The Gaytheist Agenda

Saturday, November 8

SACRAMENTO
Capitol West Steps: 7pm-10pm
Bring hand done signs, the bigger the better. Bring flashlights (no candles are allowed on Capitol grounds).

SAN DIEGO
12 NOON: 1st Ave. & University Ave.
Gather at 1st Avenue & University Avenue in Hillcrest for a civil rights march to 30th Street & University Avenue in North Park.

LAGUNA BEACH
City Hall, 5:30pm
From City Hall, march to Main Beach for candlelight vigil. Parking available at Act V parking lot at 1900 Laguna Canyon Road - shuttle busses will be running every 15 minutes. Bring signs, flags, candles (or flashlights), whistles, and dress for a cool evening.

LOS ANGELES
Capitol West Steps: 7pm-10pm
Gather at Sunset Junction in Silver Lake, Corner of Sunset Blvd. and Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles. Our reader Phillip Thomas writes: “There’s a little event planned on Saturday afternoon. By little, I mean people are flying, driving, coming by bus and train for this. I heard on tv this evening that organizers are estimating 20,000 marchers for this. I think everyone needs to take part in this. Even if just for an hour or so. Numbers matter, and I can’t think of anything that would be more memorable, historical, or significant that doing this on one Saturday evening. Forget the dinner, the mall, the bar, the movie, the relaxing night at home. If you have to work, call in or leave early. Add yourself to this crowd. Invite all of your friends, your coworkers, neighbors. Make a party out of it.”

On Saturday, November 8, we will be holding a candlelight vigil at 7:00 at the Town Clock in Santa Cruz to stand together, acknowledge our loss, and comfort one another.

At 7:30, Rev. David Grishaw-Jones will lead those who can make the walk up the hill in a candlelight procession to the First Congregational Church of Santa Cruz on High Street.

At 8:00, faith communities around Santa Cruz will come together in an interfaith gathering to recommit ourselves to marriage equality and human rights at the First Congregational Church, 900 High St., Santa Cruz.

SACRAMENTO
Capitol West Steps: 1pm-4pm
Equality Action Now rally with speakers. Show up and be proud. Bring signs, wear protest shirts. People from SF will be showing up at the West Steps to show support with us.

Now What?
Join other members of the community
Grieve, talk, plan, kvetch
The Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center
DATE: Sunday, Nov 9
TIME: 2 PM
LOCATION: DeFrank Center
938 The Alameda
San Jose, Ca 95128

Show up and raise your voices!

In a puerile display of condescending faux congeniality, LDS Elder Whitney Clayton :

…called Wednesday for members to heal rifts caused by the emotional campaign by treating each other with “civility, with respect and with love.”
“We hope that everyone would treat [each other] that way no matter which side of this issue they were on,”…

Civility and respect? NOW he calls for civility and respect?

Where was the civility and respect when his minions were spreading vicious lies about us (in TV ads paid for with more than $20 million in Mormon blood money) so as to eradicate our marriage rights? When they were using their personal blogs* to perpetuate ugly stereotypes and false claims, and using those as an excuse to deny us rights? When they were attempting to blackmail corporations that donated to No on 8? Now he’s calling for civility?

Here’s some civility for him. He can stick his Book of Moron up his backside. Sideways. In fact all of the Mormons who voted for Proposition 8 can do so.

 
*Sorry, Paula. If you saw all the hits coming from here or my wife’s site and thought deleting your hateful post would protect you from having your intolerance exposed to the world forget it. Here’s a lesson for you. Google Cache . Now for future reference don’t be posting anything you don’t want attached to you forever.

 

While it’s true that all of the results aren’t in, it’s not looking good. As of this posting Proposition 8 is winning 53.2%-46.8% (25% of precincts reporting).

I’m too upset to write anything coherent right now. More later.

 

The Yes on 8 camp is crying religious bigotry over the Courage Campaign ad that depicts Mormons raiding the home of a lesbian couple and tearing up their marriage license. Allegedly the ad is engaging in hideous levels of religious bigotry and intolerance.

