Heather Gold

Day Without a Gay

This grotesque juxtaposition of robustly funded propaganda vs. cash-strapped social services is the perverse, inexcusable legacy of Proposition Hate and the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act” and every related money-wasting act of gay-hostile social, political and emotional terrorism wrought by the American Taliban.

If you have ever used words like “sacred institution” or “redefine marriage” or “threat to family values” without irony or—worse yet—harbored thoughts or cast votes against marriage equality, you are not my friend. You are not welcome in my life. I honestly see you as intellectually compromised. And I don’t care what you think your god tells you to believe. Your mythology does not trump my reality. And if you try to defend your indefensible thoughts or words or actions to me, be prepared to have your vile, repellant opinions reduced to the vile, repellant garbage that they are.

And when I’m done with you, the domestic partner and I will calmly go back to caring for Thomas and working to repair the decades of damage caused by the celebrated heterosexuals who are apparently free to marry and divorce and have affairs and abuse and ignore their own children without generating interest a single constitutional amendment, television ad, campaign platform or even a godfuckingdamned T-shirt by the godfuckingdamned American Taliban.

 

Read all of Jake’s brilliant post to know the story of he, his partner and Thomas on his blog NoFo. 

Then do something on the streets or online. And if you’re gay, tell your story. Spell out your relationship and the indignities and legal vulnerabilities you’ve faced. In detail. Mine soon.

 

Why your signature on that online petition vs Prop 8 won't do anything legally

I’ve received many requests to add my name to an online petition to Gov Schwarzenegger in the past few hours to redress Prop 8s injustice. Accompanying the petition is a nice list of corrections of popular arguments for Prop 8. You may have seen it too. I don’t believe Schwarzenegger will change his past 2 vetoes of gay marriage (which passed the CA Legislature) and I don’t think that a law like that could even happen now that Prop 8 has passed and the Constitutional has been Amended (by popular intent if not under the correct legal method which is being litigated)

I checked in with a legal/political pal who knows what’s up and here’s what she says if we want a genuine petition to put gay marriage back on the ballot:

To qualify an initiative for the CA ballot, you need to get a certain # of physical signatures by registered CA voters within a certain timeframe set by the second of state. the # you need is a percentage of the # of people who voted in the last election in CA. don’t remember what that percentage is, but it’s easily findable on second of state’s website.
A petition drive has to register with the sec of state and have the specific legal language in place before gathering a single signature. 

As for starting a petition drive, I recommend following EQCA‘s lead (Equality California, the gay lobby).  They will have the resources to put it together, to hire lawyers, figure out the statewide political strategy, etc.  For example, picking the time period to collect sigs is very important, which will depend on which upcoming election you want to qualify for.  some off-year elections will have low turnout, which is bad for us, and a lot will depend on whatever else is on the ballot at the time.

Also, the rules for a statewaide petition drive, including what the petition looks like, and who is qualified to gather signatures, are highly technical, and require advice of counsel to make sure you get it right.

If you want to sign up something to Overturn Prop 8 join this facebook groupso that you can be part of whatever drive occurs. This way you can be contacted by EQCA or whomever does the drive and we won’t lose al the momentum.

new Prop8 insult: back of the hair salon

Prop 8 just passed. I have an angry moment. I am trying to follow the useful influenced insight of a passing busboy who suggested never comparing our hurt or struggle to that of another civil rights movement.

The Great Hack

The Great Hack from The Great Hack on Vimeo.

I ask geeks to use their powers for good and defeat prop 8 (copy protection for marriage) on Nov 4th.

Join us at thegreathack.com

The people fighting to copy protect marriage spent over $20 Million. We spent $15.80