At 12:10 AM 9/15/2005, David Strand wrote:
Mark, would you provide support or evidence of her
making such comments?
She voted in favor of the city lobbying the state for
equal marriage rights, in favor of repealing the
restroom ordinance which was leading to harrassment of
transgender people and has supported every other
iniative at the city level over the last four years
apart from the equal benefits ordinance for which she
has explained her reasoning and was and has been held
accountable by the party. She has explained her
reasoning concerning that vote and even if I disagree
with her choice on that one issue, I trust that she
supports equality under the law based on her actions
and the Lavender Greens have made in effort to be in
contact with Natalie about our concerns about issues
before the council prior to votes taking place which
we failed to do initially.
David, you know very well that Natalie Johnson Lee was quoted in Bob
Battle's St Paul Pioneer Press column supporting Bachmann. Don Jorovsky
raised this issue last November:
http://www.mnforum.org/pipermail/mpls/2004-November/036611.html
<<So you can imagine my surprise to read the following op-ed
piece in yesterday's Pioneer Press:
<http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/opinion/10207397.htm>http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/opinion/10207397.htm
You can read it for yourself, but the thrust of it is to oppose equal
rights for gays and lesbians on the basis of biblical teachings. That
in itself is not surprising -- a wide variety of viewpoints are found
on editorial pages. What did surprise me was this statement by
the author (Rev. Bob Battle):
".....leaders such as Minneapolis 5th Ward Council Member
Natalie Johnson Lee.....have added their voices of support
for biblical marriage.">>
You responded to
this: http://www.mnforum.org/pipermail/mpls/2004-November/036621.html
See this from the Green Party's Bob Halfhill to NJL:
http://mapnp.geeks.org/pipermail/mpls/2005-February/038811.html
Also my post about talking to NJL here:
http://mapnp.geeks.org/pipermail/mpls/2004-December/037401.html
Battle's column is no longer available on the Pioneer Press website. I'll
pull the column from Lexis nexis this weekend and post it on my blog. Bob
Battle is a truly horrendous anti-gay black minister - and it speaks
volumes that Natalie Johnson Lee can't publically distance herself from
him. He mentioned no other black elected officials in his column. My
question - is part of the reason Natalie is reluctant to publically
distance herself because Battle is correctly quoting her?
I would ask, is the DFL holding Barb Johnson to a
standard of glbtiq support? She has voted against
nearly every iniative including the equal benefits
ordinance and the repeal of the restroom
ordinance(don't recall her votes on the other issues
before the council such as establishing reciprocity
and open registration and nondiscrimination in fees
vis a vis spouses for domestic partner registrants).
That's up to the DFL. Mark Hanson is PAC Chair for Log Cabin Republicans
of Minnesota.
For that matter, I find it shocking that the Stonewall
DFL chose to endorse Peter MacLaughlin over R.T. Rybak
when R.T. has supported more numerous specific changes
to city policy to address needs of the glbt community
than had passed in the ten years previous. It makes
no sense to me that Stonewall would not support the
mayor who signed changes to the housing code to allow
domestic partners to rent out as many rooms in their
home as a married couple, nondiscrimination in fees
for domestic partners vis a vis spouses for club
memberships, rental background checks, etc., the
repeal of the restroom ordinance, the reciprocity and
open dp registriy provisions, and supports lobbying
the state government to allow the city to provide
domestic partnership benefits and legalizing same sex
marriage.
That's up to Stonewall to explain. I thought it rather wierd when they
initially found Rybak unacceptable - but they reversed that one. I
understand from talking to Stonewall Chair Paul Skrbec that part of what
made Peter McLaughlin appealing to him as a candidate was Peter's
"thoughtful" answer to a question about party and play drugs. Mayor Rybak
apparently gave a very cursory answer to that question.
Just what specific policy pieces can you point to that
Peter has supported that specifically address glbtiq
concerns?
Talk is nice. Action is better.
I'll let Mark Hanson speak for himself. I have never been an apologist for
Peter McLaughlin.
Eva Young
Near North
Minneapolis
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lloydletta's Nooz
http://lloydletta.blogspot.com
Dump Michele Bachmann
http://dumpbachmann.blogspot.com
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759,
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790)
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1381.html
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