October 22, 2004 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 11

ELECTION 2004

Cleveland Stonewall Dems declare six races 'priority'

Cleveland-The Cleveland Stonewall Democrats has voted to place priority designations on these Election 2004 races:

Ohio Constitutional Amendment ("No on Issue 1")

John Kerry for President and John Edwards for Vice President

• Eric Fingerhut for U.S. Senate •C. Ellen Connally for Chief Justice, Ohio Supreme Court

•

Nancy Fuerst for Justice, Ohio Supreme

Court

David Pomerantz for Ohio House District 17

The group's political action committee voted to make financial contributions totaling $5,000 to the priority campaigns, except for the presidential one, plus the Ohio Senate Democratic Caucus and four other Ohio House candidates: Kenny Yuko in District 7; Shirley Smith in District 10; Michael Skindell in District 13; and Dale Miller in District 14.

"We are proud to make financial contributions from our PAC for the second consecutive year," said group president Patrick Shepherd. "Our $1,500 contribution to Ohioans Protecting the Constitution, the largest disbursement in our PAC's history, reflected our determination to defeat Issue 1."

CSD PAC board members include Patrick Shepherd, president; Sue Doerfer, executive

vice president; Jeff Zelmer, PAC treasurer; Kathleen Connors, PAC deputy treasurer; Keli Zehnder, vice president for fundraising; Anthony Warmuth, vice president for membership; John Corlett, vice president for political strategy; John Farina, vice president for public relations; Bob and Joyce Strommen, vice presidents for volunteer coordination; Edele Passalacqua, secretary; Barbara Bowley, Treasurer; and David Howard, Lakewood caucus chair.

The Cleveland Stonewall Democrats is a chapter of the National Stonewall Democrats (www.stonewalldemocrats.org), which is America's only grassroots Democratic lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organization with more than 90 local chapters.

This is a full list of the Cleveland chapter's endorsements:

President and Vice President

John Kerry and John Edwards U.S. Senate

Eric Fingerhut U.S. House

Cleveland Stonewall Democrats

District 10: Dennis Kucinich District 11: Stephanie Tubbs Jones District 13: Sherrod Brown District 16: Jeff Seemann

Log Cabin endorses 13

for Toledo area offices

Toledo These are the endorsements of the Log Cabin Republicans of Northwest Ohio.

President

The Log Cabin Republicans national board voted September 7. to withhold the organization's endorsement.

U.S. House

9th District: Larry Kaczala

Ohio Supreme Court

Justice: Judy Lanzinger

Lucas County

Treasurer: Betty Shultz Recorder: Melanie Perz Clerk of Courts: Theresa Gabriel

Lucas County Common Pleas Court

Judge: James Jensen Judge: Tim Kuhlman Judge: Jack Zouhary

Log Cabin Republicans

of N.W. Ohio

Ohio Court of Appeals, 6th District Judge: Robert Christiansen

Wood County

Commissioner: James Carter Clerk of Courts: Becky Baehr Sheriff: Mark Wasylyshyn Engineer: Ray Huber

Toledo Stonewall Dem

Toledo Stonewall Democrats

support a dozen candidates

Toledo In 2000, George Bush won the election by carrying the state of Florida by a little over 500 votes. Think about that. The LGBT community could make the difference in this presidential election.

The choice is clear this year. Does America want to re-elect a president who wants to use the Constitution of the United States as a tool to discriminate, or does America want to elect a new president who will listen to the LGBT community?

Never before have the stakes been so crucial to the LGBT community. If George Bush is reelected, he may be able to appoint two or more new Supreme Court justices. That is a very frightening possibility. The LGBT community must do everything possible to make sure that George Bush is not reelected to four more years.

