FYI: www.DearMary.com (fighting the Marriage Amendment)

[nostamj]

if you don't know John Aravosis's work, well, you should. esp. if you're in the GLBT 'community' or a supporter.


THE LIST
February 13, 2004
Washington, DC
SPECIAL ISSUE

SUBSCRIBE: http://thelist.c.tep1.com/maabWEuaa4mQIb4Egkjb/
----------------

Special Issue: DearMary.com
www.DearMary.com

jeff, I for one am tired of reading in the newspaper and hearing
on the news that I am a "problem" that needs to be fixed with a constitutional amendment. It's time to fight back, and today you can join me in doing just that.

As you know, the past few weeks have been insane with news about the
marriage equality debate and the increasing frenzy by the far right,
including President Bush and Vice President Cheney, to amend the US
Constitution to ban marriage equality for gays, and likely repeal
scores of gay rights laws around the country.

Well, the reason you haven't heard from me in two weeks is because I've been preparing to fight back and hard. And today I'm doing just that with the launch of DearMary.com.

DearMary.com is a Web site devoted to exposing Vice President Dick
Cheney's hypocrisy over having an openly lesbian daughter, yet his
still being willing to amend the US Constitution to take make that
daughter, and millions of other Americans, second-class citizens. I've been as depressed as many of you over the onslaught of bad news the past couple of weeks, and figured it's time for us to fight fire with fire.

Please visit DearMary.com and submit your public letter to Mary Cheney urging her to do the right thing and help her community by publicly opposing her father, or simply tell Mary what you think of her silence on this issue to date. Either way, we will publish as many of your messages as possible on the Web site, and with your donations made via the site, we will publish nationwide DearMary.com newspaper and magazine ads of the best "letters to Mary" that you submit. So you will literally be writing and paying for the ads.

We need to fight back folks, and we need your support, and YOUR MONEY, to do it. Please visit the site, and if you like the work we're doing, please support us and help us make sure everyone in America knows about Dick Cheney's hypocrisy. A minimum of 80% of your donation will go towards buying the ads, and a maximum of 20% of your donation will go towards our operating expenses in the larger battle against this amendment. (DearMary.com is a project of DontAmend.com and the Equality Campaign, Inc, the organization that I'm working on with Robin Tyler.)

And remember, to date none of us at DontAmend.com have taken a salary - we're the only gay rights group working on this issue where the principals so far haven't even been paid! In the next few days, you're going to be hearing about DontAmend.com and DearMary.com from some pretty high profile media outlets. Your donation helps us keep that high profile campaign going.

Please forward this email to all of your friends - I'm writing this as a simple text version, no pretty pictures, so it's easier to forward to others.

Below is our press release. Thanks so much, JOHN

=====================================

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 13, 2004

Contact:
John Aravosis, [e-mail], Co-Chair, DontAmend.com

DEARMARY.COM TAKES GAY MARRIAGE BATTLE TO VICE PRESIDENT
VP's lesbian daughter Mary now center of amendment debate

www.DearMary.com

WASHINGTON, DC - A new Web site today thrust US Vice President Dick
Cheney's openly lesbian daughter Mary to the center of the nationwide
debate over gay marriage. DearMary.com is soliciting public letters to Mary Cheney that will be published on the Web site and in nationwide newspaper and magazine ads paid for by money raised via the site.

"DearMary.com brings the battle home for Dick Cheney, literally," said John Aravosis, creator of the Web site and national co-chair of
DontAmend.com, a national civil rights organization opposing any effort to add anti-gay amendments to the US Constitution (DearMary.com is a project of DontAmend.com.)

"If the Vice President thinks gay relationships are such a threat to
society that we need to amend the US Constitution, then he needs to
explain why a lesbian in a same-sex relationship is running his re-
election campaign," Aravosis added. "Are we a threat or aren't we?"

Mary Cheney, 34, has been openly lesbian for years, and worked as a
"professional homosexual" advocating for the gay community while
working as the paid gay liaison at Coors, and while serving on the
board of the national Republican gay rights group, the Republican Unity Coalition (RUC). Mary Cheney has since quit the RUC and now runs her father's re-election campaign where she is reportedly earning $100,000 a year (source: Washington Post).

"Mary Cheney is a lesbian in a committed relationship," said Robin
Tyler, national co-chair of DontAmend.com. "Even though she cannot
take responsibility for her father's actions, she can and should take
responsibility for her own. Just because her father is the vice
president is beside the point. Is it moral for Vice President Cheney
to put his boss before the welfare of his family? It is time for the
child to have the courage to publicly stand up to the father and say,
'don't do this, it is just plain wrong.' Other children in far less
privileged positions have done it. So, where is Mary Cheney?"

During the 2000 election, then vice presidential candidate Cheney said during a debate that he believed the gay marriage issue should be left to the states. Just a few weeks ago in an interview with the Colorado press, VP Cheney flip-flopped, saying he'd now support a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

"Vice President Cheney attacks our families, yet seems to think his
family is irrelevant to the debate," said Aravosis. "The vice
president is a hypocrite. He is selling his daughter to the highest
bidder in the name of 'family values.' The American people have a
right to know that this man is no role model for our families or our
nation."

DearMary.com is a project of DontAmend.com and the Equality Campaign,
Inc. We are a national grassroots campaign devoted to stopping any
amendment to the US Constitution that would ban marriage equality for
the LGBT community. DontAmend.com was founded by veteran civil rights advocates Robin Tyler and John Aravosis, who also where cofounders of the successful StopDrLaura.com campaign targeting anti-gay radio host Dr. Laura Schlessinger.

[nostamj]

1. kick

yeah, it's a little long but.... c'mon