Marriage Equality

New Yorkers for Marriage Equaltiy, a project of the Manhattan Young Democrats, is running a "click to call" campaign in support of pro-marriage equality legislation now in the New York State Senate. New Yorkers can participate here:

Earlier today, Julie Blitzer of the Manhattan Young Democrats and the New Yorkers for Equality campaign appeared on CNN's Blogger Bunch. Here's the video:

Julie also writes in to note that earlier today, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn hand delivered 1,500 letters from constituents to state senators urging them to support marriage equality in New York. From the MYD press release:

On an historic day for Californians where the state Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8 to ban marriage equality, New York City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn has teamed up with Manhattan Young Democrats (MYD) and its partners to ensure that New Yorkers are not held to the same fate. Quinn was in New York’s capital today hand delivering thousands of letters including nearly 1,500 letters that have been written through newyorkequality.com, a website that was launched last week to connect New Yorkers to their state Senators in two easy clicks to get behind marriage equality.

“On such a dispiriting day for the state of California, MYD and our partners are doing everything we can in the fight for marriage equality in the Empire State,” said Al Benninghoff, MYD President. “With help from Speaker Quinn in hand delivering the letters generated from newyorkequality.com, we’re hoping our state Senators will heed the call from New Yorkers that we demand marriage equality.”

"I am so proud to personally deliver these letters today to the State Senate--letters from New Yorkers of all shades of life that speak to the growing consensus among New Yorkers that all deserve equal rights," said NYC Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn. "It was great to work closely with the Manhattan Young Democrats who collected nearly 1,500 letters online at newyorkequality.com, which is a true testament to the unwavering power of grassroots organizing. I encourage everyone in favor of marriage equality to write letters of their own and call their State Senator to urge them to support equal rights."

Former Obama staff and grassroots coordinators, who are now leaders of MYD, launched newyorkequality.com last week in anticipation of the New York State legislature’s upcoming vote on marriage equality. Newyorkequality.com serves as an online, intuitive platform for New Yorkers to reach out directly to their state Senators to inform them that New Yorkers demand marriage equality. Since its launch, constituents have sent nearly 2,000 email letters to their state Senators.

The LA Times is reporting that the California Supreme Court just upheld Proposition 8, the ballot initiative banning same sex marriage, by a vote of 6 - 1. This is hugely disappointing

Many blogs will have excellent analyses of this ruling over the coming hours, but right now, I want to point out something of a silver lining that should give hope to all Americans that support marriage equality. As a recent report by the Center for American Progress makes clear, this will pass and marriage equality will likely become a reality all across the country within a decade.

Why? Because today's denial of the civil rights of millions of Americans, this remnant of the culture wars of the late 20th C, remains a non-starter among young Americans of the Millennial Generation. Just as young voters were the only age group to originally vote against Prop 8 (61 - 39%), nationally young voters remain highly supportive of gay marriage.

The Millennial Generation is so huge, that CAP estimates that by 2018, via a simple matter of cohort replacement (old people dying, young people aging into the electorate), a majority of Americans will be supportive of marriage equality.

The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice. While we are waiting for that bend, check out these two youth-led efforts in support of gay marriage:

• New Yorkers for Marriage Equality
• Textbooks for Change

I want to give a big shout out here on the blog to some excellent online organizing on the part of the Manhattan Young Democrats. Those of you following the many gay marriage battles across the country will likely know that New York State Assembly recently passed a gay marriage bill, but that similar legislation faces an uphill battle in the state senate, despite the fact that Democrats now control the senate and the bill is supported by the Governor.

A few days ago, a diarist at the Albany Project, one of the most influential NY State Politics Blogs, threw down the gauntlet and called-out New York state advocacy orgs for pulling their punches on this issue and failing to put together a creative, coherent online strategy in support of the legislation. Not one day later, the Manhattan Young Democrats rushed in to fill the void, launching a new website, New York Equality, and an online campaign to pressure swing senators to vote in favor of equal rights for all New Yorkers.

From the MYD press release:

“Newyorkequality.com is making it easy for New Yorkers to get involved and to have their Senators take seriously their views on the importance of marriage equality,” said Al Benninghoff, MYD President. “Our strategy is to inundate the Senators who oppose the bill, regardless of what party they represent, with messages from their own constituents asking them to change their opinions.”

Newyorkequality.com has a powerful assortment of online organizing tools that allow individuals to send targeted emails and handwritten letters to their State Senators based on the district they live in and whether their Senators support or oppose the bill. MYD and its partners have established this website to create an easy conduit for legislative outreach to Senators in New York who still refuse to act on this crucial issue. Along with the sent emails, MYD will hand deliver to Albany a copy of every letter generated by the site.

In just one day, the Manhattan Young Dems have met with great success. So far:

• 30,000 40,000 people have visited Newyorkequality.com.
• 300 400 fans have joined their Facebook page.
• Elicited over a hundred Tweets, including some from major progressive bloggers, using their #nyequality hashtag.
• The campaign was featured on The Albany Project (Update) and now Perez Hilton and the Politico.
• MYD assembled a coalition of about a dozen New York political organizations including ACT-NOW, Bronx Community Pride Center, College Democrats of NY, DL21C, Drinking Liberally NY, Human Rights Campaign, Marriage Equality New York, Queens County Young Dems, Richmond County Young Dems, Rockland County Young Dems, and Westchester County Young Dems.

Not bad for a day's work. I'm told that if this endeavor is successful, it will likely become a model for all future Manhattan Young Dems work. Regardless of the final vote in the New York Senate, this campaign should probably become a template for all online organizing by Young Democrats across the country.

(Hat tip to MYD Julie Blitzer for alerting me to this story)