OutFront Minnesota's justFair Lobby Day 2008
Excerpts of Speeches from the
Rally for Fairness

“We have a really powerful voice this coming year. This is really our chance to really dream and speak up and hope for a better state, and a stronger more united country. This is also our chance as GLBT rights activists and supporters to really think about what we want our movement to look like in the years to come.”
Monica Meyer, OutFront Minnesota Public Policy Director

“We’re now being awarded the rights that everybody else has always had. We put up posters, we chalk the sidewalk on Coming Out Day and this makes a big difference. We hold our meetings in space that is safe for GLBT or questioning youth where they can meet with other teenagers who are like them without fear of the ramifications of telling their parents they are, could be, or support GLBT people.”
Nicki Bowman, Straights and Gays for Equality, Maple Grove High School
 

“This community, like many communities, who demand workers’ rights, who demand women’s rights, who demand immigration rights, who demand just plain and simple human rights, health care for all. We are all in this together to fight day in and day out to do justice, to seek respect and to build community. We do justice by participating here the in the civic system.”
Iris Bordayo, Political Director, SEIU Local 26

 “GLBT equality would not be where it is today without our friends in labor, and education, and health care. These things would not be happening unless we had the people out there who have worked with us all of these years. We have wonderful partners in this state who work with us all the time. And we know that as GLBT people we want good transportation systems, we want an excellent education system that teaches all of our kids. We want health care that provides for everybody, not just a select few. And we know that all of those things are related to each other.”
Ann DeGroot, former Executive Director, OutFront Minnesota

 “When I think of when I first came to the House of Representatives and how much hate would often be spewed on the House floor, and how much that’s changed. And it’s changed because of all of you coming to your capitol today. It’s fabulous because instead of that hate, we’ve replaced that hate with another four-letter word, and that’s love. We have replaced it with love and with the word ‘fair.’ We are going to keep fighting on your behalf to make the laws of this state more fair and more just. And we are moving things forward with your help.”
Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Minnesota Speaker of the House

“There are a lot of queer and trans youth out there that can’t find a safe place to sleep, that can’t go to school safely, that are having problems with their family, and can’t get the services they need. There’s no equality without the ‘T.’”
Kris Maul, Trans Youth Support Network

 “If we’re ever discouraged about what we see going on in the country, we need to come to Minnesota! This is exactly what it means to move a movement. You are moving things forward, you are making a difference. Every person standing here stands for yourself, your family, LGBT people and our allies all over the country. But you also stand for people who do not have the safety, security, courage, or sense of well being to be here themselves and your voice on their behalf, your willingness to have those conversations in your state capitol, your willingness to be here and put your own privilege on the line.”
Kate Kendell, Executive Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights
 

“Ten years ago, our youngest son Jake came out and he told us that he was gay. We started on a journey that day and that journey gave us the most beautiful, the most wonderful gift we could be given. It gave us the gay community. We have been blessed beyond measure by our gay friends. They have become our family. We want you all to know that the Reitans will continue fighting for the GLBT community until all of God’s children are treated with equality. This is the civil rights movement of our day.”
Randi and Phil Reitan, Minnesota Family

“We live in a country that has a really long history of fantastic, amazing movements for equality. And now this movement for equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. It really is our time. And fair-minded politicians, both in Minnesota and across the country are really starting to understand that this is about fairness and justice.”
Dan Karslake, Filmmaker, For the Bible Tells Me So