The California Secretary of State certified the final tally for the votes on Proposition 8. numbers ended up pretty much the same they were on Nov 4: 52.2 percent voted Yes on Prop 8, 47.7 voted No. San Francisco County was big for No. Check out the county-by-county numbers here. The Los Angeles County numbers couldn’t have been closer; 50.1 percent voted Yes to 49.9 voting No. With 3.2 million votes cast in L.A., less than 2,500 votes was the difference between L.A. County going No instead of Yes. However, L.A. County should have gone No by a couple hundred thousand votes to make a difference.
16
Dec
08
final prop 8 results
So even a casual search on Google News shows some pretty detailed stories on Day Without a Gay in San Francisco and San Diego, not exactly a surprise considering Prop 8, but the event is also getting play in Phoenix, Chicago, Philadelphia, Charleston and Miami. Not bad for a couple of L.A. guys who have never planned a mass demonstration before. I’m not blogging tomorrow, but that has more to do with me helping my mom paint her new apartment (what a good gay son, he is!). But it’s all over the place, this Day Without a Gay, which may be a bit of problem, or so warns the gals over at Queerty:
This is the double-edged sword of grassroots activism. When nobody owns an idea, it can mutate and change. Sometimes the mutations lead to better ideas, sometimes to worse.
I like the volunteer angle, and it is certainly something different from the marching and witty sign making. Economics, especially in this climate, resonates with people. But will Day Without a Gay be overshadowed by some other big company announcing it is laying off thousands of workers? For many workplaces its turning into Forever Without a Gay, unfortunately.
09
Dec
08
okay, not NY but how about NJ?
Enough with The Empire State. How about The Garden State? New Jersey could beat its northern neighbor to the same-sex marriage punch, thanks to this state commission decision, not to mention a State Senate that doesn’t sport the Byzantine operatics reminiscent of a “Sopranos” episode.
Sometimes the most simple pieces of art end up being the most provocative. Take for instance this post from Box Turtle Bulletin, which tells the story of a student artist at Brigham Young University who constructed an installation that features photos of a gay student and another student who is straight but supportive. The pictures do not identify who is gay or straight. Not exactly the Virgin Mary covered in cow dung, right? Well think again. BYU put the kibosh on the installation. BYU also didn’t bother to tell the artist. All I can envision is a BYU administrator with his eyes tightly closed shut murmuring to himself, “I can’t see you, I can’t see you!”
Apparently Prop 8 booster and LA County Republican Chair Linda Boyd found that out the hard way this past weekend, when a coalition of Ron Paul supporters and GOP gays pissed about Boyd’s support for Prop 8 get her ass ousted from her position.
Boi from Troi provides all the details and includes a hilarious screed from Boyd’s husband, who is none too pleased with the “flotsam and jetsam” who had the audacity to show up and vote his wife out of her position. Boi from Troi isn’t all that sympathetic:
Enjoy the wilderness, Linda Boyd, and take solace that you are not alone in paying the price for supporting discrimination. The rest of us will enjoy ourschadenfreude.
Today I received an email from associate publisher and ad manager Greg Inzunza at Clout Magazine, a freebee glossy LGBT lifestyle mag that the publishers of the Long Beach Press-Telegram started a about a year ago. The whole idea of Clout was a magazine that built its ad base around non-sexual advertising and focused on travel, local Southern California personalities, home design and shopping–I wrote a pretty long piece for the first issue on the Long Beach Grunions, an LGBT swim team. That kind of ad strategy is not an easy world to live in, especially in the gay market, but it is possible (think the NYC-based MetroSource, another mag I occasionally contribute to).
Well, today the hammer fell. Here ’s what Inzunza said in his email:
In each issue we presented homes where couples lived and loved. We can proudly say that our advertising revenue doubled when the State Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in May this year. However, when Proposition 8 passed in the November 4 election, we saw revenue basically drop dramatically.
Look, there’s plenty wrong with the economic fundamentals of the publishing business–just ask The Tribune Company, The New York Times Co. and even Clout’s parent company LANG–so maybe Prop 8 is a convenient excuse to hide behind instead of saying the Clout model was never viable, particularly in a depressed ad market. But research has been done (here, for instance) showing same-sex marriage boosts the economy, so taking it away could have an opposite effect.
Inzunza sure thinks so. I talked to Greg tonight about the numbers, and he said he could pinpoint down to the day the California Supreme Court ruled on same-sex marriage by
looking at his sales charts. Businesses that had never thought of advertising in gay pubs were suddenly interested, so much so that LANG incorporated same-sex wedding advertiser guides in all its publications, he explained.
