to the state supreme court and that was lost. last week personhood usa kicked off their petitions and signature drive at numerous planned parenthood health centers across the state of colorado. we do expect to see that, we probably won't know until this summer. another one we do expect to see is a public funding ban in oregon. and like florida, the basic no public funding for abortion. but unlike florida, oregon is one of the only states that does give public funding for abortion. this was tried two times before, in 1978, and 1986. so this is not the first time they have seen the fight. they are expecting to see it again it's backed by oregon right to life. which is well-organized in their state. so we should know in juliful we should see that. we're unsure what the implications will be for public employees that have insurance if this will cut their care also. i'm briefly going over my watch

list. this is things that have been filed, things moving but we're unsure of what the future will be. so the first is parental notification in california. this is the fourth time. this was defeated, in 2005, 2006, and 2008. they have filed multiple initiatives this year. so, when one expires, there is already one that can keep ongoing, they've done this up until june, and we expect this because they are not as organized as they were in the past and they are trying to gain time to get the funding and organization to collect signatures. another one is religious liberties in colorado. this was just filed by focus on the family. this has gained a lot of earned media, right now they are waiting for the state to approve the title and language and i'm assuming when that happens, there will be multiple groups that will be trying to appeal not only to the state title board but the state supreme court to try to stop this.

another one is personhood in montana. they've tried put personhood on montana three times. the partners have done a very successful decline to sign campaign, and they do this around the primary because in montana, that's around the time that people are collecting the signatures. they can go to polls, they can talk to people as they go in and out, that's always been a strategy that worked in the past. this year, though, the co-founder of personhood usa moved to montana last year and made it his mission to make sure that personhood gets on the ballot in montana. and he actually sometimes is the only person collecting signatures in the state. so we have an eye on that. personhood in nevada, i'm sure everyone here has seen some press about this. so in the span of months, five separate titles by two separate

groups were filed and four withdrawn in the state of nevada. so what they would be doing, first of all may i back up. the two groups weren't getting along. so one would put out a press release saying we're the true personhood, the other one would do the same thing, so great. my theory okay, great. so they would file four were withdrawn. someone would go and appeal, and try to start the process to make sure this didn't make it at bowl la -- make it on the ballot. they would take that complaint to strengthen their language. after this happened three times, the aclu and planned parenthood were working together to help with the lawsuits decided they were no longer going to help the opposition strength. it took a couple weeks, they were in shock and kind of like um, where's the lawsuit? when that didn't happen, chuck

gallagher, one of the groups that pushes these initiatives in the state, he was a police officer once upon a time, called to a clinic, someone was blocking access for a patient and refused to get involved because of his religious beliefs. he withdrew his petition and thrown his support behind personhood nevada. that is the other group that was the true personhood initiative in the state, so we're waiting to see what signature collection will look like. the interesting thing about nevada if this does get on the ballot and does pass, they have to do it again in 2014 for it to become law. personhood in ohio, i think you guys are probably noticing a trend. this was filed again, state dhal edged the title, lost. again, appealed to the state supreme court last week, that appeal was denied. and they have been slowly collecting signatures across the state. the interesting thing about

ohio, though, is that if i'm a registered ohio voter and sign the petition, and it's not submitted in 2012, my signature could be used to be submitted at a later date. so, they could use 2012 and them being a swing state to build up their petition signatures because they have until july 4th to collect over 385000 signatures. so we're not sure we will see it this year, but it could be a possibility for an off-year like 2013 or 2015. personhood in oklahoma, oklahoma is a little bit at the eye of the personhood storm right now. i'm sure you've all seen the revamping of the personhood bill in the legislature. this did pass the senate overwhelmingly i think four people voted against it. this was during the time of the virginia ultrasounds, it quietly went away because there was a lot of outrage and i don't think

the people of oklahoma wanted that on them, too. it has come back but not only is the legislation on march 1st, personhood oklahoma, personhood classic language, life begins at conception, and they said they will file three. so we're unsure what that looks like yet. we're unsure this is another nevada situationing where there is a challenge, withdraw, use that language and try again. they have a kind of high threshold for signatures to gather and fun fact, rick santorum signed the personhood oklahoma initiative in tulsa a couple weeks ago. and it's being used for earned media and fundraising by personhood oklahoma, because he is a huge supporter of personhood. personhood oregon, again, basic

