Election Day Reflections

I'm sure many of you are upset, frustrated, or disappointed with the results of Tuesday's vote to ban gay marriage in Wisconsin, and so, I wanted to say something about the amazing work students did statewide on this vote.

Statewide, many of the counties with the highest percentage of 'no' votes were counties large high student populations: Dane, La Crosse, Eau Claire, Menominee, Winnebago, and Milwaukee. In general, young people overwhelmingly opposed the ban.

I was stationed in Madison as the Campus GOTV Coordinator for the last ten days of the campaign, and I was blown away by the work students did here. In the twelve wards for which students were responsible, we turned out 16,633 votes - a number many thought we'd never reach. Of those, 85 percent voted no. To put that in perspective, only 10,011 students voted in 2002, and in 1998, when Tammy Baldwin got elected by a campus "youth quake," 13,760 students voted. We blew those numbers away.

We turned out a record-breaking number of students to vote on campus. We put all of our time, our hearts, and our passion into this fight, and for that, we should be proud. We did everything we had to do in order to win, and even though things didn't go our way, we should all hold our heads high.

And most importantly, this fight did not end on Tuesday. While we suffered a significant setback, I'm confident that if we keep working, one day our LGBT friends, family members, and neighbors will wake up to a truly fair Wisconsin. Until then, keep fighting!

10,000

A while back, we did a round-up of all the different facebook groups supporting Students for a Fair Wisconsin.

Sometime yesterday morning, before 10:00am, our main group - A Fair Wisconsin Votes No! - hit 10,000 members. That's right, we officially have at least 10,000 people who are not only voting 'No' on November 7, but also took the time out to join a group on facebook.

We're still about 2,500 members short of being listed among facebook's top 25 campaign issues (on all of facebook), but we imagine we must be somewhere close, which is pretty amazing.

(Oh, and if you're wondering, the main opposition group - A Moral Wisconsin Votes YES - stands at just over 600 members. By my calculation, our support among people who have taken a clear stance on facebook is around 94 percent.)

Note: this post also appears on Fair Wisconsin's No on the Amendment blog.

A Letter in a Bottle

Yesterday, David Lapidus, a respected, outspoken conservative student at UW-Madison, wrote an entry on his blog, Letters in Bottles, describing why he is voting 'No' on November 7. You may remember David from Students for a Fair Wisconsin's 'Voices for No' Campaign at UW-Madison earlier this semester.

He writes that he supports civil unions for gay and lesbian couples:

In short they are a very useful method to extend legal privileges to non-heterosexual couples that better ensure the individual's ability to discover their philosophical preferences and act upon them within a homosexual relationship and/or as a homosexual foster parent.

David also criticizes the placement of this ban and other "social values" issues on the ballot, saying that they distract from the real issues facing our society and nation:

[the current debate on this proposed amendment] easily distracts the political discourse from finding solutions to the very issues that allow us the opportunity to passionately discuss such "social values" at all (i.e., economics, foreign policy, national security, fiscal policy, civil liberties, etc.)

You can read David's thoughtful entry on the issue in its entirety here.

Note: this post also appears on Fair Wisconsin's No on the Amendment Blog.

Why Our Grandmothers Are Voting No

I did it. I made the phone call, scurried across Capitol Square in Madison to the City Clerk's office, and froze my nose off. I voted today.

As I went into the office, I was greeted by a warm smile and the question of the day. "Are you registered to vote in the city of Madison?" she asked. "Yes, I am, ma'am." She handed me a few pieces of paper to sign, an envelope, my ballot, and the black magic marker.

When I took my seat, I noticed an elderly lady also voting today via absentee ballot. She looked a lot like my grandmother, with silver-grey hair and a large overcoat covering her petite frame. As I glanced over at her, I was praying she would vote no, just as I have been praying for the entire state of Wisconsin to vote no for several months now. Here was a woman who had lived much longer than I have, seen much more than I've seen, and experienced much more than I have. She had lived through a time when being unmarried was not acceptable by most, and being gay not openly talked about. Yet today, we were both equals at the polling booth, despite our ages and backgrounds.

