Friday October 13 2006 SGN.org |
 |
Volume 34 Issue 41 |
 |
|
Friday, Oct 10, 2008
|
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
 |
Letters |
|
 |
|
| JUDICIAL RACES Susan Owens has earned our vote and support for state supreme court judge. She has consistently rendered decisions from the bench that protect human rights and equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered people. She voiced loud and substantive opposition to the so-called "Defense Of Marriage Act" and voted in the minority to make it unconstitutional this last summer. She is being opposed by a state senator who is well financed by right wing anti-Gay, anti-choice, anti-immigrant Republicans. But Susan's ties to the LGBT community go far back before she was a judge, as I and other LGBT leaders heard at a fund raiser for her on Capitol Hill last week. Hailing from North Carolina, Owens practiced law in Clallum County on Washington State's Olympic peninsula. She served as chief judge for several Native American tribes as well as being the county's senior elected official. It was in Clallum County that Owens met Feygele ben Miriam. Feygele was a beloved friend, a labor organizer, and a strong leader in the early days of the LGBT fight for equality. Among his many accomplishments was the founding of Gay Community Social Services, which still exists today. [GCSS is one of the founding members of Seattle's LGBT Community Center. Feygele founded the first Seattle Gay Community Center]. GCSS bought land up in Clallum County to give our people a piece of real estate we could call our own. Susan Owens helped Feygele with some of the property issues on the land. When Feygele decided to marry his partner, Owens assisted him. This resulted in the famous Singer v Hara case in 1967 which was the first big same sex marriage case in Washington State. Unfortunately our side lost but Susan Owens did not retreat from the fight. As judge, she wrote the majority opinion in Heinsma which supported domestic partner benefits in the City of Vancouver. She also supported us in the Vasquez case which protected a same sex partner's rights to inherit from his deceased's estate just like a spouse. Susan Owens is a good judge who deserves our support and our votes. Go to her website at www.justicesusanowens.com to learn more about her and make your donation. We have good legislators and a good governor, but we need a good supreme court judge who will stand up for our rights in court. Please join me in supporting Susan Owens for the Washington State Supreme Court. Sincerely, Janice Van Cleve |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 2006 SEATTLE LESBIAN & GAY FILM FESTIVAL reviews  |
Seattle Gay News |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 It's new! and live from Bumbershoot! |
 |
 |
|
|
working for the freedom to
|
copyright Seattle Gay News - DigitalTeamWorks 2006