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I think most Californians, including most people who are leaning toward supporting this proposition, would find this prospect frightening and it would make them reconsider their position on the matter.
Take the money and make an ad about the Mormon church's past efforts to keep African-Americans out of leadership roles in the boys scouts (before they changed their tune). Their past racism is well documented. Then have the announcer ask if the LDS is repeating the kind of mistakes they've made in the past and just substituting one bigotry for another. The Mormons DO NOT want to have a public discussion about their past racism and bigotry, and their enthusiasm to pursue pouring money into ads on Prop 8 would seriously drop if we made it clear that we're going to force a conversation about this in the media every time they pour even another penny into Prop 8. Frankly, GLBT activists should have predicted the Mormon push and made this clear at least six months ago: if you come at us, we're making sure there's a lot of discussion of things the Mormons don't want discussed.
Fight hard, or we're pouring our money down the drain.
"First they came after my marriage and next they will come after yours. Yes on Prop 8 is funded by the MORMON CHURCH who wants to IMPOSE THEIR VIEW OF MARRIAGE ON YOUR FAMILY. Prop 8 is just a bellwether for the Mormon Church to see how easily they can manipulate you. After they revoke my marriage then they will work at making divorce illegal, trapping the women of California in abusive relationships and servitude without any legal recourse. Eventually they will make MORMON POLYGAMY the LAW OF CALIFORNIA! We must stop them now and tell them that we do not want their so-called faith to destroy our Christian ideals! Protect traditional marriage! VOTE NO ON PROP 8!"
Is it a lie that I just made up? Absolutely…but by taking the higher ground on these issues we keep bringing a plastic spork to a gunfight. And yes I know that Mormons don't really practice polygamy (at least openly) and I know that Mormons are not bankrolling the entire Yes on 8 effort just like the "Hollywood Elite" is not bankrolling the "no" side, but that doesn't stop them from perpetrating the lie...
What self-respecting law professor could say such a thing? It's appalling. I gotta get that guy's name.
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One of the reasons for this is no more than self-interest. There is a level of comfort knowing your wealth can't be picked clean by divorce. In other words, as long as marriage is not on the table in a relationship, the wealthy partner is shielded
from all that nastiness. It sounds cold, but that is one reason its so hard to motivate some of the wealthier folks in our community around this issue.
MORMONS - fundamentalist groups who continue to practice plural marriage...
Isn't that illegal? Maybe it is time to fight fire with fire. They are trying to stop a law that will affect your life. Why not try to get the laws that DO affect them enforced? They are lawbreakers. Start to send complaints to the DOJ to get them investigated and thrown in jail.
And no, the Catholic and Mormon groups are not outspending us 7 billion to one. It's more like $25 million to $15 million.
But even bigger than the money difference is the quality difference in the ads. The No people suck, the Yes people are doing their fear-mongering best.
When he first ran for senate and reneged on his promise to support gay rights, I sent him a hand-written note telling him that I would contribute to anyone who ran against him in future. And I have.
Lots of other gay Californians have sent money to Merkel.
(OTOH, maybe Sully should just take out ads in the rural Oregon papers announcing his support as a gay activist for Gordy's gay agenda :) That would help Jeff Merkley more than anything.)
I get to go to SFO in about a half hour to pick up Hubby, who has been in Japan for the past week. Me and the cats are missing him pretty good right about now.
In the past few months I have had two glossy flyers from the No On 8 campaign stuck in my door jam. I live in the Castro. That is a complete waste of resources and unacceptable. On any given day on Castro Street you'll find a number of folks soliciting donations. That's great and that is what they should be doing. You don't send people up into the neighborhood to leave glossy flyers. That is ridiculous.
Anyways....Everybody still needs to give. I know the No On 8 people have gotten an earful and are hopefully making adjustments.
The Yes ON 8 people have two ads going -- a TV ad and a radio ad. Both start and end with Gavin Newsom being a "rub-it-in-your-face" asshole saying gay marriage is here "whether you like it or not". Then the commercial tells you that this gay marriage ruling threatens people of faith. Churches could lose tax exempt status, gay marriage will taught to children, your moral beliefs will be threatened. It's an ad full of lies, but it is hard-hitting and very scary to religious types.
The NO on 8 commercial basically shows two women at a kitchen table. One is uncomfortable about gay marriage, but the other one tells her it's all gonna be okay. The ad ends by saying that we should eliminate marriage rights for anyone, so vote no on 8.
The contrast is striking. One is a hard-hitting and effective smear ad, the other is an instantly forgettable Hallmark ad that doesn't refute any of the arguments put forward by the Yes folks.