By the swipe of her pen, she could cast a vote that would change the way we treat unmarried couples - gay or straight - by denying hospital visitation rights, healthcare benefits, and the right to make medical decisions for loved ones. Or she could help us defeat the ban designed to discriminate against gays and lesbians yet would prove to be far more sweeping if passed.

She folded up her ballot and turned toward me. To my surprise, she wore a Fair Wisconsin button. I hadn't noticed it before. Surely, she had voted no.

This brings me back to my own grandmother. Only a few short weeks ago, I decided it was time to set the record straight. On my grandma's 74th birthday, I drove down to Janesville to surprise her. Since she thought I was still in Arizona at school, she definitely was quite shocked that I was back home. And the questions immediately began. Where are you living? What are you doing? Who are you working for? As my hands shook, I asked my grandma to sit down. "I have something to tell you," I said.

Right then, I came out to my grandma. She was the last family member to find out, and I really wasn't sure how she was going to take it. I told her I was working for Fair Wisconsin, and I was trying to defeat the ban on civil unions and marriage for gay and lesbian couples in our state. As I searched for answers in her expressions, one thing became clear to me. I underestimated my grandma - she was overjoyed that I finally told her and even began asking about my dating life!

And just as I have been doing with all of my campuses in Greater Wisconsin, I asked my grandma to stand with us and vote no. Now, my grandma is a smart woman, but she doesn't know politics. She's not sure who is running against Gov. Doyle in this year's election, she has no clue who Kathleen Falk or JB Van Hollen are, and if asked about Herb Kohl, I'm confident she would ask me if he owns Kohl's Foods down the street from us. Yet one thing is for sure, she pledges to me to vote no - the first time she will have ever voted in her 74 years.

This is a symbol of the real impact that this amendment would have on our lives, and how it will undoubtedly affect our loves ones. While all I know about the elderly woman I sat with earlier today is that she's from "liberal" Madison, my grandmother surely is not and I guarantee I am the only gay person she knows. Yet because this amendment will have a real impact on all of us and our neighbors, these two women and I all are voting early, and we're voting for fairness. I urge you all to do so as well.

In the Campus Papers

Last Thursday, the Marquette Tribune published a fantastic viewpoint written by a Catholic student whose faith is guiding him to vote no on November 7. In his column, Paul Hinze writes that Catholics have access to God's revelation through three avenues: Scripture, the Church, and personal revelation through an informed conscience. His informed conscience leads him to disagree with various passages of the Bible (which he says have been used just as easily to justify things like racism and sexism that we now agree is wrong):

It is Catholic Church teaching, which strongly emphasizes the obligation to follow an informed conscience, that advises me here. As paradoxical as it may sound, my obligation to the Catholic Church is to disagree with the bishops' teaching in the interest of fostering further reflection and discussion.

He concludes his piece by writing that our growing awareness of homosexual members of our community "gives us new opportunities to learn how God means for us to live together," and says:

We are at a point in history — a point that has come before with issues of race and gender — where the identity of a group of individuals is becoming clear, but their full participation in our community is yet to be attained. Let us not cut off this process with a premature ban, but rather join them at the table as Jesus did and seek the wisdom of God together.

Students for a Fair Wisconsin also received our first campus editorial board endorsement for the fall semester from the Advance-Titan at UW-Oshkosh. They call on voters to be smart and do what is best for Wisconsin:

On Nov. 7, your choice on the ballot doesn’t have to be one between “fair” or “moral.” In order to keep the UW System and other businesses competitive, a smart Wisconsin should vote “no.”

The Daily Carindal editorial board also wrote an editorial supporting the UW System Board of Regents for their opposition to the ban.

Finally, we continue to have letters to the editor published, including this one in the Badger Herald, this one in the Advance-Titan, and one in the UW-River Falls Student Voice.

Note: this post also appears on Fair Wisconsin's No on the Amendment Blog.

Greater Wisconsin Campuses Gaining Momentum

As I sit here in Fair Wisconsin's field office in Eau Claire, I'd like to give you a quick update of our Greater Wisconsin campuses. We have a strong and aggressive field campaign statewide, and coupled with our university and student support, we are reaching more people than we thought possible.

