Make signs! Get out your Pride flags!
On Saturday, March 19, 2011, please join Kansas Equality Coalition, the Topeka chapter of the NAACP, and the Topeka Center for Peace and Social Justice to defend the civil rights of all Kansans. We will be marching to the Kansas State Capitol to protest Gov. Sam Brownback’s threat to dissolve the Kansas Human Rights Commission and to condemn his plan to politicize enforcement of our anti-discrimination laws.
Kansas Equality Coalition is working on its latest version of a bill that would include sexual orientation and gender identity in the Kansas Act Against Discrimination. If Brownback has his way, not only will our efforts be dealt a critical setback, but the civil rights protections gained by all minorities will be in jeopardy.
First passed in 1953, Kansas’ anti-discrimination laws have, for decades, been enforced by the non-partisan, independent KHRC. Brownback’s plan to abolish the KHRC could set enforcement back to where it was in the 1950s; his goal of transferring KHRC’s responsibilities to the attorney general could turn protection of our rights into a game of political football.
Together, we can deliver a message to Brownback that fair-minded Kansans refuse to turn back the clock on nearly 60 years of civil rights progress.
The march will begin at noon on March 19 at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site at Monroe Elementary School, 1515 SE Monroe St., in Topeka. The march will proceed to the south steps of the Capitol, 300 SW 10th St., for a rally, ending about 3:30 p.m.
KEC chapters and their NAACP counterparts will be arranging carpools and bus transportation. If you are willing to give a lift to other activists, please contact me or your chapter chair.
This could be the most important civil rights demonstration in Kansas in many years. We must all be a part of it.
Please distribute this notice through all your networks — email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Thank you, and I’ll see you on the 19th!
Thomas Witt
Chairman, Kansas Equality Coalition
Chair
www.KansasEqualityCoalition.org
