Dot Gay

Paula Ettelbrick is the Philanthropy advisor to Dot Gay Alliance and had been away for a few days. When she got back in town and saw this video of President Obama addressing the Human Rights Campaign Fund, she was so inspired she sat down and sent this to all her friends. Her note was so moving I had to post it.

Dear Friends:

OK, another full-blown weepy moment for me as I could only think about what it would have been like in 1974 when I struggled to come out and find a place in my Roman Catholic family, my suburban community and among my friends  to have a President — scratch that — ANY public or community leader (or just any adult!)  stand up and just lend a kind word to a lesbian like me.

Whenever we begin to lose faith, when we become cynical about whether our system of government will ever work again in the face of the relentless and nauseating barrage of attack on civil discussion waged by the right wing in this country to confuse and divide people, remember this speech and think of two things:

1. This is what leadership looks like, and
2. Once we elect the leader whom we believe and know is leading in the right direction, it is our continuing responsibility to fight like hell to get the rest of our elected representatives (535 members of the United States Congress) to follow our leader — that is OUR job after election day.

So, please, watch this inspiring clip.  Revel what our passion and work has done to elect him to lead us. And then, do something tangible — today — to finish the work we all started oh so long ago.  Suggestion:  Take one minute to call your member of Congress AND your Senator, or better yet, write a personal letter (yeah, the kind with a stamp!) telling her/him how important it is to YOU that they do everything possible to support the President’s LGBT agenda (ENDA, Hate Crimes, HIV ban, HIV/AIDS policy, repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act, which he lays out beautifully in this speech.  (You might mention health care, etc. as well — the single most important issue facing America today)

And THEN — one more thing:  ask ONE other person to do the same, and ask them to ask ONE other person.  Perhaps someone in a district in which our elected representatives don’t hear from us on a regular basis.  It’s easy to google to find your elected representatives.

http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/site/Ecard?ecard_id=1061

BTW, you do NOT need to sign up with HRC to watch this clip.

We have an incredible moment here, guys. In three years we will either be voting for a President who has turned the history of hate and discrimination against LGBT people around, or we will be trudging to the polls cynically wondering why he did not do all we asked and needed. We have elected the leader who is more willing than anyone in history to go to the mat for us.  The difference in our attitude in three years will not depend on him — he’s put the agenda out there. It will depend on us.

Love,
Paula

PS.  If you no longer use stamps, or you have forgotten what they are, email your letters to me and I will send them for you.  How’s that for a deal?  Please, just do something.