After the ballot initiative campaign started, that impacted ad sales to the tune of $15,000. And once Prop 8 passed, that was it. “It basically felt like they were trying to stay away from us,” he said. “With no legal tie-in, why should they promote it?”
To the most cynical supporters of Prop 8, this is a win-win. Marriage’s big threat to the anti-gay voices behind Yes 0n 8 was its ability to legitimize and visualize healthy, rather ordinary same-sex couples. Killing LGBT publications is another step in making people feel invisible.
According to The NY Daily News blog The Daily Politics, less likely to happen, despite a Democratic takeover of the State Senate:
It now appears fairly certain that legislation to legalize gay marriage is on indefinite hold in the Senate as the result of the deal brokered by Senate Majority Leader-in-waiting Malcolm Smith and the Gang of Three.
A source close to the gang said the plan is to have the same-sex marriage bill introduced, determined to have fiscal implications (although I’m not exactly certain what those might be) and referred to the Finance Committee, which, assuming the agreement between the gang and Smith sticks, will be headed by Sen. Carl Kruger, who could stop the measure in its tracks.
08
Dec
08
el coyote manager steps down
Check out the story I wrote for Frontiers Newsmagazine’s web site about Marjorie Christoffersen, the embattled manager at El Coyote. She will no longer serve as a manager and is stepping down from El Coyote’s board.
07
Dec
08
song for jonathan
Newsweek has a cover story in the current issue called “Our Mutual Joy” all about what it says in the Bible about homosexuality. Leviticus and the Apostle Paul’s dim view of marriage in general are all retread, but there was one Bible story I had forgotten:
Gay men like to point to the story of passionate King David and his friend Jonathan, with whom he was “one spirit” and whom he “loved as he loved himself.” Conservatives say this is a story about a platonic friendship, but it is also a story about two men who stand up for each other in turbulent times, through violent war and the disapproval of a powerful parent. David rends his clothes at Jonathan’s death and, in grieving, writes a song:
I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother;
You were very dear to me.
Your love for me was wonderful,
More wonderful than that of women.
Here, the Bible praises enduring love between men. What Jonathan and David did or did not do in privacy is perhaps best left to history and our own imaginations.
And if that’s not enough gay Newsweek for you, the magazine has a fab Q&A with Rufus Wainwright.
07
Dec
08
iowa gears up for court case
The Des Moines Register has a good primer for the Iowa Supreme Court same-sex marriage case that begins on Tuesday. Jane Schacter, a Stanford University law professor, explains in the article why the Hawkeye State is a good bet for marriage equality:
Iowa might have been an appealing target, Schacter said, because of the state court’s roster, public opinion polls, and the long process required to enact a constitutional amendment.
“All of these cases are being watched very, very closely,” Schacter said. “There’s not a rush to get a national resolution. There has been a lot of coordination on both sides, because it’s proceeding state-by-state.”
Former Seattle Seahawks star, former GOP congressman and current president and CEO of the mobile phone lobbying group CTIA Steve Largent may be the next Prop 8 donor to feel the heat professionally. Marriage activist Fred Karger notes Largent’s wife donated $2,000 to the Yes on 8 campaign, and today the Washington, DC-based publication Roll Call has a story (behind its subscription wall, alas) that reports the cellular firms who back CTIA aren’t all that thrilled with the donation. This excites many marriage activists, but in the long run, is this kind of pressure on employees good for the marriage movement?
The Gay City News follows up on The New York Times story suggesting there was little hope for a marriage bill making it through both houses of the New York Legislature in 2009. A couple legislators in the original NYT piece take issue with how they were quoted. Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, was none too pleased with the Times’s story as well.
04
Dec
08
polling on prop 8
Evangelicals and Republicans voted Yes, The college educated voted No. But there was a lot that surprised Public Policy Institute of California President Marc Baldassare in his new poll, particularly the emotion over Proposition 8:
PPIC found that 63 percent of voters were more interested in Prop. 8 than any of the dozen statewide initiatives; no other ballot measure drew more than 5 percent of voters.
“We can say from our polling,” Baldassare said, “that we’ve never seen anything like the interest that was generated by Prop. 8.
More details from the poll are right here.
03
Dec
08
rolling stone’s take on prop 8
Here’s Rolling Stone’s take on what happened with the Proposition 8 campaign. It’s a lot more of the same, but some of the original reporting just continues to nail the No on 8 leadership for running an ineffective ground game. Something tells me we’re going to see a lot more of these kinds of stories over the next couple months. It’s dismaying to read but necessary if marriage equality supporters want to win at the ballot box. Yes on 8 consultant Frank Schubert talks about what happened the day of the election for his side, in contrast to what happened with the No on 8 folks…
The Yes on 8 campaign’s get-out-the-vote effort was equally prodigious. The weekend before the vote, Schubert’s religious volunteers once again went door to door, speaking to supporters and directing them to the right precinct locations. “On Election Day,” he says, “we had 100,000 people — five per precinct — checking voter rolls and contacting supporters who hadn’t showed up to vote.”
