By State Sen. Sheila Kuehl

Dear Friends,

It is extremely important that we all turn out to vote in the special election Nov. 8 and, for simplicity in getting out the message, that we just vote No on everything.

Why The Initiatives Matter to the LGBT Community

Proposition 73: Waiting Period and Parental Notification Before Termination of Minor's Pregnancy. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.

The right to privacy and control of one's body has not only been the basis of protecting a woman's right to choose, but also the basis for protecting the rights of LGBT folks. Civil rights should not be stripped by a ballot initiative. This becomes a tyranny of the majority. The women's community and LGBT community are natural allies and the women's community has provided significant support on LGBT civil rights issues. We need to stand strongly with them.

This IS an LGBT issue, because our young women have historically been "punished" for their sexual orientation by rape and, therefore, stand in great risk of being involved in an unintended pregnancy. In addition, discrimination and harassment against our youth can result in LGBT youth engaging in a variety of risk-taking behaviors, including unprotected experimentation with heterosexual sex (often to prove that one is a "real man" or "real woman" or just to prove that they are not gay). The ability to choose by discussion with one's physician is important to us, too.

Proposition 74: Public School Teachers. Waiting Period for Permanent Status. Dismissal. Initiative Statute and Proposition 75: Public Employee Union Dues. Restrictions on Political Contributions. Employee Consent Requirement. Initiative Statute.

Both of these initiatives are nothing but veiled attacks against working families, designed to eliminate the unions' ability to organize and counter the well-funded, massive, and increasing assaults against them. Those who don't support organizing (incidentally, many of the same folks who oppose our rights) have much more money, and want to increase the gap.

Unions have increasingly been strong and important supporters of LGBT civil rights issues in the Legislature, including marriage equality. The unions' fight for domestic partner rights in their contracts in the '90s helped us to secure the important gains we have made in the Legislature. This ground work was crucial to our success.

These matters should be negotiated by management and labor sitting equally at the table, not settled at the ballot.

Proposition 76: State Spending and School Funding Limits. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.

This is an initiative that should be called "Robocuts," and never "Live Within Our Means." It allows the governor to declare that the budget is out of balance and, instead of taking responsibility for figuring out how and what to do, the initiative would provide automatic cuts across the board on all budget items except prisons and welfare. The major automatic cuts will diminish funding for education and health care.

Education funding is important to us because it is in our schools that we begin to teach children about citizenship and tolerance for diversity. While all children will be hurt by cuts to school funding, our children will face additional harm as there will be even fewer resources available to protect them against breaches in the law and fewer community resource officers to work with local schools to protect against hate crimes on campus.

Cuts to health care will obviously affect those in our community struggling with HIV/AIDS and breast cancer.

Proposition 77: Court Order Redistricting. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.

Although he claims otherwise, the obvious goal of a moderate Republican governor seeking redistricting is to give the Republicans and moderate Democrats more control in the Legislature. No one is advocating for redistricting reform in states with a Republican majority in the legislature.

When districts are drawn to favor "moderates" (those who have to moderate democratic positions to secure Republican votes), those elected do not support LGBT rights. Often times those elected from moderate seats are very concerned about re-election and they shy away from making bold decisions in support of LGBT civil rights issues. Don't take my word for it, check the votes on marriage equality in the Assembly.

Many of the key gains we have made in the state Legislature have only passed by one vote. Even losing one seat traditionally held by a supporter of LGBT civil rights issues could be devastating to our community.

Finally, of course, we need to veto the corrupt marriage between the governor and his ego, just as he cruelly vetoed marriage equality.

Go to the polls and just vote no.