12/02/2008
Another Round of Anti-Gay Attacks Coming Down the Pike?
Towleroad has learned that a religious group called the Becket Fund may be planning a second-round editorial assault on gays and the fight for marriage equality, condemning what they see as a "campaign of violence" following the passage of Proposition 8. What I've heard, from a fairly reliable source, is that they're calling around trying to get organizations to sign on to a full-page newspaper ad to run in major papers (more specifically, the New York Times), citing disruptions of worship and the singular isolated incident of white powder sent to churches (see last item) (the source of which has never been proven - it could have been the Mormons themselves). In any case, this type of slanderous attack has been known in the past to sway both our allies and folks undecided on the issue, so it's something to be wary of, and prepared for.
***
Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg writes a column in the L.A. Times today that bears all the hallmarks of this kind of attack, meant to make the victim look like the aggressor. He writes:
"At a pro-gay-marriage rally in Los Angeles after the vote, chants of 'Mormon scum!' were reported. Envelopes containing white powder have been sent to Mormon temples in California and Utah; vandals hit other temples. Lists of businesses to boycott -- essentially Mormon blacklists -- have sprung up on the Internet. The artistic director of the California Musical Theatre resigned because of pressure after it was revealed he gave $1,000 to a pro-Proposition 8 group.
"It's amazing. Hollywood liberals, who shout 'McCarthyism!' as a first resort, see nothing wrong with this. If Jews were attacked in this way for giving too much money to a political cause, Barbra Streisand would already have a French passport.
"Never mind that Proposition 8 carried nearly every demographic slice of voters. Put aside the fact that the Catholic Church and scores of other Christian churches supported it too. Discount the inconvenient truth that bans on gay marriage have now passed in 30 states. It's all the Mormons' fault.
"The argument is that Mormons used illegitimate power, in this case money, beyond their numerical standing in the population to secure victory for the measure. Golly, wealthy gay liberals would never do anything like that! I bet they're not giving a dime to the legal effort to overturn Proposition 8.
"No, it's just that Mormons are the most vulnerable of the culturally conservative religious denominations and therefore the easiest targets for an organized campaign against religious freedom of conscience."
***
Goldberg calls the gays 'the aggressors in the cultural war' while the Mormons funded Proposition 8 to the tune of more than $20 million. Millions of Californians lost their civil rights. Those are the spoils of a cultural war and the religious right fought tooth and nail to rip them from Americans, severing families and hurting children in the process.
Dan Savage, in a column published just before Thanksgiving, wrote, regarding the resignation of L.A. Film fest director Richard Raddon:
"Bill Condon, the gay guy who directed Dreamgirls, attempted to get Raddon's back: 'Someone has lost his job and possibly his livelihood because of privately held religious beliefs.' No. No. No. Raddon lost his job due to criticism of his public political actions, not his private religious beliefs, and his public political actions were a part of the public record. If Raddon wanted to go to church and pray his little heart out against same-sex marriage, or proselytize on street corners against gay marriage, or counsel gay men to leave their husbands and marry nice Mormon girls instead, that could be viewed as an expression of his 'privately held religious beliefs.' Instead he helped fund a political campaign to strip a vulnerable minority group of its civil rights."
And that is the real aggression in the cultural war. If the whispers I am hearing about the mounting campaign to smear gays publicly in major newspapers is true, we should be ready to defend it.
Posted 8:47 AM EST by Andy Towle in California, Gay Marriage, Mormon, News, Proposition 8 | Permalink
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1) Why hasn't HRC or any gay group footed the bill for mainstream advertising to influence the great middle of centrist populace of this nation? Those whom we can bring to our side.
2) Why aren't my religious rights and freedoms respected when the God I worship obviously loves Gays(ME!) and their marriages?
3) Why are we expecting anything different going forward from Gay leadership when they have failed miserably at this civil rights struggle? Maybe its time for new leaders and new groups to take the fight grassroots.
4) We need to make this OUR fight about the civil laws we are talking about. Take the argument away from the bigots. The bigots are kind of retarded and think this is a religious matter but its a CIVIL LAW. We need to speak first, act first, and most of all dismiss as invalid the points that come from these religous and right wing bigots.
