Greene vs. Sonoma County

[tracy_loo_who]

Update on yesterday's post.

It's been less than a day and already 674 signatures on the petition!

Better yet, I got the following email this morning:

Dear Tracy
Thank you for your help! Paul Payne of the Press Democrat just sent an email asking me for contact info for Greene v Sonoma County case!!!! I forwarded the name, number and email of Mr. Greene's Public Defender.
Colin Close

I looked him up and he works with FTM Sonoma County and is on the advisory committee of a local LGBT retirement community (probably Greene's?).

So I think it's a go! This shit is not going to be swept under the rug. Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who passed the news along and signed the petition. ♥ Once we get enough signatures, I'm going to email it directly to Paul Payne.

Later, in another email:

Now it's time to focus on finding ways to support Clay Greene. There is an effort underfoot to start a bank account for donations for Clay and an effort to organize a community presence in court on the first day of the trial (not likely to be July 16 - the lawyer tells me this is a date to set the start date).

More details when I get them!

ETA: I also got an email from someone at NCLR, which is helping with the case, saying they're "getting a good amount of media requests thanks to the incredible community involvement." ♥

Comments

[tracy.livejournal.com]

ME TOO, JFC. And no, not at all! The more visibility this story gets, the better.

[ilovesn.livejournal.com]

I had no idea that there was a petition..

Just went to sign it :D

*hugs*

[cheerful-earl.livejournal.com]

I don't even know what to say. It's in my own backyard and I hadn't heard of this until seeing this (and then your last) post. I'm signing the petition, needless to say, but I just cannot believe the cruelty of doing that to someone. We really like to think we're progressive in Sonoma County, and then things like this happen. Makes me just want to scream. Thank you for the heads up, for the news, and for making the petition. Something like this NEEDS to be in the paper, to make sure people are held accountable for their actions and that the poor man gets some justice. /rant. Heh.

[kitsu84.livejournal.com]

I just checked the petition, and it's well pass 700 signatures. This is amazing. ♥

[themadfish.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha, I just linked to your post on mijan's journal. Then noticed you commented. ^^; Ahahah oops. ILU.

[vyrantium.livejournal.com]

That's great that this is getting such attention! :D I signed the petition last night after reading your first post on it... this sort of thing isn't new news to me by any means considering I did a research paper on rights denied to gay couples, but it doesn't make it any less shocking or unfair. I'm going to see what I can do about sending this to the people on my flist/address book to see if they'll sign as well.

I know it's probably been said, but you're awesome for setting up this petition and stepping up to help these people... I hope we reach the amount of signatures needed soon so it can be sent to the appropriate sources. I'm sure if anything, it'll make Clay feel good to know that he's not alone despite how he's been treated.

As far as the raising of funds goes, would it be possible to set up something on Pledge-a-Thon or something similar to help? I'm not sure if you'd be interested in that or not (or even if you'd already thought that) but I know things like that have helped Haiti and such tremendously, and this seems like a very worthy cause :)

ETA: I just posted it on my Facebook, and I'm about to post it on my journal :)

[tracy.livejournal.com]

Thanks for promoting it! ♥

I'm definitely going to talk to the other ladies about doing a round of pledge_a_thon for this when the time comes. :)

[vyrantium.livejournal.com]

Excellent :D And it was my pleasure promoting it, believe me... after reading that story I felt like I had to do something, even if it helped just a little. Turns out one of my California dwelling friends had also posted the story earlier yesterday and rushed over to sign the petition shortly after I posted it :) I'm just happy that we, as citizens of other states, are able to make a difference in the life of someone who so desperately needs help. I'm sick of government turning a blind eye to someone just because of their sexual orientation... I swear, sometimes this country makes me sick :/

But on a bright note, hooray for reaching the signature goal! :D

[crysro.livejournal.com]

Hey Tracy,

I saw this yesterday and signed. Thank you soo much for putting this out there. I wouldn't have known about this story otherwise and I'm from California! I just have no words on how I feel right now...
Again, thank you for getting the word out.

