Vote Yes on 4 Rally fills Lake Eola seats

April 15, 2024April 18, 2024 / Martha H / Leave a comment

The following was selected from an article written by Jessica Corbett of Common Dreams:

The court’s early-April decision to let Floridians weigh in on abortion rights “underscores the crucial role of Florida’s ballot initiative process, which provides voters an important opportunity to take the reins when politicians aren’t representing our interests,” Yes on 4 campaign director Lauren Brenzel said earlier this month. She also said,” Polls have consistently shown well over 60% of Florida voters support limiting government intrusion in the personal healthcare decision of accessing abortion care,” she pointed out. Notably, the measure needs that percent of support to pass.“

Dr. Marian Sampson, an OB-GYN with Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, told the Sentinel, “Trust me when I say there is no medical reason for abortion bans and there is no medical reason for the government to be forcing their way into our exam rooms and standing between me and my patients. Link to photos here.

THE PLEDGE Central Florida at 1U and Beyond

April 15, 2024 / Martha H / Leave a comment

Commit at 1U and online at the website below.

“Hate cannot drive out hate,
only love can do that.”
— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Right here in Central Florida, many in our community are living in fear — fear for their own safety, fear for the well-being of their children, and fear of practicing their religion and identifying with their culture.

This IS who we are

We are committed to the promise that Central Florida is a safe community for all who live here and for all future generations. We pledge to protect and value each of our neighbors, especially those who are being threatened or feel unsafe.

I WILL lead by example, treating all people, especially those with whom I disagree, with kindness and respect.

I WILL refrain from inflammatory words and actions, and actively support those being attacked.

I WILL report threatening incidents of hate and violence to 800-423 TIPS (8477)

I WILL educate myself about antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, homophobia, and all other forms of discrimination, and help others in my circle of influence to do the same. I WILL lead by example, treating all. See website and learn more.

YES ON 4 – Saturday, April 13 Lake Eola at Noon

April 2, 2024April 8, 2024 / Martha H / Leave a comment

Starting at Walt Disney Amphitheater at Lake Eola Park at 195 N Rosalind Ave, Orlando, FL 32801

Parking:Downtown Orlando hosts ample paid street parking and paid public parking garages. Costs and availability will vary. It is recommended that attendees arrive early with enough time to find parking. There are a few nearby paid parking lots/garages that are within 2 blocks walking distance to the Walt Disney Amphitheater at Lake Eola Park.

Signs and Posters:

From the Promoters of the Amendment:

We welcome and encourage our supporters to bring their signs. We will have a limited number of printed signs to offer to folks who are unable to make their own signs. It is extremely important that any homemade signs remain on message and absolutely no partisan messaging or coat hanger imagery will be permitted at our rally. These are losing messages and we have a responsibility to 84k patients to WIN. If you bring an off message sign, our staff will ask you to put your sign in your car and will give you a printed placard to use. Please keep the following messaging points in mind as you craft your signs.

Key Sign Making Tips

Labels do not work. Don’t use “pro-choice” or “pro-life” Lead with empathy- we don’t know a person’s situation.

Stress that the government should not interfere with medical decisions between patients and doctors

Don’t focus on partisan politics, focus on removing governmental interference with abortion

Do’s

Vote Yes on 4

Limit Government Interference With Abortion

Stop Political Interference Doctors Not Politicians

Don’ts

Don’t say Anything about EITHER political party or candidates. Example: NO signs for or against Trump, DeSantis, Biden, Debbie Mucarsel Powell, etc. or anything about candidates running for any level of public office.

No coat hanger/ violent imagery

Keep the Government out of our healthcare.

No handmaids tale costumes

No antiquated labels like “pro-life” or “pro-choice”

Agenda:We will be beginning our rally promptly at 12 PM. We will gather at the amphitheater where we will hear directly from patients, providers, and partners that have been negatively impacted by Florida’s Abortion Bans. After our speaker rally we will grab our signs and march and chant around the park to show our strength in numbers. We anticipate our rally to end around 2 PM. Absolutely no elected officials or partisan leaders will be invited to speak at our rally as we believe ALL politicians should be removed from interfering with abortion.

Safety & Security:By attending this rally, you are agreeing to abide by Yes on 4’s non engagement policy. This means that regardless of what sort of presence we might have at our rally by anti’s, you will not engage visually, verbally, or physically.If you choose to engage with any opposition, you will be removed from our event.

