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 lobbyNovember 6th, 2008
California’s No on 8 campaign has issued a statement conceding the passage of Prop 8:
Tuesday’s vote was deeply disappointing to all who believe in equal treatment under the law.
All Americans are harmed when any of us are discriminated against or have our fundamental rights taken away.
Make no mistake, this fight is not over.
We remain committed to ensuring full equality under the law, just as the thousands of same-sex couples who joyously married in California are committed to each other.
While it is understandable to be angry that a deceptive campaign could lead to such an unfair and wrong outcome, we need to keep focused instead on the progress we have made.
Thousands of volunteers and contributors gave selflessly to this fight for equality. Political leaders—Democrats and Republicans alike–took strong stands and spoke out against the distortions against us. Clergy, labor, educators and business leaders eagerly joined our cause. And we came within 4% of making history and protecting marriage equality in California.
The momentum is clearly on our side.
So, as disappointed as we are, we know that there is still hope and there is still love and, yes, there is still work to do. With our continued effort and by building on the support generated in this campaign, we will prevail. There will be equality. For us all.
Since No on 8 is not involved with the lawsuits filed before the California Supreme Court seeking to overturn Prop 8, that effort will likely continue.
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Martin Lanigan
November 6th, 2008
I firmly believe that history is on the side of the LGBT community.
Each fight, each battle, proves that the forces of bigotry and darkness are losing their grip. Their margins of victory become ever smaller. Their arguments become ever more shrill and false.
It is natural to be disheartened, but please avoid the temptation of becoming bitter and vengeful. Tomorrow is another day and we will certainly achieve equality for ourselves and for others.
AJD
November 6th, 2008
While the legal challenge is going on, the rest of us need to make a big, huge, gigantic stink about this.
The No On 8 campaign is absolutely right: We’ve been stripped of equality by a campaign of lies, deception and outright thuggery.
The religious right has shown the world its true colors. It’s a cabal of lying, disgusting, evil people, and its actions in California necessitate its destruction as a political force.
Eighty years ago, a guy named H.L. Mencken wrote a series of articles about a trial in Tennessee in which a teacher was charged with the crime of teaching evolution. Through his writings on the Scopes Trial, Mencken helped turn Christian fundamentalism into a national joke and humiliated those who sought to impose it on the rest of society.
That’s what we need to do now. Highlight the abuses and chicanery of the Yes On 8 campaign, and once again help eviscerate the religious right.
Start sharpening your tongues and writing op-eds, letters and blog posts.
Bruce Garrett
November 6th, 2008
I keep saying this but… Document it… Document it… Document it. Document every instance of same sex couples being denied rights opposite sex couples take for granted. Document every instance of prejudice and hate excusing itself on the grounds that 8 passed. Document every homophobic utterance of the pro 8 forces. There needs to be some online resource that people can use to tell their stories, and tell the world what it is that same sex couples face in their day to day lives without access to marriage. The more our struggle is visible to the world, the more bankrupt the morality of our enemies is seen to be.
This is all the more important now that the natural follow-up to gay bashing at the polls has begun. Notice how quickly the Mormon leadership put out their call for “healing the rift” Notice how they didn’t address it to the gay community. It was boilerplate PR…they were talking to the heterosexual majority…not to us. And that’s because we understand each other perfectly well. But there are still a lot of voters don’t really see the hate just below the surface.
They’re going to go into gear now, to to assure voters that they weren’t motivated by anti-gay prejudice. They are going to talk a lot about how they really mean gay people no harm. They are going to make a lot of very ostentatious public displays of compassion and willingness to listen to us, and engage us in civil discourse. It will be a big PR show so they can later paint gay people as confrontational radicals for pushing back when more devoted, loving couples are run through the legal grinder…as they will be because of these amendments.
We need to rip that mask of civility and “love” off and show the face behind it for what it is. We will need to be able to show voters that our anger and our activism is over real wrongs being done to real people, to real families, to real couples. We will need to show voters that when we call out the hatred of the other side we aren’t just banishing a word, but calling hate for what it is. And to do that, we need to document our struggle. Document it… Document it… Document it.
AJD
November 6th, 2008
Bruce, that’s what I’ve been saying all along. That’s exactly what needs to be done.
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