Article of Faith: Multi-faith Leaders Stand in Support of the Freedom to Marry

Article of Faith: Multi-faith leaders stand in support of the freedom to marry

October 30, 2008

MEDIA CONTACT:
Pedro Julio Serrano, Communications Coordinator
(Office) 646.358.1479
(Cell) 787.602.5954
pjserrano@theTaskForce.org

"In a time when war threatens and the economy teeters, do we really want to spend our time taking away the rights of two people who love each other enough to marry?"
— Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, National Religious Leadership Roundtable

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 — Multi-faith leaders of the National Religious Leadership Roundtable (NRLR), convened by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, gathered Oct. 20 on the steps of San Francisco City Hall, where they sent a strong and unified call of support for the freedom to marry. They were joined by local faith leaders to amplify the message of treating all California citizens equally under the law. Californians will vote Nov. 4 on Proposition 8, an initiative aimed at eliminating the fundamental right of same-sex couples to marry. What follows is an Article of Faith recounting the multi-faith component of this gathering of faith leaders standing against a discriminatory measure.

Article of Faith
by the Rev. Rebecca Voelkel
National Religious Leadership Roundtable

It isn't a usual occurrence for the steps of any city hall to be clad with clergy in their religious garb — yarmulkes, stoles, sacred scarves and jewelry. And it is most certainly not a usual occurrence in San Francisco. So to have over a hundred multi-faith leaders — rabbis, ministers, pastors, priests and priestesses — stand on the steps of the San Francisco City Hall and proclaim their opposition to California's Proposition 8 was a profound moment.

What compelled many of those present were questions such as these:

In a time when war threatens and the economy teeters, do we really want to spend our time taking away the rights of two people who love each other enough to marry? In a world where hatred and violence claim the lives of countless children every day, do we really want to use our spiritual energy blocking people from acting on love and commitment?

Each of the religious leaders came to the same moral and theological conclusion: No we don't.

Those African-American pastors amongst us — noteably the Rev. Dr. Bishop Yvette Flunder and the Rev. Kenneth Samuel — spoke of their rootedness in the Bible's call to do justice, in their ancestors' experience of slavery, and in their own involvement in the civil rights movement. Each of these compelled them — religiously and morally — to stand against taking away someone else's rights.

Those Jewish rabbis amongst us — noteably Rabbi Peretz Wolf-Prusan — spoke of the Torah's command "Justice justice, we must pursue." The text repeats the phrase justice, say the rabbis of old, to emphasize that this is the word of God. But, also, it helps us understand that if we act on behalf of justice for all, we act for justice for ourselves. He noted that we are approaching the 70th anniversary of the "Night of Broken Glass" (Kristallnacht) when the Nazis began to move more powerfully against Jewish citizens of Germany. Too many stood aside as the Nazis enacted all of their work in a perfectly legal way. In these United States, none of us can afford to make that same mistake, so we must not stand aside when some rights are taken away.

Those Asian American Pacific Islander pastors amongst us — noteably the Rev. John Oda — spoke of the pastoral implication of a passage of Proposition 8. What does it say to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members of our congregations — and to their children and families — if we single them out to have some of their rights as citizens removed? What does it mean for the rights of loved ones to visit in the hospital? To be able to protect their children?

Those Protestant clergy amongst us — noteably Bishop Marc Andrus and Bishop Mark Holmerud — spoke of all of the people in the pews for whom they stood. Lutherans and Episcopalians, Presbyterians and members of the United Church of Christ, Methodists and Community of Christ members, members of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches and many others stand for equality and justice and love.

This powerful moment on the steps of San Francisco City Hall highlights the importance of people of faith standing against that which is unfair, unnecessary and unjust.

About the Author: The Rev. Rebecca Voelkel is the Institute for Welcoming Resources and faith work director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

For more highlights of this multi-faith event, please click here.

–30–

The National Religious Leadership Roundtable (NRLR), convened by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, is an interfaith network of leaders from pro-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) faith, spiritual and religious organizations. We work in partnership with other groups to promote understanding of and respect for LGBT people within society at large and in communities of faith. We promote understanding and respect within LGBT communities for a variety of faith paths and for religious liberty, and to achieve commonly held goals that promote equality, spirituality and justice.

