NEW LOCATION and for 1/9 Alameda County EQCA Chapter Meeting

Dear AC Chapter Members,

We hope that one of your New Year's Resolutions is to come out to an Alameda County
EQCA chapter meeting. So join us on Monday, January 9th at 7pm at OUR NEW LOCATION
- the Pacific Center at 2712 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley (closest cross street is
Derby). If you need a map, check out their website at
http://www.pacificcenter.org/directions.html.

While you may have heard that the anti-gay groups failed to get enough signatures
for the June 2006 ballot, we believe they still may be trying to raise money and
collect signatures for the November 2006 ballot. So we need you to stay engaged!
At this chapter meeting, we will be

finalizing details for our 2006 Valentine's Day events in Oakland,
receiving training on volunteer recruitment, and
discussing the 2006 speaker series project.

Finally, keep your eyes open. We are hoping to have a favorable marriage equality
ruling...as soon as this Thursday from Washington State Supreme Court. If we do, we
will join with the other Bay Area EQCA county chapters to hold a celebration rally
in the San Francisco. More information to follow.

We hope to see you on Monday!

Take care,
Robin Barnett and Pamela Brown, EQCA Alameda County Chapter Leaders
____________________________________________________________________________________

Valentine's Day Events

First, we are seeking same-sex couples that will willing to go on Valentine's Day
(Tuesday, February 14th) to the Alameda County Clerk's office to request (and be
denied) marriage licenses. We are hoping to make this an educational and positive
experience with our goal to get the message out there that gay and lesbian couples
still can't marry in California, marriage equality is still important to our
families, and our community supports us (including the Alameda County Board of
Supervisors that passed a resolution promoting marriage equality). If you can make
this event, please contact us (mailto:alameda [at] eqca.org)and we will provide more
details when available.

Second, we will finalize the planning for our Celebration Gala, sponsored by EQCA,
Alameda County Chapter and hosted by the First Unitarian Church of Oakland
(http://uuoakland.org/) , scheduled also on Valentine's Day from 6:00 - 10:00pm.
This event will serve as an opportunity to get our community and friends together in
the East Bay and to thank local legislative officials who have been so supportive of
the LGBT community. So join us to for dinner, dancing and frivolity to commemorate
the second Anniversary of the historic weddings in San Francisco. Watch the e-mail
for your invitation.

Get Engaged With Alameda County's Speaker Series

EQCA volunteers are planning to travel around Alameda County as part of our second
annual Get Engaged tour. To support our speakers series project, we are hoping to
host informational meeting across Alameda County on the status of marriage equality
and where we go from here. We are already planning a February event in Alameda at
Julie's Coffee & Tea Garden thanks to one of our EQCA members and we would like to
set up other informational meetings in Hayward, Fremont, Pleasanton and other
Alameda County cities. If you are interested in helping us find a venue and
publicizing a local get together to gather other pro-marriage equality supporters
for an update on what is happening around the state and what can be done locally to
help, please let us know.

In addition, EQCA will be seeking volunteers who would be willing to support similar
efforts in other California counties. If you are interested in these events, please
contact Brian Davis (mailto:brian [at] eqca.org) .

_____________________________________________________________

Equality California eqca.org
(http://www.eqca.org/site/lookup.asp?c=9oINKWMCF&b=40337)


Founded in 1998, Equality California is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots-based,
statewide advocacy organization whose mission is to ensure the dignity, safety,
equality and civil rights of all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)
Californians. Equality California is one of the largest and fastest growing
statewide LGBT organizations in the country. For more information, please visit
http://www.eqca.org.