We at Garden State Equality ask you to sign our petition at http://eqfed.org/campaign/NJDSC, which will go directly to Democratic state chairman Joe Cryan, Democratic state vice-chairwoman Dana Redd, and Democratic state executive director Diane Legreide.

If you'd like a review of what happened, here it is:

Each Friday at the Conference, different constituencies have different Caucus meetings.  This year, three organizations, Garden State Equality, New Jersey Stonewell Democrats and the Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New Jersey, produced the LGBTI Caucus.  We decided to do something different -- to present an entertainer at the end of our Caucus meeting.  We had an open bar and hired a Cher impersonator.  Last year's LGBTI Caucus attracted 8 people.  This year's attracted more than 120.

In a Caucus that began at 6:00 pm, "Cher" only came on at 6:52 pm.  It was hardly as if serious business weren't being done.

But before the event started, Diane Legreide pointed to "Cher" and said the following:

"We cannot have THAT walking in the hallway."

"You cannot have THAT inside your Caucus."

"The State Committee will not have someone like THAT attending dinner -- THAT cannot come inside the ballroom."

"What if the press sees THAT -- what if they report on THAT in tomorrow's papers?"

Diane delivered these statements as a diatribe in the hallway, ironically drawing attention to an intolerance that was far more embarrassing than anything around her.  She was also completely unself-conscious about referring to a transgender person repeatedly as THAT -- as not even a person -- right next to Barbra Casbar, a member of the transgender community who is a leader in the three organizations sponsoring the Caucus.

We answered:  "Diane, it's our caucus and transgender people are part of our community."

Diane's response?  "It's not your event, it's our event.  If THAT's going to be inside the room, we're going to boycott your Caucus."

Senator Loretta Weinberg and her staffer Debbie Francica were outraged on behalf of the LGBTI community.  They went to Diane and to Chair Joe Cryan and told it like it was:

"We can't believe your reaction.  You're acting like Republicans.  This is supposed to be a Democratic convention where we embrace diversity, not a Republican convention where we're afraid of it.  Transgender people are part of this community and they're entitled to be in that room and they include people like Cher."

We certainly don't blame Diane Legreide's meltdown on Governor Corzine, whose campaigns, Senate staff and gubernatorial Administration have all been more diverse than any we've ever seen in New Jersey.  Governor Corzine has appointed an unprecedented number of women, people of color and LGBTI New Jerseyans at the most senior levels of government.  He succeeded dramatically in lifting the glass ceiling.  God bless him.

But the State Committee continues to be an uptight, insensitive and LGBTI-uncomfortable mess that does not reflect the Democratic electorate in New Jersey, likely the country's most progressive Democratic electorate in likely the country's most progressive state.  At the two previous year's conventions, party officials repeatedly singled out every constituency in their speeches except for the LGBTI community.  And they wonder why the LGBTI community wasn't attending the annual Democratic convention in higher numbers, in contrast to Garden State Equality's town meetings that have drawn 10,000 people, straight and LGBTI alike, since 2003.  That's an average of 400 people per town meeting.

Diane Legreide's young operatives said her hallway diatribe reflected Chairman Joe Cryan's sentiments as well.  That's surprising -- we've found Joe to be a progressive, inclusive guy.

We're troubled by the "boycott" of our Caucus when the state committee has no problem with our community's money and volunteers.  In the past two years, Garden State Equality has raised nearly $400,000, including more than well over $100,000 for political candidates.  Like our state's progressive organizations, we at GSE have triaged droves of volunteers to Democratic candidates.  We conceived and implemented a huge GOTV operation in 2005 and are about to unveil one for this fall's campaign.

The message Diane Legreide sent was this:  We will accept you in the LGBTI community so long as you look and act a certain way.

Well, she and her state committee had better embrace the LGBTI community's diversity right now.   Our community is a rich and proud mosaic.  We range from those identify with genders different from their birth genders... to those who like to cross-dress... to those wear traditional clothing and even religious vestments.  No one has the right to tell us who in our community is acceptable and who is not.  We are all acceptable and we all deserve respect.

If a state party leader in a comparably progressive state like California, New York or Massachusetts delived a transphobic, anti-LGBTI diatribe like that which Diane Legreide did in the hallway of this convention, that official might well be fired.

In the petition you're about to sign, you will not only seek an apology, but concrete action.

It's time for the state Democratic Party to endorse marriage equality outright.  The state Democratic Parties of California, New York, Massachusetts, Washington State, Iowa, New Mexico and Texas have done so.  But it's New Jersey that has the strongest poll numbers for marriage equality in America, where two-thirds of all state Democrats favor marriage equality.   If our side loses the marriage case, God forbid, the state Democratic Party must endorse marriage-equality legislation.  Garden State Equality and our millions of straight allies across New Jersey will not take no for an answer.

It's time for the state Democratic Party to get the transgender equality bill passed this year -- 70 percent of New Jersey favors the bill whereas only 19 percent oppose it.  The Democrats have not even posted the bill in committee, stalling for nearly two years.

Quite simply, it's time for the State Democratic Committee to leave the Jurassic Era.  This is New Jersey, an extraordinary state with a rich history of being on the cutting edge of civil rights in America, and we demand no less.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me, Steven Goldstein, GSE chair, at (917) 449-8918 or [log in to unmask].   Thanks so much - and remember, please forward this email to everyone in New Jersey you know.  We want this petition to be big.