Friends and allies of SEIU are celebrating Pride month in a special way this year: Joining with home care workers in Fresno to protect their union and to keep their union voice strong in SEIU UHW.
The volunteer effort by SEIU allies for SEIU UHW caregivers follows outspoken support by the union for the rights and freedoms of LGBT people, including marriage equality. SEIU locals throughout California opposed Proposition 8, a statewide measure attacking marriage equality, and denounced a state court ruling last week upholding the measure.
Kevin Xiong, director of SOY, a non-profit GLBT organization in the Twin Cities, knocked on doors in Fresno with volunteer Bao Thao.
Kevin Xiong, executive director of SOY (Shades of Yellow), a nonprofit LGBT organization in Minnesota, also volunteered his time to knock on doors in Fresno and support SEIU UHW members. "By going door to door, we are seeking to correct deliberate efforts to set the union off course and sap its strength to meet the struggles that only a large, experienced union like SEIU UHW can win. Home care workers in Fresno are passionate about their union and understand the need to stick together," he said.
Xiong joined many Californians in criticizing the negative signal he saw in the state ruling on Prop 8. "This is a civil rights issue," he said, "dividing people in two classes, those who can marry with benefits and those who cannot." He described the ruling as undercutting the rights of same-sex couples who hoped to marry in the future by denying their committed unions equal recognition under state law. "SEIU UHW continues to fight this upcoming vote to weaken its union," said Xiong.
The theme of legal recognition for families is at the heart of SEIU's support for legislation crucial to many LGBT couples, the Reuniting Families Act. The House bill, introduced yesterday by California Congressman Mike Honda, includes same-sex partners in its scope.
"There is nothing more powerful than the desire to be with the family you love," said SEIU vice president Eliseo Medina. "[...] For too many SEIU members and other hard working immigrants, bureaucratic backlogs and wait times keep their families thousands of miles away. We are proud to support this bill and the thousands of stronger families it will help," added Medina, who in addition to his leadership at the International level, is a trustee of SEIU UHW.
The vote by more than 10,000 SEIU UHW home care workers in Fresno follows an attack on the union by a rival organization of outsiders hoping to undercut the union by staging a raid on its members. The June vote in Fresno, being conducted by mail ballot, coincides with LGBT Pride month.
Now marking its 40th anniversary, Pride month commemorates the June 1969 riot at the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan that marks the birth of the modern LGBT rights movement. Even before that in California, gay men and lesbians, along with their allies, staged similar protests against police raids and abuse of patrons. This year's Pride month celebrations in California will have as a backdrop widespread anger at the late May court ruling on Prop. 8.
On May 26, SEIU executive vice president Mary Kay Henry expressed disappointment at the ruling and vowed to continue the union's efforts to win back marriage rights in California and build LGBT equality elsewhere. "Equality is a value dear to our union's members. We opposed Prop 8 and the forces of division and discrimination who produced it. This ruling merely delays the day of regaining an important aspect of equality in California. It does not diminish the dignity of our members and their relationships or our determination to win equality in this country."
