Guide to Writing Letters to Legislators
On the Proposed Anti-Marriage Amendment

Includes a sample letter!

Tips:

• Legislators often say that 6-10 letters from their constituents on any issue is noteworthy. Still, legislators are often inundated with mail on many subjects – so it does help to be concise, and to make your point fairly quickly.
• Use as much or as little of the sample letter below as you wish.
• When writing emails or letters to any elected official, include your address so that they know you are their constituent. Thank them for considering your viewpoint.
• Tell your story. While OutFront Minnesota and other GLBT organizations will provide sample letters for you on issues, your story about how legislation impacts you and your family will stick out among the form letters. Remember, by contacting your legislator, you are establishing a relationship of sorts with that person. Thoughtful letters sharing your own insights and experiences will be the most effective to communicate.
• Be impassioned and polite about your support for GLBT issues. Nearly every year, legislators who work against GLBT equality claim to the press and many others that they are the targeted with vicious hate mail. Despite the dubious nature of such claims, we encourage our supporters of GLBT rights to be articulate, impassioned and respectful in their correspondence. Additionally, it is most effective to mobilize people to write to their own legislators.
• If you have any questions about how to contact your policy makers or about any of the issues, visit www.outfront.org or contact OutFront Minnesota's Public Policy Director, Monica Meyer, at (612) 822-0127 or (800) 800-0350, ext.115, or .

Talking Points on the Anti-Marriage Amendment

• Minnesota's Constitution was written to ensure equal treatment for all people. Neither the US nor the Minnesota Constitution has ever been amended to mandate discrimination. Appealing to voters to impose inequality is exactly the sort of abuse of democracy that constitutions were intended to prevent.
• Public opinion cannot be allowed to permanently enshrine discrimination into the Constitution. Less than four decades ago, laws banning interracial marriages were still on the books in most states. When the US Supreme Court struck down those laws, a Gallup poll found 72% of Americans believed interracial marriage was wrong and 48% believed it should be a punishable crime.
• Public opinion does not support the broad language of the proposed amendment. Although a majority of Americans do oppose permitting same-sex couples to marry on the same terms as different-sex couples, a majority does support legal recognition of same-sex couples in some form. The proposed amendment to the Minnesota constitution, however, would prohibit any such recognition. Although its proponents often attempt to package the amendment as doing nothing more than "defending marriage," the fact is that it is far more extreme than Minnesotans support.
• Anti-marriage amendments do not protect families. These amendments provide no benefits to families headed by different-sex couples, while significantly harming families headed by same-sex couples. Not even proponents of such amendments – who bear the responsibility for demonstrating their necessity – can explain how legally recognizing a same-sex couple results in any concrete harm to anyone else.
• Banning same-sex marriage will not make same-sex couples go away. GLBT Minnesotans will continue to form family bonds and raise children, regardless of what is recognized by law. Banning same-sex marriage will only sanction discrimination by denying those couples the 1,138 federal rights and responsibilities afforded to married couples, and hundreds of state-law protections as well.
• Marriage is both a civil and religious institution in our society. Where spiritual meaning is derived for many from religious marriage, legal rights and responsibilities are derived from civil marriage. Just as the state should not interfere with religious ceremonies, religious organizations should not dictate which members of secular society should be granted a civil marriage license. Legalizing civil marriage would in no way change the right of different faiths to define marriage for themselves.

Sample Letter:

Dear Rep./Sen (last name):

I am one of your constituents. I am writing to urge you to oppose efforts to rewrite our state's Constitution to bar the legal recognition of same-sex relationships. I view these efforts to write discrimination into our Constitution as anti-family and anti-Minnesotan.

This past year, I have been distressed about the efforts being made to undermine the principle of "equality for all" in our state. Our state has a long history of treating all of its citizens with fairness and equality, and of responding to the needs of its families. The proposed amendment harms families across Minnesota and would tie the hands of the Legislature, preventing it from ever addressing the needs those families face.

This past year 14 states voted to write discrimination into their constitutions by withholding legal recognition from same-sex couples and their families. However popular, not one of these efforts has benefited a single family, paved a road, funded a school, or provided needed health care. They have, however, helped guarantee a second-class citizenship for some citizens of those states, particularly where the amendment withholds every form of legal recognition from same-sex couples – going far beyond the claim that proponents are merely "defending marriage." This is not the way Minnesota does business.

[Insert a few sentences about who you are and how this proposed amendment impacts you and the GLBT people in you life, e.g., "as a lesbian in a 20 year committed relationship, my partner and I …"]

I ask you to please let me know that you are working to preserve civil rights for ALL Minnesotans by opposing the constitutional amendment to bar the recognition of same-sex relationships. This undertaking is neither just nor fair, and has no legitimate place in Minnesota public policy. Please contact me to assure me that you will defend our state's founding document by opposing all attempts to rewrite our Constitution to mandate discrimination. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

One of the easiest ways to keep informed about events in Minnesota is by joining the Citizen Q Network, our statewide, e-mail activist network.

OutFront Minnesota is a non-partisan organization serving the GLBT and allied communities of Minnesota. All services including voter guides, voter information, and voter registration are made available without regard to a voter's political preference or on the basis of support or opposition to a particular candidate.