The mission of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is to build the political power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community from the ground up. We do this by training activists, organizing broad-based campaigns to defeat anti-LGBT referenda and advance pro-LGBT legislation, and by building the organizational capacity of our movement. Our Policy Institute, the movement's premier think tank, provides research and policy analysis to support the struggle for complete equality and to counter right-wing lies. As part of a broader social justice movement, we work to create a nation that respects the diversity of human expression and identity and creates opportunity for all. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., we also have offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis and Cambridge. The Task Force is a 501(c)(3) corporation incorporated in Washington, D.C. Contributions to the Task Force are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law. (C) 2007 National Gay and Lesbian Task Force . 1325 Massachusetts Ave NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20005. Phone 202.393.5177. Fax 202.393.2241. TTY 202.393.2284. theTaskForce@theTaskForce.org.

Multi-faith Leaders Urge Support for the Freedom to Marry

From the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

"An Open Letter to Religious Leaders on Marriage Equality" - Letter can be downloaded here.

Multi-faith leaders urge support for the freedom to marry

October 20, 2008

MEDIA CONTACT:
Pedro Julio Serrano, Communications Coordinator
(Cell) 787.602.5954
pjserrano@theTaskForce.org

More than 2,200 faith leaders from across the country express
their support in an open letter

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 20 — Multi-faith leaders of the National Religious Leadership Roundtable (NRLR), convened by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, gathered today on the steps of San Francisco City Hall, where they sent a strong and unified call of support for the freedom to marry. They were joined by local faith leaders to amplify the message of treating all California citizens equally under the law. Californians will vote Nov. 4 on Proposition 8, an initiative aimed at eliminating the fundamental right of same-sex couples to marry.

"Faith leaders are called to stand up when anyone is marginalized and to look to those core values of love and justice when determining how to act responsibly. It is wrong for same-sex couples to be singled out and treated differently by taking away their fundamental right to marry. The Task Force is proud of its work, through the NRLR, in support of those loving same-sex couples who wish to affirm their relationships through marriage," says the Rev. Darlene R. Nipper, deputy executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

During the press conference today, it was also announced that 2,200 ordained clergy from more than 50 faith traditions and every state in the U.S. have endorsed the Open Letter to Religious Leaders on Marriage Equality, a call for recognition of civil and religious marriages for same-sex couples. The letter, sponsored by the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing, states that the "biblical call to justice and compassion (love neighbor as self) provides the mandate for marriage equality. We find support for marriage equality in scripture and tradition in their overriding messages about love, justice, and inclusion of the marginalized. ... As religious leaders, we believe that all persons have the right to lead lives that express love, justice, mutuality, commitment, consent and pleasure, including but not limited to civil and religious marriage." The open letter ends with a powerful statement: "The faiths we affirm challenge us to speak and act for justice for all who seek to express their love in the commitment of marriage."

The Rev. William G. Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, made a call to preserve marriage equality in California, saying, "Unitarian Universalists know from experience the many blessings that same-sex couples and their families bring to our congregations and communities. … If we're serious about promoting 'family values,' we must do all we can to support families who seek the rights and responsibilities that can only come with legal marriage."

The Rev. John H. Thomas, general minister and president of the United Church of Christ, said in a statement, "The General Synod of the United Church of Christ, through sound biblical and theological reflection over many years, has affirmed the full dignity, humanity, and worth of all persons regardless of sexual orientation, an affirmation grounded in our creation in the image of God. ... Many, if not most of our congregations, include same-sex couples who are models to us of family life. We have opposed discrimination in civil society and we believe that public policy should be informed by faith, but not controlled by the religious teachings of any one denomination or tradition in our pluralistic society."

"Spiritual leaders have long advocated that spirits and human beings are equal. Spiritual leaders have long advocated against injustice in any form," says Patricia Kevena Fili, National Religious Leadership Roundtable member and vice president of the Pagan Alliance. "In this light, many multi-faith leaders and leaders of justice joyfully proclaim that everyone has the right to marry the person of their choice. The denial of such a basic right is clearly unjust. Community and national leaders have come together to praise spirit and justice in the issue of marriage equality."

The National Religious Leadership Roundtable, an interfaith network of leaders from pro-LGBT faith, spiritual and religious organizations convened by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, was meeting in San Francisco, Calif., for its biannual gathering.

