FYI

This is Garden State Equality Chair, Steven Goldstein's, response to Bo Vastine's blog titled "Alleged Endorsement", see below.



Saturday, October 24, 2009

Dear Mr. Vastine:

First, call me Steven. I am receipt of your email to me of earlier today and of your voice mail to me last night. I apologize that did not respond immediately, as I was observing the Jewish Sabbath, which ends Saturday on sundown.

Garden State Equality indeed endorsed Jerry Green and Linda Stender for reelection on Friday. We sent the exact statement to our members on Friday that Jerry posted on his blog later that day. He posted it in full and did not change a word of it.

In writing endorsement statements, we do not collaborate with candidates and nor do we share drafts with them. Once Garden State Equality’s board endorses a candidate, a member of our board writes an endorsement statement. I wrote Garden State Equality’s statement endorsing Jerry and Linda. I also wrote the entry on your blog, which you removed, confirming that Garden State Equality endorsed Jerry and Linda, and that the endorsement statement was indeed ours.

Mr. Vastine, I understand the pressure you feel in these last days of a campaign. Regardless of whom Garden State Equality endorses, I respect anyone who puts him- or herself out there before the public. It’s not easy.

But it was plain odd for you to state on your blog that Jerry Green or his campaign must have written the endorsement statement – that it didn’t come from Garden State Equality. Why didn’t you just reach out to me first before making that unfounded accusation, rather than after?

It is also odd to tell Garden State Equality what might or might not be beneficial for the LGBT community, which is our life’s work, and on which you have no apparent record. Members of Garden State Equality have worked alongside Jerry and Linda for years, not only since our organization’s founding in 2004, but also in earlier capacities for many among us. Jerry and Linda have been tireless, heroic leaders for equality, exactly as we wrote in our endorsement statement. Contrary to your assessment, Jerry and Linda have both spoken out for equality for many years, right before our eyes.

You ask whether our endorsement was based on an assessment of candidates’ position or hearsay of local voices. Our endorsement was based on far beyond that. As we said in our endorsement statement: Garden State Equality is a full-time civil rights organization which works with public officials nearly every day and night of the year. We know the work of incumbents up close and personally. When we endorse candidates, it is not based on perceptions from headlines or mere statements of support come election time, but on the candidates’ work behind the scenes. We get to examine very closely the extent to which incumbents fight for the causes they believe in, and whether they succeed. You say you have been “very clear in (your) support for equality for all members of our society.” We wish that were the case. You and your running mate Martin Marks both said during a recent debate that you oppose marriage equality. You gave the calculated answer that you agree with the President on the issue, which is the too-cute-by-half response of an anti-marriage equality candidate running in a progressive district with a large LGBT population.

Mr. Vastine, the failure of the civil union law to provide equality to LGBT people, as a marriage equality law would, has caused much human suffering. Because too many employers and hospitals do not recognize civil unions as they would recognize marriage, many same-sex couples in New Jersey are going without adequate health insurance. They’re not allowed to make medical decisions for one another. They’re not even allowed to visit one another in the hospital.

Employers and hospitals say that if the legislature intended for the civil union law to be the same as marriage, the legislature would have used the same name. It doesn’t matter that there’s legal recourse: You can’t file a lawsuit and get a verdict when you’re in the emergency room.

You wrote to me today that your position on equality is a “nonissue.” Not to us, Mr. Vastine. The lack of marriage equality in New Jersey affects peoples’ health, their relationships, their dignity and their lives.

In the 22nd legislative district, Garden State Equality has endorsed the two candidates who understand that best, and who have long put their actions where their hearts are. They are Jerry Green and Linda Stender. We stand by that decision with pride and passion.

Sincerely,


Steven Goldstein
Chair, Garden State Equality