Is the Senate planning a vote on your (or a dear friend’s) right to marry who they love?

The answer is YES.

The Senate will soon take up the Respect for Marriage Act to provide legal protections for existing and future partnerships against discrimination based on race and sexual orientation. We cannot afford to let this bill die in The Senate. Join us in writing to your Senators now, demanding they vote in favor of the Respect for Marriage Act!

Solidarity is a verb. ALL of our movements are all rooted deeply in the right to privacy, freedom, and liberty, INCLUDING marriage equality and the fight for cannabis legalization.

The LGBTQIA rights community has fought side-by-side with the marijuana reform community since joining forces in the mid-90s to pass the first medical marijuana initiative in California— bringing relief to those living with HIV-AIDS.^[1]

The fact that we even have to be defending interracial marriage in the year 2022 is horrifying. But when you add that the criminalization of marijuana leads to a racial disparity of nearly 4 to 1 and over policing in Black communities that leads to incarceration over a joint or a blunt, it’s sadly not surprising.^[2] But with an extremist, right-wing, Supreme Court hungry for the opportunity to strip people of our fundamental rights, we must pursue every possible legal avenue for protection.

I took this photo at a Supreme Court protest in October 2019!

Right now, the Senate has the power to codify our existing marital rights through federal law. The Respect for Marriage Act can’t wait, but this is also a chance for us to get all Senators on the record: do they support same-sex and interracial marriages or not?

This fight is personal for so many of us, including myself. As a gay man, the thought of not being able to marry the love of my life horrifies me. Join BOWL PAC and our allies in supporting The Respect for Marriage Act and demand your Senators vote YES!

Thank you for your activism, perseverance, and undeniable impact.

With Gratitude,

Rhett

Rhett Martino
Coordinating Organizer
BOWL PAC

PS. Our BOWL PAC activist community continues to grow rapidly. As we approach the November elections, we need the resources to consolidate, organize, and amplify. Will you chip in $5 a month or more to support our cause? Together, we will better organize and win legalization.

[1] The Road To National Marijuana Legalization Has Allies In The LGBTQ Community
[2] ACLU: A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform