April 14, 2005
A Message From PFLAG's National President, Sam Thoron
Dear PFLAG Family:
Last week, Louise Browning, a past Regional Director and current member of our National Board of Directors let us know that the superior court judge in San Francisco who had made a favorable decision on same gender marriage in California was receiving hate mail and even death threats. She suggested that we take pen to paper and write letters to the judge.
Our national staff picked up on this and, earlier this week, posted the suggestion on our PFLAGall listserv that goes to chapter leaders and other interested people.
One of the recipients suggested that individual letters might be rather a lot of work and asked if the national staff could not circulate a petition that many could sign onto.
And, there are many who share that sentiment, "Why can't National do it for us?"
The short answer is that anything we can do by email or other mass means the other side can do more quickly, more massively, and at least as effectively, if they haven't already done it.
The longer answer is that this is a wake up call for all of us.
To begin, let me put this in a broader light. In Tuesday's newspaper I read a report by Dana Milbank of The Washington Post, that a group of conservative leaders met in Washington last Friday in a conference on "Confronting the Judicial War on Faith" to discuss "Remedies to Judicial Tyranny."
Among other things, the group suggested impeaching Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. One member of the group went so far as to suggest that the appropriate remedy might be found in the philosophy of Joseph Stalin.
The right-wing conference participant said, "He [Stalin] had a slogan, and it worked very well for him whenever he ran into difficulty: 'no man, no problem.'"
The full Stalin quote is: "Death solves all problems: no man, no problem."
Folks, this is a public statement. Let us think, just for a moment, what the private hate mail that our judge in San Francisco and those like him receive must contain.
Place yourself, for a moment, in their shoes.
They are receiving volumes of hate mail. For us to use email is simply inappropriate. Anything coming in that way will be lost in the flood, if it has not already been turned off entirely.
Think how much more a personal note means than a bulk petition or other mass mailing.
Why can't National do this for us? The question answers itself.
The great strength of PFLAG is that we are, at our core, a volunteer driven, chapter based, grassroots group. Our strength is in the individual and collective voice of our members.
We maintain an office in Washington to support our grassroots efforts and to give us a national presence. We deliberately choose not to delegate our voice to our national office.
It is not the equal civil and legal rights of National PFLAG that concern us. What is at stake are the rights of our children, our family members, our loved ones, our friends, and, yes, our own rights. We choose to speak on our own behalf. We do not delegate our voice to anyone. What is at stake is our safety, our full access to all the rights, privileges and obligations of full citizenship, our very right to exist.
We are our own best advocates.
Whether you feel it right for you to write in support of a Superior Court judge in San Francisco, California, is entirely up to each individual. The issue is much broader.
My earnest plea is that you understand that the core values of this country as expressed in our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution are under attack.
The rights of EVERYONE who does not agree with the theocratic right-wing are under attack. The very right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of every GLBT person in this country is under attack.
We all get many opportunities to take action, to speak up. It is absolutely essential that each of us be willing to speak our truth whenever and wherever we can. How and when we do it is clearly a matter of individual conscience.
My challenge to all is that before you decide that an action is too much trouble or too risky you think through the consequences of inaction.
Stand together. Stand with me. Stand up and be counted.
Judge Richard Kramer
Civic Center Courthouse
400 McAllister Street
San Francisco, CA 94102-4514
