KnowThyNeighbor.org

PRESS RELEASE - Supreme Court Defends KnowThyNeighbor.org’s Right to Publish Petition Information Online

PRESS RELEASE - For Immediate Release

Contacts:

Tom Lang, Co-Director, KnowThyNeighbor.org - (978) 335-0477 / [email protected]

Aaron Toleos, Co-Director, KnowThyNeighbor.org - (978) 821-4620 / [email protected]

Brian Murphy, Director, Whosigned.org - (206) 313-1175 / [email protected]

Supreme Court Defends KnowThyNeighbor.org’s Right to Publish Petition Information Online

Essex, MA, June 24, 2010 -- KnowThyNeighbor.org, the national gay rights organization known for publishing online the names of close to a million anti-gay petition signers, celebrates a major victory in today's Doe v. Reed ruling by the US Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that petition signers do NOT have a constitutional right to keep their identities private.

“Signing a petition in public is a powerful and meaningful act. Signing your name in secret means nothing,” says Aaron Toleos, co-director of KnowThyNeighbor.org. “Today the Supreme Court affirmed the idea that a petition derives its legitimacy from the very fact that it is a public document.”

Toleos believes that when petitions deal with controversial issues, it is especially important that the information remain public. "It is the cases where the most important issues are at stake, like the rights of same-sex couples and their children to be equally protected by our laws, that the process should be held to the highest standard,” says Toleos.  “Secreting the names of signers in these cases just makes it more likely that fraud will occur and that people will sign thoughtlessly. Hiding public information from the public is exactly what should not happen in these situations."

KnowThyNeighbor.org has uncovered substantial amounts of petition fraud through its work. In Massachusetts, for example, thousands of signatures were identified as being either stolen through bait-and-switch techniques or forged outright, and the state launched both civil and criminal investigations.

The Doe v. Reed case resulted from the work of KnowThyNeighbor.org -- along with local partner WhoSigned.org – to oppose a state referendum aimed at overturning a domestic partnership law in Washington. KnowThyNeighbor.org has previously partnered with churches and other local organizations to publish anti-gay petitioner information in Oregon, Arkansas, Florida, and Massachusetts.

KnowThyNeighbor.org was founded in 2005 by Tom Lang, a gay married Republican, and Aaron Toleos, a straight married Democrat, with the goal of encouraging civil, respectful, and meaningful dialogue between citizens on both sides of gay rights issues.

KnowThyNeighbor Victory in SCOTUS Doe vs. Reed

Today's Supreme Court Ruling Against Doe v Reed Marks a Major Victory for KnowThyNeighbor And Exemplifies The Importance of Individual Activism in the Fight for Equality

The Supreme Court of the United States in an 8-1 Ruling AGAINST Doe v Reed on count 1, 1st Amendment Challenge to KnowThyNeighbor's Strategy of posting the names of signers of anti-gay ballot initiatives online (Note: these names are part of the public record and before KTN came along were released to anyone who asked).  So in a nut shell, all but Justice Clarence Thomas agreed that KnowThyNeighbor has every right to post the names and that LGBT people's right to access of the 1st Amendment is not trumped by the fact that some anti-gay people feel uncomfortable that we know who they are.

I will let the major blogs dissect this victory for LGBT on the national level and I will even let the major LGBT organizations (many of which were against KTN) claim victory for themselves as the heart of the political machine needs to continue to pump regularly.  But this blog post needs to remind LGBT people and other activists fighting for their place at this great American table, that once again "one or two" people can make a difference and produce change because of personal activism.

What led to Doe v Reed was a road tougher than KnowThyNeighbor has ever experienced.  The anti-gay organizations such as Protect Marriage Washington blamed us for scaring signers away from participating in the Referendum 71 Ballot Initiative while the gay activists such as Joe Mirabella and Josh Friedes blamed us for causing more people to sign. This strange dichotomized contradiction pointed more to what was behind these organizations and how KnowThyNeighbor threatened their "campaigns" than to our quantitative effect one way or the other on the signature gathering process in Washington.  

The value and importance of KnowThyNeighbor's success in Washington State can be seen in recent polling data indicating a rise by 15% in the public's acceptance of same sex relationships in that state. Of course KnowThyNeighbor's work was not the only factor responsible for this but the foundation of such a move in polls is directly in result of the continued conversation about our lives, our place, our families, our children.  And KnowThyNeighbor with the announcement of our posting of names before the Referendum 71 Campaign, the conversation about the importance of our strategy during the campaign, the lower court lawsuits, Doe v Reed, the integrity of the petition process and the future "as applied" challenges (count 2 Doe v Reed) in lower court have kept the conversation going in Washington and on a national level since June of 2009 in news media, blogs and in political satire such as The Colbert Report.  A crucial part of the success of our side in the Referendum 71 Campaign.

All of this and KnowThyNeighbor.org has not even done anything yet.  All we did was make a public statement that we would like a copy of a public record in Washington State which in the past history of Washington had always been released to the public.  

But this time something was different, we were gay and were part of the minority that has been the victim over and over again.  This caused our oppressors to spend countless dollars to try to stop us and caused LGBT leaders such as Josh Friedes to once again condemn us because he and many in Gay Inc. find it so difficult to fight for our Equality without shame.  But the biggest surprise was Pam Spaulding whose bi-coastal activist "Blender" Lurleen (aka Laurel of BlueMassGroup.com in MA) could not embrace activism right out of her own Dallas Principles but instead was used as a messaging center for a virtual campaign that like Maine would have failed to reach the masses if KnowThyNeighbor had not been involved.