The ProtectMarriage.com- Yes on 8 campaign today condemned as “bigoted and intolerant” a new ‘No on Proposition 8’ television commercial scheduled to run on TV stations tomorrow and demanded that No on 8 campaign leaders, including US Senator Dianne Feinstein, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and California Schools Superintendent Jack O’Connell publicly denounce the ad and urge television stations to refuse to run it.

…..

“This ad reaches new lows of religious bigotry and intolerance,” said Yes on 8 Chairman Ron Prentice. “We hope that the leadership of the No on 8 campaign – including Senator Feinstein, Mayor Newsom and Superintendent O’Connell — as well as all Californians regardless of their position on Proposition 8, will not only condemn the ad but join us in asking television stations to refuse to air it. After all, the No on 8 campaign has been running their own television commercials saying we must all oppose discrimination and intolerance whenever we see it. The bigotry this ad shows to members of the LDS church demands action now.”

Echoing Prentice’s call, Yes on 8 Campaign Manager Frank Schubert tonight emailed Steve Smith, Campaign Manager for the No on Proposition 8 Campaign the following request:

“Steve – Below find a link to a deplorable No on 8 television commercial hitting the airwaves tomorrow. This commercial depicts faux Mormon Missionaries invading the home of a lesbian couple, ransacking the house in search of the couple’s marriage license, taking the couple’s wedding rings, etc. This is a blatant display of religious bigotry that has no place in political discourse. We urge Equality for All, Senator Feinstein, Superintendent O’Connell and the No on 8 Campaign to immediately denounce this commercial and join us in urging television stations to refuse to air it. After all, we must always oppose discrimination and intolerance whenever we see it.

FACT:Mormons have donated approximately 22 million dollars to the effort to eradicate marriage rights for same-sex couples.
FACT: If Proposition 8 passes, not only will future couples lose the right to marry, but the more than 11,000 couples who have already married may have their marriages invalidated.
FACT: Not one right of religious people will be eradicated if Proposition 8 fails, but many rights of same-sex couples will be eradicated if it passes.

So please, Yes on 8 supporters, tell me where the bigotry and intolerance toward religious people is in that ad. Or is it just that the ad so accurately depicts what you want to do to us that you can’t bear the thought of people seeing it?

Comments are open.

 

After they take away our right to marry what will they go after next? That’s the crucial question posed by this incredible video.

Think it’s not a problem because only those perverted gays are being targeted? Think again. Bigoted bullies don’t stop at just one victim. It may be you next time. Stop them now by voting NO on Proposition 8.

 

Yesterday afternoon my wife and I attended a wedding–perhaps the last of its kind in this state for a very long time. Before several dozen friends and family, two men vowed to love, honor, cherish and remain faithful to one another for the rest of their lives. Once upon a time such vows were considered a good thing. Now, at least by certain people, they’re being cast as a threat to children and families, the second coming of Hitler, and even a harbinger of the Apocalypse. Accordingly, such people feel it necessary to write discrimination into the state constitution, thereby forcibly creating a second-class group of citizens.

I wish I could wake up and find out this has all been a long, horrible nightmare. Or that Rod Serling will come out and tell me it’s all just been another episode of The Twilight Zone. But I know it’s very, very real. That people hate so deeply as to want to destroy what we saw yesterday, what my wife and I share, and what millions of other couples past and present deserve, is enough to break my heart.

Don’t try to pretend it isn’t hatred for it is. Don’t try to claim you’re protecting your children, your religion or anything else, for you aren’t. Don’t try to feed me any of the other lies for I’ve heard them all. Bigotry and intolerance are bigotry and intolerance regardless of what you dress them up in.

Tomorrow is election day and we’ll discover the results of voting on Proposition 8. What kind of world will Californians vote for? Will equality or intolerance reign?

 

 


 
Proposition 8 will harm children. It will foster a climate of hatred and intolerance. It will force children to grow up in a world where certain people are, by force of constitutional amendment, lesser than others. It will create an environment where some families are not considered as “real” as others because the parents are not married but are merely “domestic partnered”. It purposely restricts the futures of gay and lesbian children, who dream of finding love, getting married and having families just as much as straight children do. It imposes by force of law the personal, chosen religious beliefs on the entire state. If you wouldn’t want someone else’s beliefs or notions forced on your child why are you willing to force yours on other children? Vote no on 8.

