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Thursday, November 20, 2008

Homo Project Postcard

Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 10:17 AM

This is a much better idea, frankly, than "Day Without a Gay": The LGBTQ Civil Rights Front has launched "Project Postcard." Endorsed by JoinTheImpact.com, the folks behind "Project Postcard" are urging gays and lesbians and our straight friends and supporters to send postcards to President-elect Barack Obama reminding him of the promises he made to the gay and lesbian community during the campaign.

BUY A POSTCARD - It would be great if it had the name of your city or state on it, but feel free to get creative. Make your own, use one that you have around the house, or grab a free one at your local restaurant. Heck, why not get a bunch of different ones? The more, the better.

ADDRESS IT - A handwritten card is always best, but feel free to print out labels if you're going to send multiple cards. Here's the address...

President-elect Barack Obama
Presidential Transition Office
Kluczynski Federal Building
230 S. Dearborn St., 38th Floor
Chicago, IL 60604

WRITE A MESSAGE - I recommend something like this...

Dear President-elect Obama,
Please ask Congress to repeal D.O.M.A.! All Americans should have the right to marry. Thank you in advance for advocating for the civil rights of your LGBT citizens.

SIGN YOUR NAME - There is nothing more powerful than that.

BUY POSTAGE AND DROP YOUR POSTCARD(S) IN THE MAIL - Wasn't that easy?

In addition to promising to repeal DOMA, Obama promised to scrap "Don't Ask/Don't Tell," support adoption rights for same-sex couples, "use the bully pulpit to urge states to treat samesex couples with full equality," and fight for gay-inclusive hate crimes legislation. But repealing DOMA is the most important single promise Obama made to the gay community—and repealing it is—or should be—a no-brainer politically, as the brilliant Glenn Greenwald argued:

Barack Obama has, on numerous occasions, emphatically expressed his support for repealing DOMA. When he ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004, he wrote a letter to Chicago's Windy City Times, calling DOMA "abhorrent" and its repeal "essential," and vowing: "I opposed DOMA in 1996. It should be repealed and I will vote for its repeal on the Senate floor." But he went on to cite what he called the "the realities of modern politics" in order to proclaim (accurately) that DOMA's repeal at that time—2004—was "unlikely with Mr. Bush in the White House and Republicans in control of both chambers of Congress." After Tuesday, that excuse is no longer availing.

Democrats have a particular responsibility to erase the stain of DOMA. It was Bill Clinton who signed DOMA into law. It passed overwhelmingly in the Senate (85-14) with massive Democratic support, including from Democratic icons such as Paul Wellstone, Chris Dodd, Pat Leahy, Tom Daschle, Patty Murray, Harry Reid, Barbara Mikulski, and the new Vice President-elect, Joe Biden (interestingly, Democrats ranging from Russ Feingold and Dianne Feinstein to Virginia's Chuck Robb and Nebraska's Bob Kerrey voted against it).

The politics are not nearly as difficult as many might imagine. While same-sex marriage is still obviously controversial, the extension of equal rights to same-sex couples is not. "Civil unions" — the vehicle for that outcome — has emerged as an interim majority consensus.

Seeing voters elected Barack Obama in a landslide after he made it clear that he intended to repeal DOMA—Joe Biden even cornered Sarah Palin on this issue during the VP debate, and she essentially backed the law's repeal—there's no excuse for Democratic timidity on this issue. Send Barack a postcard and tell him to repeal DOMA.

Comments (14) RSS

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I agree, let's keep the Gay Intifada going. Bottom up is always better than top down whether its economics or activism.

Posted by marcus on November 20, 2008 at 10:18 AM

How about a gay cabinet-level appointment for sustained pressure for DC to act? According to Wikipedia, there are about 23 cabinet-level slots. 1/23 =4.3%. That decision is going on now.

Posted by chicagogaydude on November 20, 2008 at 10:47 AM

That is a great idea. I will send a postcard today.

Posted by crazycatguy on November 20, 2008 at 11:06 AM

This is all fine, and this may be a seemingly minor point, but Barack Obama can't "repeal" DOMA. Obama can sign a bill that repeals DOMA, but if you want to pressure people, in addition to sending a postcard to the White House, you need to be sending them to your senators and representatives. Unless both houses of Congress pass a repeal, then Obama can't do squat.