At UW-La Crosse, for instance, our Students for a Fair Wisconsin chapter is dropping thousands of lit pieces each week. In addition to our regular chalkings, volunteer meetings, and pledge-collecting, we are also leading the forces by canvassing our students and neighbors.

UW-Stevens Point continues to amaze everyone in Madison. With 65 people at their kickoff just a few weeks ago, they're still 40 members strong at volunteer meetings. We've been featured on weekly radio programs, reaching both students and community members, and the student organizers are completely committed to our efforts and on message!

Our students at UW-River Falls have some unique challenges ahead of them, but we are going strong! Since the university is on the edge of Wisconsin's border with Minnesota, we're finding many students are worried about losing their Minnesota citizenship if they choose to vote here. Good news, everyone, that won't happen! You don't need to get a Wisconsin driver's license to vote, and you'll still be able to call yourself a Minnesotan. Simply go to the State Elections Board website for more details. That goes for everyone at UW-Stout as well...

Speaking of UW-Stout, we're very excited to start canvassing and speaking with students one-on-one soon. That's because we've noticed some opposition on campus. We have found just yesterday that College Republicans were handing out pieces of wedding cake with some "Vote YES for the Federal Marriage Amendment on Nov. 7" literature. Sorry to tell you, kids, but the Federal Marriage Amendment was defeated some time ago. We're talking about the ban on civil unions and marriage in our state.



UW-Oshkosh has built a solid - and I'm talking SOLID - coalition of volunteers and organizations on their campus. If they're not canvassing, dropping lit, or chalking, you can probably find them either planning A Forum of Faith Perspectives on the Amendment (Oct. 23, 7pm-8:30pm, Reeve Union, Rm 227 C) or on the phones calling up students for support! And this is very good news since it's my largest campus...

And finally, UW-Eau Claire is picking up steam - just when I arrive in town! We are starting our first canvass this week, tabling, dropping lit, and starting some phone banks soon. We have thousands of houses to knock on between now and Nov. 7, and we need all the help we can get!

The student organizers at the Greater Wisconsin campuses are, by far, one in a million. It's difficult to ask someone to give up their lives for ten weeks prior to a mid-term election, and that's exactly what they did. If you, or someone you know, goes to any of these schools, simply email us at students@fairwisconsin.com and we can get you plugged into all of our volunteer opportunities.

Students for a Fair Wisconsin in the News

Students for a Fair Wisconsin received a lot of fantastic media coverage again last week, due in part to the UW Board of Regents coming out against the ban. Both the Badger Herald (here, here and here) and the Daily Cardinal (here and here) provided coverage of the decision. Bassey Etim applauds the Board of Regents' decision in a column in the Badger Herald, writing:

The marriage amendment is simply bad business for UW schools and hurts our ability to compete with other university systems.

Further, he explains why our opposition (despite broad support for Fair Wisconsin from people of all walks of life) tends to paint the issue along partisan lines:

[State Representatives Steve] Nass and [Mark] Gundrum change the issue from gay marriage to Doyle's politics because they have no credible evidence to back up their theory that gay marriage would be so detrimental to our society that a ban must be written into our state’s Constitution. The regents took a risk by formulating an official policy because gubernatorial candidate Mark Green has expressed his distaste with a number of university policies and could inflame anti-UW sentiment across the state. Nonetheless, UW has a duty to stand by its faculty, especially when regressive legislation like this has already resulted in the loss of quality instructors. UW’s responsibility goes beyond political impact.

The Daily Cardinal also published a report on the significance of the student vote. UW-Madison Professor Joe Elder explained:

This amendment would be crushingly defeated with the students I deal with. For this group, gay marriage is not a problem. The overwhelming sense I get from the class is, what's the big deal?

Finally, reports on debates held at UW-Madison, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Platteville, and Marquette appeared in campus papers. And we also had letters to the editor published in the Badger Herald and the UW-River Falls Student Voice.

The coverage of students working against the ban has been widespread and overwhelmingly shows that students are doing what it will take to make a difference on November 7.

Note: this post also appears on Fair Wisconsin's No on the Amendment blog.