One Mom’s Odyssey: How a Minnesota Woman Helped Make Same-Sex Marriage History

Click photo of Randi Reitan to watch video about her story and how Minnesota reversed its same-sex marriage laws.

Randi Reitan was one of thousands of people who worked to legalize same-sex marriage in Minnesota, but she had a symbolic affect on the years-long fight. She began working for marriage equality more than a decade ago, after her son, Jake, came out as gay.

In 2010, UpTake video of her effort to launch a boycott of Target Corp., for donating to a fund that backed anti-gay-rights gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, went viral and may have helped doom the Republican’s candidacy. Had Emmer been elected governor, instead of Democrat Mark Dayton, the chances of legalizing same-sex marriage in Minnesota would have been slim. In 2012, had Reitan and others not fought a Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, it might have been years before that law could be reversed.

Those struggles set the stage for this year’s dramatic passage of a same-sex marriage law in the Minnesota Legislature.

This video, shot by the staff of The UpTake over several years, documents how one mom’s simple action can help fuel a movement, and how love can turn despair into joy. Click on the photo to watch now.

Law Allowing Day Care Workers to Unionize Passes After Ugly Debate

Sen. Sandy Pappas and Rep. Michael Nelson Celebrate with a Round of "Solidarity Forever" after passage of Bill giving Day Care workers right to unionize. Click on photo to watch video.

On the final day of the 2013 Legislature — and by the narrowest of margins after hours of fierce debate — the DFL-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill allowing state-subsidized home child-care workers and personal care attendants the right to join a union.

The landmark legislation — previously approved by the Minnesota Senate — passed 68-66 on a mostly party-line vote (five Democrats joined Republicans in opposing the measure) and now goes to Gov. Mark Dayton’s desk for his signature.

“I have waited so long for this day,” said home child care worker Marline Blake after the vote was taken.
“This is the best thing since sliced bread,” she said, her voice almost drowned out by fellow union members cheering in the Capitol hallway.

Throngs of supporters and opponents turned out to give lawmakers a piece of their minds as the House debated for several hours on the bill. As legislators cast their vote, cheers from union members in the galleries clashed with jeers from the House floor as angry Republican lawmakers shouted objections to the bill and complained — in the loud words of one Republican — that the unions control the DFL majorities in the Legislature.

Demonstrations in the galleries overlooking the House chambers violate House rules, and House Speaker Paul Thissen tried, in vain, to gavel the union cheering to a stop. That was followed by a bitter remark, into a microphone, that shattered whatever was left of Legislative decorum as time, and patience ran out:

“Let ‘em cheer,’ Rep. Pat Garofalo of Farmington said sarcastically after the vote, drawing Democratic objections. “They own the place.”

That outburst typified the divisive tone the debate took over the last few days of the session. Opponents of the law charged that state dollars would go to union coffers in the form of member dues. But, DFL Rep. Michael V. Nelson, Brooklyn Park, one of the bill’s supporters, denied the charge, pointing out that the bill merely lets low-paid care attendants and child-care workers decide if they wish to seek collective bargaining representation and join a union.

The choice is theirs.

“Once the child-care workers or personal care attendant earns that money, it’s their choice with what to do with it,” Nelson said during the House debate. … Continue Reading

Hungering For a Driver’s License: Effort by Undocumented Comes Close, But Not This Year

Hungering for a Driver's License: Click on the photo to see video report

Almost lost amid last week’s celebrations of the same-sex marriage bill that became law, a handful of Latino activists camped out on the Minnesota State Capitol lawn, hoping to win passage of a Driver’s Licenses for All bill. Some of them were on a hunger strike to prove a point that even undocumented citizens need a drivers license.

The effort failed as time ran out on the 2013 Legislature, which is scheduled to end today. Activists were hoping that the Legislature would take up Senate File 271, a bill sponsored by Sen. Bobby Jo Champion, DFL-Minneapolis. The senate did pass the bill on Saturday, but House agreement was not forthcoming and the law is likely to be shelved until 2014.

“Let me just say, I’m glad you guys are here because it’s important that we keep this issue alive,” said Champion to activists gathered in the Capitol Rotunda last Tuesday. “We think it’s important for all Minnesotans to have a drivers license, am I right?”

The small crowd cheered him on.

Latino immigrants say the law would grant them much needed driving privileges. Some drive without a license now, fearing arrest but wanting to be on the right side of the law. Undocumented citizens would be permitted to apply for a license if they possess identification from their native country. The license would be issued for driving privileges only. Read the full text of the bill here.

As the Capitol steps were being prepped for the days historic marriage bill signing, hunger strikers camped outside Governor Dayton’s office. Dayton talked briefly with the activists but did not lend his support for drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants.

Earlier, the senate’s DFL Majority Leader, Tom Bakk, spoke to Latino activists and expressed his support.

“The governor doesn’t quite understand the importance of this bill for driver’s licenses for undocumented citizens of Minnesota,” said Bakk at the Rotunda rally. “We are going to meet with the governor’s chief of staff to discuss this issue,” Bakk added. That meeting, however, will have to wait, perhaps until next year: Lawmakers are scheduled to adjourn until 2014 tonight. … Continue Reading

Mom, Student, Tireless Community Voice…An UpTake Leadership Profile: Chanida Phaengdara Potter

Doing It All For Family, Community, Connections: Chanida Phaengdara Potter. Click on her photo to watch a video report on her leadership.

