You Are
A Force To Be Reckoned With
I am so grateful and
thankful to each and every one of you. Your dedication,
support, willingness to get involved
and tireless efforts, continues to inspire me to not end. Even when
the odds were clearly stacked against us and it seemed like a
lost cause. You refused to give up and made sure that the
powers that be, didn't get away without hearing your two cents
worth. You are a force to be reckoned with and I have heard
this first hand from Sen. Bob Graham, Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep.
Jim Davis. Like clockwork, when either of them receive an email from me, they know, with-in a
day or so, there will be many more to follow. Also, know that your
opinion does matter and it is taken into
consideration in their decision making process, as I am sure your
legislators do also.
One of Your
Most Honorable Accomplishment
The one Call to Action that you
responded to immediately and in mass, is the one I am most proud of
you for. It was on a webmasters deceptive use of Matthew and Judy
Shepard's good names. To get hits to his website, Chillin Dillian
implied, that his site was a memorial to Matthew and was endorsed by
Judy. When in fact, the site defamed, denigrated and viciously
attacked Matthew and Judy Shepard. You flooded the host server with
around 147 calls and email messages demanding the website be
taken offline. And with-in twenty-fours from your receiving the
alert and call to action, the website was taken offline
permanently. Your efforts not only put an end to the
webmasters despicable actions, you saved a countless number of
others from falling prey to this horrific deception. With Oct.
12th, marking the anniversary of Matthew's death, you spared
all those who would be looking for websites honoring Matthew's
memory, from being exposed to the webmasters hateful and deplorable
defaming of Matthew's memory and his dear mother, Judy Shepard. I
could not be more proud of or grateful to you, for this
wonderful accomplishment.
You Have Made a
Difference
Wouldn't it be wonderful to
live in a world where acceptance, compassion, tolerance
and understanding of others is the norm. Where bias,
discrimination, prejudice and hatred is nonexistent. And,
where true equality of rights, benefits, protections for
all, is the law of the land. Well, with each call you make,
fax, snail and email you have sent, to the powers that be, has
brought us many steps closer to achieving a better world for
GLBT's. This past year, we have witnessed the failure of
several of the religious rights, often deceptive and always
well funded, campaigns to
deny and/or repeal GLBT's equal rights. This is further
proof of the great strides we have made because of your tireless
efforts toward having your voice heard and counted. Polls and
studies are showing, that more and more people believe equal rights
should not be denied to others solely based on ones sexual
orientation. In the 2001 and 2002 elections, American's have
voted to grant GLBT's equall rights and benefits, than had
voted to deny them. The national and international trend
of non-discriminatory
employment polices
and equality of benefits in both business and private sectors
is continuing. With this positive news, which has given us all
much hope for the future, comes with it, stepped up and
increased efforts by those who wish to reverse this
trend. By continuing to combine our voices, efforts and
resources, we can and will be able to quash all such attempts. But,
if we dare let our guard down or become complacent, we stand the chance of losing ground we fought so
hard to gain. Your dedication, hard work and efforts created
this great opportunity we have before us. If we have learned one
thing, from our years of fighting for equal benefits,
protections and rights by law, it is, that a missed opportunity, is
an opportunity lost.
Thanks for Your Continued Support and
Friendship
Zeke