–30–

The National Religious Leadership Roundtable (NRLR), convened by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, is an interfaith network of leaders from pro-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) faith, spiritual and religious organizations. It works in partnership with other groups to promote understanding of and respect for LGBT people within society at large and in communities of faith. It promotes understanding and respect within LGBT communities for a variety of faith paths and for religious liberty, and to achieve commonly held goals that promote equality, spirituality and justice.

The mission of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is to build the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. We do this by training activists, equipping state and local organizations with the skills needed to organize broad-based campaigns to defeat anti-LGBT referenda and advance pro-LGBT legislation, and building the organizational capacity of our movement. Our Policy Institute, the movement's premier think tank, provides research and policy analysis to support the struggle for complete equality and to counter right-wing lies. As part of a broader social justice movement, we work to create a nation that respects the diversity of human expression and identity and creates opportunity for all. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., we also have offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis and Cambridge.

UN Update: LGBT NGOs and Consultative Status at the United Nations in 2008

From the International Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) - October 23, 2008

IGLHRC helps activists to navigate the UN system in New York, monitoring and reporting on the meetings of UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and a subsidiary body—the NGO Committee—during the evaluation process for LGBT NGOs seeking to obtain consultative status at the UN. IGLHRC applied for its own consultative status in May 2007.

The outcomes IGLHRC hopes to realize include: good coordination and preparation of NGO's, supportive state delegates, and also timely reporting on meetings at the UN.

Full document can be downloaded here. 

Candlelight Vigil Organized to Counter Yes on 8 Prayer, Fast in San Diego | News | Advocate.com

Candlelight Vigil Organized to Counter Yes on 8 Prayer, Fast in San Diego | News | Advocate.com

Turkey: Islamic Feminist Author Defends Headscarvez

From Earth Times - October 25, 2008

Frankfurt - Turkey's ban on wearing headscarves in public institutions such as universities is a form of oppression over women, according to an Islamic feminist novelist Cihan Aktas, 48. An intellectual who is both a feminist and a devout Muslim is a combination so startling in Turkey that Aktas said reviewers and the media had initially refused to take her seriously.

In an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, Aktas set out the views she has developed in a 25-year career writing about the difficulties of being an observant Muslim woman today.

Aktas wore a loose scarf draped over her head and a colourful ankle-length dress to the interview at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

"My father was a teacher and I grew up in a house full of books and had already decided as a girl to become a writer," she said.

"I have written about 25 books," she said, adding, "Maybe it is more like 30, but there are a few I wish now that I had not published, because I was very young at the time, very rash, and they don't have enough discipline to them."

Her oeuvre includes two novels and eight books of short stories, collecting three prizes during her literary career. A ninth book of short stories is being published this month, she said.

Her latest work is entitled The Close Stranger and is about Iran, a country where she and her husband often live for short spells. He comes from Iran, where his family is part of the ethnic Turkish community. She has also written a book about Iranian cinema.

None of her books has been translated into any other language in its entirety, but extracts have appeared in Italian, German and Persian.

She has antagonized Turkey's secularist elite, writing books with titles that include Covering Up and Society, and Oppression of Women Students, attacking the notion that the scarf is a sign of women's backwardness or subjection to men.

"I adopted the scarf at the age of 20, after I completed my university degree," she said. "I wanted to be a good Muslim."

Aktas, also defends the scarf as a cultural tradition in Turkish society, saying, "Turkey is not a Western society."

She said Turkey's rulers had allowed neither philosophical debate nor the principle of majority rule when trying to abolish scarves.

"They ignored women's rights, pluralism and participation by society," she said feistily.

This year, there was heated debate in Turkey on the issue. The government passed legislation in February opening the universities to women wearing scarves. But the secularists appealed, and in June, the Constitutional Court ruled the law out of order.

Aktas still insists the scarf is a woman's right to choose, adding that some women in Judaism and Christianity cover their heads too.

"No man ever insisted that I had to wear a scarf," she said. Aktas argues that large numbers of intelligent, educated women want to wear the scarf as their own expression of their religious commitment.

"There is a wave in Muslim society of young people wanting to learn about their religion."

"I believe that when the state decides over women's bodies in this way, it is a system of oppression over women," she said. Aktas added that she did not want to make the scarf compulsory.

