Thursday, June 6 | 6:30 - 8:00 PM. First Congregational Church, 20 Oak St., Asheville, N.C., 28801. Bring a favorite dish to share.
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Posted on May 10th, 2013 The North Carolina state Senate advanced Senate Bill 132, which includes anti-LGBT language and assertions, by a 41-5 vote yesterday. The bill would require North Carolina public schools to teach students a number of items including:
“Teaches that a mutually faithful monogamous heterosexual relationship in the context of marriage is the best lifelong means of avoiding sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.”
Read more about the bill here.
The bill is expected to come up for a final vote in the state Senate on Monday, May 13th. Please contact your North Carolina state Senator about this bill. You can find your state Senator and their contact info here.
Posted on March 20th, 2013 The Campaign for Southern Equality is very happy to announce a big victory for LGBT rights in Buncombe County, North Carolina!
LGBT employees of Buncombe County, North Carolina will now be offered domestic partner benefits. These benefits include health insurance, life insurance, use of leave time, and all entitlements under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Buncombe County becomes the 4th county in North Carolina to offer domestic partner benefits to LGBT couples, joining Durham, Mecklenburg and Orange counties.
Commissioner Holly Jones and Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, executive director of the Campaign for Southern Equality
The Campaign for Southern Equality’s executive director, Rev. Beach-Ferrara, spoke in favor of the policies at the March 19th meeting. She based her remarks on the “Policy Recommendations for the Fair and Equitable Treatment of Buncombe County LGBT Employees,” white paper that CSE published in August 2012 and subsequently shared with county staff and county commissioners. You can read the white paper at: http://www.southernequality.org/wp- content/uploads/2013/03/LGBT-Employment-Policies_August2012.pdf
The Campaign for Southern Equality was proud to work closely with Commissioner Holly Jones to pass these policies. Thank you to Commissioners Frost, Chairman Gantt, Jones and Newman for supporting domestic partner benefits.
Posted on January 28th, 2013 During the month of January, 35 LGBT couples from across Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee have stood up for marriage equality in their home states as part of the WE DO Campaign. You can read the story of one the couples below as told by Brent Morin.
Jerry and Brent Morin
Jerry and I have been together almost 10 years. We met 11 months after losing my wife to a terminal illness in early 2003. It was just before the holidays and sure to be hard without my wife who had been with me every Christmas for the previous nine years. You see I don’t do alone well, never have – I am a twin and have always had someone right by my side from birth. There is my twin (Corey), my wife (Heather) that I met as a freshman in college and now Jerry. That year I became a widower, discovered my authentic self – came out to friends and family, and met the second love of my life. However, I still had trouble reconciling my sexuality with my upbringing; but Jerry changed all of that. As I fell in love with Jerry I was fascinated by how similar he was to Heather. To describe Jerry is to describe Heather – humble, quiet, loyal, sarcastic, hardworking, stubborn, animal loving, French-Canadians from New England. I quickly realized that my love for Jerry was no different than my love for Heather. Only then did I truly accept myself as a gay man. While there is certainly physical attraction, true love is much deeper and this was the type of person that I was drawn to. Love is Love!
Brent and Jerry
A few of the things I love about Jerry… I . . . → Read More: Brent and Jerry
Posted on January 24th, 2013 Dear CSE Supporter,
We’re off the road from Stage 4 and back in the office in Asheville, N.C.
It’s been an incredible start to 2013. First of all, I want to thank you for all you did during Stage 4 of WE DO – from taking action, to sending messages of support, to digging deep to help fund this work, to hosting our team in your homes and hometowns, to amplifying the story we’re telling to reach a national audience.
I am more hopeful now than I’ve ever been about what’s possible in the next few years when it comes to achieving full federal equality for LGBT people in all spheres of life – employment, housing, health care, family rights and relationship recognition. I also know it’s going to take all we’ve got to get there.
As you may have heard, President Obama mentioned Stonewall and specifically addressed marriage equality during his Second Inaugural Address. When I heard him say the words “our gay brothers and sisters,” images of the past few weeks flooded my mind. I thought about standing alongside LGBT friends in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South and North Carolina, and Virginia this past month, as we called for federal equality and dared to express our full equality and humanity in town squares across the South. I thought about marching with many of you from Virginia into D.C. this past Thursday on the final day of Stage 4. About how we crossed into our nation’s capital and, in that instant, became equal citizens under the law, a status that you feel in your bones and yet that dissolves as soon as you recross the border into the South.
I thought about Monty and Steve, and Sheila and Susan and the friends who stood with them in their hometown . . . → Read More: From Stonewall to the South
Posted on January 8th, 2013 During the last week, LGBT couples in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi have stood up for marriage equality in their home states. Yesterday we were proud to stand with five LGBT couples in Georgia as they applied for marriage licenses. You can read the story of one the couples below.
Daphne and Kim
Daphne and Kim
Kim, 39, is a Clinical Social Worker at the Atlanta VA Medical Center and lives in Atlanta, GA with her partner, Daphne, 30, who is a Nanny.
How we met:
In March 2010, I (Kim) lived in Tucson, AZ and Daphne was backpacking in the Grand Canyon with a mutual friend of ours, who decided we should meet. On the last day of Daphne’s trip, we planned to meet at a local Tucson coffee shop. When I arrived, Daphne was in crisis because she had missed her flight back to Atlanta.
If she had made her original flight, we would have missed meeting each other, but she ended up having to stay in Tucson for another night, which was the night of my birthday party at a local pub. That night, we ended up staying up all night with each other; dancing, having breakfast at IHOP, talking about life at an all-night coffee shop. I drove her to the airport, having no idea if we would ever talk or see each other again. Thankfully, we did. We talked on the phone often and found that we ALWAYS had so much to talk about and share with each other. After a couple months, I visited her in Atlanta. I completely fell in love with Atlanta and Daphne.
One month later, I moved to Atlanta. (I had been planning a move out of Tucson for over a year, I just didn’t know to where…until I visited Atlanta and Daphne!) Daphne and I went through . . . → Read More: Daphne and Kim
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