When courting, a suitor often is asked to declare her or his intentions toward her or his lover in order to determine whether the suitor is serious or just dallying. The Austin Coalition for Marriage Equality (ACME) has serious intentions to win marriage equality in Austin. The group will hold a news conference on Tuesday, April 6, at 5:15 at the Travis County Courthouse, 1000 Guadalupe Street in Austin.
Sponsored and organized by ACME, this event will bring together other organizations working toward marriage equality in Austin, including the Lesbian and Gay Rights Lobby of Texas, supportive local clergy, and a number of other campus and community groups.
The event also will announce ACME's plans and goals for the upcoming weeks. ACME came into being on March 8 and has set as its goals as the following: first, to call on the city council and county commissioners to express full support for marriage equality; and second, to educate the public at large about gay marriage as a civil rights issue.
ACME's fact sheet on marriage equality, and draft resolution for the city council and commissioners' court are attached and will be available in a press packet at the event itself.
Speakers at the press conference will include ACME members Liz Brenner and Matt Korn, Colin Cunliff for the Lesbian and Gay Rights Lobby of Texas, members of gay and lesbian families, and Karl-Thomas Musselman, speaking for the alliance of UT campus g/l/b/t organizations. In addition, Methodist minister Sid Hall will explain the perspective of clergy in support of gay marriage.
There will be a question and answer session after the presentations.
"Together with other organizations we are putting Austin on the map regarding this matter of fundamental civil rights," said Liz Brenner, a member of ACME. "We are in the process of approaching the city council and county commissioners with resolutions of support for the marriage of same-sex partners in regonition of our full humanity."
The growing ferment over gay marriage has led to comparisons with the civil rights movement that ended Jim Crow laws in the South during the 1960s. Both Democratic Presidential Candidate Al Sharpton and activist Coretta Scott King have expressed their support for gay marriage as a civil rights issue.
"Our slogan is 'Separate is Never Equal'" said ACME member Marti Bier. "And we will keep working until we win equality."
"It's great that we are coming together, because it is only together that we can win this struggle," commented Matt Korn, a member of ACME and also of the International Socialist Organization. "We are going to the public, the city, and the county commissioners to ask for what we want: equality now."
The press conference is a public event; reporters and interested citizens are encouraged to attend and participate.
