A week or so ago, the legislature held a hearing regarding Proposition 8, the anti-marriage measure. These hearings are required by law to be held for every proposition, but this one, of course, was a bit more interesting. A future Assemblyman, John Perez, an openly gay community and union leader running to replace the termed out Fabian Nunez, spoke of the inherent discrimination of seperate but equal. Samuel Thoron spoke of the importance to families of marriage equality.
On the other side, you had Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse basically said, "Why do you hate the children? THink of the Children who will be forced to grow up in a loving stable home where two parents love and support them?"
Ok, maybe not so much with the second part of that quote. I've dutifully captured that video (after much labor with a corrupted DVD...let's just say I spent way too much time on this) and offer it up to you. Sincere Kudos go out to Assemblyman Dave Jones (D-Sac) who absolutely put Dr. Morse in her place. Exposing her argument as completely devoid of logic, and that is essentially a pretext.
Asm. Dave Jones: Would you then tell the older heterosexual couple that they should not get married.
Dr. Morse: No, no I would not say that they shouldnt get married, but what I would say is that if the only kind of couples we had in society are elderly couples who are sterile we wouldnt need an institution of marriage. You know, we wouldnt need it. So the point is, there are ways to solve--the problems that those couples face as elderly persons who arent going to have any kids
Jones: Well, why didnt you craft this legislation to allow older gay couples to marry, if kids are the only concern
Morse:Well we thought it was simpler just to go back to the old man-woman definition.
Jones: Or maybe this isnt about children after all
Morse: Right after this thereès some crazy stuff she gets into about in vitro fertilization becoming an entitlement. The Rep asks her if she would outlaw In Vitro if the child knowing the biological parent is so important, and she says no.
Jones: So let me sum this up. You wouldnt ban infertility centers even though the children there wont know who their biological parents are, you dont agree with baning adoption even though in those circumstances children are not necessarily being raised by their biological parents, youre ok with, um, the adoption of children by gays and lesbians, you dont believe in banning divorce, even though by your own arguments theres been all sorts of analogous studies that indicate that divorce is very very harmful on children. Um, its hard for me not to conclude that this isnt about protecting children... I am utterly unconvinced that thats whats going on here. What s going on here is fundamentally, I believe, an effort to discriminate against a class of people and deprive them of something that everybody else has.
But this is what Prop 8 supporters are attempting to sell both to the loyal flock of the Mormon Church and to the greater state of California. An argument only thinly veiling its real purpose: to discriminate against one group of Californians, to only exclude those whom you don't like. And the lies only continue. The proponents argue that a failure of Prop 8 will lead to churches rocking house remixes of Madonna every Sunday because they have to let the gays take over. And not the good Madonna stuff...the new stuff! Boogy-Boogy-Boogy.
In fact, the Yes on 8 Campaign has gone through and come up with 6 Whole Ways Gay Marriage Will Ruin Your Life and the Life of All Straight Couples With Children. It's basically a run down of everything you've seen in their commercials. You know, children will get taught gay marriage in schools, churches will be forced to marry teh gayz, Churches won't be able to say anything about teh gayz being evil, and it will cost you tons of money (huh?).
Well, I'm sure I could go through point by point on this ridiculous list. But fortunately, it's already been done. Morris Thurston, a lifelong Mormon, long-time partner at Latham & Watkins (a big LA-based law firm), has already gone through point by point and taken them all down. You can find a mini-post at Mormons for Marriage with the full PDF here or over the flip.
Mr. Thurston goes through each point, and completely rebuts them legally and also from a general logical standpoint. Take Reason #2, for example, churches will lose tax-exempt status if they don't do same-sex marriages. Nope, says Mr. Thurston:
2. Churches may be sued over their tax exempt status if they refuse to allow same-sex marriage ceremonies in their religious buildings open to the public. Ask whether your pastor, priest, minister, bishop, or rabbi is ready to perform such marriages in your chapels and sanctuaries.
Response: This false "consequence" is based on the misrepresentation of a case in New Jersey involving an association affiliated with the Methodist Church. In considering that case, it is important to remember that New Jersey does not permit gay marriage, so that case had nothing to do with Proposition 8.
* * *(More info on the New Jersey lawsuit)* * *
The California Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage cannot have any federal tax consequences, and the Court so noted explicitly in its decision. The Supreme Court also noted that its ruling would not require any priest, rabbi or minister to perform gay marriages, which should be self-evident because of the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of religion.
I'll let you read the full smack-down of the "6 Reasons" but suffice it to say there's not much left of the "Reasons" to argue with. Which isn't to say that you won't be seeing them repeated over and over again on TV commercials and from silly talking heads like Dr. Morse, the Right isn't really known for bowing to the reality of logic.
So, on this Sunday, consider giving to Equality for All, No on Prop 8, through the Calitics ActBlue Page, where we are just $1,500 from hitting $50K. (We've also given $2,000 from the Calitics CaliPAC, and another $5K+ from other Calitics pages). You can also do so over at Big Orange, where the Hell to Pay fundraisier has now raised well over $100K to fight back Prop 8. Thanks to every who has given money to oppose Prop 8. And to everybody who hasn't, time is of the essence. If you are considering, please do it as soon as possible.
