El Paso County Democratic Party out of step with National Democratic Party Platform: Fwd: Pelosi: Democratic Party Should Come Out For Full Marriage Equality

This is a letter sent out today from the President of the El Paso Stonewall Young Democrats to membership. I think its an important message for people who believe in social justice to see which is why I am passing it on. 

I also think its interesting considering the email was sent as a response to the fact that Leader Pelosi says that the Democratic Party should come out for full marriage equality. Congressman Reyes recently had Leader Pelosi in El Paso and the Reyes campaign has been touting the Congressman's record on equality as of late. 

Dear El Paso Stonewall Young Democrats:


     As I'm sure many of you have heard, issues of equality have been a major area of opportunity for our El Paso County Democratic Party.  Last month, in January, our El Paso County Democratic Party Chairman, Daniel Anchondo, was asked by a local precinct chairwoman, Christina Fenstermacher, who is the daughter of El Paso County's SDEC woman, Yolanda Clay, about what the county party planned to do to help our Mayor and City Council with the recall that was raised against them for defending domestic partnership benefits for city employees. The Mayor and Council repealed a poorly written ordinance that passed by referendum last year that would have taken away the health benefits of retired police and firemen, municipal judges, elected city officials, and unmarried persons who are living together in seriously committed relationships with straight or gay city employees (among others).

      Pastor Tom Brown, a radical republican conservative pastor in El Paso, pushed the referendum and subsequent recall petition through, because he did not believe that the City of El Paso should provide health care benefits to "fornicators" or "homosexuals," based on his own religious beliefs (See, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/us/in-el-paso-a-storm-over-benefits-for-gay-partners.html?pagewanted=all).  When Chairman Anchondo was asked what the party was doing to help the Mayor and Council, Chairman Anchondo said that he did not believe our county party should do anything at all to support our Mayor and Council for two reasons:

1) The Mayor and Council ran in non-partisan races (this was perhaps his best answer, and he should have stopped here. Sadly, for Chairman Anchondo, this point is severely weakened by the fact that the mayor and council members that voted against the discriminatory and poorly written ordinance are all registered El Paso County Democrats) and

 2) He did not believe the Mayor and Council respected the people's vote--despite the fact that the mayor and council followed an entirely legal procedure found in the Charter of the City of El Paso that allows them to remove ordinances by a majority vote of our city council.

At that meeting, Jaime Abeytia, Vice President of the Stonewall Democrats of El Paso (SDEP), and myself, President of the El Paso Stonewall Young Democrats (EPSYD), spoke out against the Chairman's declaration not to support our mayor and council. Jaime Abeytia reminded our chairman that supporting gay issues and equality is a Democratic party platform we all have an obligation to uphold as members of the Democratic Party; and I criticized Chairman Anchondo on the grounds that it seems like every time our County party has an opportunity to take the lead on an important issue, our county party's leadership chooses to take a back seat and play it safe.

I also reminded the Chairman about why the Mayor and City Council's actions that day were Constitutional, and reminded the Chairman about the City Council's responsibility to not only represent the interests of every person that lives in their district responsibly, but also their obligations as elected leaders to defend equality and reject malicious discrimination. 

In response to our contentions, we were heckled, we were told to sit down, we were told to shut up, and we were told that we didn't even have the right to speak at the El Paso County Executive Committee meetings by Blanche Darley, who is a precinct chair and the President of the Tejano Democrats and who has made local and national news for her questionable conduct and comments at state and national Democratic Party Conventions (See, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/26/AR2008082603921_pf.html orhttp://thelionstarblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/source-blanche-darley-used-racial-slur.html or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huMuriSxpI0or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huMuriSxpI0 ), because Jaime and I are not precinct chairs.

Needless to say, the issues surrounding 1) equality, 2) the mayor and council's vote, 3) their need for our support against the recall campaign, and 4) our failure as a County Democratic party to take the lead on marriage equality in the State of Texas were not resolved that night. Instead, a motion to adjourn was entertained by the Chairman and was executed post haste.

I bring this to your attention, because our County party's failure to support those who are brave enough to stand up for gay rights and for equality isn't a flash in the pan; rather, our County party's indifference and lack of confidence to stand up for the gay community and the leaders who fight for their rights when we need them the most is severely chronic. 

This Monday I received two phone calls. One from Daniel Graney, who is the President of the Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus, (our parent organization) and the second from Eli Olivarez, who is the SDEC man for District 20; the President of the Stonewall Democrats of the Rio Grande Valley; and is a member of the  Executive Board for the Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus.  They both called, independently, to voice their shock and disappointment about how our SDEC man and SDEC woman voted last weekend at the SDEC (State Democratic Party Executive) meeting.

Our SDEC man, Don Williams, and SDEC woman, Yolanda Clay, voted against placing a marriage equality referendum item on the Democratic Party Primary Ballot--which is essential for moving beyond rhetoric and into action for determining whether or not our state Democratic party is serious about fighting for marriage equality in the State of Texas.  The marriage equality item was introduced by SDEC man for District 20, Eli Olivarez. Sadly, after it was introduced by Eli Olivarez, the vote in favor of placing the marriage equality issue on our primary ballot, failed.  Our SDEC man and SDEC woman played a key role in making that happen. They both voted against the marriage equality item.  Naturally, the Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus was shocked and appalled by the lack of support it received from the El Paso delegation at the most influential level of our state party's policy making body. 

When our SDEC delegation was asked why they chose not to vote in favor of the marriage equality referendum item by Daniel Graney and by Eli Olivarez, SDEC woman, Yolanda Clay, explained that she felt the issue was too divisive and unpopular to support; and our SDEC man, Don Williams, said that he voted against the item on procedural grounds, since he believed that the initiative was brought up contrary to the procedural process recognized by the SDEC.

Daniel Graney, who was present at the meeting when the votes were cast, and who later confronted our SDEC man, Don Williams, about why he chose not to vote in favor of the Marriage Equality item, explained to Don, and to me later over the phone, that even if the item was brought up incorrectly, it could have been brought up again correctly by Don Williams if he believed in the initiative, but disagreed with the way in which it was brought up initially. Whether we agree with our SDEC delegations's decisions or not, this is the reality of the level of support for marriage equality we have representing us at the state level; and I am very disappointed by that reality. As an organization that supports marriage equality and gay rights, we have an obligation to ask our SDEC delegation what, if they support marriage equality and gay rights, but do not believe in supporting a marriage equality referendum item on our primary ballot as a good strategy for fighting for equality statewide, is their preferred strategy instead for fighting for equality at the state level; and as our SDEC representatives, what have they done so far to make it happen since they've been elected to those positions?

The Chinese have an ancient proverb that says that, "The best time to plant a tree is a hundred a years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is today."  The gay community has been treated like second class citizens on this issue and many others in our country for a very long time.  The time for us to hold our elected leaders accountable for what they say and do in support of or against our community is now. The article and message provided below that was sent to us by Daniel Graney, President of the Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus, tells us that the rest of the Democratic party nationally believes that the time for us to fight for equality is now also. Keep this in mind the next time you hear anyone in our local party tell us to sit down, shut up and, and wait our turn again when we attempt to stand up for what we believe is right.


Respectfully and very Democratically yours,




Antonio  Williams, J.D.
President of El Paso Stonewall Young Democrats