Fun_People Archive
2 Oct
VETO DOMA

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Wed,  2 Oct 96 00:25:50 -0700
To: Fun_People
Subject: VETO DOMA

Forwarded-by: Sheila Brown <n9349504@henson.cc.wwu.edu>
Forwarded-by: Marjorie Richards (Volt Comp) <a-marjr@microsoft.com>
[If you can, please take the time to do this, it only takes a couple of
 minutes.  Even if he does not veto it we can let him know how many of us
 are unhappy with his stand.  Make sure to clean it up before you send
 it.---Marjorie]


President Clinton has been taking too much advice from his advisors on the
subject of DOMA.  He needs to know that we will not sit back and allow him
to score election-year points by denying basic rights to lesbian or gay
Americans.

Please:

1. E-mail this message, exactly as it is, complete with this introduction
to at least five of your friends. Add it to any mailing lists you are on.
Please, distribute as widely as you can.

2. Copy the message below the line, without this introduction, to a new
   e-mail message, and refine it if you wish.

3. Address that new message to:  president@whitehouse.gov

4. Fill in your name, street address and the date in the appropriate
places top and bottom.  The White House tosses e-messages with no street
address.

5. In the subject line, write VETO DOMA

6. Hit the send button and your copy of message will be on its way to the
White House.

If you follow all of these directions the President could receive a few
hundred  thousand messages titled VETO DOMA.  It would be too much to ignore.

We can and will make a difference in 1996!

____________________________________________________________________________

Your Name
Your Street Address
Your City, Your State Your Zip Code

Today's Date

President Bill Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC

Dear Mr. President:

Republicans in Congress, with the help of many Democrats, are presenting
you with the so called Defense Of Marriage Act, or DOMA. They created the
bill from ignorance, from hatred for gay Americans and out of the desire to
embarrass you in an election year.  You helped its progress when, to make
yourself look good in a election year, you announced early that you would
sign it.  Now, you must change your mind and do the right thing.


Veto DOMA!

We will not allow you to make political gains by creating pain for gay,
lesbian and bisexual Americans.

DOMA is a dangerous threat to the civil liberties of gay Americans and to
the Constitution itself.  As Jim Crow laws once did to African Americans in
the South, DOMA would use the mighty power of the federal government to deny
to one class of citizens, gay Americans, such things as income tax benefits,
pensions, social security survivor benefits, access to partners in federal
hospitals, and immigration rights.

DOMA would create for the first time under federal law two classes of
citizenship with different rights.  This divisive law contradicts one of our
most important Constitutional principles, equal protection under the law for
ALL Americans.

You must do the right thing, Mr. President -- speak out against the hatred,
eschew the politics of division and rise above the political expedience.

Do the right thing for your country and its citizens.  Veto DOMA. Use the
power of your veto pen to bring us together, instead of your signature to
divide our nation by creating a new federally-ordered injustice.

Sincerely,

Your Name

© 1996 Peter Langston