Best regards,

John Dean Domingue

Lead Organizer

Direct Action Network of San Antonio

DANSA is going to have its first community meeting! We need to get the whole San Antonio community involved in activism and hear what everyone would like to see pushed. What issues have you seen in the community regarding discrimination, inclusivity, fairness, equality? What are you passionate about? Do you want to get involved in some kind of LGBT issue, but you don’t know where to start? This is the place to go! We’re still looking for venues, so if you have a suggestion, let us know!

Find the event on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/373711655987037/

FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE

Please join us for a peaceful and very visible historic march to stand two by two in an enactment of the marriage ceremony, as close to the Courthouse steps as we can get.

At 10:30 PM, we will meet at Milam Park to prepare for our walk. Please wear “wedding” attire- casual to formal is okay.

11:00 PM, we will begin marching to the courthouse; wear comfortable shoes!

At 12:01, we will stand as close as we are permitted to the Courthouse steps and enact the wedding ceremony along with our straight brothers and sisters. Please keep in mind that this day is sacred to those getting married; our peaceful presence is our statement- we will NOT be shouting or disrupting the ceremony. However, it is our goal to have more same-sex couples there than opposite-sex, and to make national and international news. We will respect everyone, and our presence will demand the same.

You do not need to be LGBT to participate, just a supporter of EQUALITY.

Marriage Equality is a vital civil right denied to most same-sex couples except in that handful of states where it has finally been recognized. It is vital because marriage is about committed couples—all committed couples—who want to make a lifelong promise to take care of and be responsible for each other. This can only strengthen family and society. This is why Marriage Equality is important to everyone.

It’s not just about the word Marriage. Denying committed couples the security and legal protections of marriage hurts them. It’s just plain wrong to make it harder for them to take care of and be responsible for each other. The institution of civil marriage offers equal protection under the law when it comes to taxes, health care and decision-making, employment benefits, and perhaps most importantly, raising healthy and happy children.

We are currently looking for volunteers! We need help with securing transportation for those unable to march, public relations/outreach, social media, coordination, and guest speakers.

If you are interested in getting married for FREE or volunteering, please contact us.

Our community must counter this opposition by showing Mayor Castro and City Council that we are as united in defending our families as the opposition is in attacking us.

On Thursday, September 15th, the San Antonio City Council will vote on the budget, and the provision for domestic partner benefits.  Before that happens, we beg for your help.  Will you take a few moments to contact the Mayor and your Council Person and tell them that you support providing affordable healthcare to the families of city employees regardless of the gender of their partners?

Now that you’ve done that, there is more you can do. Please join us at the City Council Chambers (located next to San Fernando Cathedral at 100 Military Plz) on Wednesday, September 14, 2011, at 6pm for “Citizens to be Heard.”  Those supporting the domestic partnership benefits are asked to wear purple in solidarity.

We also encourage you to join us on Thursday at 9am when the City Council will vote on the budget.  Again, all are asked to wear purple in solidarity.

And one more thing – please forward this message to all of your friends and family, post it on your Facebook page, Tweet it or otherwise spread the news.

When our families are under attack, what do we do?  STAND UP – PUSH BACK!

Thursday, July 21 · 4:00pm – 6:30pm

Next to the Grand Hyatt San Antonio

600 East Market Street
San Antonio, TX
Hyatt Hotel Housekeepers suffer abuse. Our injury rates are high, our wages are low, and our immigrant sisters are exploited and cheated by Hyatt’s housekeeping subcontractors. Hyatt is hoping we will suffer in silence . . . but we are standing up and speaking out.

Across North America we are demanding an end to the abuses we suffer on the job. We will no longer suffer in silence. The abuse must end. Hyatt must change.

Here in San Antonio, Hyatt workers from the Grand Hyatt and the Hyatt Regency are leading the way to bring dignity and decency to the River Walk and all of San Antonio.

RSVP on Facebook.

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The strength and passion behind the movement for equality build daily, especially here in San Antonio, where queer groups along with other organizations have started building coalitions to communicate and organize together for equality and justice. Because of these networks, we have the power to rise up from the sidelines, where we’ve been silent for too long about hatred and bias against our communities. The sustained prejudice and thoughtless rhetoric of Dan Ramos have not fractured our community like he hoped, but instead have brought us together as a united force.

