I am sick and tired of Tennessee Democrats

[dbackjon]

Screw them - it will be a cold day in Hell before I vote for Democrats locally. Gary Odom, Doug Henry, etc are basically Rethuglicans kissing the fundamentalists butts.

[fertilizeonarbusto]

1. Get them in the primaries

That should be our new mantra, IMHO.

[tnlefty]

2. Belated Welcome to DU to you!

Sorry that you're having a rough time. I'm not familiar with those you listed and I have no idea of what they've done that's pissing you off. Care to elaborate and blow off some steam?

[dbackjon]

3. Thanks for the welcom.

I'm gay, and have been in a committed relationship for over 3 years.

Odom and Henry are my "Democratic" Representative and State Senator.

Both voted for the anti-gay marriage amendment to the TN Constitution - that passed 29-3 in the Senate, 89-7 in the House.

Dems are a majority in the House, have 16 seats in the Senate. Too many Dems voted for this hateful piece of crap legislation.

[fertilizeonarbusto]

4. What crap!

I'm so glad I left TN now.

[tnlefty]

5. Whoa! I can't believe that I missed this...

I could've sworn that I heard Bredesen say on c-span the morning that he was on during the Governors' winter meeting that he thought it would come up later so that it would be an issue during the '06 campaign season.

I'm sorry and you are correct that it is hateful legislation and that too many Dems voted for it. I don't know about where you are, but in my sea of red the lib/progressives are split and many are defecting to the green party because of a lot of this type of shit. When one is in a heavily red area having the libs split is disastrous.

[dbackjon]

6. In Nashville

Weighing options - will NOT vote for Odom/Henry or US Rep Cooper again.

Will consider voting for another candidate in the primary, failing that, will vote Green or not at all in the general election.

[TN al]

10. Right dback...

...voting green or not voting is an excellent way to get rid of the gop majority. Why not focus your anger on the repubs and fundies, who started this, where it belongs. You identified some dems that you are mad at. Whatever you may say about them at least they are not repubs. If that is the kind of dem that comes out of that district imagine what the repub would be like. The measure still has to go in front of the voters. Do what I'm going to do, vote against it.

[dbackjon]

13. With Dems like there is in office now

What is the difference?

[TN al]

11. It still has to be voted on in a general election...

...in '06

[wataugariver]

14. Try these following two strategies:

Try these following two strategies:

1) some of the radio-hate-fundies that I monitor in Northeast Tennessee are wrapped-up in their own religious definition of "marriage" (i.e. marriage can only exist between a man and a woman). If marriage is the solely religious act that the fundies are claiming it is, then there is most likely an actionable federal constitutional "establishment of religion" challenge that can be made against state governments issuing marriage certificates. Sue the government in federal court to do away with all state-issued marriage certificates in favor of domestic partnership licenses, or similar document, for all couples (regardless of sexual orientation) desiring official state sanction;

2) the Tennessee State Constitution is being amended (at least in the minds of Tennessee General Assembly fundies) in order to "protect traditional marriages". I somehow doubt homosexuality poses a greater threat to "traditional marriages" than does adultery.

Does your state representative or senator likewise believe in amending the Tennessee State Constitution to make adultery a criminal offense punishable by state law --- well if your elected TGA member does not believe in "protecting traditional marriage" from adultery. then they are obliviously "PRO-ADULTERY". Call them on it .

[10nessean]

7. Has anyone started a response committee

or some sort of anti-amendment action group? I've been searching around to see if the state GLBT community has started pulling together to--at least!--not let this go down without a fight. 2006 is not that far away. People need to come together to work against this and let friends and neighbors and family and coworkers know that we need their support in defeating this. It's not too early to get started. If anyone hears of a political action group which is being formed to defeat The Tennessee Hate Amendment, please let me know!

[tnlefty]

8. Welcome 10nessan!!

What do you know about the Stonewall Democrats? www.stonewalldemocrats.org? Do they participate in efforts to stop legislation?

[NashVegas]

17. Political Ads

You'd want to run them heavily in the more rural areas. Emphasize Tennessee's tradition of volunteerism and caring.

This would only happen in people's dreams, but getting a few country stars with a public, good track record of working for charity to do some radio or tv spots could do wonders.

[newyawker99]

18. Hi 10nessean!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Neoma]

9. you mean the leaders right?

:(

[dbackjon]

12. Just the elected ones....

[Egalia]

15. TN Democrats suck!

Like Dean said here the other day, everybody needs to run for office. We need new blood and desperately. There are only a small handful of TN Dems that are worth keeping.

Most of them are like this jerk:

"Civil unions are an abomination under god". Rep. Nathan Vaughn (D-LOL). He really said that.

The Tennessee Guerilla Women website has a couple of pages with info about some of these right wing democrats. I'd rather have a republican, at least they're honest. http://www.tnguerillawomen.org

I've been blogging about some of them (and writing about them in Nashville's weekly gay/lesbian paper, Church Street Freedom Press).

The ACLU is planning to sue the state before the hate amendment gets on the ballot. There's some hope. The Tennessee Equality Project (TEP) recently hired a lobbyist to fight hate legislation, for all the good it's done, but at least they are trying. There's a link to TEP and Freedom Press and more, on the TN Guerilla Women blog. (see url below, not the same as the one above)

Tennessee Guerilla Women held a couple of "Stop the AntiGay Agenda" demonstrations downtown, and we may try to put together something big in response to the rampant homophobia on the Hill.

There's quite a bit about the legislature's antigay drama on the Tennessee Guerilla Women blog http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/

I haven't put up the latest about the ACLU plans to sue and the roll call on the hate amendment, but I will as soon as I can get to it.

We need more progressive blogs in TN (hint!).

[MominTN]

16. Blog all you want

Too many people in Tennessee think it's wrong and it certainly isn't marriage.

[Egalia]

19. Too many Tennesseans think wrong

Yeah, and 53% of adult Tennesseans are illiterate. Tennesseans have a long record of thinking civil rights for anyone other than white male bubbas is "wrong." Like you, they were/are "certain" of it.