CJ ORTUNO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The fight for equality is not a garment…

In my first 6 months with SAVE Dade I have met some incredibly wonderful people. The people I have met motivate me to get up every morning energized for the important work I engage in. What I’ve come to understand is that SAVE Dade provides a platform giving our community a voice. A voice at the table of commission meetings; a voice in the offices of politicians; and the voice needed in the ballot booths. No clearer example for me was when SAVE Dade and its volunteers secured “sexual orientation” as one of the protected classes under Miami-Dade County’s Human Rights Ordinance in 1998. In this case the voices of many were united into one powerful voice of equality.

Today, it is up to you reading this email to protect that voice that speaks to us from the past and the voices still try to speak today. Supporters, volunteers, and donors alike are obligated to act on the behalf of those that cannot. This is not a demand from me or SAVE Dade at all and in fact it is an obligation that is woven into the movement for equality itself. Gay and straight alike we must do what we can as we have a duty to do so.

It is up to us to provide the voice to a Lesbian firefighter for the City of Miami that is trying to make a decision to secure her family’s healthcare needs through her employer, but can’t because her city does not offer these benefits for her partner of 10 years and 2 children. Your support is helping SAVE Dade secure these rights for her and her family as we are working to pass a domestic partnership ordinance in the City of Miami.

It is up to us to protect the voices of a foreign couple denied basic hospital visitation rights because they chose to visit a city that puts little to no recognition on their relationship, regardless of the love they posses. After this unfortunate event, SAVE Dade and its volunteers passed the Domestic Partners and Family Health Coverage Ordinance in 2008 to help ensure this form of discrimination does not happen again.

I’m asking you to help continue on our successes over the years and make an investment to SAVE Dade during a tough economic year. I understand that no one is immune to today’s economy, but that includes us as well. As you make difficult financial decisions this year consider for a second what this community would be like without SAVE Dade. What if there was no local voice? Where would people turn? It is in our own backyards where the ugly faces of discrimination and injustice appear. To pass the buck here and say someone else will support us is no different than the affect or our opposition’s apathetic supporters.

I’m reminded of a Mahatma Gandhi teaching where he said, “nonviolence is not a robe to be taken on and off at will, but it has a seat in our hearts and is inseparable from our being.” I believe that the same thing can be said of equality. We cannot pick and choose the battles of freedom; we must fight for it in its entirety and not let up until that day is achieved as it was in Vermont, D.C., and Iowa last week alone.

I ask that you consider becoming engaged today, whether through a monetary contribution or time investment; your return on investment will be that the voices of tomorrow are assured they will have a place where they can be heard. Thank you.