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Civil Rights

Includes information on rights that we all have as citizens, such as the right to unionize and vote, as well as prevention of discrimination against specific groups, such as African Americans and LGBTQ people.

Story Archive - 2023

The year was exhausting: from March to June, Protect Choice Ohio petition collection to enshrine reproductive rights in the Ohio Constitution; from July to August 8th, fight off Issue 1 which was designed to make it impossible to pass citizen-led Constitutional amendments (No on Issue 1 on August 8th); followed by the effort to pass reproductive rights (Yes on Issue 1 on November 7th) while also endorsing for UA school board and city council candidates. Signs, postcards, canvassing, oh my!

Resistance Resources

Selected documents, Facebook groups, websites and more to help you #resist

Petition Drives

Petition drives/direct democracy are being used increasingly in Ohio to change the Constitution and pass or repeal laws. If you need more information to decide whether to sign a petition or to help a petition drive, check out this area. 

Issue 5 (2008) was an referendum to support a recently passed law that restricted the rates that could be charged by payday lenders in Ohio. It passed by 63.6% to 36.4% See this page for more information about other issues on the 2008 Ohio ballot.

Ohio 2012 ballot measures (Ballotpedia.org)

2023 was a important year for petition drives. In the wake of the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision, a 6-week abortion ban enacted by Ohio's Republican legislature went into effect and was stayed by a court a few weeks later. But, while in effect there was the 10-year-old rape victim who was forced to go to Indiana in order to get an abortion. Predictable callousness by Republican officials galvanized a doctor-led petition drive to enshrine protections for reproductive rights into the Ohio Constitution. This effort succeeded (despite misleading ballot language) and Issue 1 was passed by a 13 point margin in the November 2023 general election.

This success was especially notable in light of an effort by the Ohio legislature and office holders to restrict the ability of Ohioans to initiate and pass constitutional amendments through the petition process. This change to the Ohio Constitution was put forth in an August 2023 Special Election (suspicious, since they had just done away with most August elections). This effort (also Issue 1) failed.

There was also a petition drive to legalize marijuana use through statute on the 2023 November ballot as Issue 2 which passed by a wide margin.

Looking forward to 2024, a new petition drive to reform the process of drawing the dictrict maps that are used to elect representatives will begin. In 2015 and 2018, there were petition drives to place what were hoped to be the answer to gerrymandering in Ohio. Both reforms passed with votes in excess of 71%. However, the reforms were developed in conjunction with the legislature and then they chose to not even follow the rules they had helped to create as well as ignoring the Supreme Court of Ohio when they tried to enforce the Constitiution.

The 2024 effort will center around removing political actors from the process of drawing district lines entirely. The organization heading this effort is Citizens Not Politicians. Pease consider donating, volunteering, and signing the petition when you see one.

Information about Issues

This is a source for all things Issue-related.

If you wonder  about the Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare") or the Republican war on women and women's rights, we will have some information for you,

If you wrote a letter to the editor about an issue, we would be glad to publish it whether or not the newspaper does.

If you want to know more about a current petition drive--whether to sign or to participate--we can help you find out more.

Rachel Maddow Show Nov 2011: Anti-gay marriage group fakes support using doctored photos from UAPA's web site

An anti-gay marriage group in New Hampshire, the National Organization for Marriage, doctored up a photo from a 2008 Obama rally that appeared on UAPA's web site. Fortunately, it wasn't long before the group 'Good As You' exposed this attempt to make it look like thousands of people are attending NOM's anti-marriage events.

Book Club Chooses "Half the Sky" for November Meeting

UAPA Book Club will meet on Monday, November 28 at the Upper Arlington Main Library, Room B. Our next selection is "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.

Labor Honors MLK Jr.

We Are One
Labor Honors Martin Luther King Jr.
Monday, April 4
4-7:05 p.m.,
King Arts Complex, 867 Mount Vernon Avenue, Columbus

On the day MLK Jr. was assassinated, stand in solidarity with working people in Ohio. Gather in unity to honor Dr. King and stand up for the human rights to which he dedicated his life.

National day of action: We Are One: Respect Our Rights

Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

 

 

Bush has successfully defended anti-terrorism policies

Good piece of new analysis about how Bush has been quite successful at defending his torture and wiretapping policies using procedural barriers to prevent lawsuits.

Sadly, Democrats in Congress have thwarted efforts to restrain Bush's policies:

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