"I argue that every Muslim should decide for herself whether or not to wear a scarf," she said.

Her stance has brought her hate messages from radical secularists but also from religious hard-liners.

"I have had nasty e-mails from both sides," she said. "Regrettably, the internet creates opportunities for uneducated and cowardly people."

Aktas spoke with humour of her long fight to prove herself: "For a long time the media and critics who are mostly leftist ignored me, because they could not imagine that a woman in a scarf could possibly be a writer."

She said her twice-weekly columns in the daily newspaper Taraf and her books had established her, but going against the current meant she still had to work harder than other writers.

"I have had to struggle against hostile criticism, but it has not made me pessimistic. I believe in my responsibility as a writer. I believe in my work. A writer is always writing for the future, and time will sift the best work," she said with a smile.

Europe's First Woman Imam (in Belgium)

From IslamOnline.net - October 25, 2008

Europe's First Woman Imam

By  Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent

Fattah will supervise the preaching activities for women at the mosque. (IOL photo)

PARIS — A mosque in southern Belgium has named a female Muslim professor to the post of imam, the first such a move in the northwestern European country.

"Hawaria Fattah has been granted the rank of imam," Abdel-Jalel Al-Hajaji, the curator of Al-Sahaba Mosque in the southern city of Verviers, told IslamOnline.net on Saturday, October 25.

"It is the first move of its kind in Belgium and Europe."

Chosen along with two male imams, Fattah, a mother of three, will supervise the preaching activities for women at the mosque.

"But she will not deliver the sermon of the Friday prayers or lead the prayers," stressed Hajaji.

"Her role will focus on supervising the preaching and guidance activities for women at the mosque."

Fattah's selection was approved by the Belgian Justice Ministry, which is responsible for the country's religious affairs.

Born to an Algerian father and a Belgian mother, Fatah, 35, is a professor of social and Islamic studies.

She has worked as a preacher for Muslim women at a mosque in Verviers.

Pioneering

Muslim leaders said Fattah's appointment shows that Islam is treating men and women on equal footing.

"Her selection stems from our conviction that men and women are equal in Islam," said Hajaji.

The Muslim leader said that the move will help Muslim women gain a foothold at mosques.

"This pioneering move will help enable women gain a foothold in preaching activities, while abiding by religious teachings."

Fattah's selection won plaudits from Belgian Muslims.

"We welcome and praise this smart move," Karim Chemlal, leader of the Muslim League of Belgium, told IOL.

"It will show the bright image of our Islamic faith."

Belgian Muslims are estimated at 450,000 — out of a 10-million population. Most of Belgian Muslims are of Moroccan and Turkish origins.

Belgium was the first European country in 1974 to recognize Islam among other state religions in the country.

India: This Qazi is a Woman

From the Times of IndiaIndi - October 12, 2008

This Qazi is a woman

12 Oct 2008, 0239 hrs IST, Mohammed Wajihuddin, TNN

Yojana Bhavan, at leafy Parliament Street in Lutyen's Delhi, is known more for planning the nation's destiny than housing a person whose heart
beats for poetry. But enter Room Number 111 at the Planning Commission's headquarters, and a poetic aura engulfs you. On a wall, complementing photographs of a woman captured in many moods are Urdu couplets by poet Kamla Bhasin. A couplet ponders: 'Desh mein aurat agar beaabru nashaad hai/Dil par rakh kar haath kahiye desh kya azaad hai? (If the country's women feel belittled and disheartened/ Put your hand on your heart and tell me if the country is free).'

It is in this room that Planning Commission member and activist Syeda Hameed spends most of her waking hours; that is, when she is not touring the backwaters of Muzaffarnagar in UP and Mewat in Haryana, chronicling the horror of 'honour' killings or scouring the villages of Orissa to fight the communal fires stoked by Hindutva's hate brigade. And it was in this room that she got a call from a Lucknow-based fellow activist, Naish, a couple of months ago. "She sounded desperate," Syeda recalls. "She told me that if I didn't agree to solemnise her nikaah with Imraan, also an activist, she would opt for a civil marriage."

What followed next was a historic and path-breaking step in the annals of Islam in India. On August 12 this year, after solemnising Naish's nikaah with Imraan, Syeda officially became India's first woman Qazi. The nikaah was also unusual because it had four women as witnesses instead of the traditional two male witnesses. A male witness was added at the last moment lest orthodox clerics declared the nikaah null and void.

