The Executive Board has decided to CANCEL this month’s meeting in favor of the Presidential Debate which is scheduled for the same night as our regular monthly meeting. Please consider attending the watch party at Fresno Democratic Party Headquarters (details below).
The September Meeting Agenda has been moved to October 8th. This includes our guest speaker as well as the three candidates and one proposition being considered for endorsement/position.
Our scheduled guest speaker was to be Brian Poth of The Source LGBTQ Resource Center in Visalia. Brian has graciously agreen to reschedule and will be our speaker at our October 8th Monthly Meeting.
Our agenda was also to include endorsement considerations for:
Kevin Arias-Romero for Mendota School Board
Esmeralda Hurtado for Sanger City Council
Reyna Medrano for Sanger Mayor
Yes on Prop 3
We will conduct endorsement voting by members in good standing at our October 8 meeting. Unfortunately it will be very close to the election. Ballots are being mailed out on October 7 so we will try to announce endorsement decisions and post to our website and social media the same night.
Please see our Endorsements Page for a list of all club endorsements:
Join us on October 8th when we’ll have Brian Poth from The Source. You may participate in our Endorsement Process if you are eligible to vote on club business: any member who is current on their dues and has been a member for at least 28 days (if you’re not currently a member you must join by the end of today, September 10, 2024, to participate in voting at the October 8th meeting).
We are excited to have Yes on Proposition 3 Campaign Coalition Manager Erica Liepmann to share how Prop 3 will safeguard the freedom to marry for all Californians, regardless of gender and race/ethnicity. This may be the most important Proposition we’ve seen on a ballot in quite a while. Please attend our meeting to learn more.
We also expect to have two candidates at this meeting to speak about their campaigns:
Esmeralda Hurtado on her re-election campaign for Sanger City Council, and
Kevin Arias-Romero on his campaign for Mendota Unified School Board.
Esmeralda will be submitting answers to our club questionnaire by the time of Tuesday’s meeting and Kevin has already sent his in and it’s available for your review on our Google Drive at https://bit.ly/fsd-mtgdocs.
Also, we have updated information on postcarding for swing states and phone banking is already in full swing for Harris/Walz. Please attend our meeting to get more details and grab a pack of postcards to get started at home!
Meeting starts at Los Amigos at 5:30 pm. Dinner orders start going in about 5:45 so we can call to order at 6:00 pm and proceed with our agenda for the evening.
We are excited to have Dr. Katherine Fobear back at our meeting tonight! She’ll be talking about being counted and Senate Bill 957.
Also, we’ll have information about postcarding and how you can help save Democracy. Not everyone is cut out for phone banking and door knocking but postcarding is easy, you can do it at home, and there are numbers to show that it can be effective.
Please join us tonight at Los Amigos at 5:30 pm. Dinner orders start going in about 5:45 so we can call to order at 6:00 pm and proceed with our agenda for the evening.
We hope to see you there!
Terry Stasio (he/him) President
As the saying goes, if you’re not counted, you don’t count.
LGBTQ+ people are more likely to rely on social welfare programs, income assistance, shelter and housing assistance, public health insurance and programs like Medicaid and Medicare, and student assistance and relief.
However, it was only until January 2023, under President Biden’s Executive Order 14075, that federal agencies like Housing & Urban Development, Health and Human Services, and Education collected data on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). Before last year, millions of LGBTQ+ Americans were left out of federal health, housing, and education statistics, ensuring that their needs were not addressed in federal policies.
The California State Auditor recently released a report revealing a lack of progress by the California Department of Public Health to collect SOGI, despite several state laws requiring them to do so.
Without accurate data on LGBTQ+ Californians, it makes it impossible to understand fully how the LGBTQ+ community is impacted by public health disparities and to create comprehensive programs.
Dr. Kat Fobear, an Associate Professor at Fresno State’s Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and the founding coordinator of the LGBTQ2+ Studies program, will discuss the need for better collection of federal and state SOGI data. She will also discuss Senate Bill 957, proposed by Senator Scott Wiener, making it mandatory for the California Department of Public Health to collect SOGI data.
Meeting documents (agenda, minutes, reports, etc) can be viewed / downloaded at: https://bit.ly/fsd-mtgdocs
If you have additions to the agenda, future speaker suggestions, or announcements to be included on our meeting handout please send them to info@fresnostonewalldemocrats. org.
Writing postcards to Democrats in swing states boosts voter turnout. It engages voters, but also gives us a proven way to do our part in those key swing state elections. In addition, writing postcards helps us relieve the anxiety about the election that so many of us feel this year. Losing this election is not an option – we need to do everything in our power to win.
With our help, Postcards to Swing States hopes to send over 26 million postcards to Democratic voters in the key swing states. Postcards are estimated to boost turnout by 1.3%, so this campaign can boost turnout by over 300,000 Democratic voters, and that can make the difference in close swing state elections.
Democratic Clubs like ours can make the difference in this election, and many are already writing postcards. Our members are proven advocates for our side and they can play a key role in the 2024 election by handwriting postcards to Democrats in swing states.