language, we're kind of sure this isn't going to make the ballot this year, they have tried multiple times, just to give you reference, in 2010, personhood usa tried to get personhood on eight ballots. they only got it on one. so, it's pretty easy to file language for ballot initiatives and easy to get on it states that don't do ballot initiatives. oregon is one of the places where they filed fetal personhood but we don't think we will see much. some good news, there has been failed attempts this year to get on the 2012 ballot. here what is they tried and didn't make it. personhood, alaska, application denied, flat out. personhood arkansas, they tried twice in the past month, month-and-a-half to submit a title and summary to circulate in the state. both times the attorney general

rejected it overwhemingly. his first decision was 22 pages long. second was 18. personhood arkansas submitted a new ballot title but the submitted it to a local television station. they have not submitted it to the governor yet and we're sure with the 22 page decision and 18 page decision, this attorney general is not leaving a lot of room for this to start circulating in his state. personhood in california has just recently expired. we didn't see any signature collection. the group who was circulating it had a press statement right after they submitted their title saying we're not associated with personhood usa. personhood in florida, a couple of people in the room have been wondering why i'm bringing up personhood in florida. the ballot initiative title for 2012 in florida on personhood has expired. in florida you need to i think you need to pay 10 cent as signature to have it submitted

to the secretary of state, and they were having fund-raising challenges and i think signature challenges. they withdrew the 2012 before it expired and submitted it 2014. so they are actively fund-raising and doing earned media but won't be on 2012. last but not least, stop baby skull crushing and detap indication in north dakota. decapitation. this was supposed to be a ban on tools used for abortion, and i don't think i need to tell anyone that the title of this really hurt them. i don't think people were comfortable with it. so, that is my quick and dirty on what the ballot initiatives are. i want to bring up one thing i was thinking about when i heard the other panel talking about rick santorum and newt gingrich signed the personhood pledge but

mitt romney hasn't. in 2011 when mississippi was picking up steam, he went on the mike huckabee show. on september 8th when we lost our appeal on personhood he had a fund-raicer in jackson, mississippi. will you support a constitutional amendment on the federal level, mitt romney said absolutely. so with that oh [ applause ] . thank you, megan. i appreciate your description so much it's what frightening to know and having been m mississippi and campaigned is how many of these personhood initiatives are being promulgated by some of the most extreme anti-abortion leaders in the country. they are not just quote unquote pro-life individuals, these are are some of them have ties to the army of god like patrick

johnston in ohio and other individuals, the army of god is one if not the most violent anti-abortion extremist organization in the country. individuals linked to bombings, murder, mayhem, unabashedly so, have been involved with the army of god and called -- been proud of that association, and anyway, so thank you for that. on that happy note, we're now going to go i would like to introduce marietta english, joining us today, marietta the vice president of the american federation of teachers. she is also -- yay! whoo-hoo, teachers yes! she is the president of the baltimore teachers union, so many titles, i tried to pick and choose them. i just have -- this is a short version. she is also the president of the

american federation of teachers in maryland. and she is the past president of metro baltimore alliance of black school educators. and current board member. and i believe we are so thrilled she could join to us day to talk about anti-union initiatives that of course swept the nation as well. and to celebrate her as a labor leader and tireless fighter for fair wages and improved working conditions for teachers throughout the country. thank you, please welcome marietta english. [ applause ] thank you, thank you for this opportunity. there is an anti-union movement across this country, i won't talk about the initiatives but will talk about some of those things that happened across the country. the attack on unions which represent women is an attack on

women. when wisconsin governor scott walker, the administration targeted teachers, unions and nurses unions, they exempted male dominated unions. that was definitely an attack on women. there is a policy on attack on women has permeated throughout wisconsin. what he did was wake up the sleeping giant. because he then woke up all of the women in all of the labor unions who went into wisconsin and of course you know he now has a recall. and we're waiting to get him out of there. [ applause ] >> the republicans attack on teacher unions and other pink collar professions, nurses, home

health aides, where women have political voice. we organize in these unions and have a voice in the workplace. we also have a voice politically. these other systems are male-dominated and i know when i go into a lot of board rooms, because i do have a lot of titles, most of them are filled with men. we can barely count the women on one hand who sit in those board rooms. we look around education, a lot of the superintendents who run these systems are men. but the actual work is done by women in the classroom. mitt romney tells us that contributions from unions to political campaigns are forms of corruption. they imply individuals who organize are corrupt and unpatriotic.

