DUSA Dateline Apr2010x4
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Monthly News Bulletin Volume 19, No. 4 April 2010 DignityUSA works for respect and justice for people of all sexual orientations, genders and gender identities—especially gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons— in the Catholic Church and the world through education, advocacy, and support. Contents: Justice-seeking People and Voices that Challenge • Justice-seeking People and Voices that By Mark Matson, President, DignityUSA Challenge – 1 • DignityUSA Statement on Boulder On March 14, 2010, DignityUSA took a pretty extraordinary Catholic School Issue – 3 step in our role as the voice for GLBT Catholics. We sponsored • DignityUSA Board of Directors to Meet in Philadelphia April 16-18 – 3 a full-page ad in the Sunday Denver Post and Boulder Daily • Chapter Leader Teleconference – 4 Camera newspapers challenging the decision of the Archdiocese • Denver Post and Boulder Daily Camera of Denver to disallow the children of two Catholic lesbian par- Full-page Ad – 5 ents from enrolling in Sacred Heart of Jesus Elementary School • Important Announcement – 6 • DignityUSA Board Nominations Now in Boulder, Colorado. The ad was co-signed by our partners in Open – 6 reform, Call To Action (CTA), New Ways Ministry, and Fortu- Mark Matson • Transitions – 7 nate Families. A copy of the ad appears on page 5 in this issue of • Gay Pioneer Robert Carter Dies – 7 Dateline. • DignityUSA Executive Director Quoted on DC Catholic Charities Ending Spousal Benefits – 9 I want to inform you how this came to be. It is a story that illustrates clearly why • “Going once … Going twice … Gone — there is a need for DignityUSA and that our organization is functioning well. Sold to the Cutie in the Third Row!” – 9 • Dignity/Honolulu News – 9 • Dignity/Washington News – 9 The decision by Pastor Bill Breslin and Archbishop Charles Chaput was immedi- • Letter to Cardinal Francis George on ately leaked by someone at Sacred Heart to KUSA Channel 9 television news in Den- the Occasion of James R. Green and ver. It appeared on the evening news on Saturday, March 6, 2010. Protests broke out William Diederich’s 40th Anniversary –10 in Boulder the next day in front of Sacred Heart of Jesus Church. Parents pulled chil- • In Africa, A Step Backward On Human Rights – 12 dren out of the school to protest. Boulder Pride (an LGBTQ organization with website) • Call for Women to Share Their fanned the flames in a community known for its liberal values. (Boulder is home to the Stories – 12 University of Colorado). The story spread rapidly across various media channels. Our • Writer Seeks Assistance of Same-Sex Executive Director, Marianne Duddy-Burke, herself the mother of two children, imme- Couples – 13 diately released a statement from DignityUSA (see page 3) that was picked up by the mainstream media as the story got legs. Terry Mischel, a National Board Member and member of Dignity/Denver, was approached for radio interviews. Our Media Director in New York, Jeff Stone, was interviewed live by BBC Radio in London. Things were happening quickly. Easter Blessings Unfortunately, Marianne was hospitalized with kidney problems as this story broke, leaving us without our usual competent spokesperson. As we designed it when we created his position, Jeff Stone jumped into the fray in her absence. (Jeff frequently collaborates with Marianne, Peggy Hayes and others in formulating our positions for the media.) We were advised daily by staff at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) in New York. Your Board’s strategy includes an intention to build and leverage partnerships to extend our reach. Marianne has invested many years in developing a strong working relationship with GLAAD. Both the Board and chapter leaders have benefited from their media training. The Boulder situation was just one more test of our media savvy. (One of the things I have learned is that we have to move FAST when a media story breaks. We do not have time for telephone tag or extensive consultation to get every- one to agree on the message. That is why we have empowered Marianne and Jeff to act without prior Board approval.) Continued on page 2 Dateline April 2010 - 2 - Justice-seeking People and Voices that Challenge Continued from page 1 On Tuesday, March 9, I was informed that a donor who wished to remain anony- DignityUSA Board of Directors mous would foot the bill for a full-page ad in the Sunday Denver Post and Boulder Executive Committee Daily Camera on March 14. The cost was $40,000! The donor deemed it very impor- Mark Matson – President tant that the message be to Catholic leadership from Catholics and wanted DignityUSA Lourdes Rodriguez-Nogues – Vice to place and sponsor the ad, along with appropriate co-sponsors. It had to be that President weekend or the offer would be rescinded. The