The other day I wondered if the No on 8 side was being too cautious in their advertising, instead of putting an actual face on the discrimination and harm that would be suffered if marriage rights were eliminated for a particular class of people. Well, this video isn't exactly that, but it certainly makes the point about discrimination. Via Amanda at Pandagon, this is my favorite video of the cycle. A group redubbed the voices on a video of young people ranting about all the supposed consequences about gay marriage, and changed it so they say "interracial marriage." It's kind of perfect:
See, this comes down to discrimination, pure and simple. The other side wants to talk about ancillary outcomes, but really they want to hurt LGBT people. I mean, we have to be willing to say that. The other side has no problem outlining what they consider to be the stakes, as crazy as they think they are:
"This vote on whether we stop the gay-marriage juggernaut in California is Armageddon," said Charles W. Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries and an eminent evangelical voice, speaking to pastors in a video promoting Proposition 8. "We lose this, we are going to lose in a lot of other ways, including freedom of religion."
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian lobby based in Washington, said in an interview, "It's more important than the presidential election."
"We've picked bad presidents before, and we've survived as a nation," said Mr. Perkins, who has made two trips to California in the last six weeks. "But we will not survive if we lose the institution of marriage."
I'm glad that No on 8 is raising a lot of money, and that high-profile Californians like Maria Shriver are on board. But at some point in this final week, someone has to break this down. This is about harming same-sex couples.
It's 2008, and even in California the religious right is attempting to punish young women for having sex by bringing back illegal abortion. Progressives are starting to fight back, but the bad new is Yes on Prop 4 is still leading.
The last two times they put this anti-choice crap on the ballot, California voters wisely rejected it. This time, people aren't paying enough attention with so many other races and issues grabbing the headlines.
While Prop 8 is getting all the headlines, another initiative, Prop 4, is threatening even greater harm. One reason the threat is so great is that it is getting too little attention.
Prop 4 is another clone of the anti-abortion initiative California rejected in 2005 and again in 2006. The religious right keeps rolling the dice on this because they have nothing to lose and they only need to win one time to start chipping away at Roe v. Wade. For them to win in this huge, pro-choice state would empower the religious right like never before and build momentum to dismantle abortion rights from coast to coast.
2008 may be their year. Polls currently show Yes on 4 leading -- but it's close enough that progressives can defeat it again if we are willing to work.
Prop 4 proposes an abortion restriction most voters find appealing until they think about it. In the past, we've been able to get voters to look close and see the dangers. This year, with Prop 8 grabbing the headlines and a Presidential race eclipsing all else, it is harder to get voters' attention, and it is harder to get campaign volunteers and donations to help us win.
Welcome to a probably not-so-regular feature, offering the latest news on the ballot propositions. The Calitics Editorial Board will be out with their endorsements on these initiatives sometime next week.
There is far more economic opportunity in fighting global warming than economic risk....We shouldn't let the budget crisis hold back good things for the future. 20 years from now you can't look back and say "well they had a budget crisis so we didn't do it." Just because we had a problem with the budget does not mean that people should vote "no" on high speed rail. Our rail system in America is so old, we're driving the same speed as 100 years ago, the same system as 100 years ago. We should modernize, we should do what other countries do...We should start in this state, we should show leadership.
• Prop. 2: You can see it by clicking on the ad on the side, but, you know, Piggy Wonder deserves some main-page love. Joe Trippi is apparently involved in the Prop. 2 campaign, which would help stop animal cruelty; I got an email from him promoting this video.
• Prop. 5: The LA Times has a series of profiles on all the propositions, and here's their edition on Prop. 5, which would finally increase treatment for nonviolent offenders like drug users instead of warehousing them at our overstuffed prisons. Opponents are smearing this by saying its true intent is to legalize drugs, but the failed Drug War is the great unmentionable sinkhole in state and national budgets, and a smart policy emphasizing rehabilitation is desperately needed, especially in California. The No on 5 people must have better spinmeisters, however, as most of the newspapers in the state have come out against the measure. Right, because the policymakers have done such a stellar job in sentencing law, we should just leave it to them.
• Prop. 8: An update on those million yard signs that were "in route" from China to the Yes on 8 campaign: they're still not here.
It seems that the signs, some of them outsourced overseas, didn't all arrive in time for the September event. And many still haven't reached supporters of the measure that would amend the state Constitution to ban gay marriage.
"It takes longer to get a million than we thought," said Sonja Eddings Brown, deputy communications director for the Protect Marriage coalition [...]
Brown tried to spin the production glitch as a positive thing for the campaign -- a sign, so to speak, of the overwhelming demand for lawn signs by voters who wanted to participate in "the most unprecedented and largest grass-roots effort ever attempted in California."
Oh that's just a FAIL.
Meanwhile, when the most reactionary editorial board in the state, the Orange County Register, comes out against your proposition, you know you're having a tough time selling it. As for the right-wing boycott of Google for opposing Prop. 8, the website orchestrating it advises its supporters to follow the fate of the proposition - on Google News.
