Nearly 30 states have already passed discriminatory laws that prevent gays and lesbian couples from marrying. Why is marriage important for gays and lesbians? Aside from the obvious, that they ought to be allowed to demonstrate their love and devotion to each other as heterosexual couples do, there are many legal implications. Legal marriages allow for a host of protections including partner benefits, healthcare, hospital visit access and legal protections. Unfortunately, California, Florida and Arizona’s anti-gay marriage forces have reared their ugly heads again this election cycle. Even if you do not live in these states, please help to support efforts to defeat these measures and to send a message to anti-gay marriage politicians, religious leaders and activists nationwide that their hateful language and policies will not be tolerated.

takepart with No on 8 (California)
Check out these amazing no on 8 videos:

takepart with No on 2 (Florida)

takepart with No on 102 (Arizona)

by  William Lucas Walker

I’ve made a short video, urging Californians to Vote No on Prop 8. I made it for my children. I also made it with the aid of a number of friends who let me photograph their sons and daughters, as well as a voiceover by my pal Amy.   So thanks.

Kelly and I were married on June 17 2008, after nine happy years together. Next to the births of our children, it was the most joyful day of our lives. For our 7-year-old daughter Elizabeth, it was the high-point of our family’s life. She was bursting with pride all summer. Until she heard about Proposition 8.

Our most compelling reason for choosing marriage had less to do with romance than with the benefits marriage would provide our kids. Not just the many legal protections marriage automatically confers on children, but the more real, everyday benefit of knowing that their family is equal, not in some different, lesser legal category than all their friends’ families.

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San Francisco voters will consider the decriminalization of prostitution on a ballot proposal during the upcoming November election. Proposition K on the San Francisco ballot will allow voters to decide whether the California State prostitution laws should continue to be enforced in their city, although technically the offense will still be illegal as the measure does not have the jurisdiction to overturn the law. Proponents of the measure say that the law does little to help women working in sex trades by locking them up and that the money spent on enforcement is better used elsewhere in the city.

I love San Francisco. I also love that there is a place like this in America where basic questions about Democracy and Society are routinely questioned and put to the test through the election process. However this is a horrible idea. Perhaps to some the issue of consenting adults being afforded the right to sell sex like any other service makes sense on an abstract level. But anyone who has ever traveled to an area where prostitution is either legal or decriminalized - such as Amsterdam’s Red Light District, the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany, or certain cities in Thailand - knows what a degrading effect allowing the practice has on communities. If you want to turn your neighborhood overnight into some place where nobody in their right mind would want to raise a family, you probably couldn’t find a better a way to do it than legalizing prostitution. This is simply not something any community wants to mess with.

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Los Angeles County Fire officials have announced that the enormous Sesnon fire began when strong winds knocked down electrical lines, igniting dry brush in a drainage ditch, and led to one of the most destructive fires of this season.   Fueled by Santa Ana winds, the latest Southern California wildfires have so far claimed two lives, burned more than 18,000 acres and forced the evacuation of 1,200 people from the area.   While winds and dry conditions typically contribute to ferocious fires around this time of year, officials are concerned that climate change could be causing longer fire seasons. In a disturbing statement Bob Roper, chief of the Ventura County Fire Department, warned: “We are not out of fire season. Fire season is year-round now.”

takepart by volunteering or donating through California Volunteers to help victims of the fires.

Related: Inconvenient Truth of the Day

Photo: Dan Steinberg/Associated Press

Two weeks ago, Sarah posted a call to action about menu labeling and last week, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed bill SB 1420 which makes California the first state in the USA to have have its restaurant chains with 20 or more locations statewide post calorie information on menus and indoor menu boards for consumers.

That puts California #1 in menu labeling and #1 in energy efficiency.

takepart and follow Sarah’s Social Action Snapshots

Last week Sarah’s Social Action Snapshot called on us concerned denizens to urge Gov. Schwarzenegger to require menu labeling in California chain restaurants.   While that legislation is just a muscle-bound signature away, there’s more to be done to ensure that consumers are provided with accurate and accessible nutritional information.   It seems McDonald’s is dragging it’s over-sized red heels to offer customers clearly visible and decipherable labels.   With comically elaborate fold-out brochures and posters that require a magnifying glass and a Rosetta Stone, they don’t make it easy people to make informed choices about their meal.

