Contributed by Charles Samuelson, Executive Director

These past few weeks our office, like much of Minnesota, has been buzzing with excitement over our win at the ballot box with the defeat of the two constitutional amendments that would have jeopardized the civil liberties of many Minnesotans. We would like to thank all of you for standing with the ACLU and voting no on both of these amendments.

We should be proud that we were the first state to vote down a ban on same sex marriage, 30 states had voted on bans and 30 states passed bans. We were proud to join our allies in Maine, Maryland and Washington who also celebrated victories for LGBT equality.

The defeat of the voter restriction amendment was equally as momentous. Across the country legislatures have been passing voting restriction measures, like photo ID requirements, because they were thought to be popular. We showed the country that Minnesotans recognized this amendment for what it was, a poorly written and unneeded amendment that would have disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of their fellow voters.

Despite our victories at the ballot box our work is not over. Marriage is still not legal for thousands of Minnesota families and we plan on taking the fight to the Minnesota Legislature along with our allies to ensure that all Minnesotans have the right to have their loving and committed relationships recognized.

Marriage won't be our only priority during this next two year term at the Legislature, the ACLU has many different civil liberties priorities that we will need to ensure are protected. This newly elected Legislature also needs to hear from us about what sorts of new Legislation should be put forward. So we want to hear from you, what issues should we prioritize? Police and criminal justice issues? Privacy rights? Comprehensive sex-ed? There are dozens of issues that we could be working on, but we want to hear from you, our member and supporters about what is important to you.

Write me an email with your suggestions, and we see what we can do.

Thank you and best wishes in the new year!

Charles Samuelson

Executive Director

charlessamuelson@aclu-mn.org