July 10th, 2009
According to Everyday Christian,
Earlier this week, about 70,000 signatures had been gathered, with more expected, according to Bob Emrich.
Earlier this week, other press was reporting 55,000. I guess we’ll wait and see.
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Bill S
July 10th, 2009
Either way, I always get depressed when I’m reminded just how many people harbour an animus towards LGBT people. The fact that it no longer surprises me depresses me too.
AJD
July 10th, 2009
So I guess we can give up hope that they won’t come out with enough signatures when the invalid ones are discounted… And if the Maine Equality people plan to run this campaign the way the ones in other states have been run, we can give up hope for marriage in general.
I have to say it, but I think the gains in some states have been illusory, and things are likely to get a hell of a lot worse before they get better.
Kameron
July 10th, 2009
I expect we will lose because heterosexuals have oppressed gay people for millenia and that won’t stop anytime soon. At least put up a good fight. Donate money to equalitymaine, make online videos, talk to people in Maine, write letters to newspapers.
Burr
July 10th, 2009
How ironic that the staple of “Progressive” reform at the turn of the century gets abused for some very non-progressive agendas in state after state.
Idiots. Taking things out of representative government’s hands and turning it over to the unwashed masses of the mob.
This is why the courts are the only real way to fix things.
AJD
July 10th, 2009
My thoughts exactly, Burr. It was so shortsighted of the Progressives to implement the initiative process. They never bothered considering that demagogues from the other side could use it as well.
Richard Wood
July 10th, 2009
Yes, we wouldn’t want the people to actually decide anything regarding the tenor and shape of the society…which is in fact nothing more than the people making it up. Especially when we can’t get what we want that way. Let’s have a few judicial elites decide. Err, so long as the judicial elites agree with us, of course. When they don’t, let’s call them homophobic fascists too.
tristram
July 10th, 2009
It’s time for us to stop whining and get to work. THE absolute priority for every lgbt person from coast to coast should be to defete the marriage veto referendum in Maine. This is a state where the legislature stepped up to pass the bill and, despite some reservations, the governor signed it. Whether the number is 50,000 or 100,000, the anti-lgbt forces have apparently got the signatures to put the “peoples’ veto” on the ballot this fall, and the wingnuts are mobilizing frantically to pass the veto.
Maine has a lot of fair-minded people; this is a WINNABLE battle for us. But it will take a tremendous effort and a huge expenditure of effort and money. This cannot be like California where we woke up and streamed into the streets after we lost. This is where we need to show it’s not just ‘activist judges’ and ‘bought politicians’ who will stand up for fairness. This is where we can stuff the line that ‘every time the people vote, the gays lose.’ This is where we have to show the political leaders, in Maine and Washington D.C. and across the country, that when they stand up for us, we stand behind them and stand up for ourselves. Or not, it’s up to us.
----
July 10th, 2009
I hope this isn’t the case (although very probable), but if the people’s veto succeeds in the ballot, will there be a way in the future to re-install marriage equality there?
Burr
July 10th, 2009
No Richard. We already decided the shape and tenor of American society when we founded this country and wrote the Constitution.
Guess what? Theocratic ignoramuses like you LOST.
It’s time our legal system finally enshrines it without doubt once and for all, and stop the hijacking of our highest law for selfish, petty attempts at forcing the world into a box it just doesn’t fit.
Burr
July 10th, 2009
Those damn uppity negroes.. Why didn’t they just realize that whites were just exercising their majority right to decide the shape and tenor of their society? Why they never even managed to pass any majority wins popular votes on their rights. They needed those elitist judges to destroy the white’s perfect justified discriminatory lifestyle..
Timothy (TRiG)
July 11th, 2009
I don’t think I’ll ever understand a country in which “elitist” is a dirty word.
The judges know the law, and decide on the basis of the law. This is how it works, and how it should work.
TRiG.
Richard Wood
July 11th, 2009
If you actually believe black civil rights happened b/c of the actions of some judges, you are wholly ignorant of the facts of that piece of history. Elites on both sides of the issue (e.g., the Johnson government and the southern state governments) were not the agents of the social change of the 1960s and 1970s. Real, everyday people decided that set of questions. If the homosexuals were actually convinced of their eternal righteousness, they’d be more than happy to pursue the same path. Strangely, they don’t.
Richard Wood
July 11th, 2009
“Theocratic.” Right. I’m the first atheist theocrat in the history of the world.
Funny, the homosexuals accuse everyone else of stereotyping them, but they absolutely cannot grasp the idea that it’s not just the Christian fundies who oppose them. The two of you make a good pair, in fact.
You will just say anything, won’t you, Burr? Next you’ll be talking about how chicken scratchings tell us things about lung cancer.
Timothy Kincaid
July 13th, 2009
No, Richard,
We fully recognize that anti-gay animus comes in all packages. It’s just that the religious folk have at least some basis – however misled – for their attitudes. Those who are anti-gay for no reason whatsoever are a bit rarer. We don’t as often experience blatant animus without even the pretense of principle.
Timothy Kincaid
July 13th, 2009
Actually, Richard, the civil rights of individuals which were denied based on race were never put up for a popular vote. Further, marriage in Maine was not enacted by “some judges”, but by the legislature and the governor.
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