Napa/Solano Gay Democratic Club

Against Mayor’s Tanzanian Trip

Bayard Rustin LGBT Democratic Club Resolution Condemns

Vallejo City Council Vote

2/19/2013

BDC Press Release

(Vallejo, CA) –  The Bayard Rustin LGBT Democratic Club took a vote at its regular scheduled meeting on February 19 and unanimously agreed that the vote by the Vallejo City Council to spend tax money to send Vallejo Mayor Osby Davis to Tanzania was an act which brings unwanted negative publicity to Vallejo and serves to undermine efforts to show the city in a positive light after recently coming out of bankruptcy and on the heels of making cuts to public worker benefits. The resolution also points out that the anti-gay religious leaders travelling with Davis and the famously anti-gay mayor are inappropriate representatives for the people of Vallejo, to meet with such an anti-gay administration as Jakaya Kikwete, President of Tanzania.

The club also issued a resolution against the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement, and requested public hearings for the agreement rather than fast tracking new trade rules between the US and Pacific Rim countries.

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https://www.facebook.com/groups/BayardRustinLGBTPoliticalClub.

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A Resolution Condemning the Vallejo City Council and its Sister City Relationship with Bagamoyo, Tanzania

WHEREAS we believe that all persons, including LGBT persons deserve the opportunity to participate fully in all economic, cultural, political and social facets of society, and as a Democratic Club, we follow the party platform which demands equality and civil rights for all people, and specifically calls on us, as Democrats, to “speak out in a unified voice against hatred, racism and violence directed against any minority groups”; and

WHEREAS Tanzania has a poor record on human civil rights, as noted by the U.S. State Department’s 2012 Human Rights Report, including but not limited to, widespread sexual violence, female genital mutilation, violence against the LGBT community, child labor – including within the sex industry, torture and murder by government officials, disappearance of government protesters, and other human rights violations; and

WHEREAS same-sex relations is a criminal offense in Tanzania punishable by 30 years to life in prison, and LGBT Tanzanians are denied basic rights to housing, employment, organization, and free association due to their sexuality; and

WHEREAS UNAids reports that some 1.4 million people - about 5% of the population - in Tanzania are living with HIV, and around 160,000 children under the age of 14 are HIV positive, yet the government has provided no programs to prevent HIV infection among the LGBT community, and there are no hospitals where LGBT people can access treatment; and

WHEREAS on February 11, 2014, the Vallejo City Council voted to spend taxpayer money to send the Mayor on an official trip to meet with the president of Tanzania along with Sister City officials and religious leaders; and

WHEREAS Mayor Osby Davis has publicly stated that he believes gay persons have no rights to marriage equality, and that they are inherently morally inferior, which will prevent them from participating in his idea of religious paradise, in the same way that it is denied to murderers, drug addicts, and child molesters; and

WHEREAS the religious delegation travelling with Mayor Davis are the same ones responsible for the denigration of gay candidates for public office and the opposition to anti-gay bullying prevention programs in the Vallejo City Unified School District, making them inappropriate to represent the good people of Vallejo abroad; and

WHEREAS the President of Tanzania, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, and his administration, refuse to heed international pressure to improve their human rights record;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED the Bayard Rustin LGBT Democratic Club proclaims that the mayor’s official travel to Tanzania, and the votes of the Vallejo City Council to fund said trip, brings shame and disgrace to the good City of Vallejo and its residents, who honor basic civil human rights; and

BE IT ALSO RESOLVED the Bayard Rustin LGBT Democratic Club, being concerned with Vallejo’s representation in the region and worldwide, believe that endorsing governmental relations with an oppressive regime is contrary to the image we would like to project; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the Bayard Rustin LGBT Democratic Club calls on the Vallejo City Council to end its Sister City relationship with Bagamoyo, Tanzania until such time as Tanzania honors and respects full human civil human rights; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the Bayard Rustin LGBT Democratic Club requests that the Vallejo City Council review its Sister City agreements to ensure that it does not have official relationships with any other city in any other country that does not honor and respect basic civil human rights; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED upon approval of this resolution, the Bayard Rustin LGBT Democratic Club shall seek to educate the public to the human rights abuses in Tanzania to the best of its ability.