Yes, yes, I know - he's President, it's a Democratic-controlled Congress, etc. The only problem is that a number of the Democrats in the House are from GOP-leaning districts and would have trouble with such a vote (remember, all politics is local and we can't assume a national opinion poll will affect these people's votes). There is a better than average chance we could get it through the House, given our majority and the fact that the regional breakdown of the parties benefits this issue (most all of the GOP is from the South, the region likely most in love with DOMA).

We also need to remember that it will certainly take 60 votes to get a repeal through the Senate (there will be more than a few Republicans willing to filibuster such a bill).

I think that we may be able to get this done during this term, but before everyone gets pissed off at Obama if it doesn't happen immediately, they need to consider the real political realities, not just national opinion polls. I think the more immediate issue that likely would succeed would be a repeal of DADT. Most of Congress has appeared increasingly against DADT during recent hearings and the public has definitely moved far on this issue.

Posted by Ed on November 20, 2008 at 11:26 AM

this is so well intentioned but such a bad idea! a postcard has the distinction of being the one type of communication that does not include a return address. so the transition team will not respond. whoever sorts the mail will notice a lot of postcards coming in, but with no return address, nobody has to respond, postcard goes in the trash. if it was an email or a letter in an envelope with a return address, you would eventually receive a response even if it is a generic form letter. in which case, the transition team will have a record in the database about how many people required a pro-gay rights generic form letter. a postcard is never going to make it past the mail room.

in any case, if you do this, please squeeze a return address on the postcard somewhere.

Posted by banannze on November 20, 2008 at 11:29 AM

Question: will overturning D.O.M.A. really cause gay marriage to become legal? Isn't that a state-level legal question?

I also really think that overturning the ban on gays in the military is just as important... I know it affects a smaller group of people, but, as with women, being able to serve in the military is part of achieving first-class citizenship. Also, it is a tragedy that gay civilians can't get married in most states, but gay military personnel are often prevented from having any sort of normal relationship at all.

Posted by Marya on November 20, 2008 at 11:44 AM

DOMA doesn't make gay marriage legal. It's the first step, likely, to a federal civil unions bill which would confer the federal benefits on those in civil unions/domestic partnerships. DOMA prevents federal benefits from being attached to state civil unions or domestic partnerships.

It also removes one of the arguments relative to the Full Faith and Credit clause. Now, the Supreme Court has never said that marriages are covered by Full Faith and Credit, but if they are then every state would be bound to recognize the marriage determinations of other states. In other words, Massachusetts married gays would be recognized as married in other states. Again, that's not guaranteed what it means (and it may not mean that at all), but Full Faith and Credit can be "regulated" by Congress and DOMA performs that role. No DOMA and we can at least test these theories about Full Faith and Credit.

Plus, it's symbolically huge. Huger than huge.

But, I agree, DADT is every bit as important.

Posted by Ed on November 20, 2008 at 12:45 PM

This is a good idea. I might send one about stopping missile defense. That's a chunk of change we can't afford.

Posted by Ian on November 20, 2008 at 2:04 PM

I can guarantee you that hand written postcards or letters carry far more weight to politicians than canned form letters or emails. You may not get a response back to a postcard with no return address, but the postcard WILL get read, and be given more weight than shitloads of identical emails.

Posted by Reverse Polarity on November 20, 2008 at 3:39 PM

Join the tax protest. You have to twist Congressional and Obama's balls. Postcards from the edge are cute but don't work.

http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec…

Posted by Charles Merrill on November 20, 2008 at 5:14 PM

@9: I know that seems like it should be true, but it is just not. i'm speaking as someone who worked in a congressional office for four years and responded to constituent mail as part of my job. when you're receiving thousands of letters and emails a day that require a response, letters that don't require a response do not get attention.

Posted by banannze on November 21, 2008 at 9:45 AM

Fabulous! I bought 20 Tegan & Sara postcards in October and could think of only two people I knew who might appreciate them. Now I know what to do with the other 18!

Posted by Heather on November 21, 2008 at 8:22 PM

I sent my postcard. I am from Annapolis, MD, so the card has a picture of our Thurgood Marshall Memorial on it.

Posted by Jake on November 22, 2008 at 8:30 AM

Am i too late? I sent mine out today. Mine is a Thank You Note.

Posted by Peggy on January 8, 2009 at 2:06 PM