We will have safety marshals, private security, and uniformed police officers present at our rally to ensure everyone’s safety. We ask for all of our attendees to remain alert and if you see something, say something to our team which will be identifiable by their bright yellow safety vests.

Help us get word out! Help us grow our rally, utilize resources from our partner toolkit to invite your networks to join us as we rally to end the 6 week abortion ban.

Gmail – How to prepare: Rally to End the 6-week Abortion Ban

If you have any questions, please reach out to volunteer@ floridiansprotectingfreedom.com

The Coalition of the Immokalee Workers(CIW) heads to Palm Beach March 8-10

February 20, 2024 / Martha H / Leave a comment

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) writes:

On the second weekend of March, in the streets and parks of Palm Beach, the Farmworker Freedom Festival will pose this simple question: How much longer will the men and women who harvest our food be forced to face unimaginable abuse when a proven solution is just an agreement away?

Farmworkers across the country deserve to work in fields and greenhouses where they no longer have to fear being beaten, raped, or robbed by their bosses, and where consumers know that the workers who picked their produce were treated with dignity and respect. Only when all large buyers of produce are part of the Fair Food Program will freedom and safety for all farmworkers be possible – and in Palm Beach, there is only one person with the power to bring the final fast-food holdout, Wendy’s, to the table.

The CIW invites you to a 3-day celebration of farmworkers’ human rights featuring the CIW’s mobile Modern-day Slavery Museum, a benefit concert, and original farmworker theater and art, including a two-story tall, life-like farmworker puppet walking the streets of Palm Beach, giving voice to the country’s farmworker community in their ongoing fight for fundamental human rights

Why Palm Beach: Wendy’s CEO lives there and Wendys has not yet signed on with CIW to agree to using products produced at Fair Food farms.

When, Where: March 8-10, 2024, Palm Beach, Florida at Bradley Park

More directions about the March through the streets and events at Bradley Park will be sent to you after you register.

Register here by clicking this link

Remembering Trayvon Martin and Black Lives Matter

January 9, 2024January 15, 2024 / Martha H / Leave a comment

From Wikipedia: Trayvon Benjamin Martin (February 5, 1995 – February 26, 2012) was a 17-year-old African-American from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was fatally shot in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic American. Martin had accompanied his father to visit his father’s fiancée at her townhouse at The Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford. On the evening of February 26, Martin was walking back to the fiancée’s house from a nearby convenience store. Zimmerman, a member of the community watch, saw Martin and reported him to the Sanford Police as suspicious. Several minutes later, an altercation happened and Zimmerman fatally shot Martin in the chest.

Zimmerman was not charged at the time. The police said there was no evidence to refute his claim of self-defense, and Florida’s stand-your-ground law prohibited them from arresting or charging him. After national media focused on the incident, Zimmerman was eventually charged and tried, but a jury acquitted him of second-degree murder and manslaughter in July 2013.^[2]

Following Martin’s death, rallies, marches, and protests were held across the United States. In March 2012, hundreds of students at his high school held a walkout in support of him. An online petition calling for a full investigation and prosecution of Zimmerman garnered 2.2 million signatures. Also in March, the media coverage surrounding Martin’s death became the first story of 2012 to be featured more than the presidential race, which was underway at the time. A national debate about racial profiling and stand-your-ground laws ensued. The governor of Florida appointed a task force to examine the state’s self-defense laws. Martin’s life was scrutinized by the media and bloggers. The name Trayvon was tweeted more than two million times in the 30 days following the shooting.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8] More than 1,000 people attended the viewing of his remains the day before his funeral, which was held on March 3 in Miami. He was buried in Dade-Memorial Park (North), in Miami. A memorial was dedicated to Martin at the Goldsboro Westside Historical Museum, a Black history museum in Sanford, in July 2013.^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14]

MLK Candlelight Vigil and celebration at the First United Methodist Church of Orlando-Jan 7, 6 pm

January 1, 2024January 6, 2024 / Martha H / Leave a comment

The Interfaith Council of Central Florida participates in a Celebration of Rev. Dr. KIng by members of the Council, including Rev. Margalie, that will honor his work and life and remind us that the goals of the movement are yet to be attained everywhere, for everyone. The theme will be
“We Cannot Turn Back.”

