Joey Goldman joeygoldman@yahoo.com Dear Family and Friends,<br /> This is not a form letter and nobody has asked me to write to you. I confess I&#39;m sending it out to a lot of people, and I&#39;m going out on a limb here, because the word needs to get out. I&#39;m not a political activist: maybe just an accidental advocate. But I am writing because I see an injustice in the making. This time it directly impacts me and my life. <br /> Brad and I like going to our friend&#39;s weddings, relatives&#39; weddings, siblings&#39; weddings &hellip; even my dad&#39;s weddings (sorry for the plural, dad :-D). And we would also like to get married, one day. But we want to do it on our timeline, not racing to marry before the November 4 election. We want our child (don&#39;t worry&hellip; we don&#39;t have one yet) to have parents who are legally married to one another. We want to enjoy the same rights that all heterosexual couples enjoy and don&#39;t want to see those rights taken away from us or from anyone we know. <br /> In California, same-sex couples currently have the right to get married. But with a huge infusion of cash from Southern Baptists and Mormons, a large number of conservative Christian groups and right-wing organizations are working to eliminate this right. They strive not only to cement discrimination against gay men and women in the California State Constitution, but also to take away a right that we already have. If California&#39;s Proposition 8 passes, millions of people will lose their right to get married. <br /> Gay men and women do not comprise a majority of the population, so we have a smaller voice when it comes to being able to vote against discriminatory ballot measures, and we need allies in a big way. Whether you support the right for marriage between any two people who care about each other or not, I hope you will agree with me that it is wrong to take away a right that people already have. The folks who would like to discriminate against me are spending millions of dollars, money pouring in from out-of-state, to run deceptive, hateful advertisements in an effort to ensure I will be a second-class citizen. <br /> Canada. South Africa. Spain. Holland. Norway. Belgium. I&#39;d like to imagine that the US will someday embrace a fair definition of marriage like these countries do. We should be less like Uganda, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Cameroon, and Egypt that overtly discriminate against gay men and women. <br /> This is not a Democratic or Republican issue. The vast majority of good people in California have come out against Proposition 8, saying they believe the Constitution should not be changed to discriminate against me and Brad. All of the mayors of major cities, including San Diego&#39;s Republican mayor Jerry Sanders, agree that Proposition 8 is bad. All major newspapers - the Los Angles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Diego Union-Tribune and the New York Times - agree that Proposition 8 is wrong. Both of our US Senators, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein, along with Governor Schwarzenegger, have all spoken out against Proposition 8. They are joined by hundreds of organizations, including the California Nurses Association, California Teachers Association, the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, hundreds of churches, and the California Democratic Party.<br /> Who is fighting hard to pass Proposition 8? According to the &#39;Yes on 8&#39; website, organizations such as Creation Research of North America, Focus on the Family, the Eagle Forum, Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. (what the heck is that??), and the Traditional Values Coalition. These are the same groups that do everything they can to infuse our public schools with prayer, teach creation in schools, eliminate abortion rights, and push so called &quot;family values.&quot; They are getting millions of dollars from church members in states across the southern US and from the Mormons to make sure California&#39;s Constitution can discriminate against me and Brad. <br /> If you don&#39;t live in California, I&#39;m emailing this to you to please ask anyone you know in California to vote NO on Proposition 8. Please forward this email to them and everyone you know, because they may know people in California who may not understand what the passage of Proposition 8 would mean to me and millions of others. If you live in California, please vote NO on Proposition 8 (so I can invite you to a wedding in the future!). Brad and I thank you for it, as do my family members and friends, and their children and their families. <br /> I&#39;ve never asked anyone for money (except my parents, when I was younger), BUT, if you are able to do so, please join me in making a donation to help defeat Proposition 8. The good people fighting to defeat Proposition 8 are being outspent by intolerant people from across the country. Will the good people, like you, band together to help get the word out? My voice can be stronger only when other voices join with me. <br /> Thank you for reading this and thank you very much for your help in defeating Proposition 8. Like they say, as California goes, so goes the US. <br /> Yours Truly, <br /> Joey private false Equality for All false equalityforall 100000.00 https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/entity/19788