Dear Members,

Thank you again to everyone who came out and joined our marching contingent in this year’s San Francisco’s Chinese New Year’s Parade! We had the largest contingent ever in the 5 years that we have participated in the Parade.

As many of you know, next week on March 5th, the California Supreme Court will be hearing arguments regarding the validity of Proposition 8 in San Francisco. With all the hustle and bustle, we wanted to take a moment and update you on some of the work we’ve been doing as well as inform you of several important changes and upcoming events.

Over the past few months, API Equality staff has been meeting with local and state coalition partners and members to develop a plan of action for the coming year. Since the election, we had a resurgence of activity and interest and have been working to form a new local steering committee, of both continuing and new coalition members and individuals, who will help lead and advise the work of API Equality over the next months and years. With the formation of our local steering committee, we hope to connect our work more deeply to the communities we represent and to expand our reach and impact across the Bay Area and beyond.

Additionally, we have been collaborating with state and national LGBT leaders to review lessons learned from the No on 8 Campaign and to start identifying overall next steps. Over the next few weeks, we will be co-sponsoring a series of events focused on moving the community forward from Prop 8 and preparing for the oral arguments.

Finally, on a sad note, due to the recent funding challenges, complicated by the economic climate, API Equality will be saying good-bye to our community organizer, Amos Lim, at the end of March. Amos has been a strong addition to the API Equality team and we are extremely sad to lose him. While we continue to face similar challenges, API Equality, as a whole, remains robust and will continue to endeavor as we secure full equality under the law.

In Solidarity,
Tawal Panyacosit Jr., Director
API Equality | www.apiequality.org

Come join API Equality and a whole host of organizations for a Community Building Town Hall Meeting in San Francisco on the No on 8 campaign at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on Thursday, February 26, 2009 – 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Click here for more information.

Hi Everybody,

I just want to take this opportunity to all of you bringing your members to march at the parade. An estimated count has us with about 75 marchers. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves that evening and I thank you all for praying for nice weather!

We did so much with so little time! I was busy getting things ready and did not have any time to speak with all of you, so I just want to use this opportunity to express my appreciation!

Thanks goes to Arthur and Tee for helping me fix the convertible into a wedding sedan.

Thanks also goes to Jen-Mei and Choon for gathering the marchers and getting Trinity and Desiree to throw the bouquet.

Thanks to Trinity and Desiree for putting on the Hawaiian Wedding Dresses beautifully and loving tailored by Trinity’s mom for the 4th time for the parade.

Thanks for Jen-Mei for providing the sound system and to Deborah for the red wagon.

Thanks goes to API Family Pride for the ponchos and the cowbells.

Thanks goes to Michelle, Jen-Mei, Tee, Choon for inflating the balloons and bringing them to the meeting area.

Thanks to Stuart and John for providing the double happiness sign.

Thanks to Elizabeth for getting the red costumes for NRJ’ers and securing Rev Oda for the parade.

Thanks to Kevin for putting on a suit and driving the convertible.

Thanks to all the organizations who turned out their members in force!

Finally, thanks to all the committee members from participating organizations who came together 6 weeks ago to start planning this. Without all of you contributing, we would not have a contingent marching at all.

You can view some of the pictures here:

Lastly though, I apologized for the change in meeting area. We were supposed to be on market street but the parade monitor directed us to second street. I found out later after the march that we were not supposed to be on second street and the monitor gave us the wrong information.

It has been a real pleasure working with all of you!

Yours sincerely,
Amos Lim, 林明利, Community Organizer

The California Supreme Court announced today that it will hear oral arguments on Thursday, March 5, 2009 in the Proposition 8 legal challenge.

On November 19, 2008, the California Supreme Court agreed to hear the legal challenges to Proposition 8 and set an expedited schedule. Briefing in the case was completed on January 21, 2009.

The California Supreme Court must issue its decisions within 90 days of oral argument.

On January 15, 2009, 43 friend-of-the-court briefs urging the Court to invalidate Prop 8 were filed, arguing that Proposition 8 drastically alters the equal protection guarantee in California’s Constitution and that the rights of a minority cannot be eliminated by a simple majority vote. The supporters represent the full gamut of California’s and the nation’s civil rights organizations and legal scholars, as well as California legislators, local governments, bar associations, business interests, labor unions, and religious groups.

In May of 2008, the California Supreme Court held that laws that treat people differently based on their sexual orientation violate the equal protection clause of the California Constitution and that same-sex couples have the same fundamental right to marry as other Californians. Proposition 8 eliminated this fundamental right only for same-sex couples. No other initiative has ever successfully changed the California Constitution to take away a right only from a targeted minority group. Proposition 8 passed by a bare majority of 52 percent on November 4.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, and the ACLU filed this challenge on November 5, representing Equality California, whose members include many same-sex couples who married between June 16 and November 4, 2008, and six same-sex couples who want to marry in California.

The California Supreme Court has also agreed to hear two other challenges filed on the same day: one filed by the City and County of San Francisco (joined by Santa Clara County and the City of Los Angeles, and subsequently by Los Angeles County and other local governments); and another filed by a private attorney.

Serving as co-counsel on the case with NCLR, Lambda Legal, and the ACLU are the Law Office of David C. Codell, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.

The case is Strauss et al. v. Horton et al. (#S168047).
Click here for more information.