DANSA will be at the trial for the removal of Dan Ramos [PDF] on Saturday, April 16^th, 2:00 p.m. at the Metropolitan Community Church at 611 E. Myrtle Street to show everyone in attendance and those at home watching the news that San Antonio cannot stand aside while anyone, whether Latino, Anglo, Democrat, or Republican, attacks our human dignity. We will be distributing “No Hate” shield-shaped badges to emphasize San Antonio residents’ status as defenders of the city against hatred.

As a San Antonio resident and a gay man, I feel bound by my moral code to show my face as a personal challenger to Dan Ramos’s attacks on the honor of my city and my innate worth as a human being (not a termite!). I hope you will attend as well so we—together as San Antonians, Texans, and especially people—can prove that we cannot be bullied into silence. After this episode has ended and Ramos is removed, we must watch perpetually for hatred’s challenge. We must fearlessly meet it head on to protect those without a voice from the deadly threat of hate.

Thursday, March 17, 2011 @ 6 p.m.
Granada Homes Building
111 Villita Street
San Antonio, Texas

Sidewalk Protest to Demand the Resignation of Dan Ramos and for elected Democratic officials to Denounce his bigoted remarks.

Dan Ramos, the Chair of Bexar County Democrats, recently went on a racist and homophobic tirade in an interview with the San Antonio Current.  To make matters worse, if that’s possible, he even took it further and disparaged people with disabilities.  Here are a few of his comments:

“They [homosexuals] are all connected to the gay Democratic Party, the so-called Stonewall Democrats. Just like termites they managed to get some of their people in key positions.”

“I liken them [homosexuals] to the Tea Party — the Tea Party and the f—ing Nazi Party — because they’re 90 percent white, blue-eyed, and Anglo, and I don’t give a f— who knows that. Just like the blacks … they’re American, but you can’t get your way just because you’re black.

“I go back to an old very well-used slogan: blacks wanted to get their way because they were black. What it is, is we have a very, very sinister movement in which you don’t know, at the end of the day, you didn’t even know that your next door buddy, your bosom fishing buddy was gay. That, I guess, goes to my belief in the religious thing. Look: this is not natural. This is like a kid who was born with a polio leg, you can’t kill him and you can’t sweep him under the rug. … I’m glad that Texas has not yet come to where gays can adopt children … because the poor kids have already come from a troubled family and then to be ‘hey, how come my momma is my daddy type of deal.’ It’s not natural.”

On Thursday, March 17th, at the Granada Homes Ballroom, 111 Villita Street (corner of Villita and Jack White Way), the “Proud Democrats of San Antonio” will be hosting a fundraising dinner entitled, “A Gavel To Remember”, to honor Democratic incumbent judges who lost re-election to their benches last November.

Elected Democratic officials, including sitting and former Democratic judges, will be in attendance and State Senator Carlos Uresti (D-San Antonio) is the keynote speaker.  Not one Democratic elected official has come out and denounced Dan Ramos for the comments he made to the SA Current.

LGBT activists and our allies, along with other minority groups, need to have a presence at this event to urge Democratic elected officials and others to speak out against the homophobic and racist statements made by Dan Ramos and to urge him to step down.  There is plenty of sidewalk space outside the entrance to the building (the ballroom is on the 14th Floor), so we can stand, hold signs and ask attendees to speak out against bigotry and demand Ramos’ resignation.

Please be there with your signs at or before 6:00 pm so that we can catch attendees walking into the building.

Parking along the street on Jack White way (north of Nueva) or in lots nearby.

They are all connected to the gay Democratic Party, the so-called Stonewall Democrats. Just like termites they managed to get some of their people in key positions.

He went on to disparage our community further, referring to us as the “Nazi Party” and added racism to his political agenda:

I liken them to the Tea Party — the Tea Party and the f—ing Nazi Party — because they’re 90 percent white, blue-eyed, and Anglo, and I don’t give a f— who knows that. Just like the blacks … they’re American, but you can’t get your way just because you’re black.

The Direct Action Network of San Antonio find these comments abhorrent and demeaning to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and degrading to the struggles of the African American community and their fight to be recognized as full citizens of the United States.  Please sign our petition, joining with the State Democratic Party Chair and demand the resignation of Dan Ramos.

*This petition is now closed.  Thank you for your signatures.*