oh my gosh. but when the business band together and make huge contributions now thanks to the supreme court ruling that you can make unlimited amount of contributions, well, that's commerce. that's a way of building business. the political attackers want to you value our voice by calling us names and they do that all the time. in the health care area, it is difficult to organize at least private sector nurses and health care workers, and it's really harder to organize in public sector also. because these are basically dominated by women. and it's very hard and difficult. such places as oakwood health care in upstate new york, where employers have tried to circumvent bargaining rights by giving nurses charged and responsibilities and calling it

supervisors. but yet they still work as nurses. of course in teaching i can tell you that for the last few years, teacher unions have been bashed all over this country. teachers have been blamed for everything from why the grass doesn't grow to why children are not achieving. every time you hear people like michelle ray, who had not taught but two minutes, blame teachers. i can tell you that without teacher unions, we are not the cause of children not achieving. we are not that cause. it is policies that keep children from achieving. we know the answers, no one ever comes to the teacher and says

"what should we do, what policies are great, what should we do" we know early education helps children to achieve. and yet those are not mandated programs. those are funds that get cut right away. we know children need music, phys ed to be a whole child, when the decisions come to be made, let's cut those programs. and then when children don't achieve, oh, it must be the teacher's fault. must be that old teachers union that keeps bad teachers in the classroom. no teacher union wants to keep bad teachers in the classroom. teachers unions only want to make sure that everyone had a right to due process. it's not about keeping bad teachers in the classroom.

the american federation of teachers has an excellent dynomite president in randy winegarden, she is leaving the country, yes she is, give her a hand. [ applause ] >> in initiatives that will bring together businesses and education to help achieve. we have a program in west virginia where she has brought together the community, businesses, the union, to help turn that community around. we are, if you talk with the teacher unions, we will lead you the right way. but yet they want to bash and blame us for all the ails of society. our union in baltimore, we've just negotiated one of the most innovative contracts in this country. where teachers are now being --

have a voice about their own career, how fast they will move and whether or not they will move up one lane or another, from one pathway to another. given our expertise, i know i have been teaching for a long time. i can probably teach this paper how to read. but nobody comes and asks us what are the things that we do. there's always a lot of money put in to programs and then the program comes and goes. i don't know -- are there any teachers in the room? you know what i mean. [ applause ] >> they bring a program in, keep it for a couple days, and then oh, it doesn't work, let's try something different. and we get blamed when it doesn't work. right now high state tests are governing our whole existence.

and yet we don't have a part in developing those tests. our children sit for hours, i look, right now we're in the maryland state assessment, these little 8-year-olds are taking these tests for hours. and it's really sad because i can't sit here for hours without having to get up and yet we expect these of children. i wonder if some of these people sitting in these board rooms making decisions have any childhood studies or childhood understanding. they should understand teachers can't do this alone. it takes the whole community, it takes the whole community to help educate these children. i raised two children, when my son was in the 8th grade, i thought he would die. i didn't know if he would make it to the ninth grade. now i'm proud to say he's a wonderful teacher.

but it takes everybody to do this. it took the school, it took me, it took the community having been involved in activities. you can't just blame us and you can't just blame teacher unions. because if you come to us, we have the answer. they like to attack workers who want to organize, and those workers their job are under-valued. what i can say is the more they attack, the more we will rise, thank you. [ applause ] thank you so much marietta. it reminds me what dolores juerta, a co-founder of the united farm worker, says, she has the anecdote cesar used to

