Jan 3, 2009 Deconstructing Dobsonites
Says Joe Carter of Culture11’s The Confabulum:
Surely you are aware that many gay activists reject the “heteronormative” concept of sexual exclusivity, even in marriage.
See the shattered fragments of this argument after the jump…
Dec 18, 2008 The Politics of Exclusion
Last night, while waiting for a certain intelligent and handsome young man to return to our table at the restaurant, I checked my e-mail and discovered a lovely little missive from the disconnected and misdirected leadership of Equality California. It was, of course, in protest of President-Elect Obama’s invitation to Rick Warren. The Reverend Warren of Saddleback Church, an O.C. mega-church, was a staunch supporter of Prop. 8 and—while he’s recently intimated that he’s open to the concept of civil unions for lgbt folk—is not exactly an ally of our community.
Read the EQCA e-mail after the jump…
Nov 26, 2008 Uncategorized
Dear Ben Ehrenreich & Advocate Staff,
I’d like to introduce you to a valuable resource: the Internet. Its one of those vital tools necessary for successful journalism in the 21st Century. (See also dignity and respect, something you left by the wayside in your quest to objectivize Adrian Brody. Thank Queerty for the link.)
Now, I understand that the Election results tallying process might be difficult for most to comprehend. After all, in today’s modern world, aren’t all ballots just scanned in, and doesn’t that mean we know the final results the next day?
The reality is that we’re not there yet. Nor will we likely be any time soon. You see, in California as in most states, the Secretary of State is not in charge of counting the votes. That task is left in the capable hands of county election clerks. The counties then have to tally (in many cases by hand…) the ballots that didn’t scan properly, any ballots that were damaged, mail-in ballots, absentee ballots, and provisional ballots. This typically takes some time. So the Secretary of State’s role is primarily to tally up and provide publicly the election results, updating them as new data from county-level vote canvasses come in.
Oddly enough, for an ostensibly politically aware organization, you don’t seem to have caught on to how votes are actually counted and processed. This is a very important process to our democracy, is largely transparent, and is publicly documented. If you were based in New York, I’d more readily forgive your ignorace of how California’s government works. But since you’re headquartered out of LA, I’m not sure what your excuse is… I’m open to hearing it though.
In your article, Anatomy of a Failed Campaign, you state:
…marriage equality proponents hadn’t expected to lose Los Angeles County, necessary to offset the votes for Prop. 8 in conservative parts of the state. Even worse, in an election marked by record turnout, less than two thirds of registered voters in San Francisco and Los Angeles went to the polls.
Perhaps you might have checked http://vote.sos.ca.gov/ before going to press with that statement. As you’ll see under the section marked County Reporting Status, the turnout statistics for Los Angeles and San Francisco counties is significantly different from the numbers you claim. For Los Angeles county, the turnout rate is 76.8%, more than three-quarters of registered voters. In San Francisco, turnout is even higher, at 78.7%, nearly four-fifths of registered voters. These numbers have been available on that page, subject to constant updates, for three weeks. Since the 11th, reported turnout rates for both counties have been above 70%.
Do your homework Advocate before you start pointing fingers as to whose fault it is that Prop. 8 passed.
Also, before your author criticizes others for their apparent inaction, he might want to make sure that his action to defeat Prop 8 is publicly verifiable. Especially given that the Internet provides all sorts of interesting information. Like the fact that the database of Prop 8 donations doesn’t list any Ben Ehrenreich.
At least your CEO donated.
——–
Update: In fact, upon further examination of the turnout statistics for all California counties, only Humboldt, Imperial, Lake, Sutter, & Tulare counties have reported less than two-thirds (or 66.6%) turnout. Statewide turnout reported so far is at 77.2% of registered voters. Final results will be available (and discussed here) once the vote is certified by the Secretary of State on December 13.
Nov 20, 2008 Uncategorized
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. got shot because his Truth was inconvenient to the deeply held prejudices of a small group of small-minded individuals. Jesus Christ was persecuted—and ultimately executed—by Pharisees & Sadducees who took offense to the threat he represented to their social and political power. Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned by the British for daring to peacefully protest their dominion over his people. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was mocked for asserting the intelligence and equality of women during her quest for equal suffrage. What do all these people have in common? Read More..
Nov 10, 2008 Uncategorized
This morning, I found the ugly yellow monster called shame..
It wasn’t when I woke up later than I’d planned. Or when I checked my image in the mirror and remembered that I’ve been skipping my morning exercise routine lately. Or when I cut that lady off while trying to merge on to the 10. (For which I am sincerely sorry! I hadn’t had my coffee yet, and so was not quite completely awake, not that it made it any less rude of me.) It wasn’t even when I got into work and visibly recoiled at the mess I’d left on my desk over the weekend.
It was when I started to read Pam Spaulding’s Huffington Post article this morning.
I’ve come to the conclusion that in every community, there are some real bad apples. I happen to be particularly ashamed of the racist rot that’s afflicted a few of the moldy fruits in mine. It is completely understandable that gay people everywhere are outraged over the passage of Prop 8 and the three other discriminatory ballot propositions and amendments. What is reprehensible, and completely unaccptable for any civil rights movement, is the use of any form of violence to advance our goals or sublimate our understandable anger.
Whether African-Americans voted against us in significant numbers is irrelevant. Whether Mormon Americans paid for Prop 8’s passage is irrelevant. We need to be targeting the structures of injustice, not the people whose ignorance was taken advantage of to pass the unjust laws. What is most important to remember here is that both sides of this “culture war” are populated by Americans, and the longer we aggravate the wounds in our own community, and the longer we assault members of other communities with hate speech, the longer it will take for any real healing to be done.
Nov 8, 2008 Why We Fight
Growing up, I always thought it was cool to sit in the back of the bus. All the big kids from both my evangelical Lutheran grade school and the private Catholic school we shared the bus with wanted to sit back there. To my 10-year-old mind, it had to be the coolest place on the bus.
That yellow school bus is where I learned the words “faggot” and “homo” and a few other bigoted selections. I didn’t know what they meant, and so had to ask my shocked mother when I brought them up what they did mean. I don’t know for sure, but I’m pretty certain she initiated some rather upset phone calls that week in complaint.
As I got a little older, I learned about the African-American struggle for civil rights. I learned how Separate But Equal was not. I learned how a certain Reverend Dr. who shared part of his name with the founder of my denomination dedicated his life to the cause of equal rights. I learned how he took the example of Gandhi, and how he spoke so eloquently and passionately. It moved me to tears to find out that some people hated his message so much that they actually shot and killed him.
I learned not only of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but also of other less legendary—but just as important—everyday people, like you and me, who have contributed to many different struggles against the darkness and the hatred and the discrimination. I learned about Nazi Germany and watched the story of Oskar Schindler in the film that bears his name. I heard about the determination of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. I read of the persecutions of “witches” in Salem hundreds of years ago and of the lynching of African Americans in the South not all that long ago.
I think the stories that struck me the most were the ones where people just like you and me stood with courage and integrity against the larger intolerance of their society. I particularly remember a woman who refused to stand for yet another bigoted bus driver.
In her autobiography, My Story, my fellow Methodist Rosa Parks writes:
People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.
I too am tired of giving in. No more will I timidly give in to the inequalities inflicted on me on a daily basis. No more will I acquiesce to second-class citizenship. I will no longer be relegated to the back of the bus.
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