“Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Just a cliché? This call for a National Campaign of Marriage Counter Sit-ins began on Facebook after the Day of Decision protests as just one voice in a sea of silence in answer to the question “what next?”. It immediately grew to be a dream of our local group, and now - just two weeks later - it’s being brought to the national stage. And with your dedication and help the dream will fly – becoming part of the great history of our relentless struggle for FULL LGBT equal rights.
Brothers, Sisters, Allies...JOIN US! Grasp OUR rainbow arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day!
Please visit http://www.nonviolence4equ ality.org for more information about peaceful nonviolent civil disobedience and how to plan and organize your action.
open group / 1 members
Tucson Marriage Equality Advocates
This group is for people in Tucson and Southern Arizona who are interested in promoting marriage equality. Here we will discuss events, plans, and ideas about advancing marriage equality in the state through local and regional activism.
open group / 1 members
NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION:
NATIONAL MARRIAGE COUNTER SIT-IN FOR MARRIAGE EQUALITY
Gay Recruiters, in Bloomington Indiana, having been profoundly inspired by the courageous actions of our brothers, sisters and straight allies at the Marriage Clerk sit-ins in Denver (http://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=DpsIPMdvHfA )
and San Diego (http://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=_iGQgmV6cd8) on May 26th and 27th
and Chicago on Valentine’s Day (http://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=P127n3Ocuzg),
will - in solidarity - be staging a Marriage Counter Sit-in for Marriage Equality in Bloomington, Indiana during the week of June 29th 2009 (Exact date and time to be announced soon!). We ask you to JOIN US in a national campaign fighting for the greatest civil rights issue of our time!
In honor of the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots; in memory of our great LGBT civil rights movement leaders* Harvey Milk, Del Martin, and Barbara Gittings; and in tribute to our current living legends of the LGBT civil rights movement*, Frank Kameny and Phyllis Lyon (*and others too numerous to mention!) – we urge our LGBT brothers and sisters along with our Straight Allies to respond to our National Call to Action during the week of June 29th entitled:
National Marriage Counter Sit-in for Marriage Equality
While we believe strongly in the Dallas Principles as a broad outline for the unremitting and uncompromising struggle for our complete and inherent civil rights on par with all other Americans, we additionally feel that peaceful nonviolent civil disobedience as practiced by Gandhi, Martin Luther King, César Chávez, Rosa Parks - and many others whose memory we so deeply revere - is necessary to obtain our FULL civil rights. We find this especially true in a period of stagnation and backsliding such as we are experiencing all too clearly in today’s headlines which find President Obama now supporting DOMA.
While we believe that respectful, dialogue and discourse has a key place in our fight, we believe - as MLK did - that our struggle will unnecessarily persist for many more years without the concomitant use of peaceful nonviolent civil disobedience. The decades have proven these methods - courageously practiced by our predecessors - to have been the correct complement to public discourse. Now OUR moment has arrived. In emulating our heros of history, Destiny now leads us to honor their courage with our own! For those who feel this is the wrong tactic, we urge you to study the inspirational words of Martin Luther King which he issued in his Letter from Birmingham Jail. In these relevant excerpts, we have found truths for the ages which inspire us in our national call to action:
“You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling, for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks to so dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored…
“The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation…
“…My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily…
“…We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied…
“…One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all…
“…I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate….who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection…
“…One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream …thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.”
Given that the Stonewall Riots began on June 28th 1969 and continued for the following 5 or 6 days, we believe the week of June 29th is the perfect time to celebrate their 40th Anniversary with our historic nationwide protest for Marriage Equality.
Sisters, Brothers and Allies, we know that the time is short. But we also believe in the incredible organizing potential of our community powered by the unquenched thirst for our full civil rights under the law!
We feel magic in the air! We feel Destiny calling us to be part of this historic moment - our moment - in history. Now is the time, as President Obama said, for those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put our hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
Now is our time for FULL equality under the law. Not later, not next year, not next decade – NOW is our magic moment in history.
So we ask you - across the nation in your town or city - to GET BUSY NOW planning your own Marriage Counter Sit-in for Marriage Equality in the best traditions of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, César Chávez and the lunch counter sit-ins of the 50’s and 60’s!
For those who believe such a nationwide campaign is impossible, we can only invoke the words of Margaret Mead:
“Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Just a cliché? This call for a National Campaign of Marriage Counter Sit-ins began on Facebook after the Day of Decision protests as just one voice in a sea of silence in answer to the question “what next?”. It immediately grew to be a dream of our local group, and now - just two weeks later - it’s being brought to the national stage. And with your dedication and help the dream will fly – becoming part of the great history of our relentless struggle for FULL LGBT equal rights.
Brothers, Sisters, Allies...JOIN US! Grasp OUR rainbow arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day!
Please visit http://www.nonviolence4equ ality.org for more information about peaceful nonviolent civil disobedience and how to plan and organize your action.
open group / 1 members
Tucson Marriage Equality Advocates
This group is for people in Tucson and Southern Arizona who are interested in promoting marriage equality. Here we will discuss events, plans, and ideas about advancing marriage equality in the state through local and regional activism.
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