ad deadline was the end of the day Lewis Tanner – Secretary Thursday. We had two days to come up with copy acceptable to the donor, get Greg Potosnak – Treasurer $40,000 to the Denver Post, establish a special web address registered in the State of At-Large Board Members Colorado for people to respond to, and coordinate with Dignity/Denver. This was quite Mark Clark a challenge with our Executive Director out of commission and the rest of us working Gene Corpuz full-time jobs. Leo Egashira Alice Knowles GLAAD was instrumental in helping us design the ad and determine its content. Honour Maddock They advised us to keep it simple, don’t use the words the Bishops use against us, don’t Terry Mischel attack the Bishops but appeal to the sense of fairness among the people — all good ad- Linda Pieczynski vice. We settled on the ad content by Thursday morning. In the meantime, Jeff Stone Ramon Rodriguez was contacting Call To Action, New Ways Ministry, and Fortunate Families to seek Tom Streeper Tom Yates their joint endorsement. This involved tracking the right decision makers down — all of whom had to act with lightning speed. Jeff was successful. I contacted our Treasur- er, Greg Potosnak in New Jersey, explained the situation, and asked him to arrange a National Office transfer of $40,000 to Denver before we would receive the money from the donor. DignityUSA Fortunately, we are now in solid financial footing and had the cash available to do this. PO Box 376 Peggy Burns, our Operations Manager, in Medford, MA expedited the money transfer. Medford, MA 02155-0004 The donor’s gift arrived in our account the next morning. (Whew!) I contacted Voice: 202-861-0017 or Georgeanne Bley, President of Dignity/Denver, who requested a delay of the ad until 800-877-8797 the next weekend to afford time to inform and discuss the matter with her members. Fax: 781-397-0584 Website: www.dignityusa.org Appreciating her concern, I relayed the request to the donor. It was denied as the donor E-mail: [email protected] felt that the timing was NOW. I worked with Georgeanne on a communication strategy to inform the members of the chapter before a full-page ad appeared in their paper. Staff This required fast work on the part of the chapter leadership. Meanwhile Ken Fitch of Marianne Duddy-Burke – Dignity/Denver was keeping us all informed on local developments in the media in Executive Director Boulder and Denver via the Internet. [email protected] Voice: 617-669-7810 A Dignity/Denver member purchased the web address www.ColoradoCatholics Concerned.com and registered it to his Denver address. We have been monitoring it Peggy Burns – Operations Mgr [email protected] since. We have received an outpouring of support throughout the Rocky Mountain area, and of course the usual dose of nasty criticisms. The responses offer Dignity/ Dateline & QV: Quarterly Voice Denver an opportunity to reach out to potential new members. Publications Team Leo Egashira – Publications While I cannot reveal the identity of the donor, I can say that it was not an existing Committee Chair member of DignityUSA, but rather someone who learned about our work in media cov- [email protected] erage of the story, investigated us, and was impressed with the record on our web-site. The donor wanted an organization with national clout and a local presence in Colorado, Bill Welch – Editor [email protected] and felt the investment would be well executed under our name. This was an easy decision for us as the message was entirely consistent with our work. We are often Peggy Burns – Proofreader hampered by the costs it takes to do something like this. Paul Keaveney – Proofreader This would not have happened without a national structure and presence. When the story broke, media contacted our national office because they have become condi- DignityUSA is a not-for-profit religious corporation organized tioned to do so about anything involving LGBT Catholics. Our Executive Director car- under U.S. Internal Revenue ries a cell phone with her at all times to field such calls, and does so quickly and Service Code 501(c)(3). competently — which reporters love. DignityUSA has been building coalitions with other national LGBT and Church reform organizations for years. These include Call To Action, New Ways Ministry, Fortunate Families, Human Rights Campaign, Nation- Continued on page 3 Dateline April 2010 - 3 - Justice-seeking People and Voices that Challenge DignityUSA Board of Continued from page 2 Directors to Meet in al Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and GLAAD. Those partnerships paid off quickly for Philadelphia April 16-18 us. We also had more clout because we had a local presence via our chapter in Denver. DignityUSA has long proved its ability to mobilize “ground troops” quickly in many DignityUSA’s Board of Directors cities across the country when needed.