Over at Daily Kos, the Hell to Pay fundraiser for Equality for All, No on Prop 8 is rolling right along. We are currently well over $50,000 to fight back against the bigotry of Prop 8.
Head on over there or make a contribution at our own Calitics ActBlue Page. By the way, we're approaching $50K for Equality for All there as well.
There's a weekly feature from now through the election on Daily Kos that's called "Hell to Pay", in which a contest is held among candidates from the Orange to Blue ActBlue page. The winner of the contest has a special fundraising drive held for them on DailyKos on Saturday night. The winner can usually count on racking up donations into the five figures.
Calitics favorite and CA-04 Congressional candidate Charlie Brown is one of this week's contestants. Voting is open right now, so if you have a DKos account, go vote.
P.S. I absolutely love Dan Seals, the candidate in IL-10. Personable, friendly, wickedly smart, very receptive to the netroots, and an all around good guy. It's a Chicago suburb that we should be able to win and hold. I hope he wins next week. But right now, let's get Charlie Brown an extra boost and send Tom McClintock back down to my neighborhood to go lose an election for some other office.
(Come out to Medjool tonight. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Hey Calitics,
My name's Matt Browner-Hamlin and I'm the Online Communications Director for Mark Begich's US Senate campaign in Alaska. We're running against Ted Stevens, who most people have probably heard something about today. I wanted to be sure that you guys saw that Mark will be in the Bay Area this Friday and the fine folks of Daily Kos and members of San Francisco Drinking Liberally are hosting a fund raiser for us. You can RSVP for the event on ActBlue or pay at the door. Here are the event details:
Please join us for an event to support Mark Begich's US Senate campaign in Alaska.
Friday, August 1, 2008
6:30 - 8:00 PM
Mezzanine at Medjool
2524 Mission St
San Francisco, CA 94110
Google Map RSVP by ordering your tickets below. You can also buy your tickets at the door.
Questions? Please email Sam Brown at contact@bandgassoc.com
I won't be able to attend the party, but I hope you guys can go and meet Mark, the next Senator from Alaska.
Hi...This is Marta Jorgensen. As you know, I have won the Democratic Primary in the 24th District in our fair state of California. I am a long time blogger and grassroots organizer, the last project being the Draft Gore Ballot Drive. I know the power of the Netroots, respect the activist community, share your passion, your committment to the pressing issues of our time. I am grateful for the support you gave during our campaign.
I pledge to lay down the gauntlet to our present district leadership, the Republicans in office and Congressman Gallegly.
Let's do this together, reinvigorate the people and their involvement in the process and bring it home in November!
After seeing Gila's latest story on The Liberal OC, I've been thinking. I know, I know. That's a REALLY scary thought. But trust me, it's not scary.
All too often when we think of the netroots, we think of those big, glitzy, glamorous national blogs with all those hundreds of thousands of User IDs. We think of that huge convention in Chicago that just ended. We think big, and we think national. But when you really look at the big picture, the national scene is only a small part of it.
The SF Chronicle just caught onto this, and I'm glad to see them noticing. There's a giant segment of the netroots that hasn't been noticed much, but is nonetheless making a huge difference throughout California, and throughout the nation. Follow me after the flip for more...
It's been quite a wild week in the 42nd Congressional District. Ever since Ron Shepston announced that he's running against Dirty Gary Miller, there have been quite some interesting developments that have occurred in the race to replace Dirty Gary. We've had the bloggers talk about going offline. We've had the California Democratic Party go online to announce its new website targeting Dirty Gary. We've heard rumors that a former Republican politician might reemerge to challenge Dirty Gary in the primary. Oh yes, and what did Ron say about John Kerry?
Follow me after the flip for all the latest dirt on Dirty Gary...
After witnessing the damage inflicted on [Former Senator George] Allen by Democrat campaign staff, Markos Zuniga is serious. Democratic Party activists are to be armed with high-tech video equipment looking to preserve any visible or audible mistakes committed by Republicans during public speaking appearances (not just from stages and podiums, but presumably private conversations on public grounds).
So what is it about progressive bloggers that's scaring the living daylight out of seasoned Republican insiders? Why are they so afraid of us? Follow me after the flip to find out...
With California moving up its primary, my vote will actually matter next year. And now I can officially narrow down my choices to Edwards, Obama, and Richardson. [...]
Not only is the Clinton campaign pig-headed, they are also remarkably out-of-touch. They are "surprised" at the anger this war is generating? Has she been living in a cave the last four years (yes, the Senate apparently is a cave). The last thing we need in the White House is another out-of-touch, tone-deaf Bush-style presidency, unable or unwilling to admit mistakes and change course as a result.
Hillary will now see her campaign events hijacked by anti-war protesters, with people demanding she defend her vote at every corner. Iraq will dominate coverage of her campaign, and she's on the wrong side of the issue. And by going this far without admitting her mistake, she has painted herself into a corner. Any attempt now to back off and apologize would be met with the proper scorn.
This is the emerging conventional wisdom and I expect the California Hillary events that are "hijacked" will be some of the most memorable.
Ever since the primary, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, aka Kos, has been talking down the chances of one Phil Angelides for Governor. He was pro Westly during the primary and now he seems to be happy to talk down Angelides' chances at every turn.
