July 18, 2008

California: Prop 8 Down By 9; Meanwhile, Backers in Lovers’ Quarrel

Before we gets to the news, I want to encourage you to keep a close eye on the Newswire over the next couple of days — no, not because I’m whoring for traffic, but because I’m launching a special project this weekend.

A good many LGBT bloggers are fascinated (and rightly so) by the wealth of public information available from the California Secretary of State about the financial backers of Proposition 8. While some of it is what you’d expect (e.g., James Dobson’s hate-ridden Focus on the Family is among the top contributors), there’s a lot you wouldn’t expect.

My goal is to provide easy-to-digest profiles of some very interesting names on the Sec’s list, and, perhaps even more importantly, graphic depictions of how all these anti-gay organizations (and individuals) are connected.

(Let me put it this way: Buffy and I realized only last night that we must pull all of our banking business out of Washington Mutual. The reason is just the sort of thing you’re going to learn.)

That’s all I’ll say about it for now — I could talk about it all day, but then I’d never get it done — so keep your browser on the Newswire this weekend. I am certain you will find this information very enlightening — and useful.

Now, onto the news — which, so far, is all good. (But don’t let your guard down!)

Measure to prohibit gay unions is trailing

SACRAMENTO — Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage in California, is opposed by 51 percent of likely voters with 42 percent in favor, according to a new Field Poll. …

Next, it appears the cracks in the anti-gay movement are getting deeper:

Division Emerges Among Foes of Calif. Same-Sex Marriages

A united front by conservative forces against same-sex marriage in California is showing signs of cracking — or of having been an illusion all along.

Last week, the proponents of Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that would limit marriage to heterosexual couples, asked the California Supreme Court to prevent another conservative group — the Campaign for California Families — from intervening in a suit that could determine whether that issue stays on the November ballot.

In a short brief filed Thursday, Folsom, Calif., lawyer Andrew Pugno, counsel for ProtectMarriage.com, argued that rather than back Prop 8, the CCF actively campaigned against it for years in favor of another amendment that would have sharply curtailed all gay rights. …

In an interview Monday, Pugno referred to the CCF as “extremists” who want to go beyond the issue of marriage and “strip away gay rights” of any kind.

Not that this is anything we haven’t already known for some time; it’s just sweet to hear one of the bad guys outing the real goal of the rest of the bad guys: The “protecting the family” spiel is just a steaming pile of crap; their real goal is to strip us of all our hard-won rights — protections in housing, employment, public accommodation, adoption, you name it — permanently.

Let’s hear this one more time:

…Pugno told the high court that the CCF had fought efforts to get Prop 8 on the ballot. He attached an August 2005 letter sent out by the campaign and others that urged voters to oppose the amendment that would become Prop 8.

In that letter, the campaign called the proposed proposition a “flawed amendment” that “will forever permit homosexual ‘marriage’ by another name in California by allowing all the rights of marriage to go to gay couples.” The letter urged voters instead to support the campaign’s own separate amendment that would limit marriage to a man and a woman, eliminate domestic partnerships and many gay rights already provided by companies and other organizations.

Called the Voters’ Right to Protect Marriage Initiative, it failed to get enough signatures to make the ballot. …

Stephen Bomse, the Heller Ehrman partner who is working with civil rights groups to legally block Prop 8, said he “chuckled” when he saw Pugno’s opposition to the campaign’s intervention. …

We’re chuckling, too. smirk