Remember the legislator that wanted to ban LGBT artificial insemination?

[IndianaGreen]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 19, 2005

Rock Indiana Plans to Rock Irvington Halloween Festival

Co-Sponsored by Patricia Miller

INDIANAPOLIS - Rock Indiana, an ad hoc grassroots organization fighting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender discrimination, announced today its plan to publicize Senator Patricia Miller’s radical anti-gay endeavors in the state’s legislature during the Irvington Halloween Festival on October 29. Miller is a co-sponsor of the annual event held in her district.

Rock Indiana organizers who developed the theme “Indiana’s Witch Hunt” plan to distribute literature that will include details on Miller’s legislative actions which, they insist, represent extremist anti-gay sentiment in Indiana’s senate. Organizers say the witch hunt theme draws upon Miller’s proactive measures to keep Hoosier gays and lesbians from domestic partner benefits, entering into legal unions and having children. “Our state’s economy is nothing short of a farce and Miller would rather spend taxpayers’ money on a witch hunt - fulfilling her own personal agenda of oppressing gays and lesbians, who, by the way, are taxpayers too,” says Pepper Partin, founder of Rock Indiana and a constituent in Miller’s district.

Partin says that getting the word out to fellow constituents that Miller is an extremist who should not hold public office is the primary goal of attending the Halloween festival and engaging festival-goers. She contends that Senator Miller, with her latest highly publicized proposed bill to keep unmarried persons from artificially conceiving children, has helped to bring attention to the Senator’s endeavors; thereby making Rock Indiana’s job at the festival much easier. “Miller has drawn her own caricature of notoriety with her latest proposal aimed directly at gays and lesbians who cannot enter into a legal union in Indiana. No doub t many festival attendees will have heard about her personal crusade in the legislature.”

Sara Slack, an art therapist, teacher and a Miller constituent heard about Miller’s proposal and says the Senator has overstepped her bounds. “Authorized reproduction smacks of big brother and is a violation of every American citizen’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This whole concept is a violation of privacy and freedom.”

Slack, who plans to attend the Irvington Halloween Festival and vote against Miller in the next election, says she does not understand why elected representatives continue to waste time pushing their own personal agendas. “Ms. Miller needs to take her personal issues and beliefs to the pulpit. Issues such as reproduction have no place in politics, and I am not at all concerned about same sex marriage. I am concerned about continuously rising taxes, gas prices, utilities up 70 percent, violent crime, education, and the overall lower quality of life in Indianapolis.”

Partin says that she and Rock Indiana organizers intend to direct Halloween festival goers to Miller’s booth to discuss the literature the organization will be distributing. “I would think that Senator Miller will be more than happy to look her constituents in the eyes and tell them why she believes that oppressing Hoosier gays and lesbians is not only constitutional but a noble cause for her to champion as a legislator.”

Rock Indiana’s grassroots endeavors against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender discrimination include the Rock Indiana! Rally against Eric Miller, Advance America and Senate Joint Resolution 7 at the Indiana Statehouse March 8, 2005. The rally drew more than 1,000 people from across the state. Rock Indiana was also responsible for the statewide $2 Bill Campaign that began May 1, 2005 and ended August 31, 2005. The campaign brought attention to the economic power of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Hoosiers.

The Irvington Halloween Festival, produced by the Irvington Town Council and co-sponsored by Senator Patricia Miller, takes place October 29 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Washington Street between Ritter and Arlington. For more information on the Festival go to http://www.irvingtoncouncil.com/halloween/home.htm

For more information about Rock Indiana’s grassroots endeavors, contact Pepper Partin at [e-mail].

[davidinalameda]

1. thanks for posting this!

too fantastic!!!!

[IndianaGreen]

2. I want to see closer collaboration among progressive groups

such as LGBTs, which are by nature very self-contained, and groups involved in antiwar, environmental, reproductive rights, labor rights, etc. We are all fighting the same enemy, an enemy that has been successful in the past by keeping us divided.

[Skittles]

3. that legislation reaches far beyond gay discrimination

targets really any unmarried woman, and requires religious litmus tests of sort........just outrageous all the way around

[IndianaGreen]

4. Well, the fundie agenda is to establish a theocracy

We are all in peril, not just LGBTs or hetero women. Even in public schools, my niece and nephew have been under unrelenting attack from fellow classmates for their refusal to accept Jesus. It is really ugly out there!

[Skittles]

5. yes it is, IndianaGreen

see that's always the thing - you have to care when a "certain group" is targeted because regadless of whether or not you're part of that group, eventually they will target you.

By the way, always a treat to see the old familiar DU names you know? :D

[IndianaGreen]

6. MLK said that discrimination against one is discrimination against all

That quote graces the wall of the moot court room at the Indiana Law School in Indianapolis.

[Skittles]

7. it's true

it's a good quote