News: ACLU's Norma Shapiro gets her 'Academy Awards moment'

Ethan Jacobs of Bay Windows wrote this story about the Roger Baldwin award received by Norma Shapiro, our Legislative Director. Shapiro received the award in recognition of decades of work on behalf of civil rights and civil liberties, including her work for equal marriage rights.

Past recipients of the award include Rosa Parks, Kurt Vonnegut, and Sen. Ted Kennedy.

Poll on Lexington decision in favor of books encouraging tolerance for gay people

The Lexington Minuteman is running a poll now, asking whether people support the recent court decision in favor of teaching about diverse families, including families with gay and lesbian parents.

A "yes" vote favors the side the ACLU was on -- and for now, the "yes" votes are a little ahead.

News: Federal Court: No Parent Notification on Gay-Themed Books OK

Joan Oleck at School Library Journal quotes Sarah Wunsch, our Staff Attorney, in this article about the federal court rulings allowing schools to continue using books that teach about diverse families, including families headed by gays and lesbians.

Press Release: Federal Appeals Court Says It's OK for School to Use Children's Books Encouraging Tolerance for Gay People

BOSTON -- Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that a Massachusetts elementary school can continue to use children's books that encourage tolerance for gay people. The ACLU cheers the decision of the court, which rejected the claims of parents who said exposing their children to such books violated their ability to direct the religious training of their children.

Noting that there has never been a federal case finding a constitutional right of parents to exempt their children from exposure to books used in public schools, the court said, "There is no free exercise right to be free from any reference in public elementary schools to the existence of families in which the parents are of different gender combinations."

"The courts have rightfully found that parents can't control which books are used in school just because they are in conflict with their personal religious beliefs," said Sarah Wunsch, ACLU of Massachusetts Staff Attorney. "School administrators and teachers can take heart from this and not be afraid to use materials that show diverse families just because a handful of parents might object."

The two families filed suit after the Lexington Superintendent released a public statement explaining the school district's position that it would not provide parental notification for "discussions, activities, or materials that simply reference same-gender parents or that otherwise recognize the existence of differences in sexual orientation."

The Court noted that "Public schools often walk a tightrope between the many competing constitutional demands made by parents, students, teachers, and the schools' other constituents... The balance the school struck here does not offend the Free Exercise or Due Process Clauses of the U.S. Constitution."

"The ACLU supports the rights of parents to religious freedom, which includes the right to talk to their children about what they are learning in school, giving them alternative materials, and conveying their values and beliefs," said Wunsch. "Ultimately, if parents object to public education, they also have a constitutional right to send their children to private schools, to home school them, and to lobby their local school officials for changes in the curriculum. But they do not have a federal constitutional right to control the material that is taught to all students."

The ACLU of Massachusetts filed a friend of the court brief urging dismissal of the case, Parker v. Hurley, on behalf of local Lexington parents, teachers, and religious groups, as well as civil rights organizations that supported the teaching of diversity and respect for others. These groups were Lexington CARES, Lexington Education Association, Massachusetts Teachers Association, and Respecting Differences. Boston attorneys Eben Krim and Mark Batten of Proskauer Rose worked on the brief with the ACLU. An appeal was heard in December after the Court dismissed the case in February 2007.

The books at issue in the case were "Molly's Family," "King and King," and "Who's In A Family?"

A copy of the ruling is available online:
http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/getopn.pl?OPINION=07-1528.01A

Press Release: Ellsberg, Maddow to headline ACLU of Mass. Membership Conference

Amid 2008 election season, gathering will focus on "Reclaiming Our Civil Liberties," Saturday at Bentley College

BOSTON -- More than 300 people from Cape Cod to the Berkshires plan to attend the first annual membership conference of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, this Saturday, January 26, 2008, at Bentley College in Waltham. The conference theme is "Reclaiming Our Civil Liberties."