The folks over at the Center for Science in the Public Interest found some aspiring filmmakers to help illustrate the point:

While there’s hope that menu labeling could see action on a national scale with upcoming federal legislation, it’s important that influential corporations are on the same page, or menu board at least.

takepart by urging McDonald’s to provide nutrition information on their menu boards.   And check-in with CSPI to learn about implementing a menu labeling policy in your area.

Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica based water watchdog, announced that 91% of state beaches they tracked have rated very good to excellent.   Perhaps thinking that was good enough, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to cut $1 million in state funding for water-quality monitoring.   And just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.   Apparently, the money will be reallocated to help fight fires after a particularly dry season, which ironically is part of the reason the beaches are cleaner this year.   I’m all for having enough money to fight fires, but it seems to me, in my limited knowledge of firefighting techniques, that these two aspects of the budget could work symbiotically.   Why don’t we use the cleaner water to fight the fires?  I realize it’s more complicated than that, and that’s not how the budget functions.   But a boy can dream, can’t he?

Now that I’ve moved to California, I’m hoping to fufill my boyhood fantasy of learning how to surf.   From lip-synching to Surfin’ USA in the 2nd grade talent show to seeing Brian Wilson at the Hollywood Bowl recently, I’m constantly reminded how much fun it can be.   But I certainly don’t want to be hangin’ 10 in sewage, so hopefully beach monitoring and clean-ups can get the funding they deserve.

takepart by volunteering with Heal the Bay and let Gov. Schwarzenegger know you want funding restored to water-quality monitoring.

Yes, Californians (myself included) can sometimes be a bit smug about our progressive legislation that the nation and world later adopts (think smoking ban in restaurants). However, there’s a reason people listen to us because the policies make sense!

So, now California’s have another opportunity for a simple but useful and important change that will positively impact our health: menu labeling!

The state legislature approved a measure that will require calories to be listed on all items at chain and fast food restaurants. We’re now just waiting for our health-conscious governor to do the right thing by signing the bill. Tell him that you want California to be the first state in the nation to have menu labeling. And, who knows, after California, it could soon be appearing in other states near you!

takepart with the Center for Science in the Public Interest and tell your Govenor to support menu labeling in your state

Related:

Sarah’s Social Action Snapshot
Hungry for Change

(Photo: Center for Science in the Public Interest)

I grew up ten miles from Berkeley, California, and thus am well-versed in their hippie ways.   Did you know, for instance, that Berkeley is a nuclear-free zone?  It’s true!   I mean, I don’t think the signs announcing that will help if someone else decides to make the Bay Area a nuclear zone for whatever horrible reason, but points for effort.   Also, what about the Lawrence-Livermore Lab?  But you know what?  I had a point to all this that I should get around to telling you.

Berkeley’s City Council, in its progressive (that’s a better word than hippie, isn’t it) form, approved yesterday loans to property owners for installing solar panels on their roofs.   All joking aside, this is awesome news.   The reason many people don’t invest in solar energy is the initial investment, and this could literally wipe out that problem.   The New York Times reports that the loans will probably be up to $22,000 apiece, and be paid back over 20 years as part of the homeowner’s property tax.

The city is going to run a pilot program first, in which $1.5 million will be raised, and approximately 50 loans will be given out.   Assuming the success of the test run (and I think we can only assume this will be a success), “the kitty could eventually contain tens of millions of dollars, and hundreds of property owners could be eligible to participate.”

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A California union is aggressively pursuing a recall of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.   The labor organization representing California’s prison guards, a group of people that under normal circumstances you wouldn’t want to mess with, even if you are Arnold Schwarzenegger, is hopping mad over the Governator ordering a pay cut to its members in the midst of California’s protracted budget dispute.

The union has pledged to move as quickly as possible to enact a recall vote of the movie star turned politician.   To do so, the 30,000 plus member California Correctional Peace Officers Association will need to collect 1 Million signatures on a petition for the measure.   With the Governor having ordered job cuts for 22,000 temporary state employees and pay cuts for another 200,000 state workers the signatures might not be all that hard to come by.

While Governor Schwarzenegger is unquestionably not the only one to blame for the budget deadlock in the Golden State, it is unconscionable to bring so many state employees livelihoods into the dispute.   Partisan rancor and competing political ideologies aside, being the son of two civil servants, I know firsthand that these are people who work hard for modest salaries and do not deserve to get caught in the crossfire of political haggling.   Measures should be enacted in California and elsewhere to ensure that budget disputes will not affect the pay of public employees.

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