Too much red = too many human rights denied.

This interactive map from the LA Times represents visually the rights provided same-sex couples, over a timeline starting in 2000. Despite some progress on the coasts, the heartbreaking story I see is watching the country fill up as a sea of red. And it is unacceptable that New York is only a pale green, accepting gay marriage licenses performed elsewhere but nothing more.

ME is one of MYD’s signature issues, and we campaigned extensively on it last year through our NYEquality.com initiative, which sent thousands of letters and emails to State Senators in Albany supporting ME. The legislation came up for a vote in the State Senate last fall, and failed (read the post-vote analysis here). But the fight isn’t over — positions on ME will be a huge factor in determining our support for any State Senate candidate in elections this year. Being a Democrat isn’t good enough — we want real progressives who will fight for the issues that matter to us.

Join the CASE (Community & Social Equity) Committee to take action for ME in New York here and join the 16,000+ strong NYEquality Facebook page here.

Join MYD , Marriage Equality New York, Queens County Young Democrats,  NY State Young Democrats and Western Queens for Marriage Equality tonight to discuss the push for marriage rights in New York State.

It’s time to get together and start planning the next steps!

7:00 – 9:00pm
Lesbian and Gay Center Room 410
208 West 13 Street

You can RSVP on Facebook HERE.

LT. Dan Choi addresses MYD supporters after being honored as one of our top 5 leaders under 35

On September 30th of 2009 the Manhattan Young Democrats honored our top 5 leaders under 35 at our “Young Gets it Done” event at the nightclub Griffin. With over 250 people packing the room, and many elected officials in attendance, the Manhattan Young Democrats honored State Senator Daniel Squadron, Assemblyman Micah Kellner, Councilwoman Jessica Lappin, LT. Daniel Choi, and the progressive grassroots organization Living Liberally. Although all of our top 5 under 35 honorees continue to have incredible accomplishments, LT. Daniel Choi has been making headlines lately for his fight against the US Army’s antiquated and nonsensical Dont Ask Dont Tell policies. MYD honored LT. Choi for his incredible courage and honor, and today his fight against Dont Ask Dont Tell has taken a major victory. LT. Choi has been reassigned to serve our country and will continue to fight for America with courage without trying to hide his sexual preferences. MYD would like to once again congratulate LT. Choi for this major victory and we are all hopeful that it is one of many to come.

It’s official. The Legislature will be returning to Albany for a special session at noon next Tuesday. Gov. David Paterson issued a proclamation this afternoon calling lawmakers back to the Capitol.

On the agenda – or rather, on HIS agenda, since the legislators are not legally required to address anything they don’t want to – are: Paterson’s $5.2 billion two-year deficit reduction plan, gay marriage and the spending cap/circuit breaker proposal.

You know what that means, folks: get your butts to New York Equality and start those phones ringing in Albany.

Liz Benjamin – Daily News

And heads-up for dues-paying MYDers: Commit to go right now and email our Events Director David Myers (events [at] goMYD [dot] com) — if you’re one of the first ten members to sign up, MYD will cover the cost of your bus ticket!

Additionally, many members of the MYD membership will be attending the aforementioned Camp Courage on Saturday. This is a 4 hour workshop hosted Courage Campaign of California. I will definitely be going, as will Chas, Julie, and likely a few others. If you’re interested in signing up for the workshop, get more information here. (Note: MYD is not sponsoring any form of transportation for Saturday.)

Join us as we fight for the civil rights issue of our generation!

Not unexpectedly, the move worsened an already bad situation (as if things could really get any worse in Albany).

It caused Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. to jump into the open arms of the Republicans – albeit, he claims, just for a little sandwich break – which so worried Sen. Carl Kruger as to the status of his post as Finance Committee chairman that he just HAD to come over and see what was going on.

Diaz Sr. soon returned to the Democratic fold after receiving what Senate sources insist was a pledge from Sen. Malcolm Smith (remember him?) that the marriage bill would never see the light of day. 

What all this means is unclear. What IS abundantly clear is NYers want it brought to a vote, and they wrote a TON of letters to make that abundantly clear to their State Senators. MYD President Al Benninghoff is in Albany literally as I type this to deliver our latest stack of letters from newyorkequality.com. Look at the mountain, which is nearly twice the size of the last one: 

See quarter for scale. Awesome!

If you haven’t recently made a call to your State Senator or Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson, make the call today! To say that time is running out no longer encapsulates the urgency of the matter. Do it now! 