 

Once all of the lies and phony consequences are gone, this is all they have.


 
A message for the undecided.


 
Exposing the lies of “Yes on 8″


 
California Constitution vs. Bigot.


 
Stopping gay marriage is the most important thing ever. Really. We’re serious.


 
And the essential question:


 

Excellent, and well worth the full read.

Clever magicians practice the art of misdirection — distracting the eyes of the audience to something attention-grabbing but irrelevant so that no one notices what the magician is really doing. Look over at that fuchsia scarf, up this sleeve, at anything besides the actual trick.

The campaign promoting Proposition 8, which proposes to amend the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriages, has masterfully misdirected its audience, California voters. Look at the first-graders in San Francisco, attending their lesbian teacher’s wedding! Look at Catholic Charities, halting its adoption services in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage is legal! Look at the church that lost its tax exemption over gay marriage! Look at anything except what Proposition 8 is actually about: a group of people who are trying to impose on the state their belief that homosexuality is immoral and that gays and lesbians are not entitled to be treated equally under the law.

…..

Take the story of Catholic Charities. The service arm of the Roman Catholic Church closed its adoption program in Massachusetts not because of the state’s gay marriage law but because of a gay anti-discrimination law passed many years earlier. In fact, the charity had voluntarily placed older foster children in gay and lesbian households — among those most willing to take hard-to-place children — until the church hierarchy was alerted and demanded that adoptions conform to the church’s religious teaching, which was in conflict with state law. The Proposition 8 campaign, funded in large part by Mormons who were urged to do so by their church, does not mention that the Mormon church’s adoption arm in Massachusetts is still operating, even though it does not place children in gay and lesbian households.

How can this be? It’s a matter of public accountability, not infringement on religion. Catholic Charities acted as a state contractor, receiving state and federal money to find homes for special-needs children who were wards of the state, and it faced the loss of public funding if it did not comply with the anti-discrimination law. In contrast, LDS (for Latter-day Saints) Family Services runs a private adoption service without public funding. Its work, and its ability to follow its religious teachings, have not been altered.

In other words, certain religious groups want to take our tax dollars yet refuse to follow the rules and obligations that are attached to those tax dollars. Then they turn around and cry “religious persecution” when they’re rightly disciplined for it.

That San Francisco field trip? The children who attended the wedding had their parents’ signed permission, as law requires. A year ago, with the same permission, they could have traveled to their teacher’s domestic-partnership ceremony. Proposition 8 does not change the rules about what children are exposed to in school. The state Education Code does not allow schools to teach comprehensive sex education — which includes instruction about marriage — to children whose parents object.

It also wasn’t a standard public school but a charter school. So again, the notion that public schools across the state will have classrooms painted pink and lavender and be giving kindergartners graphic instruction on same-sex marriage is pure bollocks.

Another “Yes on 8″ canard is that the continuation of same-sex marriage will force churches and other religious groups to perform such marriages or face losing their tax-exempt status. Proponents point to a case in New Jersey, where a Methodist-based nonprofit owned seaside land that included a boardwalk pavilion. It obtained an exemption from state property tax for the land on the grounds that it was open for public use and access. Events such as weddings — of any religion — could be held in the pavilion by reservation. But when a lesbian couple sought to book the pavilion for a commitment ceremony, the nonprofit balked, saying this went against its religious beliefs.

The court ruled against the nonprofit, not because gay rights trump religious rights but because public land has to be open to everyone or it’s not public. The ruling does not affect churches’ religious tax exemptions or their freedom to marry whom they please on their private property, just as Catholic priests do not have to perform marriages for divorced people and Orthodox synagogues can refuse to provide space for the weddings of interfaith couples. And Proposition 8 has no bearing on the issue; note that the New Jersey case wasn’t about a wedding ceremony.