Join the Candlelight March at the Orlando City Hall at 6 pm and walk to the nearby First United Methodist Church. Or, meet everybody at the church for the 7pm celebration.

Sunday, January 7, 2024
6 p.m. - MLK Candlelight Vigil and March
Rotunda, City Hall, 400 South Orange Avenue
6:30 p.m. – Interfaith Multicultural Celebration
First United Methodist Church, 142 East Jackson Street

WHAT: The first event of the year of the Mayor Buddy Dyer and the Mayor’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission will honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the annual Candlelight Vigil and March followed by a Interfaith Multicultural Celebration.

Following the Candlelight Vigil is the Interfaith Multicultural Celebration presented by the Interfaith Council of Central Florida, with guest speakers Bishop Derrick L. McRae, Senior Pastor of The Experience Christian Center and President of the African American Council of Christian Clergy. The celebration’s theme is “We Cannot Turn Back” and includes representation from various faith traditions.

The Commission is a volunteer organization that includes business and community representatives appointed by Mayor Dyer to raise funds, produce programs and coordinate events that promote the celebration of Dr. King’s legacy of service, equality, justice, freedom, peace, respect and inclusion for all.

Remembering Rosewood and Ocoee at Welcoming Wednesday on Dec 13 Time: 7 pm -8:30 pm

December 6, 2023December 12, 2023 / Martha H / Leave a comment

Come to the Gathering Place and renew your knowledge of these two events to give context and content to conversation when these events or places are discussed. Discuss how the feelings and attitudes that motivated the participants in these massacres may still affect the present day.

Words that are used in connection with these events and other similar events: Massacre, Riot, Reparation, Compensation, Election, Voting, Poll Tax, Avoidance, Intimidation, Generational Wealth, Whitecapping, White erasure, Denial, Fear, Exploitation, Innocent until proven Guilty. Reconciliation, Community Healing, Terror, Lynching

Transgender Day of Remembrance November 20

November 15, 2023November 14, 2023 / Martha H / Leave a comment

From History.com at https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-transgender-day-of-remembrance

November 20, 1999 marks the first Transgender Day of Remembrance, honoring the victims of transphobic violence. Now an annual observance, the first TDoR is a vigil commemorating Rita Hester, a 34-year-old African American trans woman murdered in Boston the previous year.

Hester had been openly trans for nearly her whole life and was well-known in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. She and her friends were all too familiar with violence against trans people—just a few months before her death, Hester had responded to a Boston paper’s question about the murder of another Black transgender woman, Chanelle Pickett, saying “I’m afraid of what will happen if [the perpetrator] gets off lightly.”

See here for events at UUA and in Orlando. Link here to add events you know about.

Continue reading →

Transgender Awareness Week Nov 13-19

November 11, 2023November 11, 2023 / Martha H / Leave a comment

From the GLAAD WEBSITE https://glaad.org/

Each year between November 13 – 19, people and organizations around the country participate in Transgender Awareness Week to help increase understanding about transgender people and the issues members of the community face.

Trans Awareness Week takes place the week before Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20. Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), is an annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence that year.

Read more about Transgender Awareness Week (Semana de Concientización Transgénero en espagnol).

What is Transgender Awareness Week?

Transgender Awareness Week is a week when transgender people and their allies take action to bring attention to the trans community by educating the public about who transgender people are, sharing stories and experiences, and advancing advocacy around issues of prejudice, discrimination, and violence that affect the transgender community.

For more about how GLAAD has observed Transgender Awareness Week this year and through the years, check out: https://glaad.org/tag/trans-awareness-week

Continue reading →

Pride Parade was alive with joy and pride

October 22, 2023October 25, 2023 / Martha H / Leave a comment

Rev. Margalie, 1U minister, and Judith, 1U CRE director, and 1U Board President, Paul, guided our truck and trailer while Rev. Tracie of University UU Fellowship led the combined UU Orlando contingent holding the Side with Love Banner along the Parade route. All along the route as well as at the booth, fans that proclaimed, “We Want to Marry You” and “We Say Gay” were given out. Our parade vehicle proudly communicated UU values with signs, banners, and colors. See SmugMug for more photos here for more photos. Thank you Joan, former Board president of 1U and University UU volunteers for sharing their UU values and support for LGBTQUIA+ with hundreds of walkers along Lake Eola.