Editor’s Note: This is the seventh in a continuing series of UpTake profiles on men and women whose names may not be widely familiar but whose leadership makes our neighborhoods, our cities and our states better places. — Nick Coleman, Executive Editor (nick.coleman@theuptake.org)

Video and story for The UpTake by Jeff Achen

It’s 3 p.m. and it’s New Year’s Day, 2556 –- in Lao culture. On this pleasant April Saturday, Lao community members are filing into the gymnasium at the Crystal Community Center — the men in crisp grey and black suits and the women in heels and shimmering dresses.

One of the young women at the door takes donations to the Lao Assistance Center. She’s quiet, unassuming and smiling from ear-to-ear. She’s Chanida Phaengdara Potter and most people wouldn’t know by looking at her that she’s one of the most active and promising young Lao community leaders in the room.

“She does so much,” Immigration Attorney Loddy Tolzmann says. “She’s a full-time mom, she’s going to school, but above and beyond that, you don’t hear about that part of her life. You hear about all the work she’s doing in the community.”

Potter is a program assistant in the research, education and advocacy program at The Advocates for Human Rights in Minneapolis and a development consultant with the Lao Assistance Center of Minnesota. She serves on an advisory committee for the Center for Health Equity at the University of Minnesota and on the advisory board for Wilder Foundation Research. She founded and runs the Lao Professional Network Facebook group and started a local chapter of Lao professionals to share resources, knowledge and drive community engagement.

“She’s always serving the Lao community,” Tolzmann says.

It’s characteristic of the best leaders, Tolzmann says, to operate behind the scenes and lead with their hearts.

“Leaders, they make change. They like to disrupt the normal flow of things, but they do it in a way that they earn peoples’ respect, and through their passion,” Tolzmann says. “Chanida does it in a way that is truly amazing. She does it in her subtle, sweet, quiet way.”

According to the 2010 Census, there are about 12,000 Laotian-Americans in Minnesota.

Potter organized the first Minnesota celebration of the Lao New Year last year and has led or played a significant role in a number of other efforts, including the Voices from Laos speakers tour and“Little Laos on the Prairie,” a blog she and others use as a platform for “telling our stories, sharing our history and our love and fascination of pop culture, community, and news that connect the diaspora communities in the Midwest back to the Mekong memories of Southeast Asia.” … Continue Reading

FREE AT LAST: Same-Sex Marriage Celebrations Rock St. Paul, Not To Mention Church & State

Dancers from the Minnesota Renaissance Festival brought a rainbow's worth of Isis wings to Tuesday's celebration of the new same-sex marriage law at the State Capitol. Click on the dancers to see video of the celebration that followed the signing ceremony.

Video by Hlee Lee. Story by Nick Coleman.

An estimated 7,000 people partied down in St. Paul Tuesday, coming to the Capitol lawn and braving record 98-degree heat to celebrate the dawn of a new era: Same-sex marriages are now enshrined in law — a law signed under the blazing sun by Gov. Mark Dayton after a week’s worth of impassioned debates in the Legislature, years of tumultuous politics and decades of effort by a GLBT community that wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Dayton, during an hour-long ceremony that taxed the ability of many to stand in the heat for the first time in what seemed like years after a long, hard winter, saluted the campaign for marriage equality, saying it has always represented “the next step ahead to fulfilling this country’s promise to every American.”

Thousands At Capitol Watch Same-Sex Marriage Signed Into Law

Unspoken was any mention of the large societal institutions that — for decades — used all their political clout and influence to prevent the legalization of same-sex marriage. But you couldn’t forget them, if you looked around the scene on Tuesday: The signing of the historic new freedom bill took place under God’s blue skies but also under the imposing edifices of The Cathedral of St. Paul, the Minnesota Department of Military Affairs and the State Capitol itself.

The Three Amigos: Church, Military, State. With scorching sermons from the pulpit, with speeches of denunciation on the floors of the Legislature, with the arbitrary and cruel ending of careers and removals from the ranks — the great powers of our society strove for decades to keep Tuesday’s ceremony and celebration from happening.

Somewhere, up on the hill, an archbishop was gnashing his teeth.

Astonishingly, the Three Amigos failed. In the end, the same-sex marriage campaign was a people’s campaign that rose from the streets and from the neighborhood and from the intersecting communities of individual churches, families, businesses and social justice groups to overcome the powers that be. Same-sex marriage now is a right, won by a fight. The institutions that opposed it have been vanquished. The celebrating thousands yesterday, dancing almost literally in the shadows of the great buildings of church and state, were celebrating their freedom from those same institutions.

Gay or not, there is inspiration in that. Enough to go around and to serve the cause of the next big fights, for immigration rights, gun safety, housing justice, whatever they prove to be. The people, eventually, hold the only power that matters.

Under the shadow of the Cathedral of St. Paul, same-sex marriage supporters celebrate a victory that the Church tried hard to prevent. Photo by Jason Barnett.

An impromptu parade followed the ceremonies to downtown St. Paul, led by the Minnesota Freedom Band, which has been playing at Twin Cities Pride festivals since 1982 (this year’s Pride will be held June 29-30 at Loring Park in Minneapolis). The band played “Celebration” and Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” as it marched to Ecolab Plaza for a night of street party and celebration, including The Suburbs and a frenzied finish with a performance of the unofficial anthem of the same-sex marriage effort: “Love is the Law.”

St. Paul is not a city that goes Gaga lightly. … Continue Reading

You May Now Kiss The Bride(s)

Click here for a sharable version of this video

Celebrating the spirit of the occasion, Jane Leonard and Lori Lippert of St. Paul wore homemade bridal veils to Tuesday’s signing ceremony on the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol, crying and cheering with thousands as they watched Gov. Mark Dayton sign the bill into law.

But the veils were not just for fun: The couple has been together 31 years, and plans to marry soon, after the new law takes effect Aug. 1. A long campaign for equal rights, sealed with vows and kisses. Watch their story.