Controversy trailed the event from word go. As the cameras rolled and flashbulbs popped, a frenzy gripped the lanes of Lucknow. Uninvited guests, including an intrusive media, showed up, sensationalising what was supposed to be a private affair. Someone approached an orthodox maulvi. "A nikaah solemnised by a woman Qazi is impractical and therefore not advisable," declared Maulana Khalid Rashid from Lucknow's Firangi Mahal, a religious organisation. Despite the severe criticism from orthodox clerics, Syeda remains steadfast: "It sent across a message that the time for change has come. Women can no longer be subjugated."

When the clergy couldn't find a convincing alibi because neither the Quran nor the Hadith (Prophet Mohammed's traditions) enjoins that only a male can officiate as a Qazi, a maulvi protested that some of the women at the ceremony had not covered their heads. "That is also an insinuation because the photographs and the videos of the marriage ceremony
prove that all the women had their heads well covered," says Syeda. Another maulvi declared that the nikaah was not legitimate because the Qazi was a Shia while the couple were Sunni Muslims. Syeda's reply is that in her family Shia-Sunni marriages were common. "My illustrious ancestor Maulana Altaf Hussain Hali was a Sunni. My mother was Shia while my father belonged to the Sunni sect. My sister is married to a Sunni. For the first time, I was made to realise that I am a Shia," explains Syeda who ensured that her three children, while growing up, imbibed Islam's eclectic spirit, not the divisive dogma propagated by some clerics.

Syeda says nothing inspires her more than the works of Maulana Altaf Hussain Hali, the 19th-century Urdu poet. Musaddas-e-Hali (also called Ebb And Tide In Islam as it chronicles Islam's history in poetry) and Munaajat-e-Bewa (Lament Of The Widow) are some of his better known works. Hali's Munaajat, says Syeda, lambasts patriarchy and upholds the rights of women. "He was undeniably India's first feminist poet," she declares. And as we prepare to leave, hums another couplet on the wall: 'Chup hain lekin yeh na samjho hum sada ke haare hain/Raakh ke neeche abhi jal rahe angare hain (If I am silent, don't mistake it for my defeat/The embers beneath the ashes are burning).

Growing Asian-American Vote Sheds Passive Past

From the Associated Press

Growing Asian-American vote sheds passive past

By JESSE WASHINGTON
AP National Writer

LORTON, Va. -- For a long time, says Loc Pfeiffer, his fellow
Asian-Americans were passive participants in American politics. But
things are changing.

"Asians don't like confrontation or being adversarial, but that's
politics," says Pfeiffer, a 41-year-old lawyer who was 6 when his
parents brought him to America from Vietnam.

"The more we're raised and bred here, the less likely we are to be
passive. So much of our culture, it's a very, very obedient culture.
... You don't argue with the government. You don't argue with Big
Brother. There's the assumption that you give up all your individual
rights for the whole. Which is astounding to me, because I'm American
now."

An assertive Asian America matters, especially in places like Virginia
and Nevada, swing states where Asians have been growing in numbers and
influence.

With a booming population of highly educated, increasingly
Americanized voters, this former "silent minority" is entering the
most engaged and visible era of its political history.

The number of Asians in the United States has grown 25 percent in the
last seven years, to 15 million, said Jane Junn, an associate
professor of political science at Rutgers University. Educated people
are more likely to vote, and 50 percent of the Asian population has a
college degree, compared with 25 percent of the U.S. population, Junn
said.

"There comes a point where there's a critical mass," said Junn, whose
parents were born in Korea. "When you're only one person out of 100,
you're very self-conscious about (becoming politically active). But
there is power in numbers."

Asian attitudes toward the two presidential candidates are as varied
as the nations stretching from India to Malaysia to Japan, lumped into
one racial category by the U.S. Census.

Yet some say Barrack Obama's rise from humble origins resonates with
many Asians who value education and hard work as the keys to success
and have been forced to fit their heritage into an American framework.

In a recent column for the San Francisco Chronicle, writer Jeff Yang
was even inspired to riff on President Clinton's honorary black
membership and ask if Obama's background - parental academic pressure,
struggle for identity, guilt-wielding mother, Harvard education -
would make him the first Asian-American president.

