Proposition 8. On Boycotts and Protests.
Proposition 8 passed by a small margin on November 4th. Since then LGBT people and many supporters have been understandably angry. We’ve been protesting and boycotting those who contributed to the eradication of the constitutionally guaranteed right of same-sex couples to marry here in California.
Not surprisingly the bigots are crying persecution. The nasty gays are targeting us they cry. Funny how they don’t seem to think they were targeting us when they were engaging in a multimillion dollar campaign to eradicate our rights.
Those hateful gays are trying to ruin our businesses! They’re engaging in extortion! Really? Why don’t the RRRWers consider it “trying to ruin businesses” or “extortion” when they boycott businesses like McDonalds, Ford and Volvo because they dare to provide benefits to LGBT people or (gasp) advertise to us?
She does not have the right to do what wants with her earned money? (said of a business owner who donated to Yes on 8 and is now being boycotted). Of course she does, but so do we. And we have every right to not give our money to people who are going to turn around and use it against us. People who are going to use it to eradicate our rights. Let business owners who engage in bigotry get their money from other bigots.
Others claim we have no right to protest. We should be good fags, sit down, shut up and listen to the mob that has spoken. One man said, Let’s move on. I always told my children that once a rule was made, you have to abide by it. I think it should be the same in this circumstance. I’m guessing he’d never been on the losing end of a proposition that eradicated a significant fundamental human right.
And of course we’re being hateful anti-religious bigots by speaking out against the religious groups that spearheaded the campaign to strip us of our rights. They didn’t do this out of hatred, mind you, they did it out of love (so they tell us over and over like trained robots). I wonder how convincing they’d find it if I banned their religion–not out of hate mind you, but strictly because I loved them and wanted to do what was best for them. Oh, and the children. Somebody must think of the children.
Nonetheless, by protesting what is a distinctly unfair and cruel situation we are merely engaging in our First Amendment right to Free Speech and Assembly. That’s one thing we haven’t been stripped of by the bigots–yet. No doubt that will be on the next ballot.
Until then, we boycott and protest. If bigots want to spend money to eradicate our rights they need to get it from people other than those they’re trying to harm. And they’re going to have to listen to us while they’re doing it.
