"And that is why I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the
California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or
those of other states. ..."
That is what Barack Obama wrote to us, months before the election.
Obama won California by 24 points. Proposition 8 won by four points. Day's before the election, I received this flyer in the mail:
Yet still, Obama's letter sat on the desk of some high paid consultant throughout the campaign, gathering dust.
"I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution..." Can you imagine that important sentence from Obama's letter being used in nearly every TV commercial and in nearly every mailer ad for "No on 8"? If there is one state that loves Obama, California loves Obama. The proposition would have been crushed!
I gave hundreds of dollars to "No on 8" and volunteered at phone banks (or at least tried to volunteer -- when I was stood up for volunteering in Santa Monica, I didn't go back). The incompetence is infuriating.
We had that letter -- a golden ticket -- to use against the manipulation and lies being hurled from the other side. And the letter sat there, doing nothing. Un-fucking-believable.
When the California Supreme Court chooses not to overturn Prop 8 in the coming months (which is what is going to happen), and we start gearing up for a new ballot initiative for 2010 or 2012, I demand that all of the dimwits who fucked up the last campaign be as far away from California as possible. Send them on some nice long vacation where their horrible decisions no longer effect my civil rights. Otherwise, count me out. I won't waste my time and money on those people again.
3 comments:
That is so outrageous. Utterly outrageous.
I know, right! Yes on 8 was smart enough to use Obama, and he wasn't even on their side.
And thing is, if you look at the Gay rights movement of the past--they were far more radical than now. People have been complaining saying we shouldn't boycott companies that gave money to Prop 8.
When the Anita Bryant spoke out saying how she felt the LGBT community was evil--guess what? There was a boycott on her produce of Florida oranges.
I feel that the community is far too complacent and trying to be assimilationists than activists.
Too many people are saying that the community shouldn't make waves, but you know what? How can there be change without some sort of conflict.
If we use this train of thought--Christianity wasn't always the dominant norm, polytheism was and Christianity made waves.
Maybe we should try to copy the modes of the oppressor to get some fucking action going--because hey, they're manipulative and sleezy--we should fight back through the same means necessary to show that we won't stand down.
Although I'm probably going to piss off people with this train of thought.
And sorry for ranting here Trav. It's just. Politics and activism has always got me going.
And after watching Milk and teaching him in my LGBT studies course, I feel like we've let him and his legacy down.
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