VICTORY!!!! Gay Youth Protected!

The Massachusetts House of Representatives has voted to override the governor's vetoes of safe schools!
This is a huge victory for gay and lesbian youth in Massachusetts. Congratulations to everyone who called and emailed their representatives. We have made schools safer for LGBT youth.
I am happy to report that today we defeated MassResistance and Massachusetts ‘Family’ Institute in their attempts to make schools unsafe for LGBT youth.
These anti-gay organizations have been lobbying everyday; urging representatives to de-fund the safe schools program. MassResistance has focused all of its energy in the past few weeks on sustaining these vetoes. Massachusetts ‘Family’ Institute urged their members to call their representatives and tell them to block the funding for safe schools. These anti-gay organizations took a huge blow today.
The vote was extremely close and filled with drama. First the representatives voted to sustain the governor's veto of the Commission for Gay and Lesbian Youth. We lost by two votes.
Then the pro-gay reps made a motion to reconsider the vote. A few reps spoke about the need to make schools safe for LGBT students. Not surprisingly, Rep. Travis spoke against safe schools.
In the end, a couple of legislators switched their votes and the override passed. I was in the gallery watching all this happen. We won by one vote. The fact that it was so close speaks to how much work we have to do to educate legislators.


Update: Here is the roll call for the final vote to override the governor's veto of the Commission for Gay and Lesbian Youth. Take a few minutes to thank the reps that voted Yes. Tell the reps that voted No that you are disappointed in their votes. (X = did not vote)