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Creating a community valuing diversity, equality, and religious freedom.

May 2016
Join Citizens Project! 
Opportunities Abound
Refugees- Fact & Fiction: What We Need To Know
May 24, 5:00pm-7:00pm, Antlers Hotel
In Partnership with the Colorado Springs World Affairs Council

Citizens Project has recently been vocally opposed to an anti-refugee resolution that was brought to the Colorado Springs City Council. Join us in this important community dialogue and get the real facts on the scope of refugees within Colorado.

The world faces the largest refugee crisis since the end of World War I.  As a result of the Syrian Civil War, Syria's 2011 population of 23 million people has been reduced to about 16 million-of which 6.6 million are internally displaced persons-with 4.8 million refugees outside Syria (mostly in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan).  As of February 2016, the U.S. had taken in a just over 2,800 Syrian refugees.  Despite a formal U.S. offer to take up to 10,000 in 2016, many cities-including Colorado Springs-have raised substantial objections to hosting refugees.  Why the resistance?  What are the facts?  What do we need to know?

Joe Wismann-Horther was born and raised in Durango, Colorado. He has studied and worked in Spain, Mexico, Paraguay, Morocco, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, China and Mongolia. He has an extensive background in nonprofit management, program management and training in diverse cultural settings, working with government officials, business people and grass roots community organizers from all over the world. Joe received a M.Ed. in International Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Joe's work is focused on learning and bridging social capital initiatives, finding common threads that bring people from different cultural backgrounds together in their efforts to improve their own lives and communities.

Tickets for World Affairs Council Members are $20, $25 for nonmembers, includes appetizers.


Citizens Project Legislative Report
This legislative session Citizens Project took positions, for and against, a number of key pieces of legislation. Ultimately, none of these bills moved forward to become law. We are proud to have taken a stand on bad bills and are disappointed that legislation that would have advanced equality were defeated. 

Citizens Project OPPOSED and celebrates the defeat of:
SB 112- decreasing the number of voter service centers available to voters

SB 83- removing some forms of documentation accepted for voting

 HB 1180- allowing discrimination in the name of religion

Citizens Project SUPPORTED the following bills and will continue to promote similar legislation:
HB 1210-   prohibiting conversion therapy for LGBT minors by mental health providers

HB 1185-Birth Certificate Modernization Act
 would make it easier for transgender Coloradans to change the gender marker on their birth certificates
Legislative Town Hall
Wednesday, May 25, 5-6:30pm
Tim Gill Center for Public Media
Hosted by the American Civil Liberties Union and other partners whose organizations actively lobby at the Colorado Legislature...

From new protections against solitary confinement of children to permanently closing debtors' prisons and extending the rights of poor and homeless defendants in municipal courts, the 2016 legislative session was marked by several major bipartisan victories for civil liberties in Colorado.

Hear about all of the successes and disappointments of the 2016 session and get a preview of our top priorities for next year. 


It is not too late to RSVP to the Creating Community Breakfast! Please attend the biggest celebration of equality and diversity in our community and learn how you can help!

Want to sleep in and still support our work? No problem!You can  give HERE.
Why Trans Folks Are Tired of Bathroom Bills
by Adison Quin Petti
Co-founder, Colorado Springs Queer Collective

2016 has marked another historic year for queer/trans communities.
In March 2016,  North Carolina Governor  Pat McCrory introduced House Bill 2. The Public Facilities Security and Privacy Act requires anyone using bathrooms in public schools and agencies to use only those designated for the sex noted on their birth certificates-thus barring transgender employees and students from using the bathroom consistent with their gender identities. When the U.S. Department of Justice notified him that the bill likely violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he angrily  called it "Washington overreach".

Mark your Calendar
documentary screening
May 19, 7pm
Tim Gill Center for Public Media

League of Women Voters
May 21, 9:30-11:30
East Library

July 9 and 10, 2016

Citizens Project LGBT Independent Film Screening
July 21, 7pm-9pm
Tim Gill Center for Public Media

In the News...
Slate
May 9, 2016

Washington Post
May 9, 2016

CBS News
May 9, 2016

Get Involved!
  Citizens Project, as a part of the Pikes Peak Equality Coalition, has set the audacious goal of reaching 20,000 underrepresented voters this year through hand-written postcards, phone calls, and knocking on doors. Achieving this will require the effort of MANY! Please join in the fun and help with voter engagement. Contact Deb for more information.