Amendment that would have banned GSAs in MO
Fortunately this is no longer an issue. But emailing your rep is an easy way to either thank them for their support, or to start a dialogue about LBGTQA+ folks (or even just to let them know at least one consituent disagreed), because I'm sure similar issues will come up.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Julie Brueggemann
Date: May 11, 2005 1:10 PM
Subject: While you were sleeping, they were attacking our youth!
While you were sound asleep last night, the Missouri General Assembly was attacking LGBT youth.
At 2:00 a.m., the debate over public school funding got sidetracked to a discussion over homosexuality.
Representatives Stevenson and Roark proposed an amendment to SB 287 that would prohibit public schools from having policies or activities that advocate or support homosexuality. They wanted to ban Gay/Straight Alliances!
"I don't think a majority of Missourians approve of that type of lifestyle," Roark said "There are certain standards when there are state tax dollars involved."
Several Representatives who support LGBT youth rose to our defense.
Rep. Mike Daus grilled Rep. Roark about his comments and stressed the importance of support groups for LGBT youth.
Rep. Rick Johnson said, "Students who are gay are subjected to discrimination and ridicule and violence and death. To say these students should not be supported...in some way is the absolute wrong
way to go."
The amendment passed 81 - 47. However, under procedural rules, the amendment was not included in the funding bill and is, therefore, no longer a part of the legislation.
This was a malicious attempt to put pro-LGBT equality legislators on the hot seat and force them to make a public stance in our favor in hopes to use this against them in the next election.
The extreme right wing in our legislature was counting on the fact that you were asleep last night...and they are counting on the fact that you will remain asleep today and in the future so that they can
continue to discriminate, ridicule and bash the youth of our community. The time is now - we must wake up!
Below you will find a list of how the legislators voted. Please email or call your legislator and either thank him/her or demand to know why they voted to attack the youth of our state. You can find contact
information by going to www.house.mo.gov.
Also, no matter where you live in the state, take a moment to tell Representatives Daus and Johnson just how much you appreciate their support and attentiveness to our issues at such a late hour of the
night.
"Yes" - Supported the amendment to eliminate Gay/Straight Alliances from public schools.
"No" - Opposed the amendment to eliminate Gay/Straight Alliances from public schools.
"Present" - Signifies that the Representative was present but unwilling to take a stand either way on the issue.
"Absent" - Signifies that the Representative was not present and therefore no record exists as to how he/she felt about the issue.
"Yes" - Avery, Baker (123), Bearden, Behnen, Bivins, Black, Bringer, Brown (30), Bruns, Byrd, Casey, Chinn, Cooper (120), Cooper (158), Cunningham (145), Cunningham (86), Davis, Day, Dethrow, Dusenberg,
Emery, Ervin, Faith, Fisher, Flook, Franz, Guest, Hobbs, Hunter, Icet, Jones, Kelly, Kingery, Kraus, Lager, Lembke, Lipke, Loehner, May, McGhee, Munzlinger, Muschany, Nance, Nieves, Nolte, Parker, Parson,
Phillips, Pollock, Pratt, Quinn, Rector, Roark, Robb, Ruestman, Rupp, Salva, Sander, Sater, Schaaf, Schad, Selby, Self, Shoemyer, Silvey, Skaggs, Smith (118), Stefanick, Stevenson, St. Onge, Sutherland,
Swinger, Tilley, Wagner, Wallace, Wells, Wislon (130), Witte, Wright (137), Yates, Speaker Jetton.
"No" - Aull, Baker (25), Bland, Bowman, Brooks, Brown (50), Burnett, Chappelle-Nadal, Corcoran, Curls, Darrough, Daus, Donnelly, Dougherty, Fares, Fraser, Harris (23), Harris (110), Haywood, Henke, Hoskins,
Hubbard, Hughes, Johnson (47), Johnson (90), Jolly, Kratky, Lampe, LeVota, Liese, Low (39), Lowe (44), Meiners, Moore, Oxford, Page, Schlottach, Storch, Villa, Vogt, Walsh, Walton, Weter, Wildberger,
Yaeger, Young, Zweifel.
"Present" - Dempsey, El-Amin, George, Johnson (61), Kuessner, Marsh, Pearce, Robinson, Schneider, Smith (14), Spreng, Threlkeld, Viebrock, Whorton, Wilson (119), Wood, Wright-Jones.
"Absent" - Bean, Boykins, Cooper (155), Deeken, Densison, Dixon, Goodman, Jackson, Meadows, Myers, Portwood, Richard, Roorda, Rucker, Schoemehl, Wasson, Wright (159)
Greg Razer
Policy Director, PROMO
816-931-2300
Greg@PROMOonline.org
www.PROMOonline.org
And if you don't want to be creative and write your own email, here's mine - you can copy!
Dear Representative ____,
I would like to thank you for voting "No" regarding the amendment to SB 287 that would have eliminated support for LGBT students in Missouri's public schools. I was a LGBT high school student not so long ago, and I currently work with LGBT youth in St. Louis in a volunteer capacity. I can attest to the fact that the limited support that exists for these students is crucial to both their mental and emotional well-being and their access to education. As a voting constituent of your district, I urge you to continue your support of LGBT Missourians.
