Join Fair Wisconsin in Manitowoc next week!

Come and join us in Manitowoc to celebrate domestic partnership protections! Meet and mingle with Fair Wisconsin staff and pro-fairness elected officials, and enjoy good company and delicious food as we mark this important step toward LGBT equality!

Thursday, December 3rd

5.30pm - 7.30pm

Kathie's Stage Door Pub

701 Franklin Street in Manitowoc

Hors d'ouevres and cash bar

Please RSVP to brita.olsen@fairwisconsin.com at your earliest convenience. Can't wait to see you in Manitowoc!

Let's get ENDA passed this year!

National Call-In for Equality: Scores of organizations have been working to flood Capitol Hill offices with calls as we move closer to a House vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Congressmembers tell us that what influences them most are calls and emails from people back home. Make a difference, call Capitol Hill now. And get your friends and family members to call as well!

Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard: (202) 224 - 3121. Give your zip code and ask to be connected to your Representative.

Suggested script: My name is _______, and I am a proud resident of (your city), Wisconsin. I am calling in support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 3017), to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from job discrimination. Please pass ENDA before the end of the year. I can be reached at _______ (your phone number). Thank you.

Let's burn up the phone lines to Congress, telling them ENDA is next, ENDA is now! Let Congress know how important ENDA is to LGBT people and all those who care about equality. Call today!

Transgender Awareness Week and Transgender Day of Remembrance events!

Show your support for the transgender community by attending an event to mark Transgender Day of Remembrance (Friday, November 20) or Transgender Awareness Week (November 15 - 21) in your area!

EAU CLAIRE

• Friday, November 20: The LGBT Community Center of the Chippewa Valley will be displaying stories and photos from 7pm - 10pm. (510 S Farwell Street)
• Saturday, November 21: The LGBT Community Center of the Chippewa Valley will be showing the film "Kinky Boots," about a business man who teams up with a drag queen cabaret singer to save his family business. Discussion to follow the movie for those interested. Admission and popcorn are always free! (510 S Farwell Street)

LA CROSSE

• Saturday, November 21: 7 Rivers LGBT Resource Center's youth group, GALAXY, will be watching a video and having a discussion about current transgender issues from 2pm - 4pm. (303 Pearl Street)

MADISON

• Friday, November 20: Trans Monologues and Vigil, cosponsored by UW-Madison's LGBT Campus Center and the Ten Percent Society, beginning at 6pm. The Trans Monologues are a night of theater, poems, songs, monologues, and all other creative expressions of transgender identities. Following the Monologues, we will be holding a vigil to remember and honor members of the community who have lost their lives. Ryka Aoki de la Cruz will be speaking at the monologues and the vigil. (A Room of One's Own, 307 W Johnson Street)
• Saturday, November 21: Trans People of Color Film Festival, cosponsored by UW-Madison's LGBT Campus Center and Queer People of Color (QPOC), beginning at 4pm. Back to back showings of "Cruel and Unusual," "Still Black," and "Paris is Burning." (Memorial Union)

MILWAUKEE

• Friday, November 20: The Milwaukee LGBT Community Center will be showing "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" beginning at 5pm. (315 W Court Street)

Don't miss these exciting events to honor and celebrate our transgender friends!

Giving Thanks

In one week, families and friends will gather across our state and across our nation to celebrate each other and give thanks for the good things that we all share.

