I held off a day before writing this farewell email because it hadn't quite registered that the petition campaign to rescind marriage protections was over; It still hasn't. The one thing I MUST say is THANK YOU.  Thank you to everyone who kept reading these updates on a regular basis. Thank you for putting up with my occasional rants.  But most of all THANK YOU to everyone that continued to help out with the action items that I have forwarded on.  This team of friends have helped to spark a positive spec of light in an otherwise dark time in our nation's history.  

This past week: 

MONDAY
I sent out "action blasts" to everyone trying to juggle election promotions for pro-equality candidates (we won 7 new supporters and the governor's office) and tried to gather more volunteers for election day and for the 11/9 con-con...
   

ELECTION TUESDAY
I joined friends Cathryn David, Scott and spent the entire election day working the polls, asking complete strangers to sign postcards supporting our rights (A lot harder than I thought it was going to me on the emotions!)  The bright side was that I met some AMAZING people in the process, including our new friend Katie, an out-of-state freshman at Harvard, who took time out of school to fight for our protections, and wins the prize as THE MOST ADORABLE signature gatherer in MA.  THANK YOU friends for helping! - and welcome Katie to this distribution!
  

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION THURSDAY! 

Our new friend Katie holding Cathryn's sign

Joe, David Cathryn, Jay  with our signs behind our pro-religious supporters

Thank you Tallessyn and Trevanna, Cathryn, David, Joe, Jay, Brian, Tim, MAUREEN, and everyone else who I may have missed seeing as a part of our supportive presence.  Even though the Roman Catholic Bishops of MA along with the Cardinal, asked parishioners to attend, we outnumbered the opposition 
2-to-1!...

The Con-Con Result:

Jerry's editorial (feel free to sample and  send to your local papers)

Slamming the constitution on floor said it all! I wouldn't want to be anyone from the group VoteOnMarriage right now… Having to explain to the evangelist terror organizations from across the country, how their millions of investment dollars towards a citizen’s petition has failed to amend discrimination into our constitution.  I'll admit, they had a pretty good game plan: First come up with a vague, political, marketing sound bite to appear constitutional… Lets see, “Let the people vote”… perfect!   Next, use paid, “bait-n-switch” signature gathers, and religious shepherds to heard their flocks to sign.  Lastly, use loudmouth hate groups to help turn up the rhetorical volume.  They did a great job; nearly every sheep signed as to not anger God, and they even had the press and gubernatorial candidates quoting the 50k-inflated number of 170,000 signatures. They herded flocks of sheep to “baaa” their marketing slogan outside the State House. Unfortunately that’s all they trained them to say. Once asked to elaborate, they had no other choice but to repeat their religious teachings.  They forgot something else too; a citizen’s petition to amend our constitution does not guarantee a popular vote.  Over the last century there were 10 other attempts, with four resulting in legislative votes and only three making it to the ballot.  That was a pretty big gamble, I wonder if the financial thugs at the AFA and FOF were aware? Fortunately “the people” have already voted in our general elections.  They have supported those officials who opposed this campaign and replaced those who promoted it.  These elected heroes refuse to allow a set of beliefs and deceptive rhetoric to influence the country’s oldest state constitution.  They defeated the effort. The VoteOnMarriage true colors came through when Kris Mineau slammed our constitution onto the State House floor for the press. Whoops, he momentarily dropped the marketing facade and demonstrated the level of respect that this campaign has actually had for the Massachusetts Constitution.  This was the 17th debate on this topic, which did in fact result in a vote. Our Constitution remains safe, time to move on.

Many folks are a little confused as to what went down.. so here it is in a nutshell... The citizens petition (which needed only 50 votes to pass) was the very last item on the debate.  Our inside supporters had inserted another more severe marriage amendment as the second-to-last item to debate and vote... This angered our opposition to no end because it was infact a proposal that they originally made but abandoned as they knew it would not pass...  The main debate occurred before this second-to-last proposed amendment... and the legislature unanimously defeated it.. 196 votes to 0.  Immediately after the results were announced.. Our heroic Representative Byron Rushing jumped up and asked for the floor, where he proposed they RECESS until January 2, 2007 (the last day before the citizen's petition expires)... 

Even our opposition considers this to be "the last nail in the petition's coffin", as the NEWLY ELECTED, MORE PRO-EQUALITY legislature is sure to wait out the clock.  Because they chose to "recess" instead of adjourn", even our bigoted Governor Romney is unable to force them back.  THE PETITION AND REMAINING MARRIAGE AMENDMENT IS ESSENTIALLY DEAD! 

Which brings us to my last email (for now - - never say never) 
I can't believe this moment is actually here.  I won't lie, I'm exhausted... THANK YOU FRIENDS! - AND THANK YOU MASSEQUALITY!