Comments on: The Maine Message

By: Amicus

Amicus — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:57:51 +0000

Jim, don’t despair too much. Afterall, the polling hasn’t changed too much, so neither side is moving opinion in big numbers, right? That says something. In fact, I could be dead wrong, but a lot of this last-minute fear stuff appeals to a particular type of anti-gay prejudice that is a hallmark of certain ‘hardcore’ homophobes – those who fear that they are being over-run by homosexuals, losing control of their lives. In themselves, they are probably a smallish group.

The Maine folks made a bet that actually showing couples wouldn’t turn off non-gay voters. So far, that seems to be true, right? It’s a step.

What if your child were gay or lesbian? That seems to me to be a point of common departure, a self-interest.

One can do a lot of diffuse the fear by sticking to the numbers. For instance, “On Tuesday, before you vote and after you vote, the number of gay couples and gay kids in Maine won’t change.”

Last, it is possible to raise the bar on NOM, without going too negative. Change in the constitution? That’s near permanent! Are you sure you want that on your conscience, if you are wrong? The law, such as it is, is working and no one has been threatened, except that they have been told to be so by out of state money. There is more. Take the perspective of the parent(s) of Lawrence King’s killer. Prejudice, ignorance, and bigoty, such as NOM’s, might allow some kid to learn how to treat gays by the slurs they learn on the playground. Isn’t is better to have out, open role models – even openly gay teachers – , as a way to dissuade people of their worst fears? It’s a tough angle, but it could be made to ‘work’, I think, under an ‘if outside money has it’s way, it could happen here, in Maine’.

By: Maajour

Maajour — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:07:22 +0000

To Eddie89:
That link to the Mormon video was very good. You are right…it should have been aired. Was it a satire or the real deal? Either way, it was quite effective in its delivery. Thanks for sharing.
The link I am referring to is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q28UwAyzUkE

By: Leonard Drake

Leonard Drake — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:17:52 +0000

Correction to previous post: “I hope the webmasters of this site (Box Turtle Bulletin) are not angry with me, and I HOPE this was not in violation … of the terms of service. If so, my sincerest apologies.

By: Leonard Drake

Leonard Drake — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:16:35 +0000

Pissed off, I forwarded this op-ed piece, a respectful note I created, along with the repondant messages to info@equalityformaine (I think that was the website email address.)

I hope the webmasters of this site are not angry with me, and this was not in violation. I honestly hope whoever is in charge of Equality Maine READS either my note or this piece on Box Turtle Bulletin, and creates at least one advertisement in the style suggested by Timothy.

If we sit idly by and watch Yes on 1! win, it will be a sad statement for the loss of equal rights within the LGBT community for years to come — not just for Maine, but for the entire country, as yet another victory for the Religious Right will provide more energy to their movement.

By: Eddie89

Eddie89 — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:53:32 +0000

Reminds me of the video that Courage Campaign made with the two Mormon missionaries going into a married lesbian couple’s home and looking for their civil marriage license and then tear it up in front of them. Here’s the link to the video.

Too bad this didn’t get to air on TV in California. I’m sure it would have gotten more people to vote No on 8.

I’ve read in many places that the electorate of Maine is more “educated” and not as easily swayed by the fear based ads that Yes on 1 is currently running.

I guess we’ll find out for sure next week.

By: David Wood

David Wood — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:15:02 +0000

Boy O Boy do I agree with Timothy! An ad should be run using his words verbatim. Especially the fact that they are trying to ban divorce in California. Then they’ll go after contraception, sex education etc.

By: Maajour

Maajour — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:42:04 +0000

There is something fundamentally wrong when Christian people use focus groups to run ad campaigns to discriminate against people who are the outcast and lesser of these.

By: JonasB

JonasB — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:06:32 +0000

Fear tactics are sadly what work in most campaigns. I would love to see our side use some kind of ’1984′ / Orwellian scare tactics. Show images of the government taking away rights that other people would care about (freedom of speech, privacy rights, etc).

By: Eddie89

Eddie89 — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:15:52 +0000

Burr wrote:

…They need to point out how rights and benefits were stripped from domestic partnerships in Arizona…

Just to clear up the record, Arizona has NEVER had domestic partnerships or anything close to that.

All we’ve had since 1996 is DOMA.

We did defeat an anti-gay, anti-domestic partnership constitutional amendment back in 2006.

But, in 2008 they came back and just took out the hetero domestic partnerships and made their constitutional amendment strictly anti-gay and it passed by a landslide!

By: Ben in Oakland

Ben in Oakland — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:00:41 +0000

I have said repeatedly to anyone who would listen that that the failure to address head on the issues of religion, prejudice, and children is why we keep losing.

I have also said that the campaign is all about the gays-are-gonna-get-your children fear-mongering, and that has to be addressed head on and called out for what it is.