Here at Fair Wisconsin, we know there is much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, but also much that still needs to be done on the long road toward equality. As our staff prepares to visit family and friends around the country this holiday season, we thought we’d share some of the things we’re most grateful for this year:

- The many state legislators who voted to enact domestic partnerships, an important step on the road to equality that makes sure same-sex couples have the most basic protections they need to be able to take care of each other.
- Governor Jim Doyle, who has been a lifelong leader on LGBT issues and the driving force behind domestic partnerships and granting state employees access to domestic partner health care coverage.
- Our State Supreme Court, who recently rejected a legal challenge to the domestic partnership law.
- The hundreds of volunteers from across our state worked tirelessly to help enact domestic partnerships by educating their legislators about the harms of discrimination.
- The over 1,200 couples who have registered as domestic partners and now enjoy basic protections like inheritance, hospital visitation, and the ability to take leave from work to care for a sick or injured partner. CONGRATULATIONS!
- Our fantastic Fair Wisconsin Action Network Chairs and Students for a Fair Wisconsin Captains, who ensure that Fair Wisconsin truly represents all areas of our state.
- Our Boards of Directors, lead by Glenn Carlson and Robert Starshak, M.D., whose leadership and dedication are truly inspirational.
- Coalition partners from across the state & our nation, including the Wisconsin LGBT social service agencies and our allies in labor and the progressive community.

- But most importantly, we are thankful for YOU!!

Fair Wisconsin and our victories this year would not be possible without committed and passionate people like you, so from all of us, THANK YOU!!

As we look forward to 2010, we know there’s still much work to be done to continue advancing LGBT equality. So, please take a moment today and make a special contribution to Fair Wisconsin to ensure we’re able to add more amazing achievements to our list of things to be thankful for next year!

https://secure.ga4.org/01/FWdonate


Happy Thanksgiving!

Katie, Christine, Tim, Mary, Chris, Carolyn, and Brad
The Staff of Fair Wisconsin

Fair Wisconsin in Washington, DC November 17!

Please Join Fair Wisconsin and special guests Senator Russ Feingold and Congresswomen Tammy Baldwin and Gwen Moore to celebrate an important LGBT victory in Wisconsin
and look to the future of equality in the Midwest!

Tuesday, November 17
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Home of John Weinfurter
209 C Street NE
Washington, DC
$100 Suggested Contribution
Sponsorship levels are $250, $500 and $1,000

As Wisconsin’s statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender education and advocacy organization, Fair Wisconsin recently helped enact important domestic partnership protections for same-sex couples, making us the first state with an existing constitutional amendment banning both marriage equality and civil unions to enact domestic partnerships, and the first state in the Midwest to legislatively enact protections for same-sex couples.

Please join us as we continue building a FAIR WISCONSIN!

Please select a link below to contribute or to RSVP!


Fair Wisconsin, Inc.

https://secure.ga4.org/01/dcfw
Non-tax-deductible gift for influencing public policy debates, mobilizing citizen activists, and working toward securing basic LGBT protections through lobbying and the legislature.

Fair Wisconsin Education Fund

https://secure.ga4.org/01/dcfwef
Tax-deductible gift for educating the Wisconsin public about the consequences of anti-LGBT prejudice and the need for fairness for all citizens

Fair Wisconsin PAC

https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/entity/19357
Non-tax-deductible gift to support our political endorsements through Fair Wisconsin's State Political Action Committee.

AMA Says Gay Marriage Bans Contribute to Health Disparities

A press release from our friends at the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA). Contact: James Beaudreau, 415-269-3607, jbeaudreau@glma.org.

The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA) today praised the American Medical Association's (AMA's) adoption of policy declaring that gay marriage bans contribute to health disparities for gay couples and their children.

"We hope the newly adopted policy will inform future debates about expanding the right to marriage to gay and lesbian couples," said GLMA Education and Policy Director James Beaudreau. "The science on this issue is clear: the health and well-being of gay couples and their families is directly affected by the right to marry, and denial of that right has many serious health related consequences."

As part of the newly adopted policy, the AMA "supports measures providing same-sex households with the same rights and privileges to health care, health insurance, and survivor benefits, as afforded opposite-sex households."

A 2008 report published by GLMA, Same Sex Marriage and Health, documented evidence about the effects of same-sex marriage bans on the LGBT community. The report noted that:

• Access to health insurance through a spouse is an important component of obtaining quality health care;


• Research indicates that being married can contribute to overall health and longevity;


• Hospital visitation and decision making rights conferred by marriage are important to the quality of care; and


• Children of LGBT parents benefit when their families are respected and accorded legal protections.

