An Open Letter to Keystone Progress

in Activism / general — by — June 27, 2013
For the record, I’ve worked personally with Keystone Progress and think the world of their hard work. Pennsylvania is a better state because of all that they do.  However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t call them out for some less-than-helpful information. I call out other organizations, so I am simply being fair and doing my job as a blogger.

Today, I got an email from Mike Morrill at Keystone Progress. Mike is an amazing guy and a real leader when it comes to advocacy work. But I think Keystone Progress jumped the gun a bit trying to capitalize on yesterday’s Supreme Court decisions. His email is designed to muster support for efforts here in Pennsylvania relating to Marriage Equality. I applaud that effort. I just want Keystone Progress to get their facts straight (or at least gayly accurate).

Keystone Equality Email

  1. The Court did not strike down DOMA. Only section 3 of DOMA. The rest of DOMA stands and remains a problem to be dealt with.
  2. The Court did not reinstate same-sex marriage in CA. It simply refused to decide the case on a technical point, and sent the case back to a lower court to dismiss.

Yes, we won big yesterday. Both of these decisions are huge and have major ramifications, but if we aren’t clear about what really happened, we add to the muddy understanding by the general public and that benefits no one.

  • We are winning because we are telling the truth.
  • We are winning as people hear our stories- the reality and the truth of our stories and see that same-sex relationships deserve the same equality as other marriages.
  • In fact telling the truth and being clear with the facts is one of our best and most useful tools.

Your organization is doing such great work, but please don’t add to the sea of misinformation and bad sound bites.

Sincerely,

Thomas C Waters

thomascwaters.com

Comments are closed.