WHAT: ACLU Membership Conference: Reclaiming Our Civil Liberties
WHERE: Bentley College, Waltham, Massachusetts, Lindsay Hall, 1st Floor
WHEN: January 26, 2008, 12–6 pm

Speakers include Daniel Ellsberg, the writer, activist, and former U.S. military analyst who released the Pentagon Papers in 1971, and Rachel Maddow, the Air America host and frequent commentator on networks such as MSNBC, CNN, and LOGO. Ellsberg will speak on "2008 and Beyond: What will it take to end the abuse of power?" Maddow's speech is entitled "Don't Wait for November '08!"

The conference also features ten workshops:

• Moving Beyond the War on Drugs
  
• Confronting the Surveillance Society: Real ID, NSA Spying, Warrantless Wiretapping, and Fusion Centers
  
• Torture, Rendition and Guantánamo
  
• Next Steps for LGBT Rights
  
• Freedom of Speech and Association in the Post 9/11 World
  
• Racial, Ethnic & Religious Profiling in the Post 9/11 World
  
• Ensuring Reproductive Freedom
  
• Which Way Forward for the Immigrant Rights Movement?
  
• Blogging for Civil Liberties
  
• Building and Sustaining Strong Student Groups
  

"Many of us concerned about the abuses of power we've seen in our country in recent years are focused on the 2008 elections. That's important, but for our conference this year, we've chosen to focus on specific issues and what individual people can do about them," said Carol Rose, Executive Director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. "The erosion of our civil liberties has been so severe that it is unlikely that the next president and Congress alone will be able to undo the damage. We need the sustained involvement of concerned, committed citizens, and that is what the ACLU is working to develop."

News: MassEquality: Moving Forward

Bay Windows mentions the ACLU in its story on the future of MassEquality. The ACLU of Massachusetts was a founding member of MassEquality, which led the fight against a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. The amendment was decisively defeated on June 14, 2007, in a 151-45 vote.

News: Straight dad with flair for dramatics gets himself arrested at kid's school

Proud Parenting mentions the work of the ACLU of Massachusetts in a story about the saga of David Parker's crusade to block the use of books about different kinds of families, including families with two men or two women as parents, in Lexington, Mass., schools.

News: Experts say gay marriage may cost [Vermont] Dems

The Vermont Rutland-Herald quotes Norma Shapiro, Legislative Director for the ACLU of Massachusetts, and Chris Ott, Communications Manager, in a story on how the gay marriage debate is playing out in Vermont. Leaders in Vermont, which pioneered civil unions in 2000, are now considering a move toward equal marriage rights.

Shapiro responds to the question of whether the move will hurt pro-equality legislators:

"Over the last few years we have actually built up our coalition of supporters," she said. "New legislators supporting gay marriage were elected and the only ones who lost their seats were the ones who opposed gay marriage."

News: Case dismissed

Bay Windows consults a variety of legal experts, including our attorney Sarah Wunsch, on the lawsuit brought by a law student who failed the Massachusetts bar exam. The suit alleges he failed the bar for refusing to answer a question about same-sex marriage. "It's practically unreadable," Wunsch says.

News: No gay exception for ACLU

Chuck Colbert, a reporter with the LGBT paper In Newsweekly, interviewed Anthony Romero, the national ACLU's executive director, during his visit to Boston in June. His article based on the interview appears here. It highlights the ACLU's work on LGBT issues as well as civil liberties challenges post-9/11.

News: MassEquality focusing on 2008

BayWindows cites the role played by the ACLU of Massachusetts and other organizations in creating the MassEquality coalition, which led the fight to defeat the proposed amendment to ban same-sex marriage earlier this month.

News: You Can "I Do"

Reporter Chuck Colbert of InNewsweekly quotes Holly Gunner, an ACLU of Massachusetts board member and our representative on the MassEquality board, in his story on work by people of faith to defeat the proposed constitutional amendment to ban marriage for gay and lesbian couples. The New York Blade picked up the story too.

BayWindows cites the work of Norma Shapiro, our Legislative Director, in its article on the lobbying work that led to last week's 151-45 win.

News: Reaction to the Gay Marriage Vote

The Boston Globe's photo gallery after Thursday's historic gay marriage vote includes ACLUM's Legislative Director, Norma Shapiro, as well as board member Holly Gunner.