"As members of the medical community, we must bring our knowledge and understanding to the conversation about marriage equality and its positive effects upon health and wellness," said GLMA President Rebecca Allison, MD. "We know that denying lesbians and gay men the opportunity to marry denies them multiple benefits of marriage that support relationships and promote health. As an act of discrimination, it compounds stigma against LGBT people in our society that has been linked to psychological distress, such as anxiety and depression."

The AMA also adopted policies requesting a repeal of the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" law. The AMA said "don't ask, don't tell" creates an ethical dilemma for LGBT service members and the health care providers who treat them by putting service members in the position of having to choose between forgoing appropriate medical care by lying to their physicians, or risking discharge, as well as health care providers in the position of having to choose between documenting the care they are providing incompletely or inaccurately or risking the service member's discharge.

GLMA's 2008 report, Same Sex Marriage and Health, is available at www.glma.org/MarriageEquality.

GLMA is the world's largest association of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) health care professionals. Since 1981, GLMA has been working to ensure equality in health care for LGBT individuals and health care professionals through advocacy, education, research and referrals. Please visit our website at www.glma.org.

Fair Wisconsin Celebrates in NE Wisconsin!

Last night, special guest former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager joined Fair Wisconsin Executive Director Katie Belanger for an event in De Pere.

Hosted by Fair Wisconsin board members Nancy Nusbaum, Aaron Sherer, Mike Fitzpatrick, and Peter Smaby, supporters gathered to enjoy some food and beverages and support Fair WIsconsin's ambitious agenda for 2010!

Thanks to all who made this event a great success. Want to host a Fair Wisconsin get-together in your area? Email Christopher Schmidt at

christopher.schmidt@fairwisconsin.com!

Wisconsin Supreme Court Rejects Case Seeking to Strip Away Domestic Partnership Protections

Decision Ensures Domestic Partnership Protections for Over 15,000 Wisconsin Same-Sex Couples 


(Madison, Wisconsin November 4, 2009) —Today, Lambda Legal and Fair Wisconsin applaud the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision to reject a lawsuit brought by Wisconsin Family Action, an antigay group attempting to strip away newly enacted domestic partnership protections for same-sex couples and their families.

“We are pleased that the Court has rejected this challenge to an important law that was validly enacted to protect Wisconsin families,” said Christopher Clark, Senior Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal’s Midwest Regional Office based in Chicago. “Because of today’s ruling, Wisconsin’s same-sex couples and their families who depend on domestic partnership protections can take care of each other in times of illness and crisis. Even with the discriminatory amendment excluding same-sex couples from marriage, the Wisconsin Constitution does not prevent enactment of laws that offer basic decency and security for couples.”

Fair Wisconsin, the statewide LGBT advocacy group, along with national and regional allies, recently helped enact these important domestic partnership protections for same-sex couples. Fair Wisconsin, vigorous opponents of the 2006 amendment banning marriage equality and civil unions, is defending the new domestic partnership law. Lambda Legal filed to intervene in the lawsuit on behalf of Fair Wisconsin and its members to protect the few but fundamental protections granted to same-sex couples through the domestic partnership law. After reviewing the case, Wisconsin Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit.

“We are elated with this decision from the State Supreme Court,” says Executive Director Katie Belanger. “Over 15,000 same-sex couples in our state need the basic protections domestic partnerships provide.”

McConkey Oral Arguments

The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the McConkey v. Van Hollen court case yesterday. This is the case that challenges the validity of the 2006 constitutional amendment banning marriage equality. McConkey asserts that by including two separate subjects in the ban (marriage and anything "identical or substantially similar") the structure of the amendment violates our state's single subject requirements for constitutional amendments and should therefore be struck down.

You can watch the full Supreme Court session online here.

The court is expected to make a decision in the case by summer.