Federal

President and Vice President: John Kerry and John Edwards

U.S. Senate: Eric Fingerhut

U.S. House, 9th District: Marcy Kaptur

Ohio House

46th District: Nancy Patrick Greely

47th District: Peter Ujvagi 49th District: Jeanine Perry

Lucas County

Commissioner: Tina Skeldon Wozniak Commissioner: Pete Gerken Treasurer: Wade Kapsukiewicz County Recorder: Anita Lopez Clerk of Courts: Bernie Quilter Court of Common Pleas, Juvenile Division: Denise Navarre Cubbon

Ohio Senate

District 24: Robert Matius

Ohio House

District 7 Kenny Yuko District 10: Shirley Smith District 13: Michael Skindell District 14: Dale Miller District 17: David Pomerantz

Ohio Supreme Court

Chief Justice: C. Ellen Connally Justice, full term commencing 1-1-05: Nancy A. Fuerst

Justice, unexpired term ending 12-31-06: William O'Neill

Ohio Court of Appeals, 8th District

Judge, full term commencing 1-1-05: Mary Eileen Kilbane

Judge, full term commencing 1-2-05: Anne L. Kilbane

Cuyahoga County Commission

Tim Hagan (FTC 1-2-05)

Peter Lawson Jones (FTC 1-3-05)

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge (FTC 1-1-05): Jose Villanueva Judge (FTC 1-3-05): Michael Donnelly Judge (FTC 1-4-05): Peter J. Corrigan Judge (FTC 1-6-05): David Matia Judge (FTC 1-9-05): John J. Russo Judge (FTC 1-10-05): Thomas J. Pokorny Judge (FTC 1-11-05): Bridget Mccafferty Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court

Judge (FTC 1-13-05): Kathleen O'Malley Judge (FTC 1-19-05): Cheryl Karner Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court

Judge (FTC 1-1-05): Peter M. Sikora Issues

Issue 1, Ohio Constitutional Amendment to Ban Same-Sex Marriage: No

Issue 112, Cleveland Municipal School District Tax Levy: Yes

Issue 120, Cleveland Metropolitan Park District Tax Levy: Yes

If Issue 1 isn't stopped, worse anti-gay laws will come

by Kate Anderson

This year, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is experiencing one of the most vicious attacks ever. There is a U.S. president wanting to change the Constitution to discriminate against gays and lesbians. This action is unprecedented. The few times the constitution has been changed in this county's history have been to protect people against discrimination.

This assault on the LGBT community by the Bush administration includes the Federal Marriage Amendment, dismantling AIDS funding within the country while increasing it elsewhere, and eliminating sexual orientation non-discrimination protections in the federal government resulting people being fired for being gay or lesbian. This campaign against the community is serious and will have far-reaching and longrange impacts.

The attack doesn't stop at the federal level. LGBT Ohioans are fighting the worst onslaught ever. Little did the community know that the Ohio "Defense of Marriage Act" battle was deliberately waged to drain the community of its resources, so it would not be able to fight a discriminatory state constitutional amendment.

Issue 1 would discriminate against any unmarried adults whose relationship approximates marriage. How does this differ from the state DOMA? It differs a great deal in that a state constitutional amendment eliminates judicial discretion for the community. A fair-minded judge will have no flexibility for a ruling favorable to LGBT families. This amendment will take years to overturn because it can only be overturned in federal courts, not the Ohio Supreme Court.

This measure makes all legal documents, such as legal and medical powers of attorney, invalid. Currently, these are the only protections for same-sex relationships, families, livelihood and property.

Anti-gay forces have now gone further than just trying to institute their definition of marriage. Their eventual goal is to criminalize the LGBT community and this is unacceptable.

The only defense is to educate our family, friends, neighbors and colleagues. We must all get five others to vote. We must give to the Ohioans Protecting the Constitution. We can defeat this if we all work hard and give. Give as much as you can for the fight against Issue 1 and to Stonewall CAN for the work we are doing locally for the fight. If we don't stop thiş fight in Ohio now, it will take years to regain our ground. Come out for the fight-honestly, your life could depend on it. D

Kate Anderson is the executive director of Stonewall Columbus.

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