Letter from the President

It's time to Pay Your Dues!

Our 20th Anniversary Event was on June 1st. It was a great event--we hope you made it and thank everyone that did.

We are working on something very important at present. We are working on getting a bill passed to ban the gay panic defense for people who bash LGBT people. Please check out our Issues section for more information.

2006 will prove to be a very special year. We will be celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the founding of the Stonewall Democratic Club of NYC, the citywide voice of the LGBT community. 2006 is also the 20th Anniversary of Int. 2, the first gay rights bill, by the New York City Council. We will be celebrating that fact by honoring the courageous City Council Members who voted for it twenty years ago.
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Much has changed since 1986, and all for the better. Already this year, the New York City Council made history electing the outstanding (and openly lesbian) Christine Quinn as Speaker—a great win for all New Yorkers. In 2006, Stonewall will redouble our efforts towards securing our right to marry in New York State, expanding social services for our community—especially for our most vulnerable: LGBT homeless and at-risk youth and LGBT seniors. We will continue to push for the passage of DASA at the state level and work for the reauthorization of the Ryan White AIDS funding.

In electoral politics, every single candidate for State Attorney General and the leading candidate for Governor, Eliot Spitzer, all are unequivocal in their support for marriage equality.

All Congressional Representatives, State Senators and Assemblymembers are up for re-election this year and this election cycle looks to be one in which our community can make major gains. With the Assembly possibly gaining a third openly gay member and the Court of Appeals likely to rule on marriage later this year, it is critically important for us to get more people involved in the fight for LGBT equality. New York stands ready to make major advances towards full equality for our community.

Join us and help us advance our civil rights. We can not do it without you.

Sincerely,

Dirk McCall
President