say which was that you've got a bad man, running around threatening things like a dog or horse, you shake a stick at a hive of bees and they will think twice because those bees are organized. and i'm totally, brutally slaying that particular metaphor but it's a wonderful example. next i'd like to introduce our wonderful final distinguished speaker, ray carey, executive director of the national gay and lesbian task force. ray took over the task force in 2008 and has provided some truly visionary leadership. for the organization. during her tenure, the task force accomplished many things that are far too many things to list, i, too, was one of the biographies i read out of the three of you, i had to pick and choose. but one of them i thought was particularly noteworthy, a pass

age of the inclusive federal hate crime prevention act, a huge victory. also -- yes. [ applause ] >> defeating many anti-lgbt ballot measures across the country and playing a vital role in getting the united states census to count same sex couples in the 2010 census, which is pretty massive. we are in addition to on line leadership academy, and many other innovations, i know she has to leave soon, so i want to make sure we get her up her, please welcome rae carey. [ applause ] in true women's fashion, i won't rush through but i have to pick up my daughter from school so i think the teachers for teaching.

she would like to be here, she loves a good party. i want to thank the feminist majority you have been incredible partners in the pursuit of equality and i know we will continue to work together and i just want to thank all of you for being part of such an important organization that we at the task force consider to be a sister so thank you. finally -- dedicate them to audrey and rich. a poet, fighter and feminist. [ applause ] >> i'm going to talk about three kind of general things, determination and destiny, love, and voice. first determination and destiny, we together as a progressive movement and i happen to be in an organization that focuses on lgbt issues. we consider ours to be a

progressive organization in how we work on equality and how we work on racial and economic justice, we are determined to win marriage equality nation-wide. [ applause ] >> we believe that it is our shared destiny to do so. and we made progress, thankfully. this year, doubling the number of people who can actually get married in states across the country by adding new york state to the list. [ applause ] >> so we're pleased about that. but as i was thinking about spending time with you today, i wanted to talk about how our movements, which definitely overlap, so i want to make that point but how our movements, the feminist movement and lgbt movement are intertwined, our destinies are intertwined.

i have been spending my life learning from the feminist movement and my mother is a mem i nice, my grandmother is a feminist, but studying what happens to our movements. for example, in 1973, when roe v wade went through the supreme court, the polling on public -- the public polling on whether or not a woman could have an abortion in the first trimester was at 53%. 53% when we roe. i don't need to go through everything that has happened since then in defending roe, and defending everything else that has to do with freedom for our own bodies. as many of you know, we have a number of legal cases that are specifically on marriage equality that are barrelling toward the supreme court. barrelling toward the supreme court. a number of them may get there very soon, within the next

couple years. the polling on marriage right now is at 53%. familiar, hmm? amazing, right? 10 years ago we weren't close to 53%. but it's a cautionary tale. and as i sit here with you today, and fight on the lines with you, in virginia, where they are taking away public funding for access to health services for women, and in places across the country, 40 years later, after roe went through the supreme court, we're looking at the same percentage, if we don't do much more as a broader progressive movement to get that number up, to talk to our friends and family and get way beyond 53%, i know that we are staring at history repeating itself and i don't want to repeat that history.

federally, we do have to overturn the so-called defense of marriage act. i do want to a piece of education, we're working toward that, i can spend lots of wonky time, many of you are familiar with that, we have to overturn the defense of marriage act and moving in that direction. but i have to take a moment to educate on one point which is when we overturn the so-called defense of marriage act, it does not mean that we have access to choose to get married across the land. there are 29 states that have constitutional amendments that say that i can't marry my partner. we have to get rid of doma but have to make progress in the states. we have to fight off more constitutional amendments that are headed our way. and we have to overturn those, that already exist. and at the same time, as

fighting the federal doma, overturning things in the states, as i said before we have a lot of legal cases going. and i think sometimes people say well surely there will be a silver bullet, one of these cases will go through and wipe the whole thing out. that would be nice but i don't see it happening that way. the way i see it it's like an arcade game, have you ever been to arcade, the pony is running across, and you're throwing bean bags, all those ponies are running to the finish line of marriage equality and we will get there but we have to get every single horse across the finish line and we need your help to do it. [ applause ] >> as arlene spoke earlier during the luncheon, our fates are tied together particularly on ballot measures. we just heard two sets of ballot measures, we're not talking about anti-affirm a