LGBTQ People need Equal Rights and Economic Justice

Sunday, September 2nd, 2012  Charlotte, North Carolina     

We demand equal access to employment, housing, healthcare and education NOW! Equal Rights Now!

Show Your Outrage over Passing of North Carolina’s Anti-LGBTQ Marriage Amendment 1!

Free LGBTQ activists CeCe McDonald& Bradley Manning!

To Become an Endorser Email mowsslgbt@gmail.com

As LGBTQ people in the United States, we have always had to fight for rights, dignity and even for our very lives. In this sexist, heterosexist, transphobic and homophobic society, LGBTQ people are targeted for violence from our youth to old age.   LGBTQ oppression then intersects with racism, sexism, ageism, the oppression of immigrants, the exploitation as working people and other forms of oppression, intensifying the hardships we experience.

As LGBTQ people we are discriminated against when trying to find housing, health care and education, paid less as workers, fired for being who we are and then excluded from societal institutions like marriage. Marriage equality is, of course, not just about the recognition of our relationships and families, but it is rooted in fighting for economic justice. There are over 1,000 federally provided economic benefits that we are denied access to that are granted to heterosexual married people. We believe that all working people – married or single—should have access to affordable healthcare and health insurance.  We also want to see an end to cuts in social services, including HIV/AIDS-related programs.

While many LGBTQ related victories have been highlighted in the media—such as securing marriage equality in some states or winning laws aimed at ending violence and bullying of LGBTQ youth in schools— the bottom line is that in 2012, we as LGBTQ people still do NOT have equal rights in the United States. Perfect examples of this include the failure of Congress to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) as well as the U.S. Court of Appeals, which overturned part of DOMA, still allowing individual states to deny legal recognition of same-sex marriages performed in other states.  

Coupled with the global economic crisis, our second-class status has meant massive unemployment and homelessness for LGBTQ young people and foreclosures or evictions of LGBTQ individuals and families. LGBTQ people, like other working class people, live paycheck to paycheck and face devastating economic hardships, while the U.S. government continues to bail out Wall Street corporations and banks such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

Voice your Outrage at the Bank of America and Wells Fargo, and the Banning of LGBTQ Marriage in North Carolina

This is why we must continue to fight, especially in an election year, and shine the spotlight on the injustices and inequalities that we face. From September 1st to 6th, the Democratic National Convention (DNC) will be in hosted in Charlotte, North Carolina, home to both the headquarters of Bank of America and Wells Fargo as well as Bank of America Stadium. North Carolina is the second largest concentration of finance capital in the U.S. after New York City.

Also on May 8th, 2012, North Carolina took its ban on LGBTQ marriages one step further with the passage of Amendment One.  As a result of Amendment One, the state constitution now defines marriage as “between one man and one woman,” reinforcing the ban on civil unions and domestic partnerships.

For these and many more reasons, progressive grassroots organizations, union activists, immigrant rights groups and student groups have come together across North Carolina to create the Coalition to March on Wall St South to organize a massive people’s demonstrations during the Democratic National Convention.

We, the LGBTQ organizers of the Coalition to March on Wall St. South want to take full advantage of the DNC media coverage, and are calling on LGBTQ people from all across the United States to join with us this September to demand:

Full rights and equality in society for LGBTQ people. End the Second Class Status of LGBTQ people in the US.

Stop the discrimination against LGBTQ People! Equal access to employment, housing, healthcare and education for LGBTQ people.

Demand LGBTQ marriage equality now!  Overturn all of DOMA and all state laws that deny us full marriage equality. We are outraged about the passing of North Carolina’s Amendment One.

Free CeCe McDonald, a Black trans woman and activist imprisoned for manslaughter for defending herself and surviving a brutal racist and transphobic attack. We remember our transgender sisters Brandy Martell, Coko Williams and Paige Clay and countless other murdered trans and gender non-conforming people—Stop the Transphobic Violence Now!

Free LGBTQ military whistleblower Bradley Manning, who is facing life in prison for exposing US genocide in Iraq.

It’s up to us to fight for what we need; we just can’t leave it up to the Democratic or the Republican parties. It was the LGBTQ movement, united with other political movements, that forced the US military to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” which threatened LGBTQ service people with expulsion if they didn’t stay in the closet.

We as LGBTQ have a proud history of being on the front lines of political movements - from the civil rights and women’s movement, to today’s fights against police brutality and against repressive deportations of undocumented people.   Bi Black Author/Activist June Jordan, once said, “If you took all the gay people out of the movement, there wouldn’t be any movement!”  

So it is up to us as LGBTQ peoples to organize for the economic justice and for equal rights! We are calling on LGBTQ people and organizations to:

Become an Endorser. Sign on as an individual /organization/group/school/union in support of a National LGBTQ Contingent for the March on Wall St. South on September 2nd.  Email mowsslgbt@gmail.com with your endorsement.

Come to Charlotte, NC during September 1st – 6th and participate in events of March on Wall Street South. See http://wallstsouth.org for details.

Bring your Banners and Signs & March with the LGBTQ Contingent of the March on Wall Street South on September 2nd.

Spread the word to your communities and constituents and help build the LGBTQ Contingent for the March on Wall St. South!