News: Reaction to the defeat of the proposed same-sex marriage ban

The Boston Globe immediately included a comment from Carol Rose, our Executive Director, in its roundup of reactions to the defeat of the proposed same-sex marriage ban.

Letter to Editor: Marriage amendment elicits reader opinions

The Worcester Telegram published a letter to the editor by George D.J. Phillies, president of the Worcester County Chapter Board of Directors of the ACLU.

News: Three years later

Coverage of the ACLU's book release party for Courting Equality in LGBT weekly BayWindows.

Press Release: ACLU of Massachusetts applauds Attorney General's leadership on marriage equality

BOSTON - On Friday, May 11, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley made a forthright statement of her well-founded legal judgment in a speech to the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association: marriage equality in the Commonwealth must be defended in the event that a proposed constitutional amendment survives the next legislative step onto the ballot. The ACLU of Massachusetts applauds Martha Coakley's leadership on this issue.

Predictably, the Attorney General has come under fire from opponents of equality. They conveniently forget, however, that Coakley's stand is principled: it would be wrong to take away anyone's fundamental right to equal treatment under the law through a popular vote.

We wonder how the opponents of equality would feel if this situation were reversed-if they were not being asked to simply accept that others be treated equally, but were actually themselves threatened with being constitutionally denied important legal rights and protections. We suspect they would be grateful for the leadership of a civil libertarian like Coakley.

Voting on the rights of others undermines the most fundamental values of the Commonwealth. The right of every citizen to be free from this threat trumps the right of those who want to use the ballot initiative process to nurse a grievance against another group of citizens.

As a part of the MassEquality coalition, the ACLU of Massachusetts is working to defeat the proposed amendment in the Legislature. If it unwisely goes to a vote, we will help fight it on the ballot. And if the result of the election were that popular prejudice stripped away the rights of an entire class of citizens, we would join Attorney General Coakley in fighting to overturn it-but it would be far wiser for the Legislature to simply stop this measure now and to bring this divisive discussion to an end.

News: Courting Equality

LGBT weekly Bay Windows ran a fantastic, in-depth cover story this week on ACLUM's work on LGBT issues over the years.

Video: "Better Angels"

MassEquality has released a documentary called "Better Angels" on YouTube and DVD. It's about the campaign in Wisconsin last year to stop a constitutional amendment banning marriage and civil unions for lesbian and gay couples.

The basic message is that Massachusetts should not underestimate how difficult it is to stop one of these constitutional amendments, and should do everything possible to prevent it from going to the ballot.

ACLUM's communications director, Chris Ott, appears in the documentary, along with several other Wisconsin leaders we helped to bring into the project. Ott served as director of the Wisconsin campaign's parent organization.

The release of "Better Angels" garnered widespread coverage, including this story from the Associated Press, as well as in the Berkshire Eagle.

Press Release: ACLUM welcomes New Hampshire civil unions

BOSTON - Today, the ACLU of Massachusetts (ACLUM) welcomed passage of legislation in New Hampshire to provide the option of civil unions for lesbian and gay couples, with important rights, benefits, and protections at the state level.

"While we believe that civil unions are only a step toward the ultimate goal of marriage equality, it is heartening to see another state recognize that lesbian and gay couples need ways to protect one another and their families," said Carol Rose, ACLUM's Executive Director.

The New Hampshire Senate voted 14-10 on Thursday in favor of civil unions. New Hampshire's House of Representatives had already passed a companion measure, and Gov. John Lynch has pledged to sign it. New Hampshire is the fourth state to provide civil unions, along with Vermont, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Maine, Hawaii, California and the District of Columbia also offer some legal protections for lesbian and gay couples.

"The fact that three of our neighboring states now offer civil unions shows how important it is for us to stop the proposed constitutional amendment that would end marriage equality in Massachusetts," said Rose. "It would be terrible for Massachusetts to move backward while our neighbors move forward.

"The ACLU of Massachusetts is proud that our Commonwealth led the nation with marriage equality, which puts all couples and their families on the same footing. We oppose voting on the proposed constitutional amendment that would reverse that pioneering move. It's simply wrong to vote on whether or not to take anyone's rights away, and no one's marriage should be put to a popular vote."