I think I'm going to miss this initiative, it's been hilarious so far.
Last week I wrote about the religious right's takeover of the Yes on 8 campaign, and their efforts to rile up their base to eliminate marriage for same-sex couples. In particular, I highlighted this statement:
Hundreds of pastors have called on their congregations to fast and pray for passage of a ballot measure in November that would put an end to gay marriage in California.
The collective act of piety, starting Wednesday and culminating three days before the election in a revival for as many as 100,000 people at the San Diego Chargers' stadium, comes as church leaders across California put people, money and powerful words behind Proposition 8 [...]
the gathering, called the call, will conclude a 40-day fasting period for california that begins sept. 24. christians are being asked to fast in some way, either the entire 40 days or perhaps by using team relays to cover the entire 40 days.
This "fast relay" thing just sounded more like eliminating between-meal snacking. And just the notion of fasting to pass a ballot initiative is kee-razy to the extreme. Well, if they can do it, so can we.
Calitics has decided to set up a Counter-Fast For Equality. Participants can fast for 1 minute, 10 minutes, half an hour, whatever you can spare. At the Counter-Fast For Equality website, you can sign up for the amount of time you'll be fasting (hey Jews, don't pick Yom Kippur, you're fasting anyway!). And much like a charity race, you can get sponsored for your time and trouble for fasting at the rate of a dollar a minute. At the Fast4Equality ActBlue page, you can donate as little as $1 (or one minute's worth of fasting) to the No on 8 campaign.
Just to get you in the swing of things, we put together this video detailing the ins and outs of a short-term fast. Actually, our volunteer faster had a little trouble with it:
It's hard to get a handle on the efforts of the Yes on 8 people because they're so haphazard. They vow to produce a million yard signs but then get delayed because the signs are "in route" from China. They try to make their campaign seem to be about ordinary couples who want their traditional aw-shucks marriage, and then the virulence of their intolerance is revealed, over...
I am a Mormon High Priest. My bishop is a long-time family friend, and he has come to see me a couple of times recently, but each time he has come by assignment of his church supervisor. On the first visit, my bishop offered me a chance to resign my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When I declined, he told me a church disciplinary council would be held. On the second visit, just a couple of days ago, he brought me a letter informing me that I am charged with conduct unbecoming a member of the Mormon Church, and being "in apostasy."
Turns out the aptly-named "Church of the Divide" in faraway Placerville had sent a group of hate-mongering protesters to the church where (Sacramento mayoral candidate Kevin Johnson) and his family worships, complete with signs blaring "SODOMY" (and worse), to protest Kevin's decision to oppose Prop 8. They also flew in Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson from Los Angeles as their Rent-A-Hack.
What has become cleear is this: the Yes on 8 movement is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the fundamentalist right, an alliance of various religious sects who are coming together to try and impose their will on the people of California. They've certainly been successful financially, outraising the no side to this point. To be sure, there are liberal religious leaders coming out against this measure, like the California Faith for Equality coalition. But the level of participation by many groups, particularly the Church of Latter-Day Saints, is profoundly unsettling:
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have contributed more than a third of the approximately $15.4 million raised since June 1 to support Proposition 8. The ballot initiative, if passed, would reverse the current right of same-sex couples to marry [...]
The top leadership of the Mormon Church, known as the First Presidency, issued a letter in June calling on Mormons to "do all you can" to support Proposition 8.
Mormon donors said they weren't coerced. "Nobody twisted my arm," said Richard Piquet, a Southern California accountant who gave $25,000 in support of Proposition 8. He said Mormon Church leaders called donating "a matter of personal conscience." Some Mormons who declined to donate said their local church leaders had made highly charged appeals, such as saying that their souls would be in jeopardy if they didn't give. Church spokesmen said any such incident wouldn't reflect Mormon Church policy [...]
The prominence of Mormon donors in the Proposition 8 fight has also led to alliances with evangelical Protestant groups and other Christian religions, some of which have deep theological differences with Mormons.
Jim Garlow, pastor of the evangelical Protestant Skyline Church near San Diego and a leading supporter of Proposition 8, said, "I would not, in all candor, have been meeting them or talking with them had it not been for" the marriage campaign. Rev. Garlow said he had developed a "friendship" with the Mormons he met, although he feels the theological differences remain "unbridgeable."
Certainly there is a broader movement among the religious spectrum beyond just the Mormons; the Family Research Council is heavily invested in the measure, and is spreading lies about the consequences of same-sex marriage to their members (Christians will be jailed!!!). But what is going to be the focus of their efforts to get out the vote and pass the proposition? Apparently, fasting and praying (I don't buy the 100,000 figure below, by the way, it sounds like more bluster):
Hundreds of pastors have called on their congregations to fast and pray for passage of a ballot measure in November that would put an end to gay marriage in California.