5) Always call them bigots. They can hide behind the bible but think back to all the horrible institutions the church has defended over the centuries. Its time to punch them in the nose!
6) This about ending discrimination. Say that over and over.
Posted by: Craig | Dec 2, 2008 10:17:16 PM
A handful of isolated and unrelated incidents somehow count as the organized tactics of the gay equality movement? It's not the soundest reasoning, but fine:
Yesterday, by their logic, the "traditional marriage" folks put a 50-year-old gay Salt Lake City man in the hospital with critical head injuries.
Who again is running the campaign of intimidation and violence?
Posted by: Mattheww | Dec 3, 2008 9:13:45 PM
Michael Bedwell, thank you! Bayard is exactly the kind of gay hero we should be pushing! He did more for black people than any of our so called leaders (Jackson, Sharpton, etc.) ever did. He actually gave all of the current civil right movements around the world the template for how to get their rights.
I have to wonder why this man has never been honored in the gay movement? Or do I?
I am currently researching more about him to blog about. I think he is a great and tragic American hero. While movies, rightfully, get made about Harvey Milk, this is the one hero who might just bridge the gap between the black and gay communities.
Please everyone, google Bayard Rustin and use his memory as the image of your grassroots rights projects. We tried it the West Hollywood way. Let's try another way.
Posted by: Derek Washington | Dec 6, 2008 8:56:24 PM
I'm sorry guys for being on a soap box but start here:
Bayard Rustin (March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was an American civil rights activist, important largely behind the scenes in the civil rights movement of the 1960s and earlier, and principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. He counseled Martin Luther King, Jr. on the techniques of nonviolent resistance. Rustin was an advocate on behalf of gay and lesbian causes in the latter part of his career, however his sexual orientation was a platform for attack by many governmental as well as idealists groups to attack him. [1]
A year before his death in 1987, Rustin said: "Twenty-five, thirty years ago, the barometer of human rights in the United States were black people. That is no longer true. The barometer for judging the character of people in regard to human rights is now those who consider themselves gay, homosexual, lesbian." [1]
Posted by: Derek Washington | Dec 6, 2008 9:00:12 PM
An aside... Do you know that an advert from Christian Lifestyle appears above the comments section? It says "Christian Lifestyle, When quality counts. Find your soulmate." Accidental irony?
Posted by: Bobby | Dec 7, 2008 3:21:10 PM
"If Jews were attacked in this way for giving too much money to a political cause, Barbra Streisand would already have a French passport."
It sounds to me like Goldberg hit too close to the truth for comfort. Right, Andy?
Bill Condon was wrong, but so is Dan Savage, as usual. Raddon lost his job for participating in the democratic process. If Mormons and other Christians had targeted Prop 8 opponents like this the Left would have screamed bloody murder.
But when those attacked complain its an attack on gays. Go figure.
Posted by: Disgusted | Dec 7, 2008 8:54:52 PM
@DISGUSTED,
Jonah Goldberg is the fat-faced fuck who is the editor-at-large at the NRO, whose mother went sniffing out dried Clinton cum with Linda Tripp. gee, does he have an agenda?
he has an almost fetishistic francophobia. he gets his little ego stroked by the likes of the pig-boy, Hannity. he has been feeding off the rightest teet for years. do you really want to hitch your buggy to his fading star?
you ask if Goldberg hit too close to the mark. i don't think so. his aim could not be more off if he were blind. he is seeking to defend the influx of 10s of millions of dollars to california from a cult whose power base is in utah, a safe place from which the cult has been trying to influence national politics (Mitt Romney).
all of a sudden, this group of heretics who believe that jesus appeared in north america and spelled out to some delusional prophet that men should subjugate women needs defending from a jew/episcopalian? give me a fucking break.
jonah is a jerk-off. goldberg is a goldigger. i don't see how he is making either tradition proud.
so what about you? are you DISGUSTED or just disgusting? i hate ignorance.
Posted by: nic | Dec 8, 2008 5:13:24 AM
to be clear, i do not believe in religious hocus-pocus, but isn't it entertaining to see logic applied to myth? faith and logic are antithetical.
Posted by: nic | Dec 8, 2008 5:21:49 AM