Catholic churches cannot be sued for refusing to marry Jewish couples. Baptist churches cannot be sued for refusing to marry atheist couples. Mosques cannot be sued for refusing to marry Mormon couples. No church can be sued for refusing to marry a same-sex couple. The claim that “religious liberties” are in danger is a lie–unless one considers discriminating against others a religious liberty. If that’s the case then I’m going to find religion and embrace my right to discriminate against others–starting with Proposition 8 supporters.

Much has been made about same-sex marriage changing the traditional definition of marriage. But marriage has evolved for thousands of years, from polygamous structures in which brides were so much chattel to today’s idealized love matches. In seeking to add a sentence to California’s Constitution that says, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized,” Proposition 8 supporters seek to enforce adherence to their own religious or personal definition. The traditional makeup of families has changed too, in ways that many religious people find immoral. Single parents raise their children; couples divorce and blend families. Yet same-sex marriage is the only departure from tradition that has been targeted for constitutional eradication.

…..

Californians must cast a clear eye on Proposition 8’s real intentions. It seeks to change the state Constitution in a rare and terrible way, to impose a single moral belief on everyone and to deprive a targeted group of people of civil rights that are now guaranteed. This is something that no Californian, of any religious belief, should accept. Vote no to the bigotry of Proposition 8.

I couldn’t agree more.

 

I already brought you the story of the Yes on 8 picketers railing outside a public school. Now there’s this.

Carpooling home after soccer practice, we approached an intersection where 15 or so people were standing on all four corners waving “Yes on 8″ signs. “What does ‘Yes on 8′ mean?” asked my 8-year-old daughter, Francesca.

I hesitated. I needed to figure out an answer in a way that would be sensitive to her teammate, who I’ll call Amy, in the back seat. I’ve dropped the girl off many times before, and her house has a huge “Yes on 8″ banner visible from the street.

…..

Before I could answer, Amy spoke up. “That means girls marrying girls and boys marrying boys.” It had never occurred to my daughter, or her 5-year-old twin brother and sister who also were in the car, that this was a possibility. Their response was to giggle.

…..

Francesca later told me that she’d asked everyone on her soccer team how she would vote. My burgeoning pollster reported a majority favoring Proposition 8. But what amazed me was that every girl — none of them older than 10 — could articulate a position on the ballot measure. Other parents have recounted similar observations: This one ballot measure has become the topic of conversation among their children. My eighth-grader reports brisk politicking on his middle school campus, and it has not been unusual in our part of Orange County to see teens alongside their activist parents at the intersections waving pro- and con- Proposition 8 signs.

Out of respect to Amy’s parents and their beliefs — they belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — I had not expressed my opposition to Proposition 8 in front of their daughter. Francesca, however, had no such inhibitions. When Amy said her family would have to leave their church if they voted against Proposition 8, Francesca replied, “In our church, we can vote the way we want to.” When it was Amy’s mom’s turn to deliver the girls to soccer practice recently, Francesca also apparently explained that our family was against Proposition 8 because “people should be able to do what they want in California.”

After again picking up my kids from their soccer and swim practices on a recent evening, I arrived home to find an election mailer from ProtectMarriage.com in my mailbox. In big bold letters it proclaimed that “teaching about ‘gay marriage’ will happen in our public schools unless we vote yes on Proposition 8.”

The irony is that gay marriage has become the No. 1 topic of discussion on school playgrounds and sports practice fields precisely because of Proposition 8. The political battle has done far and away more to raise awareness of same-sex marriage among schoolchildren than the state Supreme Court’s ruling in May ever would have. This last month has been a giant teachable moment on gay marriage — which is probably not what Proposition 8’s backers intended.

So again, Mr. and Mrs. Bigot, who’s teaching schoolchildren about gay marriage? It’s not the liberal school administration. It’s not Teh Homosexual Agenda bent on indoctrinating your children. It’s you. You’ve done more to make them aware of same-sex marriage than any alleged school curriculum ever could. Now how about you stop blaming us for all that you’re doing, stop using your kids as pawns in your attempt to deny us equality and start acting like civilized Americans–if you’re indeed capable of that.