The collective act of piety, starting Wednesday and culminating three days before the election in a revival for as many as 100,000 people at the San Diego Chargers' stadium, comes as church leaders across California put people, money and powerful words behind Proposition 8.
Some pastors around the state and nation are encouraging their flocks to forgo solid food for up to 40 days in the biblical tradition.
Well, not quite. In a remarkable catch by skippy, this 40-day fasting period, scheduled to begin today, would be somewhat unusual.
the gathering, called the call, will conclude a 40-day fasting period for california that begins sept. 24. christians are being asked to fast in some way, either the entire 40 days or perhaps by using team relays to cover the entire 40 days. running parallel to the 40-day fast is a 100-day prayer effort, which was scheduled to start july 28.
Um... team relays?
Let me get this straight. If I last from lunch to dinner without a morsel, then tag off to my partner in prayer, I can go ahead and eat dinner then? Is that really a fast, or is it, I don't know... just not snacking?
Well, the religious right can't be the only ones to get in on this fun. That's why, starting today, I am calling on every liberal and progressive to take part in a counter-fast for equality. The goal is to get enough people involved that we only have to chip in about 15 minutes or so of fasting apiece. I'm blocking out September 29, 4:30-4:45. I'm not eating a thing. We're talking commitment!!!
More on this tomorrow. For now, sign up in the comments with your fasting interval. Together, we can show these guys what a fasting relay team is all about!
This report of a national conference call to fight Prop. 8 and marriage equality sounds more like a battle plan than a political strategy session. All the leading figures of the religious right were there, and the language is undeniably militaristic. I believe that the best way to counteract the theocratic right is to display them in all their radicalism, so the whole country understands the goals of their movement. So here ya go:
The primary focus of the call was Proposition 8 in California, described by (Chuck) Colson as "the Armageddon of the culture war." Many speakers invoked the language of warfare, raising up an army of believers, putting soldiers in the streets, being on the front lines of a battle. Lou Engle actually described a massive rally planned in Qualcomm stadium on November 1 as a "blitzkrieg moment."
While speaker after speaker spoke of the dire threats same-sex married couples pose to "traditional" marriage, religious freedom, and civilization itself, the overall tone of the call was confidence that victory would be won with God's help, 40 days of prayer and fasting before the election, teams of intercessors and prayer warriors around the country, and a massive highly organized deployment of volunteers in a systematic voter identification and turnout campaign.
This is not exactly the stuff of democracy, nor is it in any way reflective of a country with a separation of church and state. What is at work here is a putsch, a desire to seize the instruments of power and subjugate everyone to one belief system. They mobilize through fear, claiming that the next steps in the fiendish plan are to ban the Bible, legalize polygamy, and "destroy marriage". They're also using supposedly apolitical churches as an illegal communications apparatus:
Ron Luce from Teen Mania ministries and other organizers talked about plans to organize 300,000 youth and their families for an October 1 simulcast, and using them to reach 2.4 million. A representative of the Church Communication Network, a satellite network that has downlink equipment in 500 churches in California, 95 in Arizona, and 321 in Florida, said it would simulcast the youth event free of charge, and would make a satellite dish available "at cost" to churches who don't yet have one. Said one speaker of the youth organizing, "if we don't use them, Satan will."
That is manifestly against the spirit of tax-exempt laws regarding churches - laws which I imagine you'll see broken many times between now and November. The free simulcasting and satellite services amount to in-kind donations.
People for the American Way is on this and keeping tabs on the theocratic right. As I said, forewarned is forearmed - there's a growing segment of the state and the country who are repulsed by this fundamentalism, this anti-Democratic dominionism. We have an opportunity this fall to lay bare the innate bigotry of their movement for all to see.
UPDATE: Another aspect to this is the exhuming once again of far-right theocratic icon Alan Keyes, who's running for President again - but only in California, as part of the American Independent Party (formed in 1968 by segergationist George Wallace, which is somewhat ironic). His running mate is Rev. Wiley Drake, the minister who prayed for the death of members of Americans United for Separation of Church and State last year. The fundies are lining up, packed in two at a time, and all headed to California in lockstep. It's going to be crazy out here for the next 95 days.
On May 5th 2008 the Los Alamitos City Council put on their agenda an item that seemed innocent enough. It was a decision to add a plaque with In God We Trust to the walls of the City Council. This is part of an effort led by Christian fundamentalist Bakersfield Councilwoman Sullivan from her non-profit, In God We Trust - America. A number of cities in the State of California have fallen to this attempt to de-secularize city government, a few have stood up for secular government and said "No."
I decided to stop it in Los Alamitos.
Alone.
Something silly to do with the state being secular. You know, that kind of silly stuff pushed by those old fogies Madison and Jefferson way back in the 1770's.
Below the fold are the speeches I have given in the Council Chamber (and the reactions from the Los Alamitos City Council if there was any).
"The course is designed not as a religious class or as a Bible study... It is helping students understand a classical illusion [sic] of references to the Bible."
