June is Pride Month, a month focused on the visibility of LGBTQ+ people and celebrating movement toward equality. June was chosen to celebrated Pride to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising, often considered the start of the modern LGBTQ+ civil rights movement. In the 1960's, in many cities, including New York, bars could lose their liquor license for simply serving gay patrons. A 1967 New York Court of Appeals decision opened bars to gay patrons, but bars could still lose their liquor license if patrons engaged in "disorderly conduct". Given that homosexuality was still criminalized, law enforcement interpreted "disorderly conduct" to mean same sex kissing, holding hands or dancing. In response, the Mafia opened private bottle clubs, including the Stonewall Inn, which did not require a liquor license because patrons were supposed to bring their own liquor. In the early hours of June 28, 1969, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn and arrested 13 people, including employees for bootleg liquor and patrons for violating the state's gender-appropriate clothing statute. Patrons who refused to disburse and neighborhood residents became increasingly agitated as patrons were aggressively manhandled by police, sparking violence by the bystanders. Protests, sometimes violent, continued over the next six days, sometimes involving several thousand people. The protests received almost no news coverage but were a catalyst for organizing for LGBTQ+ rights. Within a year of Stonewall, LGBTQ+ rights organizations rose from about 50 in 1968 to over 1000 organizations. The first gay Pride parade was held in New York City in 1970 to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising. The term "Pride" was coined by Craig Schoonmaker, one of the organizers of the parade "not as a slogan so much as an understanding that people should be proud and not ashamed". Pride parades are now held throughout the world, with 5 million people attending the 2019 WorldPride parade in New York City. In 2016, the Stonewall Inn and surrounding area were declared a National Monument.
Get involved with CMAL!
● Attend the Annual Meeting -- where a position will be adopted based on the CMAL County Government Study ● Consider becoming a delegate to this Council – learn about metro area issues 60th Annual CMAL Convention Saturday May 14, 2022, 10 am- Noon Keynote Speaker: Building the Region’s Transit Network by Met Council Member Deb Barber Business Meeting immediately follows Click here >>> Meeting Zoom Link Or for hone connection, dial in at 312.626.6799 Meeting ID: 817 6461 0814 Passcode: 939193 All League members and guests are welcome to attend this virtual meeting: --Following the keynote speaker, this year’s agenda will feature the update to the County Government Position. All 19 metro leagues have now reviewed and submitted member votes on the consensus questions following the 2022 CMAL Study on County Government. You can find the study at this link. During the meeting, delegates to CMAL will vote on updating the County Government Position -- found at the end of this post. Karen Schaffer, President of CMAL, will then provide press releases about the County Government Study and new Position to area media. Interested in Metro Area Issues? Consider Being A CMAL Delegate LWV ABC is allowed two delegates to the Council of Metro Area Leagues. CMAL holds quarterly meetings presenting programs especially focused on topics related to living in the Twin City metro region. All league members are welcome to attend programs, but only delegates may vote or serve on the board. Votes occur on bylaw amendments, position changes and whether to support new studies. Currently, there is an open one-year board position with CMAL. Nineteen leagues compose CMAL. Our website has listed recent programs. Meetings occur on Saturday mornings. Learn more on our CMAL website page: CMAL Positions | LWV ABC If you have questions, please contact Gretchen or Julie at lwvabc@gmail.com . CMAL Proposed County Government Position 2022 CMAL supports measures to ensure accountability and visibility of county government. (1975, 2022) CMAL believes that accountability and visibility of a governmental body, such as a county, are obtained by:
CMAL also recognizes the responsibility of residents to become adequately informed. CMAL views the Metropolitan Council as the regional planning and coordinating body, while the counties are viewed as administrators, implementers and enforcers of regional policy. CMAL believes that counties should be involved in the initial planning and policy-making stages of Metropolitan Council activities in order for counties to carry out their eventual implementation. CMAL supports measures to improve cooperation and communication between the Metropolitan Council and county government in the metropolitan area. CMAL believes that county government should post general information on its website about funds received from or through the Metropolitan council and how such funds are used. With thanks for Zoom technology, we had a good turnout for a productive Annual Meeting on April 11! It was a fun meeting and we got everything done that we needed to do. Thanks to all for your participation! We started off with a quiz game on Climate Change and personal responsibility - Bruce Pomerantz was the big winner with a perfect score! Then the meeting started out with remarks from LWV ABC President Gretchen Sabel. You can read her report on the member's only page on the LWV ABC website here. Treasurer Wes Volkenant then presented the proposed budget for the coming year, which was approved by the membership.
