Indianapolis Progressive Candidates You Might Consider

Below are candidates that have been supportive of GLBT issues and strong on progressive issues in the past. Please consider voting for them tomorrow when you go to the polls for the primaries.

Marion County Superior Court Judge
Karen Celestino Horseman
“Every so often an elected official will go to extraordinary lengths to improve the lives of those around them. In 2002, (then City-County Councilor) Karen Celestino-Horseman did just that when she introduced Proposal 278, which would have provided domestic partner benefits to Indianapolis city employees. It was a well strategized attempt, the community rallied around it, but it did fail on party lines.” — Linda Perdue

The GLBT community needs a judge in this position that understands and supports GLBT issues, especially considering the difficult issues surrounding adoption.

U.S. Congress, District 7
Julia Carson
Obviously, you should consider Julia — read here for more info on her opponent.

State Legislature
David Orentlicher, HD 86
Susan Fuldauer, HD 88
Greg Porter, HD 96
William Crawford, HD 98
Vanessa Summers, HD 99

Indianapolis Public Schools
Kelly Bentley
In IPS District Three, Kelly Bentley, a friend of our community, is running for a third term on the Board. Kelly has been a strong advocate for safe schools for everyone, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. It was thanks to her efforts that IPS policies against discrimination now include protection against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation for both teachers and students). She has supported efforts of students at Broad Ripple High School to form a gay-straight alliance.

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We Kissed Inside The Statehouse

Photo Set: 2005 Rally Against SJR-7

We had a wonderful, successful rally at the Indiana Statehouse yesterday! Hundreds of people showed up with extraordinary signs to protest the SJR7 legislation. We were getting people’s contact information, and of the people who agreed to sign up, we got 757 contact addresses. That was about 3/4ths of the crowd, so we had about 1,000 people attending.

What I was really impressed with was not just the fact that I saw tons of people I knew (some of whom I’d never imagine going to a political rally) but I saw tons of people I’ve never seen before in my life. That’s really amazing, because when you’ve been out in the gay community as long as I have, you tend to think it’s really small and that everyone knows everyone else. It takes something like this to make me realize that we have a HUGE gay community in Indiana.

There were excellent speakers, and according to some of the people who lobby regularly, we made a great impression on some of the legislators. Nobody expected the size of crowd we had. At the end of the rally we went inside to lobby, and ran into Eric Miller’s Advance America bigots as they were leaving. Most of Miller’s crowd were home-schooled kids and christian school kids who get extra credit for being bussed into Miller’s rally.

So we chanted at them and basically screwed up the end of their rally. Stephanie and I were by the doors, and a group of bigots who were leaving started to bunch up to trap us inside, chanting and trying to intimidate us. So we kissed in front of them and freaked them out. It was GREAT! They RAN outside to get away from us. A reporter from the IU School Paper snapped our photo while we were kissing, and then interviewed us, so we’re likely to end up in the IU paper. It was really exciting.

UPDATE: Stephanie and I were quoted in the IU paper but they didn’t include our picture.

Indiana Daily News

Other’s Pictures from the Rally

Scott Barrett’s Photos
Marti Abernathy’s Photos
Scott Barnes’ Photos
Wilson’s Photos

Media Coverage of the Rally

Check out this picture of an anti-gay bigot attempting to punch one of the people from our rally:

South Bend Tribune
Another Story of threatened violence from the bigots from a person at our rally: “The Advance America people were filing out —a small group of 5 or 6 young men approached me holding our big IE sign and one said, ‘Don’t you wish we had some torches?!’ The others laughed and they continued on down to the sidewalk.”

NUVO Story: “God hates gays”
Indy Star
WISH-TV
WTHR
The IndyChannel (RTV6)
WXIN – Channel 59 (Indianapolis)
WIBC/Network Indiana
Associated Press
Courier-Journal (Louisville)
Indianapolis Star (Dan Carpenter column) “Inside the anti-gay crusade”
Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne)
Courier & Press (Evansville)
Northwest Indiana Times
365Gay.Com

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