Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJune 2nd, 2008
The total number of signatures required to place the anti-gay marriage amendment to the California Constitution on the ballot is 694,354. The procedure is to have the county clerks test a sample of the signatures and if the extrapolated valid signatures exceed 110% of the signatures required, then it is assumed that enough signatures were received.
The total number of extrapolated signatures required is 763,790.
Currently, the Secretary of State is reporting that there are at least 732,860 valid signatures with several counties as yet unreported. The initiative supporters require another 30,930 valid signatures of the 175,124 signatures yet to be tested. I think we can say with certainty that adequate signatures were collected.
In the next few months, each of us should consider what we are willing to sacrifice to help in the effort to ensure that gay couples in California retain the right to be treated equally under the law. This issue is closely divided in the state and anything you can give to help appeal to the decency of everyday Californians will be needed.
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Ephilei
June 2nd, 2008
For those of us who don’t live in CA or know voters there, what are you suggesting we can do?
Timothy Kincaid
June 2nd, 2008
Wait until we are sure that the initiative will be on the ballot – there are still some legal challenges that it could face.
Once it’s approved, think about what you can afford to send to the campaign to protect marriage from anti-gay bigots. I suspect that Equality California will be leading the efforts, but I’ll let you know more once we are sure.
James
June 2nd, 2008
We need to start now with a sensible ad campaign — maybe hire the same ad agency that did these for Canada:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBH4X9r3arc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYp1Nf4DgH8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-bftAkAg5M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_lG3kDZJ3E
Luis
June 2nd, 2008
Well, my partner, soon to be “husband”, and I will be taking a large chunck of our stimulus check and giving it to the California group Equality for All, http://www.equalityforall.com/
They’ve stated that all of the proceeds will go towards defeating this discriminatory amendment in November.
Also, in lieu of wedding gifts, we are asking all our friends and family to instead make a donation of whatever they would have spent on the wedding gift to Equality for All instead.
Hopefully California public opinion on same-gender marriage has come a long way since Prop. 22 passed in 2000 and people are sick and tired of all this discrimination and this amendment will die a cruel death!
Kim Ridley
June 3rd, 2008
My partner/fiancee and I are also instructing our wedding guests to donate to Equality for All in lieu of gifts.
I’m planning on doing canvassing too, going door to door. We don’t move back to CA until August, and are getting married in September, but I will do whatever I can to stop this thing.
Ben in Oakland
June 3rd, 2008
Great idea, luis and kim.
My partner and i are doing it in august. we planned on just a small legal thing with a couple of friends only, as we will be doing the (real, fun, and meangful) big thing next year when he graduates.
But I will send out announcements to all of my friends and colleagues, and ask them to donate to EQ CA.
cowboy
June 3rd, 2008
I appreciate the videos, James. The first one is by far the best. I just think some of my even moderate conservative friends would cringe or have that “ick†feeling when watching the 3 other short videos. They’re not ready to watch two men kiss or be seen sleeping in the same bed. We haven’t gotten too much farther than the Will & Grace episode about two gay men kissing have we? Just see the reaction of the two gay characters on some soap opera that is making the news lately.
I’m not sure those last 3 videos would convince my friends to vote for my equality. But, the first video on your list was excellent.
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