Next, elections were held for the odd-year positions on our board, with unopposed incumbents being reelected for two year terms:
-Our Voter Service Chair Linda Rodgers presented our plans for an ambitious and dynamic schedule of candidate forums and voter registration events for this summer and fall – and encouraged members to watch for sign-up opportunities to be engaged. Linda's full report can be read by clicking here. - Our Membership Chair Pat Kennedy reported that we now have 80 members (down from 83 in 2021). Two of these members are Lifetime members with more than 50 years as members. Member milestones were celebrated for the 44 members who have passed 5, 10, 15, or more year milestones; you can read all of them in Pat's report at this link. As Membership Chair, Pat has also updated our membership materials and attends meetings of the Fridley Community Network and the LWV DEI Task Force to raise the profile of LWV ABC in the community and build Diversity and Inclusion in our League. -Our Program Committee Chair Dee Ann Christensen reported that our May 9 meeting will feature students from Andover High School and our June 13 will focus on communicating about Climate Change. We are also partnering with Transformative Circle to host a Juneteenth event at Coon Rapids Dam. DeeAnn's report is linked here. -Other business items included adopting a budget, affirming our local non-partisan policy and more. Read the details of these items in the meeting invitation that went to members: https://www.lwvumrr.org/lwv-abc-blog/lwv-abc-annual-membership-meeting-april-11-at-6pm All the meeting materials and reports are available on the LWV ABC members-only site at this link.
Despite the Board's not seeking public input, the League of Women Voters ABC (Anoka, Blaine, Coon Rapids area) prepared their own draft maps to propose to the Anoka County Board. These were submitted to the Board Chair and County Administrator on April 9 via email. At the April 12 workshop, the Commissioners did not fully review the draft maps that LWV ABC had provided to them. Nor was any opportunity allowed for the LWV ABC members present at that meeting to present the maps to the Commissioners at this work session. The LWV ABC Observer Corps has been working to observe and report on Anoka County Government Actions since 2019. For more information, see the LWV ABC Observer Corps webpage. League of Women Voters ABC (LWV ABC) has been studying Anoka County’s communities and geographical features and based their draft maps on this data. The LWV ABC plan provides a new outlook recognizing the differences in communities and combines communities of interest. Here are the basic tenets that were followed in developing the LWV ABC maps:
League members observe that Scott County has alternate maps posted now on their website and requests public input before coming up with a plan. Without this opportunity, LWV ABC members reviewed census data, new precincts and proposed their own maps to meet concerns of their members. LWV ABC was encouraged to provide input when talking with Board Chair Scott Schulte about public input to redistricting at the April 2021 meeting of LWV ABC The LWV ABC Redistricting Committee engaged in a rigorous process with strong membership support. LWV ABC members reside in all areas of the county. We think our thoughtful, sensible plan serves our county residents well, whether they reside in a large city, river city or rural area.
Here are the agenda and documents for the event. We will start off with a fun round of What's the Impact? with prizes at 6:10, so don't be late!
--Compiled by Wes Volkenant, Treasurer, LWV ABC I was asked to share my observations about the impact of redistricting in the Anoka County and northern Hennepin County areas that our League of Women Voters - Anoka, Blaine, Coon Rapids serves. The number of legislative districts in our area has increased, and many incumbent legislators have been impacted: There is a detailed description of the changes later in this post. The next step in redistricting is local redistricting. LWV-ABC has a small committee composed of myself, Mel Aanerud and Colleen Werdien working on creating one or two draft Anoka County Commissioner district maps to submit to the County Board by early-April, as Cities prepare their new precinct lines by March 29, and the County Board and School Boards prepare their new maps by April 26. Watch this blog and the LWV ABC newsletter for an update in May. Looking at the new lines… the judicial panel that issued new Congressional and Legislative maps clearly stated that substantial re-drawing of the district lines is the job of the Legislature; as a judicial panel, they tweaked existing lines to account for population shifts only. In our area, we see that the one Congressional change was moving Anoka and a sliver of Ramsey (south of Highway 10), to the 3rd Congressional District.