"So much of what we deal with is the notion of being outsiders,
foreigners, of being outside the social dialogue of the United
States," Yang said in an interview. "You look at Obama and those are
some of the same aspersions and slanders being cast at him. He's kind
of the closest thing we can have legally to an immigrant in the White
House. He's somebody who understands this journey that Asian-Americans
and other immigrants have made."

Yang added that his Taiwan-born parents, who had never voted for a
Democratic presidential candidate, were seriously considering Obama.

News of Yang's Obama proclamation inspired hearty laughter at the
gathering of a half-dozen lawyers at the home of 65-year-old Paul
Nguyen in Lorton. Although many had voted Republican in the past, all
but one planned to vote for Obama.

When Nguyen said Asians had to learn the American political system and
form a bloc to demand something in return for their votes, the
conversation bubbled over:

"We never ask for anything. We always work for what we get."

"We're too diverse. You can't bring the Filipinos, the Koreans, the
Japanese, everybody all together."

"We're still in the infancy of our presence here."

"Now we're more active, more aware. Over the last 10 or 20 years it's
happened very slowly."

In the past, Asians were largely overlooked during past presidential
campaigns because of their widely varied nationalities and
concentration in the reliably Democratic states of California and New
York.

Now, both campaigns have national Asian outreach efforts. In Virginia,
Obama's campaign is focusing on sending language-specific volunteers
to register voters from particular countries. The McCain campaign's
priority is securing the support of community leaders from the Korean,
Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian and Filipino communities.

Although no Democratic presidential candidate has won Virginia since
Lyndon Johnson in 1964, polls show Obama edging ahead. Meanwhile, the
state's Asian population has grown from 3.7 percent in 2000 to 4.8
percent in 2006, above the national average of 4.4 percent.

Virginia's Asians are concentrated in the D.C. suburbs, where the
Asian population reaches as high as 16 percent in Fairfax County, as
well as the Norfolk area, where the naval operations have attracted
Filipinos.

There are roughly 300,000 voting-age Asians in Virginia, and about
100,000 registered Asian voters, according to estimates from the Obama
and McCain campaigns.

In 2006, after incumbent Republican Sen. George Allen was caught on
tape using the slur "macaca" to describe an Indian from the opposing
campaign, he lost to Democrat Jim Webb by 7,231 votes out of 2.37
million ballots cast. Seventy-six percent of the Asian vote went
against Allen.

In the past, many Asians nationally have leaned Republican because of
the party's record of fighting Communism, support for small business
owners, and emphasis on personal responsibility and family values.

A Vietnamese group from northern Virginia recently endorsed McCain at
a rally attended by about 200 people. Some Asian supporters point to
McCain's military service, Vietnam imprisonment, an adopted daughter
from Bangladesh, plus his support in the Senate for issues such as
free trade and visa waivers.

Tuyet Duong, who has been canvassing undecided Vietnamese voters for
the Obama campaign, said many people she talks to are voting based on
the candidates' life stories rather than the issues, and the fact that
McCain fought in Vietnam strikes a powerful chord.

Yet Asian voters nationwide appear to be favoring Obama, the Democrat,
in greater numbers than the 54 percent who voted for Democrat John
Kerry in 2004.

This could be explained by President Bush's unpopularity, Obama's
recent rise in the polls amid the economic implosion, or the fact that
Obama's Senate chief of staff and legislative director are Asian. But
it also has something to do with a new generation of Asian-Americans.

Two-thirds of U.S. Asians are foreign-born. Their American-born
children are now thriving, many in professions like medicine, law and
high-tech industries. English is the first language of this second
generation. And they have landed squarely in the Obama sweet spot of
young and educated supporters.

"I've lived my life trying to be kind of race-neutral," said Michael
Chang, 34, who was born in Washington, D.C. to Korean parents. After
his father died when he was 10, Chang's mother sent him to law school
and his sister to two doctoral degrees, all on a legal secretary's
salary.

Chang, who is married to an Italian immigrant, plans to vote for Obama
because he likes his stance on the issues and because he's younger. He
also believes that Obama's background, coupled with his rejection of
racial rhetoric, makes him more relatable for younger, mainstream
Asians.

"I'm proud of my heritage, said Chang, "but I think of myself as American."