Judy Rickard (left) and her wife Karin (Photo by Karen Ocamb)
Judy Rickard, one half of a binational couple who inspired California Rep. Mike Honda to introduce the Reuniting Families Act, was honored by the California State Assembly LGBT Caucus with an Assembly Resolution at the annual Pride event on Monday, June 20. Nominated by her Assemblymember Rich Gordon for the honor, she got to talk about the struggle she and her wife Karin has endured, as detailed in her book Torn Apart: United by Love, Divided by Law.
“Felt great to stand in front of the Assembly and receive the resolution and hear the applause,” she said on her website.
Rickard also described “the real workings of the Assembly” as she watched the process of getting a resolution honoring June 2011 as LGBT Pride month passed.
Rickard wrote:
Hon. Tom Ammiano brought his HR 15 for the third reading and asked for an aye vote. The resolution was to declare June 2011 LGBT Pride Month. Other Assemblymembers spoke and asked for an aye vote – members of the API caucus and Black caucus and Assemblymember Mendoza, who cited how he instructs his children to be free from prejudice.
The vote came and showed 44 ayes, 6 nos (which became 7 when a member came in late). It felt bad sitting there and seeing and hearing that some elected officials did not want to declare June LGBT Pride month.
I got an official printout from Hon. Holly Mitchell, which showed the numbers I printed here. Also in the mix (of the 80 Assembly members) were 30 not voting – of those, five were absent or excused. So that means beside the 7 voting nay, 25 did not vote either way.
The record shows that the no votes were Assemblymembers Donnelly, Gaines, Grove, Hagman, Jones, Mansoor and Morrell. I wish you could have voted aye…
The ayes were Assemblymembers Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bealll, Block, Bonilla, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Campos, Carter, Chesbro, Davis, Dickinson, Eng, Feuer, Fong, Fuentes, Furutani, Galgiani, Gatto, Gordon, Hall, Hernandez, Hill, Hueso, Lara, Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning, Pan, Perea, V. M. Perez, Solorio, Swanson, Torres, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada and Speaker Perez. Thanks for your votes and your support of the LGBT community in California.
If you haven’t found your Assemblymember here yet, five were excused/absent: Assemblymember Calderon, Gorell, Halderman, Harkey, Skinner.
If you still don’t see your Assemblymember’s name, he or she did not vote and was not listed as absent or excused. You might want to call or write and see why he or she did not vote on HR 15 – to make June 2011 LGBT Pride Month.
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