Chris Is Pissed And You Should Be Too

Don't let the haters win

In A Nutshell

I am convinced the far right (indeed, the entire Republican Party - yes, I'm being redundent, here) truly believe ignorance is bliss

Drive By Review: MILK

Went and saw MILK last night at the Castro Theatre (whre the mighty Wurlitzer was played which always brings a smile to anyone's face).

Here you go: Right when the openning credits/scenes started, tears welled in my eyes. As the film progressed anger built up as paralels to what Milk was fighting for and what Prop 8 means hit home.

After MILK ended I walked around the corner to my apartment and just looked out over the city. The fight is not over.

Yes on Prop 8 donors and next steps?

You might want to take the time and take a look at the list of $5,000 donors to the Yes on Prop 8 campaign and then boycott their companies.

Let the boycotts begin.

And for those on the right, quite your complaining about be "unfairly" targeted. If you are going to use the tyranny of the majority to restrict the rights of the minority, you are going to get some blowback.

"When political attacks are launched from churches, political responses will be delivered to churches. If goddamned McDonald's had organized and paid for Prop 8, we'd be marching on goddamned McDonald's."
-Dan Savage

Now along with boycotting companies that gave money to the yes on 8 campaign, maybe we should conduct sit-ins at local government's marriage license office.

Funny Quote of The Day and Prop 8 Protests Aroun The Country

From a protest over in Lansing, Michigan (where it is a bit cold, it seems):

"It's freezing cold here. We all agreed that, in the future, Californians should have the courtesy to be nationally-notable bigots only in the summer months."
via SLOG

We'll do better next time, Lansing.

For photos of the Big Ole Protest, Towelroad has a good mash-up

As for San Francisco's protest. It was huge. I can't remember seeing that many people in front of City Hall - maybe during gay pride.

Never Give Up! Never Surrender!

Dav Savage's Op-Ed

As usual, Dan Savage breaks down the meaning of the anti-gay movements motives perfectly:

Anti-Gay, Anti-Family
By DAN SAVAGE
COUNTLESS Americans, gay and otherwise, are still mourning — and social conservatives are still celebrating — the approval last Tuesday of anti-gay-marriage amendments in Florida, Arizona and, most heartbreaking, California, where Proposition 8 stripped same-sex couples of their right to wed. Eighteen thousand same-sex couples were legally married in California this past summer and fall; their marriages are now in limbo.

But while Californians march and gay activists contemplate a national boycott of Utah — the Mormon Church largely bankrolled Proposition 8 — an even more ominous new law in Arkansas has drawn little notice.

That state’s Proposed Initiative Act No. 1, approved by nearly 57 percent of voters last week, bans people who are “cohabitating outside a valid marriage” from serving as foster parents or adopting children. While the measure bans both gay and straight members of cohabitating couples as foster or adoptive parents, the Arkansas Family Council wrote it expressly to thwart “the gay agenda.” Right now, there are 3,700 other children across Arkansas in state custody; 1,000 of them are available for adoption. The overwhelming majority of these children have been abused, neglected or abandoned by their heterosexual parents.

Even before the law passed, the state estimated that it had only about a quarter of the foster parents it needed. Beginning on Jan. 1, a grandmother in Arkansas cohabitating with her opposite-sex partner because marrying might reduce their pension benefits is barred from taking in her own grandchild; a gay man living with his male partner cannot adopt his deceased sister’s children.

Social conservatives are threatening to roll out Arkansas-style adoption bans in other states. And the timing couldn’t be worse: in tough economic times, the numbers of abused and neglected children in need of foster care rises. But good times or bad, no movement that would turn away qualified parents and condemn children to a broken foster care system should be considered “pro-family.”

Most ominous, once “pro-family” groups start arguing that gay couples are unfit to raise children we might adopt, how long before they argue that we’re unfit to raise those we’ve already adopted? If lesbian couples are unfit to care for foster children, are they fit to care for their own biological children?

