By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman
WASHINGTON – For the fourth year, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays took to Capitol Hill with family photos in hand as part of their Bringing the Message Home campaign to meet with legislators and lobby them for support on legislation that promotes equality for their LGBT loved ones and to fight the anti-gay family Federal Marriage Amendment.
PFLAG Regional Director Mike Neubecker was at the event, which took place from May 3-7.
"Jan and I did make about eight visits" to U.S. Representatives from the Great Lakes Region on May 4, Neubecker said, referring to his wife Jan. "Our main focus was the FMA; to stop it in its tracks. It would be the most devastating thing that could happen right now."
The Federal Marriage Amendment is up for a vote in the U.S. Senate on June 5.
During the evening of May 4, PFLAG-ers gathered to honor out legislators Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D- Wis.) and retiring Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) at a Capitol Hill reception attended by approximately 60 people.
"This event is a time for elected officials – many of whom are facing a vote on June 5 on the discriminatory Federal Marriage Amendment – to see the faces of their constituents and see in a very real way that we are about family values, too," said Jody M. Huckaby, PFLAG's executive director. "One of our core family values is simple, basic equality for all of our family members, and we want our legislators to understand what it means. That's what this day is about."
Neubecker said that the "Bringing the Message Home" campaign has two main components: Mother's and Father's Day postcards for family members of LGBTs to send to their state and national representatives and personal lobbying visits at the legislators' home offices.
"We want to encourage everyone that has an LGBT loved one to lobby on their behalf," Neubecker said.
The postcards read, "Dear Senator, All I want for Mother's [or Father's] Day is for you to vote NO on the Federal Marriage Amendment! Sincerely, A PFLAG Mom [or Dad]."
Neubecker said that he will be reaching out to area LGBT organizations to ask them to help get the postcards into the hands of parents of LGBTs throughout the region.
"We'd like to see the LGBT community take this to their families as well to amplify the voices of parents," Neubecker said.
"We want to really see them flood in," he added. "Groups like Focus on the Family have really encouraged some kind of postcard mailing as well. We really need to counter that with a family message of supporting our loved ones."
Help OUT: To learn more about the PFLAG "Bringing the Message Home" campaign, download a postcard, or make a donation, visit http://www.pflag.org.