Pride or Protest? – The Daily Politics 

A talented MYDer has taken the next step by creating a video to support our #nyequality efforts. (BIG shout-out to writer/director/editor Shannon Manning and illustrator Maria Schneider!!) 

Enjoy, share, make viral! And of course, if you haven’t yet, visit newyorkequality.com to contact your State Senator and urge them to pass this important civil rights legislation.

The latest effort comes from the New York Civil Liberties Union, which launched a new Web site that features features videos of 12 lesbian and gay couples from around the state telling the story of how they met their respective partners and urging viewers to contact their local lawmakers and ask them to vote “yes.”

The couples are from key areas represented by lawmakers who are so far holding out on marriage, including Queens, Long Island, Brooklyn and the Syracuse area.

The idea behind these efforts…is to put a human “face” on gay marriage in hopes of convincing lawmakers that this is an intensely personal issue and not merely a political hot potato.

If you haven’t done so already, make sure to visit MYD’s newyorkequality.com to write a letter ot your state Senator and make your voice heard on this important civil rights issue. We delivered a huge stack of letters last week and we need another one soon. View the vote count here. Spread the word!

Over 1500 leters were delivered. See the quarter for scale reference!

Yesterday, MYD Prez Al Benninghoff and NYC City Council Speaker Christine Quinn took a trip to Albany. There, they hand-delivered a stack of over 1,500 letters from New Yorkers across the state asking their State Senators to support marriage equality.

For the past week, newyorkequality.com has been the focus of MYD’s grassroots campaign to get a marriage equality bill passed. The site launched last Tuesday, and to date, over forty thousand people have visited. The site is simple: look up the info for your State Senator, and either send a handwritten letter yourself, or MYD will print out the one you type up and hand-deliver it to your Senator in Albany.

As you can tell from the photo, a lot of people took us up on the offer. Countless others wrote in their own hand, entreating Senators to support legislation giving equal marriage rights to all.

MYD also made an appearance on CNN Live yesterday. Our very own Julie Blitzer (official title: Social Media Strategist; less official title: awesomesauce) joined the blogging heads at 12:15PM yesterday to share our thoughts on Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination and on California’s decision to uphold Prop 8 (boo!). Watch the clips here and here.

MYD Prez Al Benninghoff with City Council Speaker Quinn in Albany

Despite these and many other successes over the course of the past week, the campaign for marriage equality in NY is far from over. We have only 20 solid “yes” votes of the 32 needed for passage of the bill in the New York State Senate. So here’s what you can do (and yes, we know we’re starting to sound like a broken record but it ain’t over till the fat lady sings, or some clever political, metaphorical equivalent we can’t think of right now):

• Join us on Facebook and share it with your friends
• Follow us on Twitter (#nyequality) and retweet us @goMYD to help spread the word
• If you haven’t already, send a letter to your State Senator urging them to support marriage equality

Ready. Set. Click.

A cohort of dedicated, hard-working MYDers (notably Creative Director Chas Danner and President Al Benninghoff) have been forgoing sleep to make this campaign a reality. It all starts here:

NEW YORKERS for MARRIAGE EQUALITY

It’s time to STAND UP and SPEAK OUT for New York Marriage Equality. The bill to legalize same sex marriage in the great state of New York has passed the State Assembly and is on to the State Senate.

The voices of straight allies for this bill are particularly needed so that the State Senate understands this is not just an LGBT community issue: EQUALITY IS EVERYONE’S ISSUE.

newyorkequality.com gives New Yorkers the tools to make their voices heard. Find information on how you can make a difference. And spread the word–this civil rights issue deserves all the support we can muster.

What you can do RIGHT NOW:

Become a fan of NYers for Marriage Equality on Facebook: http://ow.ly/7OLy and then suggest all your friends in New York also become fans.

Tweet using the hashtag #nyequality and tell us (@gomyd) why you support marriage equality.

What you can when you have TEN MINUTES:

Write your State Senator a letter.

New York is just one step away from making this bill law.

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD TODAY.

New Yorkers for Marriage Equality is a legislative action project from MYD in partnership with Civil Rights Front; DL21C; Drinking Liberally NY; Empire State Pride Agenda; Human Rights Campaign; Marriage Equality New York; Queens County Young Democrats; and The Albany Project. We welcome new members to our alliance–email us here if you want to join us.