The principle of tweaking the existing districts continued at the Legislative level, but led to, what I would characterize as, considerable change. The first thing I would point out is that versus the six partial or full Senate Districts Anoka County was previously divided into, it will now be divided into eight full or partial districts - 27, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36 and 39. Many incumbent legislators have been impacted: Sen. John Hoffman will be solely in Hennepin County, Sen. Jim Abeler adds most of Coon Rapids, Sen. Jerry Newton will unretire to campaign in 35B House seat; DFLer Zack Stevenson and Republican John Heinrich were paired Representatives in 35A; Rep. Nolan West will run in the more northerly 32A; and with Republicans Peggy Scott and Cal Bahr paired in 31B, Rep. Bahr filed for the open Senate seat. Contests that will have neither a current Senator or Representative running are House seats 31A and 32B, and Senate 32. Are you still unsure about your new District? Use this handy informative tool that was developed by MPR: https://dhmontgomery.shinyapps.io/redistricting-widget-final/. Interactive House and Senate maps of the Districts are located at: https://www.gis.lcc.mn.gov/redist2020/plans.php?plname=L2022&pltype=court. We have a more detailed discussion of the changes to the lines for our new legislative districts - click Read More. LWV ABC Program held on February 14 via Zoom: CMAL has completed its study of county government research regarding the accountability, visibility and accessibility of county government in the metro area, as well as the relation between county government and other levels of government. The purpose of the study is to update CMAL's position on county government in the metropolitan area. LWV ABC Vice-president Julie Trude presented the report and the consensus questions developed by the study committee. LWV ABC members then voted on the questions. Our votes will be tallied, along with the consensus statements responses of all local Leagues who are members of CMAL, and will determine CMAL's position on county government in the metropolitan area. This decision will be made at the May 14 Annual Meeting of CMAL. The County Government Study by the Council of Metropolitan Area Leagues (CMAL) Report is available here for viewing prior to the meeting. CMAL Timeline for 2022:
We will provide an update to this story if/when the position changes are adopted.
The History and Legacy of the Indian Residential School at the University of Minnesota Morris1/2/2022
For further information:
https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2016/06/sad-legacy-american-indian-boarding-schools-minnesota-and-us/ https://www.minnpost.com/national/2021/07/federal-government-looks-to-address-the-legacy-of-indian-boarding-schools-including-in-minnesota/ https://morris.umn.edu/morris-boarding-schools https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/the-history-of-minnesotas-native-american-boarding-schools/89-78048d07-1af1-475f-bf15-0a47fc59bfe6 https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/10/26/a-reckoning-monastic-order-apologizes-for-native-boarding-school https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/06/22/us-official-to-address-legacy-of-indigenous-boarding-schools Voting is a fundamental right and all eligible voters should have the equal opportunity to exercise that right. LWV is dedicated to ensuring that our elections remain free, fair and accessible. LWV ABC's December 13 meeting focused on voting rights legislation, featuring Congressman Dean Phillips from Minnesota's Third Congressional District. The meeting began with an introduction on voting rights legislation being passed by state legislatures and in the US Congress now by LWV ABC President Gretchen Sabel. Our guest speaker, Congressman Dean Phillips, then shared his perspectives on the legislation and the chances these bills have of passage. We'll have time for discussion after. LWV ABC Program Chair DeeAnn Christensen introduced Representative Phillips and moderated the discussion. QCTV recorded the meeting for later cablecast, you can see it at this link. http://qctv.org/league-of-women-voters/ Statement on voting rights legislation from LWV US President Dr Deborah Turner in Dec 2 email: Our national legislature continues to be stalled on action supporting voting rights. As a result, many state legislatures feel emboldened to curtail voting rights. I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer as we look to the coming year, nor do I want to be a Pollyanna about where we are headed, but I want to be a realist — for the League and for our country. As we throw our time and energy into our critical activities and campaigns, we must never forget that the backbone of our democracy is the right to vote. If all voices have access and all voices are heard, we can change the things that need to be changed through the will of the people. We all deserve elected officials who understand and respect this point. So, as you commit to changing our world for the better, we must all continue to keep our eye on the prize: fair and equitable access to the ballot box for all voters in our country. This is the ultimate way we defend democracy and empower voters, and that is who we are. The big news is that we are planning to hold only virtual meetings from December to March, possibly April if winter weather or Covid continue to play havoc with the option of in-person meetings. You will be informed of these virtual meetings in our LWV ABC newsletters that go out to our members and friends nearly monthly.
January, February and March will also be virtual meetings - mark your calendars for the second Monday of the month. We also have Book and Film Club meetings on the first Wednesday and third Wednesday, respectively.
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