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FREEDOM WATCH
 Online
August 2009
In This Issue
Restroom accessibility and discrimination
Stand with Citizens Project
The offspring of Amendment 48
Pride Center denounces El Paso County's health resolution
More scare tactics from the right

Citizens Project Thanks Our Partners:

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Upcoming Events 


Empowered Passion: Stand Up and Be Counted
An exhibit recognizing Colorado Springs residents whose visions and actions have made a difference.
August 23 - September 30, 2009
Opening Reception Sunday, August 30
1:00 - 5:00 pm
East Library
Program at 1:30 pm 
Featuring guest speaker David Csintyan
Want more information? Visit the Greenberg Center for Learning and Tolerance site. 
  
Restorative Justice Conference:
Transforming Relationships, One Community at a Time
Thursday, September 17, 2009
8:00 am - 4:30 pm
Registration Cost: $60
Earn 7 CLE Credits
Beth-El Mennonite Church 
4625 Ranch Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80918
For conference information and to register online click here!
  
Diversity Conference
:
"Lean on Me"
November 4th and 5th, 2009
Embassy Suites
7290 Commerce Center Dr.
Colorado Springs, CO 80919 
For more information visit www.csshrm.org or contact
Shirley Martinez 719-233-1465 or Carla Elam-Floyd 303-628-6334


Articles of Interest  
  
 
August 12, 2009
 
August 3, 2009 
 
Citizen Link: Focus on the Family Action
July 31, 2009
 
July 22, 2009 
 
Seattle Times
July 20, 2009
 
USA Today
July 20, 2009

Make a difference for Citizens Project!
 
Our work is possible because of you, our supporters and advocates! This month, we're inviting you to be an advocate for Citizens Project somewhere new: in your workplace!
 
For several years, Citizens Project has been a proud member organization of Community Shares, a workplace giving program that allows employees to donate to their favorite charities through payroll deduction.
 
If your place of business or employement does not yet include Community Shares in its workplace giving campaign, please contact Erin Atwell at Community Shares (303-861-7507) for more information about how your workplace can make a difference for local organizations like Citizens Project.
 

Quick Links

Restroom accessibility and discrimination
restroom signby Beth Payne
 
Recently, state officials from the Colorado Civil Rights Commission held a hearing to discuss Senate Bill 200,  an anti-discrimination law passed in May 2008 that expanded Colorado's legal protections to include gender identity and sexual orientation. The hearing reviewed the bill's implementation and its effect on public restroom use. Focus on the Family and other conservative groups responded to the discussion by reviving their scare tactics from last spring, arguing that the bill would allow "a sexual predator . . . to enter the women's facilities, and the public accommodation owner would feel they have no ability to challenge that."
 
Preceding the passage of SB 200 was a series of radio advertisements funded by Focus on the Family. The ad began with a child's voice saying, "Mom . . . a man in a dress came into the girl's restroom at school today." The ad goes on to describe men showering in women's locker rooms and states that SB 200 would introduce a "new kind of predator," urging listeners to call legislators and ask them to "protect  kids." In spite of Focus' incessant fear-mongering, since SB 200 was signed into law by Governor Ritter, Coloradans have managed to go on fearlessly using public restrooms without any reported incidents of abuse.
 
The Colorado Civil Rights Commission is a part of the Colorado Civil Rights Division (CCRD), which is charged with preventing discrimination, investigating claims, and enforcing state anti-discrimination laws. According to a CCRD pamphlet, entities that "provide public access to [restrooms] . . . must allow individuals access appropriate to their gender identity, rather than their assigned gender at birth." CCRD defines gender identity as "an innate sense of one's own gender" and specifically exempts churches and other religious groups.
 
Entities mentioned in the bill will not be required to provide unisex restrooms, but cannot require proof of transgender status because "just as non-transgender individuals should be able to use a restroom or locker room appropriate to their gender identity without having to provide documentation or respond to invasive requests, transgender individuals must also be allowed to use a gender-segregated facility appropriate to their transgender status without being harassed or questioned."
 
The scare tactics that groups like Focus on the Family have resorted to reveal their ignorance regarding the LGBT community. The idea that sexual preference is somehow associated with sexual abuse dates back to Anita Bryant, who claimed that "a particularly deviant-minded [gay] teacher could sexually molest children."  The attacks by conservative groups further confuse the issue by associating gender identity with sexuality, when the two do not innately relate.

 
Further, many studies have shown that sexual predators are predominantly heterosexual, such as one by the American Psychological Association, which found that "88% of the adult perpetrators" were heterosexual "whereas less than 1% were identified as possibly homosexual."
 
While many of us take for granted the use of public restrooms, in the past, transgender individuals faced the risk of intimidation, harassment, or even legal action. CCRD is attempting to change this. They recognize the reality that many transgender individuals are already using public restrooms that conform to their gender identity, whether or not we are aware of it. Citizens Project supports implementation of this fair and common-sense legislation, which will provide legal protection to a community too frequently subjected to discrimination.
 
For other comments on this important issue, read this excellent editorial by the Denver Post supporting the CCRD's efforts.
 
Stand with Citizens Project for progress in the Pikes Peak region!Party CP people
 
Some exciting changes are under way at Citizens Project!  Don't miss your opportunity to be among the first to hear about them!  Sign up for our Activist Network today for timely updates on legislative initiatives, developments with Citizens Project, and activism opportunities!
eggThe offspring of Amendment 48 
 
Remember the 2008 ballot measure that religious extremists proposed, and voters rejected, to define a fertilized egg as a person, and write it into the Colorado Constitution? Well, it's back.   
 
Here's the text of the proposal.
 
Planned Parenthood is once again being the voice of reason on this issue. For more information, visit their campaign site or read the Denver Post article about it.
 
The Pride Center denounces El Paso County's health resolution
 
August 12, 2009: Colorado Springs (CO) Pikes Peak Gay & Lesbian Community Center today condemned the El Paso County Board of Commissioners' resolution which seeks to derail the health care reform debate in the United States (details here).
 
"Health care reform is crucial to the well-being of all people in our community," says Ryan Acker, the Center's Executive Director. "With nearly a third of the population un- or underinsured, a solution that puts people and our families before profits must be found, and fast." 
 
 
Religious Right Puts Up Fight on Health Care Reform

The religious right has come out swinging in its fight against health care reform.
 
The Washington Post
 
More scare tactics based in religious ideology: the unfounded abortion-breast cancer link
pink ribbon
The August edition of the Pikes Peak Citizens for Life newsletter is being distributed in some Colorado Springs churches, asking readers not to support the Susan G. Komen Foundation and the Komen Race for the Cure, entities dedicated to ending breast cancer. The reasoning is that the Komen Foundation maintains a relationship with Planned Parenthood and does not advise women of the supposed link between breast cancer and abortion, in spite of the National Cancer Institute's assertion that "having an abortion or miscarriage does not increase a woman's subsequent risk of developing breast cancer." While the writers admonished the Komen Foundation for not educating the public about this fabricated breast cancer risk, their proposed solution is to limit access to breast cancer information and education in the future by boycotting the organization and its major fundraiser. Pikes Peak Citizens for Life contradicts its belief that "every life is precious" by hampering the progress of a life-saving institution. Under the pretence of furthering information about breast cancer causes, PPCL inhibits the Komen Foundation's ability to educate women about breast cancer risks.