I don't know what ad company the No on 8 people are using, but so far they suck ass. They need memorable, hard-hitting commercials that make Prop. 8 sound scary. Families torn apart, forced divorce, children in tears, etc. Also, how about refuting this nonsense about churches losing tax exempt status and gay marriage being taught in kindergarten?
...Columbus in Connecticut. The "no" side gets big-dollar donations from from wealthy individuals from California and across the country who support same-sex marriage.
But the yes-on-8 campaign also is particularly successful at mining small donors. It raised $4.5 million in increments of less than $1,000, and $8.6 million in donations of less than $10,000. That works out to about 46% of its money.
The "yes" campaign has spent $1.6 million on mass mailings, many of which are intended to raise small donations. It has spent another $510,000 on phone banks, also aimed in part at raising money. The campaign also is relying on Internet fund-raising to bring in small bucks.
The bulk of the "yes" side’s money — at least $20.46 million, or 84% — has come donors living within California, the latest campaign finance disclosure filed with the California secretary of state shows.
The no-on-8 campaign has raised 75% of its money -- $11.5 million -- from within California.
On the "no" side, far more money has come in large checks -- $10.1 million in donations of $100,000 or more, and another $2.65 million in donations of between $10,000 and $99,999. That works out to almost 83% coming in donations of $10,000 or more.
http://www.noonprop8.com/news/articles?id=0197
But I think we can win fair and square if all gays contribute even small amounts.
most importantly, where are the LGBTs whose lives are primarily are at stake here. I am not belittling anyone... this issue is just very important that everyone should help.
Mormons are all over the U.S., not just Utah. They make up large parts of the population in Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and even California. And they mostly tithe.
We could learn something about supporting each other from them.
Now whom can they marry? Another hermaphrodite? Forbidden to marry? Killed at birth (as one very old religion once encouraged)? I keep asking all religious leaders this question and they are adept at dancing around a straight answer so that tells me they have been prepared for questions like this with ready answers (trained is more like it). Ask your religious leaders if a hermaphrodite can marry. Post their answers. It will be interesting.
Years ago I took a class at Humboldt State University: Philosophy of Sex and Love. The professor with a PhD in Philosophy and a devout Catholic, did not know what a hermaphrodite was (I and most of the class did) when the topic of homosexuality came up. It was an interesting discussion.
6. If we get married in California on or before November 4, 2008 and Proposition 8—the marriage ban—is enacted, what would happen to our marriage?
Because your marriage will have been valid at the time it was entered, we believe you will still be married after November 4, 2008 regardless of whether the initiative passes. Initiatives usually are not retroactive and this initiative does not say that it would be. If the initiative passes, there will likely be people or organizations who will try to argue that your marriage is no longer valid and that you were divorced against your will as of November 4. It is hard to predict with certainty what courts would decide because this situation is unprecedented.
Shouldn't the IRS be looking into what the Mormon church is doing?
Hermaphrodite issue: A way for gays and lesbians to win marriage equality with heterosexuals.
Come on, this is an opportunity. It will take just one hermaphrodite to apply for a marriage license in Salt Lake City, Utah. Of course the marriage application will be denied but it opens the door for court action. But a hermaphrodite is a creature of God, not of Satan as one old religion used it as an excuse to kill them at birth. There is absolutely no possibility of choice as the person was born with both male and female genitals. I want to see the courts have this issue. The courts can use the argument that being gay is one of choice; a hermaphrodite HAD no choice and they should not be forced or coerced into accepting surgery to be male or female exclusively. Unfortunately most hermaphrodites are surgically altered at birth--to me that is wrong as it violates their civil rights. Some of the religious leaders suggest surgery to create a mono gender before they will marry one.
The issue of non-choice at conception will destroy the religious view that homosexuality is one of choice--the issue will be moot when hermaphrodites gain the right to marry; that means any two people can marry.
I am amazed at how this simple method is overlooked in the fight for marriage equality. FYI, I am heterosexual.
An excellent article (found using Google "hermaphrodite history") is at http://8e.devbio.com/article.php?id=266 and I will quote a small bit to get people to thinking on this:
"In some interpretations of Genesis, the primal Adam was a hermaphrodite, and the cleaving of this original person into male and female is evidence of the Fall. So, as the saying goes, "No one's perfect.""
One last quote from the article: "...She estimates the frequency of all sexually mosaic conditions (hermaphrodites and pseudohermaphrodites) in humans to be about 1% of the population."
Any hermaphrodite will face a terrible backlash from the religious zealots. It will take courage. But maybe it is time we recognize that there are more than two sexes created by God.
I wonder if the Federal Supreme Court can declare null and void amendments to California's Constitution on the basis of civil rights violation?