Highlighting the fact that marriage is a civil contract issued by the government which should be available to all consenting adults, more than 24 cities will be demonstrating for equal marriage rights at post offices around the country on Tax Day, Thursday, April 15th.  "No Taxation with Discrimination" is the central theme for the day.  A list of the cities organizing protests and the locations and times of the protests is at the bottom of this message. 

 

Those who want to support the protests are encouraged to go to the DontAmend.com website to download posters and flyers and help spread the word in their cities.   Those interested in organizing an event in their city are encouraged to send a message to RTDontAmend@aol.com right away, including your name, telephone number(s) and the city you live in or near. 

 

The National Tax Day protests were called by DontAmend.com as a warm up to a larger national day of actions that DontAmend.com has called for May 17, the day the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (MSJC) has ordered that state to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. 

 

The aim of the protests is to mobilize our community and allies so as to create the political climate necessary so that the fantastic MSJC decision will actually be IMPLEMENTED. In 1954, 50 years ago on May 17th, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision outlawing segregation. That great decision remained but a piece of paper for several years because there was not a large movement which could FORCE the government to put its words into practice. It was only when the Civil Rights Movement was much larger and stronger, in the early 1960s, that segregation began to crumble.

 

Today there is a huge danger that the great MSJC decision will, like the 1954 Brown decision, be in effect nullified by bigots in both parties of Massachusetts state government. Within Massachusetts, it is critical that our movement is loudly and vocally DEMANDING equality in the law actually be implemented on May 17th. Outside of Massachusetts, it is critical that our movement demand that same equality in OUR local areas, and that we loudly express our solidarity with pro-equality activists in Massachusetts, and against the bigots who are attempting to nullify the fantastic decisions of the MSJC.

 

What we do, or don't do, in the next few weeks could very well determine which way our struggle will go.  Either forward to full legal equality, or backwards into increased gay-bashing and discrmination.

 

On April 15th and May 17th, please help make history by demanding that the politicians of all parties begin treating us as equal human beings.

 

All the best,

 

Robin Tyler
National Co-Chair, DontAmend.com

 

Andy Thayer
National Action Coordinator, DontAmend.com

 

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