November 14, 2008

The Next Los Angeles Film Festival is Sure Going to Look Empty Without Any Queers in the Audience

Per The Advocate:

L.A. Film Festival Director
Donated Money to Yes on 8

Los Angeles Film Festival director Richard Raddon turned up on the secretary of state’s donation list as having given money to Yes on 8, backing the California ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage throughout the state.

Movie City News blogger David Poland turned up the $1,500 donation Wednesday morning on the California secretary of state’s website. Raddon is a Mormon and the producer of a number of independent films, including the Lili Taylor-Guy Pearce movie A Slipping-Down Life. …

Our take? The same as Kim Voynar’s (minus the well-intentioned but hopelessly optimistic ideas of 1] civil unions for everyone, and 2] President Obama ever lifting a finger to help LGBTs) — bold emphasis mine:

No on H8, Not Yes to Hate

The news this morning about the fest director of FIND’s LA festival, Rich Raddon, turning up as a “Yes on Prop 8″ contributor is forcing those of us on the other side of that vote to seriously ponder our moral lines in the sand. FIND has come out and said a person cannot be fired for their religious beliefs, and they are correct on that, just as the California Musical Theater could not have fired its artistic director, Scott Eckern, for supporting Prop 8. Nonetheless, the gay community does not have to support organizations headed by people known to have voted against equality in marriage. They have the right to say, so long as this person is in your organization, we will not give it our financial support, period. And they will.

And those who argue that supporters of the gay community on this issue have to just accept the will of the majority of California voters on this issue need to take a step back and honestly examine what underlies that argument: You have to ask yourself, quite simply, if you would be making the same argument if that proposition had been targeted at women, or blacks, or any other minority group. If Prop 8 had sought to define marriage as being only between a WHITE man and woman, would your argument still be the same? …

I spent some time yesterday myself researching Prop 8 supporters who are also business owners, both in Park City and in my hometown of Seattle, because I do not want to give my own financial support to people who supported that measure. … This is a moral conundrum for our time, and how we respond to it will teach our children something about the kind of people we are; the answers are not always going to be easy…

For the record, Kim Voynar is a bisexual woman legally married to a bisexual man — just in case the tighty-righties assume Kim is gay and/or had her marriage taken away from her.

Posted by: Sapphocrat

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