Beginning this month, Spectrum, the PFLAG Cornhusker Newsletter, has several new options available for people wanting to advertise to the GLBT and Allies community.

Though circulation for Spectrum is just a little more than 400 household monthly, it reaches a highly-targeted, very specialized audience in Lincoln, throughout the state, and around the U.S. More than two dozen advertisers have chosen to use Spectrum to reach the GLBT and Allies audience each month, and at the same time provide much-needed financial support to PFLAG Cornhusker. You can join them!

A page explaining the new options can be found in this month's newsletter. If you or your organization are interested in advertising in the Spectrum, contact a PFLAG board member or call 434-9880. All ads are subject to PFLAG board approval.

For those without an advertisement already created, design services at $10 per hour (minimum one hour) are available to create your message for use in the newsletter. Proceeds from ad design services go to the PFLAG general operating budget.

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What is unambiguous, regardless of the legal argument, is that Section 29 stands as a singular negative for Nebraska.

The measure highlights the folly of using the constitution, rather than more changeable statutes, as a mechanism for legal adjustment.

It provides a needless slap in the face to gay Nebraskans.

It sends a message that undercuts the state's ability to attract many national companies that recognize the value of employees who happen to be gay. (This was underscored by Gallup Corp. President James Clifton in a recent speech in Lincoln.)

It also promotes culture-war divisiveness, using Nebraska's constitution to do so, when the state should instead be working toward nurturing respect and solidarity across the breadth of Nebraska society. Besides (as we predicted in this space during the Initiative 416 campaign), it invites unintended consequences. The current lawsuit is Exhibit A, as it prepares to venture into unmapped legal territory.

The truth and importance of these points will remain, no matter how the legal challenge to Section 29 fares in court.

Source: Omaha World Herald, May 8, 2003

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On April 30, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit in federal court asking the court to strike down a part of Nebraska's state constitution, Section 29, because it bans any kind of same-sex relationship recognition, thus blocking gay people from advocating for even the most basic protection for their families.

"This is by far the most extreme anti-gay law in the country," said David Buckel, senior staff attorney for Lambda Legal. "This law prevents gay couples from seeking even the most basic protections for their families...it blocks them out of the political process entirely."

Section 29, or Initiative 416 as it was then known, was overwhelmingly passed by Nebraska voters in November 2000. Promoted to voters simply as protection of traditional marriage, the law goes far beyond restricting the right to marry to heterosexual couples. The law specifically voids the uniting of two persons of the same sex in a "civil union, domestic partnership, or other similar same-sex relationship."

"States and voters can, and should, have broad discretion to pass laws, but there are some limitations that are spelled out in our nation's Constitution, " said Amy Miller of ACLU Nebraska. "It's clear that it's unconstitutional for a state to have a law that's only purpose is to express disapproval toward gay people or to block gay people out of the political process."

The legal team for the suit includes attorneys from Nebraska, New York, and Texas, including PFLAG member Amy Miller of ACLU-N.

M.J. McBride, president of CFEP, said, "The citizens of Nebraska were manipulated into believing this law was about protecting the institution of marriage, when in reality it was a carefully executed campaign of discrimination and hate. Nebraska's law is bad for families, bad for our state and plainly unconstitutional."

The case is Citizens for Equal Protection, Inc., et al. v. Governor Michael O. Johanns, et al., filed in the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska. The legal complaint is available online at: http://www.aclu.net and at http://www.lambdalegal.org.

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