[darkmagess.livejournal.com]

You are and always will be a great community organizer. I believe after that it goes Senator -> President.

[toewiggle.livejournal.com]

I don’t know you and I’m not a 100% how I got here, so I hope you don’t mind me jumping in, but that is awesome! I’m going to go sign that petition now.

[coffeejunkii.livejournal.com]

so awesome! i've seen this in multiple online places, not only on lj. like, people on my twitter who have nothing to do with fandom have retweeted this story.

[emptyheaven.livejournal.com]

Hey honey. I managed to track down the contact details for the Board of Supervisors in that county, do you think it'd be worth sending them a letter/email?

WHOOOOOHOOOOO! 917 signatures!!!!

[tracy.livejournal.com]

It would most definitely be worth sending them a letter/email, every little bit helps.

And hi, it's good to hear from you!

[emptyheaven.livejournal.com]

Good-o! I'll rally the troops (i.e: my flist :D).

Yeah, RL has been hectic. The whole 'close your eyes and count to ten' thing just doesn't work sometimes...

Anyways, I heard about your internship. That's fantastic! You must be insanely busy, between life, work and everything fandom going on.

[pansylove.livejournal.com]

This is so wonderful! Positive change can happen when people come together. I'm so happy right now.

[xiu]

I'll be making sure to check out the Press in the next few days; nothing has ever made me so angry and sick as hearing shit like this happening in the place I was born, raised, and despite having lived in the surrounding counties for a time, have always returned to (and am currently once again living), especially considering one of the reasons I tend to come back is because everyone here's so easygoing about LGBTQ stuff.

As for where the couple lived, I believe it was Sebastopol (Fountaingrove itself is one of the "rich" neighborhoods in Santa Rosa; Sebastopol is a few miles away). IIRC there was a big snafu over OMG GAYS IN OUR FOUNTAINGROVE? in the fairly recent past, as well :|

[ibroketuesday.livejournal.com]

I could cry. Seriously. Thank you.

[starlitshore.livejournal.com]

You are awesome, love. I'm so glad they're actually going to do something about it. And omg, 1140 signatures in a day. That's ridiculous and fantastic and just mind-boggling. :D

[elvisglasses5.livejournal.com]

Thanks for creating a petition, bb. Signed it! THOSE FUCKING FUCKERS. MAKE ME HULK-SMASHING MAD.

But, ♥ for you. : )

[brihana25.livejournal.com]

I just signed, and that puts it at 1156.

Gay, straight, whatever - sexuality doesn't matter. Death with dignity and life with love shouldn't be denied to anyone, by anyone.

[tracy.livejournal.com]

I just closed the petition, actually, but yes, it's here in the NYT: http://bayarea.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/suit-charges-elderly-gay-couple-was-forced-apart/ \o/

Dropping by via ontd_p

[normaltrouble.livejournal.com]

I am a visitor from ontd_p.

I am also a resident of Sonoma County, and didn't get to sign the petition when I should have, now it's closed. I did write in a forum there, connected to the story, and emailed both the County Supes and Press Democrat yesterday.

I am going to update my own journal about this, and would like to include this post, won't include your post in an update post til I get the "okay" from you.

Thanks for all your hard work.

(hope you don't mind me stopping by, and I am glad you got some response from people...)

Re: Dropping by via ontd_p

[tracy.livejournal.com]

Hello! I don't mind at all. I have another update to make that you might want to wait for because it's fairly infuriating, but I don't know when I'll be able to do it since the power is currently out at my house and I've only got about 15 minutes left on my laptop battery.

The gist of it is, the Press Democrat did print the story: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100420/ARTICLES/100429976/1033/news?Title=Lawsuit-alleges-abuse-of-gay-rights-in-Sonoma-County But someone is quoted in the article as saying Clay attacked Harold.

[thevinegarworks.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for doing this, seriously.

[mark356.livejournal.com]

That's awesome! Definitely keep us updated!