The loss in California last week was heartbreaking. But what may be coming next is terrifying.

via NY Times

Big Ole National Prop 8 Protest In A City Near You

Since I live in California, San Francisco, to be exact, I'm biased toward the San Francisco protest at San Francisco City Hall on November 15th @ 10:30 am.

San Francisco City Hall

For those not living in San Francisco, find your Big Ole National Prop 8 Protest here.

WHEN: SATURDAY 11/15
WHAT TIME:
8:30AM HST
10:30AM West Coast
11:30AM Mountain
12:30PM Central
1:30PM East Coast

The Enterprise

The Brits got a 20 minute (spoiler alert) look at the new Star Trek...stupid Brits!

Olberman on Prop 8

Were The World Mine

Looks fun

Prop. 8 Protests for November 7

Want to get your protest on?

San Francisco Civic Center, 5:30 pm. From Civic Center (Market/7th) to Dolores Park. Facebook event. "We have contacted local media and several popular websites have posted the event. Dozens of people have donated their time to hand out flyers. We are protesting on Friday in San Francisco because it was in San Francisco that the California Supreme Court decided to give equality to LGBTQ people earlier this year and it made San Francisco very happy. After all the work that so many people around the country and the Bay Area did to get to the point where we were earlier this year, we're not going to sit by and do nothing..."

Long Beach, California: Friday, November 7, 2008, 6:45pm - 9:00pm, Broadway and Redondo. "We will march from Redondo to Alamitos (Hamburger Mary's), to tell Californians, the nation and the world that we are not second class citizens and we will not accept being treated that way."

Santa Barbara, California: Friday, November 7, 2008 Time: 5:00pm - 6:00pm Location: De La Guerra Plaza Street: [700-756] De La Guerra Plz.

San Diego. "9 p.m.: Gather at Laurel & Sixth Avenue for a march to San Diego City Hall (located at 202 C St in Downtown). This grassroots march is being organized by community members who wish to "let our voices be heard" that we will not accept discrimination!

A protest in Salt Lake City is planned: "If Jacob Whipple gets what he's hoping for, at least 1,000 Utahns will turn out Friday night to protest the involvement of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in helping pass Proposition 8, a California ballot measure that effectively killed, at least for now, same-sex marriages in that state. The call for people to gather at 6 p.m. at North Temple and State Street in Salt Lake City is to show solidarity with those protesting in California, Whipple explained."
via: Towleroad.

America and that Fist Bump...

...is spreading

Yes WE Did

Prop 8

Looks like it is going to pass. I want to think people that voted Yes on 8 did so because they have deeply held true beliefs, but I can't.

Deep down, I feel that people that voted Yes for Prop 8 truly have hate in their hearts. This is more than bigotry, this is hate. This is hatred for equality. Hate for freedom.

This is telling me to get in the back of the bus. This is pointing a water cannon in my face.

I'm trying to recall when I had the opportunity to take rights away from people. I can't recall ever doing that.

I wonder how it feels.

Sound Advice For Republicans...

As Republicans survey the smoldering wreckage of the party of Lincoln and the inevitable reassessment occurs, here’s some free advice for them: stop lying about everything.

I don’t mean spinning and fudging and trying to put a good face on your policy positions. I mean stop lying as a first, middle and last resort about every last damn thing under the sun.

If you think a specific tax proposal is a bad idea, just explain why, don’t paint anyone and everything who might think it is a good idea as a communist. Don’t call birth control abortion. Don’t paint opponents as lovers of sex offenders. If your opposition is pointing out that the Constitution needs to be upheld, don’t call them terrorist sympathizers. If Americans are concerned about the economy, don’t try to blame people who were in office 30 years ago.

Stop lying. If you can. If you can’t, you will never come back as a meaningful political party.
via HorsesAss

Personally, I don't think Republicans know how to do anything but lie

In Which I Post Two Stories That Made Me Cry...

I Didn't Vote For Obama Today
November 4, 2008, 9:37AM


I have a confession to make.

I did not vote for Barack Obama today.

I've openly supported Obama since March. But I didn't vote for him today.

