Tickets for Elton John’s Private LA Concert to Benefit AFER Available

By Karen Ocamb -

Host Committee and guests include JJ Abrams and Kaity McGrath, Steve Bing, David Geffen, Ron Burkle, Norman Lear, Barbra Streisand, Rob and Michele Reiner, Ken Mehlman, Dustin Lance Black, Barbara Bush, Chad Griffin and Yeardley Smith.
AFER Attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies, along with plaintiffs Kris Perry & Sandy Stier and Paul Katami & Jeff Zarrillo will also be there.

Ticket prices for the concert start at $1,000 and are available on AFER’s website, http://www.afer.org/elton-john-concert/. AFER is a 501(c)3 organization, and contributions are tax deductible.
Last August, District Court Judge Vaughn Walker found that Prop. 8 is unconstitutional – that it violates both the Due Process Clause and Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution.  The case is now before 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Eventually the case could reach the US Supreme Court. But even if the 9th Circuit panel dismisses the case based on the technicality that Protect Marriage lacks standing to defend Prop 8 in the federal appeals court, AFER founder Chad Griffin has vowed that the organization will find another legal case to take to the Supreme Court so that marriage equality will become the law of the nation.

From the AFER press release:

David Boies with plaintiffs Jeff Zarrillo (left) & Paul Katami.

Elton John’s performance on behalf of AFER comes off the heels of an art auction in New York that raised $600,000 for the Foundation. The event drew support from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Barbara Bush (daughter of President George W. Bush), and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt. The auction included works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Diane Arbus. In September 2010, AFER garnered more than $1.3 million in support from an event [hosted by new out GOP honcho Ken Mehlman] that drew together an impressive array of GOP and Wall Street leaders.
AFER launched the Perry case in May 2009, and is committed to achieving full federal marriage equality for all Americans by linking the movement to the nation’s founding constitutional principles, including the right of all Americans to equal protection under the law.  Its broad and bipartisan coalition of support has grown to include a diverse and unprecedented array of leaders including Julian Bond (past Chairman of the NAACP), Dolores Huerta (co-founder with Cesar Chavez of the UFW), the California NAACP, MALDEF, Ken Mehlman (former Chairman of the Republican National Committee and top adviser to President George W. Bush), major LGBT civil rights and legal organizations, and thousands of grassroots supporters across the nation. Its advisory board is co-chaired by John Podesta (White House Chief of Staff in the Clinton Administration and head of the Center for American Progress) and Robert Levy (head of the Cato Institute).
For more information, please visit the AFER website:  www.afer.org

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