Loganotron

My friend Zachary sent me this Craiglist post from their “Best Of”:

Utah or Fresno, HA!

This is great. What if things were reversed?

This post from NoFo is amazing. A must read in its entirety:

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.

Thanks to the Tree for sharing it with me.

Rick Jacobs of the Courage Campaign offers up a smart explanation of why the LGBT community is upset at the Mormon Chruch:

…The LDS Church or any other organization has every right to use its power to influence elections to any extent that is legal. What it doesn’t have a right to do is claim persecution when other organizations do nothing but expose the church’s forays into the political arena before a discerning public.

While the backlash against the LDS Church has made some of its members uncomfortable, they have nobody to blame but their leadership who dragged them into this mess. In an effort to repair its public image, the church has said that it wants to begin a “healing process” and has claimed support for equal rights for gays and lesbians, except for using the word “marriage” to describe unions between same-sex partners. The church now has an opportunity to demonstrate that support: Utah state Sen. Scott McCoy has introduced legislation that would provide gays and lesbians in his state with all rights that straight people enjoy except marriage.

If the LDS Church were to support McCoy, it would show that it really does believe in love, compassion and equal rights. If it does not, the church’s supposedly conciliatory stance would simply be one more obfuscation in support of truly bigoted intentions.

A recent poll shows that age and race were less correlated with one’s vote on Prop 8 than socio-economic status and education. Age and race are still important factors, though.

The latest PPIC poll shows that Proposition 8 also got strong backing from voters who did not attend college (69 percent) and voters who earned less than $40,000 a year (63 percent).

Age and race, meanwhile, were not as strong factors as assumed. According to the survey, 56 percent of voters over age 55 and 57 percent of non-white voters cast a yes ballot for the gay marriage ban.

Here are the key factors in order or relevance, that affected the Yes vote on Prop 8:

1. Religion
2. Education level
3. Income
4. Age
5. Race

This suggests to me that before we can expect to pass a ballot measure legalizing gay marriage in California in 2010 we need to: Change the minds of religious folks, increase the average education level in the state, raise the average income level (bring up the middle class), wait for the older gay-averse citizens to pass on, and reach out to the non-white communities. Together, this makes for a daunting task. But let’s break down each one and see where we might be able to make progress:

1. Religion. We need to build bridges to our religious friends. There are churches and individual Christians who opposed Prop 8. We need to reach out to these folks and bring them along with us on our march toward equality. They can help us better understand the Christian opposition to gays and gay marriage, and ultimately help us better communicate with those religious folks who oppose gay marriage.

2. Education. As a community, we can’t affect the education standards at the state level. But, we can volunteer at after school programs. Become teachers. Financially support programs in our communities that give kids a chance to keep up and get ahead. Support adult education programs financially and possibly by even teaching in these programs. We can have an impact on education levels, but it most likely involves us giving of ourselves to people who may be afraid of gays and who may have voted against us on Prop 8.

3. Income. The LGBT community is not going to be able to directly affect the income levels of the middle and poverty class. We can, however, volunteer with organizations that help provide relief to struggling middle class folks. And, we must make sure they know we’re here, we’re queer, we’re part of your community, and we’re all in this together. Let them know who we are and help them to release their fear of us.

4. Age. I’ve heard many suggest that there’s not much we can do regarding older citizens. They are very likely set in their ways. However, now might be a good time to come out to your grandparents or at least discuss Prop 8 with them. You never know whose mind you might be able to change. My grandparents were all FDR Democrats and very accepting of others. Let’s find those who are like my grandparents and help them extend their philosophy of acceptance to include LGBT folks.

5. Race. Reaching out to non-white communities is something I’ve written extensively about already (here, here, and here). I’m sure much will be done on this front. Let’s hope the outreach is done at the grass-roots level, and not from the top-down. This means that we can no longer simply rely on our alliances with the NAACP and Latino organizations. We must communicate directly with individuals in non-white communities and make our faces known and our voices heard. At the same time we must also listen to and learn about the African-American and Latino communities. It’s a two-way street and we must be willing to open our hearts and minds if we hope other will open theirs to us.

Rather than singularly focusing on race relations, let’s start addressing each of the 5 demographic areas of opposition listed above. Why think small? If we think small, we won’t change the hearts and minds of our fellow citizens, and we will never gain real equality. Let’s think big and create a broad-based coalitions that reach out and demystify gay marriage the LGBT culture.

I’m ready. Are you?

Read the entire FAQ here. Questions that are answered include:

What was the final vote on Prop 8?
How does this compare to the final vote on Prop 22?
How did various counties vote on Prop 8?
What do we know about who voted to pass Prop 8 and repeal the right to marry?
What is happening with the lawsuits?
What was the structure of the No on 8 campaign?
Who were the No on 8 campaign professionals?
How did the campaign decide what kind of ads to run?
Why didn’t you use any LGBT people in your ads until the last week?
Why did the Yes side run so many more ads than the No side?
What did the campaign’s internal polling show?
Why have some post-election protests and/or rallies focused on the Mormons?
Did the Mormon Church violate IRS rules by getting involved with the Yes on 8 campaign?
What lessons have been learned?
What should our next steps be?

Kos has a great post on how the backlash and protests over the passage of Prop 8 have made a difference:

Of the those adults who tell SurveyUSA they voted FOR Prop 8, 90% of them told us recent rallies held by “No on Prop 8″ Protesters have not changed their minds about the issue. 8% say protesters have changed their minds.

“Turning eight percent of marriage equality opponents around in a few short weeks is remarkable, and likely stems people realizing what exactly they had voted for.

Remember, the proposition lost by only three points. If eight percent of the 52.1 percent who voted for it have changed their minds, that’s a 4.2 percent swing in favor of equality. Or, put another way, you’re looking at a 52-48 vote in favor of gay marriage.

I would say that thus far, the backlash against Proposition 8 has been wildly successful.”

More over at NoMilkForCinemark.com: