In this Issue:

Monday Night with Mike: TONIGHT at Melrose Hotel’s Library Bar
Gays & the Real Issues: Commentary by Rev. Michael S. Piazza
Exxon Rejects LGBT Inclusion But Support Growing
A Force More Powerful: H4PJ to host documentary about nonviolent protests
Republicans exploit the Federal Marriage Amendment — again
Federal Marriage Amendment Talking Points

Monday Night with Mike
Tonight, June 5 | 5-7 p.m. | The Melrose Hotel’s Library Bar

Our next Monday Night with Mike will be tonight, June 5 at the Library Bar in the Melrose Hotel, located at 3015 Oak Lawn Ave; Dallas, TX 75219. The event will begin at 5 p.m. and last until around 7 p.m. Appetizers will be provided, and a cash bar will feature special drink prices.

Monday Night with Mike is a free event, to which everyone is invited! This is a great way to meet other people who are passionate about peace and justice issues, and an excellent opportunity to introduce your friends to the work that we are doing. Rev. Michael Piazza, President of Hope for Peace & Justice, will speak about current issues and H4PJ. Please mark your calendar for this special event and remember to invite your friends and family!

Commentary: Gays & the Real Issues
by Rev. Michael S. Piazza

While our government has been unable to provide health insurance for 25 percent of our citizens, create any energy policy that doesn’t include tax-breaks for big oil, end the war in Iraq, arrest Osama bin Laden, or govern without creating exploding deficits, some call for our 230-year-old Constitution to include discrimination. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is determined to bring to a vote an amendment that would write a narrow definition of marriage into the Constitution. President Bush and both Texas senators, Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, have expressed support for the amendment.

Fortunately, amending the U.S. Constitution requires an extraordinary majority that they are not likely to achieve. The greater danger is that the only voices of faith that the country will hear will be those from the Religious Right. For too long, the media, and even our own community, have assumed that to be a Christian meant to oppose equal rights for LGBT people. Our silence contributes to that perception. If it is ever going to change your Senators need to hear from YOU!

Opposition to equality in marriage has steadily declined. We are on the side of justice, and, as Dr. King said, “The moral arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.” You can add to the momentum of this movement by making your voice heard.

Remember: this isn’t really about marriage. Same-gender couples get married by churches all the time. What it is about is whether or not all taxpayers will be treated the same. Churches can decide who they will or will not marry. The government should not discriminate, and discrimination should not be enshrined in the Constitution just to make political points with religious conservatives.

Exxon Rejects LGBT Inclusion But Support Growing
Originally published by 365Gay.com

(Dallas, Texas) For the seventh consecutive year shareholders at ExxonMobil's annual meeting have voted down a proposal to include LGBT workers in the company's anti-discrimination policy.

But despite rejection there is room for some comfort the nation's largest gay rights group says. The number of shareholders supporting the policy change is growing annually.
This year 34.6 percent of shares voted in favor of the policy this year, an increase from 29.4 percent in 2005.

ExxonMobil is the only major U.S. company to rescind a non-discrimination policy covering sexual orientation.

LGBT workers had been included in employment policies at Mobil. In December 1999 when Mobil merged with Exxon and under Exxon's direction, the policy was abandoned. At the same time, it closed Mobil's domestic partner benefits program to any more employees.
One of the leading advocates for change has been New York City Employees Retirement Fund.

NYCERS currently holds 11.9 million shares worth approximately $446 million in the company.

New York's pension funds have a long history of activism on behalf of social causes, including gay rights. The funds were part of a decade-long battle to get CBRL Group Inc., the parent company of the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain, to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation. CBRL, which reportedly fired at least 11 gay workers in the 1990s, agreed to change its policy in November 2002 after a resolution garnered 58 percent of the vote.
It also backed a resolution that resulted in J.C. Penney Co. supporting LGBT non discrimination.

BP Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips Corp., Shell Oil Company, Sunoco Inc., Valero Energy Corp., Marathon Oil Corp. and Williams Companies Inc. all have non-discrimination statements inclusive of sexual orientation.

Earlier this month shareholders at two other major corporations that include gay rights in their policies, American Express and Ford, defeated attempts to drop their protections for LGBT workers. In both cases the companies recommended voting down the measures.

Also this month fast food chain Wendy's International has agreed to amend its employment nondiscrimination policy by adding new written protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity for all employees.

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Hope for Peace & Justice needs your support to continue to provide a progressive, religious response to the Religious Right. Donations, at any amount, are greatly appreciated. Click here to Donate to H4PJ.

A Force More Powerful
Documentary to be shown June 11 and 18

Hope for Peace & Justice and the Cathedral of Hope’s Secular Order of Saint Martin Luther King, Jr. present A Force More Powerful, a PBS documentary detailing the last 100 years of successful nonviolent protest around the globe. The program will be shown over three Sunday evenings:

June 11 - South Africa: Campaign Against Apartheid
Denmark, the Netherlands: Resisting the Nazis
June 18 - Poland: Power From Solidarity
Chile: Resisting Repression

The program will begin at 6p.m. with foods from the area of the world we’ll be discussing and time for fellowship. A guided discussion will follow the viewing of the documentary. Anyone interested in learning to practice nonviolent living will find this program edifying, exciting and challenging. For additional information and registration please contact Shelley Hamilton at shamilton@h4pj.org or Jason Bradberry at jwbradberry@yahoo.com.

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Republicans exploit the Federal Marriage Amendment — again
by Susan Ryan-Vollmar
Originally published by Bay Windows, a New England-based GLBT Newspaper

Congress is slated to take up the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) June 5. The pending vote shows that the Republican Party, despite its recent displays of ineptitude on everything from managing political leaks to convincing Congressmen not to take bribes (or at least to conceal them more skillfully), still knows how to play the gay marriage issue to its advantage. The Democrats, meanwhile, still — still — don’t know how to handle the question.

What’s so maddening about this isn’t just that we’re talking about the failure of both political parties to treat same-sex couples with dignity and respect. It’s that our desire to marry and raise families has been reduced to political games.

During an interview with Bay Windows about his decision to step down from his position as president of the Log Cabin Republicans, Patrick Guerriero recalls meeting President George W. Bush at a private White House Christmas party in 2003. As he was standing near the Christmas tree with the President and First Lady, Guerriero asked Bush not to support the FMA. The President thanked Guerriero for the work he did, but was non-committal on the FMA. “He didn’t give me a definitive answer,” Guerriero recalled. “I could tell there was a certain anxiety and my [sense] was this is not good.” At the same function, Guerriero talked about the FMA with then-White House Chief of Staff Andy Card and Bush advisor Karl Rove. “I got pretty strong indications it was going to be tough to stop it because of the polling on it,” Guerriero said. Later that same evening, Guerriero met privately with Rove and talked about the FMA. During that conversation, he said, he “realized this thing is just not going” away.

Guerriero was right. It wasn’t going to go away. And it hasn’t. That’s because Republicans rightly saw the issue of civil marriage rights for same-sex couples as a great wedge issue. Who cares if the only party members who actually believe that the marriages of same-sex couples are a threat to all that is good and great in this country are religious extremists completely out of step with mainstream America? Who cares if the First Lady says that the FMA shouldn’t “be used as a campaign tool,” as she said on Fox News Sunday May 14? Who cares if the party hacks who devised the 2004 presidential campaign’s gay baiting strategy believed it was wrong — as Mary Cheney confesses in her new book? Hey, it was just a game!

It’s too bad that our presumed political allies, the Democrats, can’t see beyond the game. The answer isn’t to respond to political lies with more lies, as Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean did during a recent appearance on The 700 Club when he assured the mostly evangelical Christian audience that the Democratic Party platform states that “a marriage is between a man and a woman.” In fact, as Dean later clarified, the party platform from 2004 states that the Democratic Party supports the full inclusion “of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation” and that the issue of civil marriage rights should be left up to individual states to decide.

Click here to continue reading.

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Federal Marriage Amendment Talking Points

It is already the Law.
Several years ago, Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act, prohibiting states from recognizing same-sex marriages or civil unions from other states.

It is Unfair.
In 2000, the state of Nebraska passed a similarly worded amendment and in May 2005, the U.S. District Court of Nebraska ruled the amendment unconstitutional stating that it unduly limited LGBT people from equal access to the legislative process. LGBT families would lose the right to protect their families in many important areas of life: medical decisions, inheritance, property, parental rights and more.

It is Immoral.
A vote against this amendment is not an endorsement of any one person or group of persons. A vote against this amendment supports the common ideals of justice and fairness that are shared among all people of faith.

It is Simple Discrimination.
This amendment would be the first time the U.S. Constitution has used the Bill of Rights to discriminate against citizens.

It Hurts Families.
Protecting one’s family is both a responsibility and a right. This amendment would unduly limit the rights and abilities of families led by same-sex couples. This amendment would hurt LGBT families by jeopardizing the legal agreements put in place for such things as inheritance, medical powers of attorney, and property ownership. Second parent adoptions could be challenged as being too similar to marriage and thus ruled as invalid.

It Solves No Real Problems.
This amendment does nothing to strengthen American families. The energy spent promoting this could have been better spent finding solutions to real problems such as health care for the poor and education for all.

Click here to download the H4PJ Marriage Amendment Flyer.

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