But there were people that "got it" and got it they did.  Brian Murphy of WhoSigned.org in Washington who is the reason why we made a move on that state.  Arline Isaacson of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus who provided insight and provided an MGLPC Amicus Brief which was included in the SCOTUS Decision.  GLAD, Lambda Legal, HRC, the Task Force, National Center for Lesbian Rights which provided an Amicus that called out by name KnowThyNeighbor's strategy as one of the only ways LGBT people can defend themselves against such initiative petitions, the various AG's offices nationwide for their joint Amicus, the other 28 entities and coalitions that supported our strategy, and of course the Supreme Court Justices whose questioning of the anti-gays in the opening arguments gave proof positive that these Justices, including Justice Scalia, searched KnowThyNeighbor's website in archive to understand our integrity and commitment to open, civil and respectful dialogue on LGBT Rights. 

KnowThyNeighbor.org is assured that the lower courts will reject Count 2 of Doe v Reed, the "As Applied" Challenge and the 1st Amendment Rights of both sides of LGBT Equality will be secured. KnowThyNeighbor will begin processing the names of the signers of Referendum 71 to provide the public with access to this public database in a fully searchable format as soon as they are released by the Secretary of State of Washington.  Currently KnowThyNeighbor.org lists the names of 850,000 signers of anti-gay referendums in Massachusetts, Florida and Arkansas. 

Tom Lang, Co-Director

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"There are laws against threats and intimidation; and harsh criticism, short of unlawful action, is a price our people have traditionally been willing to pay for self-governance. Requiring people to stand up in public for their political acts fosters civic courage, without which democracy is doomed. For my part, I do not look forward to a society which, thanks to theSupreme Court, campaigns anonymously (McIntyre) and even exercises the direct democracy of initiative and referendum hidden from public scrutiny and protected from the accountability of criticism. This does not resemble the Home of the Brave."

 

Antonin Scalia, Doe v. Reed

GOP's Charlie Baker: The Result of "40 Years of Progress" at Boston Gay Pride

On Saturday June 12th, Charlie Baker Will Become The First Republican Gubernatorial Candidate to March in Boston's Gay Pride Parade

You heard it folks.  Massachusetts again making history in the fight for full LGBT equality.  On Saturday, Massachusetts Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Charlie Baker and running mate Richard Tisei will march in Boston Pride.  Marking the first time ever that a Republican candidate for Governor will join LGBT people in Boston Pride.

Baker who chose openly gay, Senate Minority Leader, Richard Tisei as his choice for Lt. Governor will be marching not only alongside supporters but Baker's gay brother will join the Republican candidate.  Tisei's partner of 16 years, Bernie Starr will also be marching.  

Charlie Baker supports Marriage Equality, has committed to not supporting any sort of reattempt to derail The Goodridge Decision by ballot initiative (in 2012) and chose a running mate who is a co-sponsor of the Transgender Right Bill currently in the State house.

Of concern to the LGBT community was Baker's recent lack of support for this Transgender Rights Bill and that he referred to it as "The Bathroom Bill" which angered LGBT activists around the Commonwealth. KnowThyNeighbor has been publicly critical of Baker regarding this.  We need to remember that the path to Marriage Equality was not an easy one.   It required much education, visibility and meaningful dialogue by and about lesbians and gays, our families and our lives.  We still are not protected Federally.  

Likewise, education about transgender people must also take place.  It needs to start first with ourselves.  How many people out there, gay or straight have met and held a conversation with a transgender person?  It was in 2005 that a very public crisis occurred on the KnowThyNeighbor blogs with one of our commenters who self identified as transgender.  I can speak about this because this person did so also in a public manner.  She quite possibly was suggesting that she may do herself harm. Not only did I research to find out this frequent commenter's identity, but I contacted her and had quite an enlightening conversation about her life and what she was going through.  I also booked a session with a clinical psychiatrist for myself in which I asked this psychiatrist questions about transgendered people.  I did this to educate myself and try to understand the humanity behind sexual identity issues. This small step that I took answered so many questions for me and made me quickly realize how important it is that we accept and reachout to our fellow transgenders. 

I had to go through an educational process.  Mine was out of what I perceived as necessity.  Others will have to be educated by us--just as we did and continue to do with marriage equality.  To this day and to my knowledge, no one from MassEquality or the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition has reached out to Charlie Baker on the Transgender Bill.  Maybe it's about time?

I do know that MassEquality will be announcing its endorsement of Deval Patrick for Re-election as Governor on Saturday at Pride.  This decision coming just after MassEquality heard that Republican Charlie Baker would be marching.  The Transgender Rights Bill being the only thing that separates the two candidates.  But I have a few questions...Why has the Transgender Rights Bill not moved in THREE years in this Democrat Super Majority Legislature with enough Democrat support to carry the votes if they had the courage to put it to a vote?  And with Deval Patrick as current Governor

Because the Democrats are afraid of progressing this bill for fear of losing some voters.  So it seems that quite a few Democrats are using transgender people pretty much the same way that Anti-Gay Republican activists such as Kris Mineau are using transgender people...And Charlie Baker's current lack of support for this bill is providing great cover to those particular Democrats (and MassEquality)!

But back to Pride.  Boston Pride's Theme this Year is "40 Years of Progress."  Charlie Baker and Richard Tisei, the men, represent this progress.  And their marching in this year's Pride Parade shows us just how much progress we have ALL made.   

Tom Lang, Director

KnowThyNeighbor.org