Thank you,
________
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Julie Brueggemann
Date: May 11, 2005 1:10 PM
Subject: While you were sleeping, they were attacking our youth!
While you were sound asleep last night, the Missouri General Assembly was attacking LGBT youth.
At 2:00 a.m., the debate over public school funding got sidetracked to a discussion over homosexuality.
Representatives Stevenson and Roark proposed an amendment to SB 287 that would prohibit public schools from having policies or activities that advocate or support homosexuality. They wanted to ban Gay/Straight Alliances!
"I don't think a majority of Missourians approve of that type of lifestyle," Roark said "There are certain standards when there are state tax dollars involved."
Several Representatives who support LGBT youth rose to our defense.
Rep. Mike Daus grilled Rep. Roark about his comments and stressed the importance of support groups for LGBT youth.
Rep. Rick Johnson said, "Students who are gay are subjected to discrimination and ridicule and violence and death. To say these students should not be supported...in some way is the absolute wrong
way to go."
The amendment passed 81 - 47. However, under procedural rules, the amendment was not included in the funding bill and is, therefore, no longer a part of the legislation.
This was a malicious attempt to put pro-LGBT equality legislators on the hot seat and force them to make a public stance in our favor in hopes to use this against them in the next election.
The extreme right wing in our legislature was counting on the fact that you were asleep last night...and they are counting on the fact that you will remain asleep today and in the future so that they can
continue to discriminate, ridicule and bash the youth of our community. The time is now - we must wake up!
Below you will find a list of how the legislators voted. Please email or call your legislator and either thank him/her or demand to know why they voted to attack the youth of our state. You can find contact
information by going to www.house.mo.gov.
Also, no matter where you live in the state, take a moment to tell Representatives Daus and Johnson just how much you appreciate their support and attentiveness to our issues at such a late hour of the
night.
"Yes" - Supported the amendment to eliminate Gay/Straight Alliances from public schools.
"No" - Opposed the amendment to eliminate Gay/Straight Alliances from public schools.
"Present" - Signifies that the Representative was present but unwilling to take a stand either way on the issue.
"Absent" - Signifies that the Representative was not present and therefore no record exists as to how he/she felt about the issue.
"Yes" - Avery, Baker (123), Bearden, Behnen, Bivins, Black, Bringer, Brown (30), Bruns, Byrd, Casey, Chinn, Cooper (120), Cooper (158), Cunningham (145), Cunningham (86), Davis, Day, Dethrow, Dusenberg,
Emery, Ervin, Faith, Fisher, Flook, Franz, Guest, Hobbs, Hunter, Icet, Jones, Kelly, Kingery, Kraus, Lager, Lembke, Lipke, Loehner, May, McGhee, Munzlinger, Muschany, Nance, Nieves, Nolte, Parker, Parson,
Phillips, Pollock, Pratt, Quinn, Rector, Roark, Robb, Ruestman, Rupp, Salva, Sander, Sater, Schaaf, Schad, Selby, Self, Shoemyer, Silvey, Skaggs, Smith (118), Stefanick, Stevenson, St. Onge, Sutherland,
Swinger, Tilley, Wagner, Wallace, Wells, Wislon (130), Witte, Wright (137), Yates, Speaker Jetton.
"No" - Aull, Baker (25), Bland, Bowman, Brooks, Brown (50), Burnett, Chappelle-Nadal, Corcoran, Curls, Darrough, Daus, Donnelly, Dougherty, Fares, Fraser, Harris (23), Harris (110), Haywood, Henke, Hoskins,
Hubbard, Hughes, Johnson (47), Johnson (90), Jolly, Kratky, Lampe, LeVota, Liese, Low (39), Lowe (44), Meiners, Moore, Oxford, Page, Schlottach, Storch, Villa, Vogt, Walsh, Walton, Weter, Wildberger,
Yaeger, Young, Zweifel.
"Present" - Dempsey, El-Amin, George, Johnson (61), Kuessner, Marsh, Pearce, Robinson, Schneider, Smith (14), Spreng, Threlkeld, Viebrock, Whorton, Wilson (119), Wood, Wright-Jones.
"Absent" - Bean, Boykins, Cooper (155), Deeken, Densison, Dixon, Goodman, Jackson, Meadows, Myers, Portwood, Richard, Roorda, Rucker, Schoemehl, Wasson, Wright (159)
Greg Razer
Policy Director, PROMO
816-931-2300
Greg@PROMOonline.org
www.PROMOonline.org
And if you don't want to be creative and write your own email, here's mine - you can copy!
Dear Representative ____,
I would like to thank you for voting "No" regarding the amendment to SB 287 that would have eliminated support for LGBT students in Missouri's public schools. I was a LGBT high school student not so long ago, and I currently work with LGBT youth in St. Louis in a volunteer capacity. I can attest to the fact that the limited support that exists for these students is crucial to both their mental and emotional well-being and their access to education. As a voting constituent of your district, I urge you to continue your support of LGBT Missourians.
Thank you,
________