The full text of the petition is at:https://www.dropbox.com/s/los1vam97clp0it/Board%20Agenda%20Petition.pdf
Board letter summary:

Proposed, that the Board establish a commission to conduct inquiry into the three areas detailed below. Given the serious nature of the organization’s legal exposure, it is proposed that the investigation be urgent and timely with reports due back in six months (at the October board meeting), and request for membership comment begun immediately after the current board meeting.

Discussion and Documentation: The members of the Inspirational Equality Movement request that the Board initiate a fact finding commission to determine whether the SCA policy permitting Crowns to exclude same sex pairs from Crown List entry may be in conflict with existing modern law and prevailing SCA opinion. In order to protect the SCA from vulnerability on moral, ethical, and legal grounds, we strongly urge that this fact-finding commission consider evidence from three important sources:

1. Moral grounds: We submit that SCA populace opinion no longer supports a default stance of non-inclusion for same sex pairs, and ask that the following proposed revision be submitted for public comment:

a. Current wording

b. Proposed revision

2. Ethical grounds: evidence from the SCA history of the past two years demonstrates that the current wording of corpora conveys a “default stance” of non-inclusion which has caused demonstrable confusion and distress, representing an ethical breach of faith between the organization and its members.

a. Two incidences:

i. Ansteorra (failure to publish IE allowance in List rules)

ii. Drachenwald (default to “ground rule” to inform same sex pair exclusion)

b. Demonstration that no harm from hypothetical concerns regarding “gaming the system” has occurred

i. Documentation of same sex pairs who have entered Crown Lists

3. Legal grounds: current state, federal, and national laws regarding equal access and non-discrimination

a. U.S. Federal definition of discrimination

b. California Unruh Act

c. U.S. state laws governing prohibition on discrimination for non-profit clubs

d. British Equalities Law

e. Canadian Law

f. Australian Law

We, the undersigned members of the Society for Creative Anachronism, add our names in support of the Agenda proposal request by the Inspirational Equality advocacy group.