I wanted to vote for Ronald Woods. He was my algebra teacher at Clark Junior High in East St. Louis, IL. He died 15 years ago when his truck skidded head-first into a utility pole. He spent many a day teaching us many things besides the Pythagorean Theorem. He taught us about Medgar Evers, Ralph Abernathy, John Lewis and many other civil rights figures who get lost in the shadow cast by Martin Luther King, Jr.

But I didn't vote for Mr. Woods.

I wanted to vote for Willie Mae Cross. She owned and operated Crossroads Preparatory Academy for almost 30 years, educating and empowering thousands of kids before her death in 2003. I was her first student. She gave me my first job, teaching chess and math concepts to kids in grades K-4 in her summer program. She was always there for advice, cheer and consolation. Ms. Cross, in her own way, taught me more about walking in faith than anyone else I ever knew.

But I didn't vote for Ms. Cross.

I wanted to vote for Arthur Mells Jackson, Sr. and Jr. Jackson Senior was a Latin professor. He has a gifted school named for him in my hometown. Jackson Junior was the pre-eminent physician in my hometown for over 30 years. He has a heliport named for him at a hospital in my hometown. They were my great-grandfather and great-uncle, respectively.

But I didn't vote for Prof. Jackson or Dr. Jackson.

I wanted to vote for A.B. Palmer. She was a leading civil rights figure in Shreveport, Louisiana, where my mother grew up and where I still have dozens of family members. She was a strong-willed woman who earned the grudging respect of the town's leaders because she never, ever backed down from anyone and always gave better than she got. She lived to the ripe old age of 99, and has a community center named for her in Shreveport.

But I didn't vote for Mrs. Palmer.

I wanted to vote for these people, who did not live to see a day where a Black man would appear on their ballots on a crisp November morning.

In the end, though, I realized that I could not vote for them any more than I could vote for Obama himself.

So who did I vote for?

No one.

I didn't vote. Not for President, anyway.

Oh, I went to the voting booth. I signed, was given my stub, and was walked over to a voting machine. I cast votes for statewide races and a state referendum on water and sewer improvements.

I stood there, and I thought about all of these people, who influenced my life so greatly. But I didn't vote for who would be the 44th President of the United States.

When my ballot was complete, except for the top line, I finally decided who I was going to vote for - and then decided to let him vote for me. I reached down, picked him up, and told him to find Obama's name on the screen and touch it.

And so it came to pass that Alexander Reed, age 5, read the voting screen, found the right candidate, touched his name, and actually cast a vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Oh, the vote will be recorded as mine. But I didn't cast it.

Then again, the person who actually pressed the Obama box and the red "vote" button was the person I was really voting for all along.

It made the months of donating, phonebanking, canvassing, door hanger distributing, sign posting, blogging, arguing and persuading so much sweeter.

So, no, I didn't vote for Barack Obama. I voted for a boy who now has every reason to believe he, too, can grow up to be anything he wants...even President.
via TPM

and...wow...

Four years ago my husband and I adopted a nine-year-old boy. He’d been taken from his biological family when he was three and shuttled through six different foster homes in six years. The three of us have worked very hard to create our family. Our son has added to our lives in ways we could never have imagined. We love him very much.
This year our son, who is now thirteen, came out to us. Our son is gay. We are fine with this.

The amazing thing about our boy is that he goes to school every day and lives his life true to himself. He’s a happy child. He writes poetry. He skips. He’s a track star. He excels at algebra. He loves the Stylistics. He has a blinding smile. Most of the kids at his school love him. But some of the boys call him “faggot.” Yesterday our usually sunny boy, all five-feet-four inches of him, came home staring at the ground, visibly upset. Some of the boys at school were taunting him with cries of Yes on 8, the California proposition aimed at eliminating the right to marry for those who want to marry another of the same gender. The boys were punished by the school, but the damage was done.

Who are these followers of Jesus Christ who would tell my son, taken from his family at three, and homeless until he was nine, that he cannot marry and have a family of his own?

Today my thirteen-year-old son joined me in the voting booth. As I voted for Obama my son put his hand on top of mine. He did the same thing when I voted no on Proposition 8. He was late for school, but I can’t think of a better reason.
via SLOG