Love makes a family, and now marriage does too. The Fine-Levinson family has made a $100,000 matching donation to the No on 8 campaign (which would repeal marraige rights) - so it’s up to us to match the money! Go to eqca.org.

The “NO on 8” PACs of National Center for Lesbian Rights and Equality California have received a very generous pledge of $100,000 to defeat Proposition 8 - if they are able to match it with donations. This incredible contribution comes from a local San Francisco family that is a long-standing supporter of NCLR and EQCA, and that knows all too well the significance of this battle. Kathy Levinson and Naomi Fine are challenging the community to match their donation by September 15 - for every $1 given to either NCLR’s or EQCA’s NO on 8 PAC, they will match it dollar for dollar up to $100,000 ($50,000 for each organization). “We need you,” says Geoff Kors, EQCA executive director. “Please help us reach this goal,” says Kate Kendell, NCLR executive director. “We couldn’t capture how important the outcome of this ballot is any better than Kathy and Naomi did in their own words.” Kors says, “We hope their generosity and sacrifice inspires you to join them, as it has us, to do everything possible to ensure Prop 8 is defeated on November 4.”

Kathy Levinson and Naomi Fine are hard-working parents and professionals in a committed relationship, yet they are treated differently. They say they are very blessed in their lives - healthy, capable, and professionally successful, with well adjusted children who are doing amazing things in their lives. They are engaged in the community and active in philanthropy. “In spite of our many blessings and successes, our relationship is not treated with the dignity and respect afforded to heterosexual couples who enter into the institution of marriage,” they say. “A domestic partnership is not honored, respected, understood, or treated as a marriage.”

“Denying us the right to marry is to discriminate against us, and our love, and our commitment to one another. Though we make our home and create a family together for our children, we must pause when we travel and are handed an immigration form - are we one family?” they say. “And what box should we check on the form when the choice is ‘married or single’”?

They note if activists are successful in defeating Proposition 8, that accomplishment will not only affirm the right of every adult California citizen to marry, but will also put another crack in the wall that blocks everyone from the freedom to be full and equal participants in society - expressing and contributing their talents and gifts toward making the world better. The Levinson-Fine family concludes, “We hope you will join us in stretching to do, and give, everything you can to defeat Proposition 8!”

To donate and double your money, click onto the website www.eqca.org.