By contrast, the No on Prop 8 campaign mobilized just 11,000 volunteers on Election Day, which they deployed to polling locations to hold “Vote No on 8″ signs. The campaign even turned away volunteers who were unable to attend a sign-holding training seminar. Terry Leftgoff, a veteran campaign consultant who was once the highest-ranking gay officer in the California Democratic Party, was one of those who was informed that his services weren’t needed. “I was told I could come by on November 5th and help clean up a campaign office,” Leftgoff says.
03
Dec
08
the archbishop speaks
San Francisco Archbishop George H. Niederauer has been pretty much silent on his involvement in Proposition 8, but in a letter posted on the SF Archdiocese’s Web site, he confirms he’s the one who encouraged the Mormons to get as involved as they did in the Yes on 8 campaign. You can read it here, but be prepared.
Here’s one passage I found interesting:
Whatever others may say, the proponents of Proposition 8 supported it as a defense of the traditional understanding and definition of marriage, not as an attack on any group, or as an attempt to deprive others of their civil rights.
The Archbishop can say this as many times as he likes, but just denying the civil rights argument doesn’t make it go away. But then again denial seems to be an ongoing problem for his Excellency.
03
Dec
08
prop 8: the musical!
Nothing makes a heartbreaking tragedy easier to deal with than a cheerful scrubdown from a master of American Musical Theater. If Steven Sondheim can turn murderous racial gang wars into West Side Story, Jerry Bock can turn an impending religious pogrom into Fiddler on the Roof, and Marvin Hamlisch can twist the incessant catterwauling of self-indulgent dancers into A Chorus Line, then Tony winner Marc Shaiman can make Proposition 8 into a feel-good musical! Gotta love this star-studded production, which clearly was lovingly if hastily thrown together.
To see more of Shaiman’s views on homosexuality, his relationship, the Bible and shellfish (yum!) check this out:
01
Dec
08
marriage slowdown in vermont?
Vermont has been a prime target for marriage rights activists, who hoped 2009 would mark the Green Mountain State’s passage of a marriage law that would allow for same-sex nuptials. But one of the leading marriage equality supporters in the state legislature, Rep. Johanna Donovan, is getting cold feet. Why? The economy:
“It’s an argument I’m having with myself because I think it’s the right thing to do,” Donovan said. “I don’t know if now is the time. My major concern is taking care of vulnerable people. I don’t want to be distracted from that.”
The realities of Vermont’s finances are stark, to be sure. But is it possible for legislatures to do things at once? That’s what plenty of marriage activists say. Of course, Vermont’s governor, who doesn’t like marriage bills, could have the final say thanks to his veto pen. And did Prop 8 play a role in cooling off discussion in Vermont? We may never know.
Uh oh. California Justice Joyce Kennard has been considered a strong LGBT rights ally on the California Supreme Court, but Kennard was the one justice who denied hearing the cases looking to overturn Prop 8. The LA Times has a recap here, but this quote from the Times’ story wraps things up pretty clearly.:
“It definitely isn’t a good sign,” said UCLA Law Professor Brad Sears, an expert on sexual-orientation law.
Writing in the NYT, Charles Blow thinks the way to get African American women to come on board the marriage equality train is try a different kind of approach. Comparing the current struggle for marriage rights to the fight waged by interracial couples is a bad idea, he says:
“First, comparing the struggles of legalizing interracial marriage with those to legalize gay marriage is a bad idea. Many black women do not seem to be big fans of interracial marriage either. They’re the least likely of all groups to intermarry, and many don’t look kindly on the black men who intermarry at nearly three times the rate that they do, according to a 2005 study of black intermarriage rates in the Wisconsin Law Review. Wrong reference. Don’t even go there.”
Blow’s solution goes in a direction few if any have discussed:
“So pitch it as a health issue. The more open blacks are to the idea of homosexuality, the more likely black men would be to discuss their sexual orientations and sexual histories. The more open they are, the less likely black women would be to put themselves at risk unwittingly. And, the more open blacks are to homosexuality over all, the more open they are likely to be to gay marriage. This way, everyone wins.”
It wasn’t a fluke, says Hans Johnson at The Huffington Post:
“It reflected sustained organizing, independent fund-raising, and thoughtful communication by Asian American supporters of equal marriage that began three years ago.”
Doing slow and steady groundwork over the course of several years delivers results, Johnson says. Who knew?
