Why was this not on the news?
I want to know why this news conference wasn’t shown on the news. It looks to me like the liberal media is trying to stifle free speech. I can’t believe this next video was not show on the national news. It is totally appalling.
Please write the networks to let them know as journalists it is their duty to present all the facts in an unbiased manner.
Reflections on the passage of Prop 8 by Jennifer Roback Morse
What does this victory mean?
The people of California want to wrest control of the legal definition of marriage from the judiciary.
The people of California are deeply troubled by the idea of small children being taught about homosexuality in the schools without their parents’ knowledge or consent.
The people of California do not want dissenters from the gay-marriage ideology to be treated as if they were racists.
The people of California want religious groups to be free to operate within their own value systems. People don’t want to unleash discrimination suits and other forms of legal harassment against religious bodies which hold that marriage is between a man and a woman.
It doesn’t mean:
Over five million Californians are bigots.
Gay couples will have their homes raided, (contra the outrageous anti-Mormon advertisement.)
Gay couples will lose their domestic partnership benefits.
Gays are second-class citizens.
Why does the victory of Proposition 8 matter?
A coalition of ordinary people pushed back against the gay lobby and its allies. Those allies include all the major newspapers, Hollywood, the judiciary, the governor, the attorney general, and academia. These allies did not hesitate to abuse their power. For instance, Attorney General Jerry Brown rewrote the title of the proposition in a way that cost us 5 to 10 percentage points in the polls.
But Proposition 8 proponents got more than it bargained for: ordinary citizens are sick of being pushed around. They aren’t going to take it any more.
The coalition of religious groups who worked for Prop 8 will not dissolve the day after tomorrow. Passing Proposition 8 required an unprecedented level of interfaith cooperation. Evangelicals, Catholics, Mormons, and Jews all worked together. I could feel mistrust melting away as we worked together to protect natural marriage. The solidarity we created will continue long after this particular election.
Interracial solidarity was strong on the marriage issue. Blacks and Hispanics voted overwhelmingly for Prop 8. Los Angeles County voted for Prop 8. That wasn’t Hollywood and Beverly Hills talking: it was the urban minority communities. They don’t seem to feel the need to be politically correct. Pro-marriage advocates of all races met and worked together, and will continue to do so.
The public is much more aware of the promotion of homosexuality in the schools. People will be monitoring the content of school curriculum in a way they had not done before. And since they now have the experience of being successful cooperating with others and promoting their views in the public square, they are much less likely to back down. If the gay lobby could have contained itself and lain low for a little longer, they might have been able to slip a lot of things past the public. Those days are over.
The public was disgusted by the grotesque bullying tactics of the No on 8 coalition. Although the anti-Mormon ad was produced by an “independent” group, no one from the official campaign condemned the ad. The media gave very little attention to the vandalism against Yes, but publicized the few isolated incidents of vandalism against No. But this media spin can’t work when the incidents are happening in your own neighborhood, under your own noses, to people you know. The No campaign should have distanced itself from people who were keying cars, egging houses and spray painting graffiti on churches. But it didn’t.
In short, the success of Proposition 8 is the success of a broad-based coalition of citizen activists who cared passionately about the meaning and future of marriage. The Protect Marriage campaign had literally a hundred thousand volunteers and over 70,000 donors. What Proposition 13 meant to the cause of citizen-generated tax reduction measures, Proposition 8 may mean to the cause of defending and defining marriage.
The judges who created same-sex marriage awakened a sleeping giant. And we won’t be going back to sleep any time soon.
— Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D. is the founder and president of the Ruth Institute.
Her Website is great, packed full of information and facts. I hightly recommend checking this out.
Proposition 8 from a black lesbian’s perspective
I read this great article in the opinion section of the LA Times Sunday. The article was written by Jasmyne A. Cannick. She talks about why gay rights are not the same thing, and should not be equated to the Black Civil Rights Movement. I agree with her whole heartedly and commend her for taking the time to write this article.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-cannick8-2008nov08,0,3669070.story
By Jasmyne A. Cannick
November 8, 2008
I am a perfect example of why the fight against Proposition 8, which amends the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, failed to win black support.
I am black. I am a political activist who cares deeply about social justice issues. I am a lesbian. This year, I canvassed the streets of South Los Angeles and Compton, knocking on doors, talking politics to passers-by and working as I never had before to ensure a large voter turnout among African Americans. But even I wasn’t inspired to encourage black people to vote against the proposition.
Why? Because I don’t see why the right to marry should be a priority for me or other black people. Gay marriage? Please. At a time when blacks are still more likely than whites to be pulled over for no reason, more likely to be unemployed than whites, more likely to live at or below the poverty line, I was too busy trying to get black people registered to vote, period; I wasn’t about to focus my attention on what couldn’t help but feel like a secondary issue.
The first problem with Proposition 8 was the issue of marriage itself. The white gay community never successfully communicated to blacks why it should matter to us above everything else — not just to me as a lesbian but to blacks generally. The way I see it, the white gay community is banging its head against the glass ceiling of a room called equality, believing that a breakthrough on marriage will bestow on it parity with heterosexuals. But the right to marry does nothing to address the problems faced by both black gays and black straights. Does someone who is homeless or suffering from HIV but has no healthcare, or newly out of prison and unemployed, really benefit from the right to marry someone of the same sex?
Maybe white gays could afford to be singularly focused, raising millions of dollars to fight for the luxury of same-sex marriage. But blacks were walking the streets of the projects and reaching out to small businesses, gang members, convicted felons and the spectrum of an entire community to ensure that we all were able to vote.
Second is the issue of civil rights. White gays often wonder aloud why blacks, of all people, won’t support their civil rights. There is a real misunderstanding by the white gay community about the term. Proponents of gay marriage fling it around as if it is a one-size-fits-all catchphrase for issues of fairness.
But the black civil rights movement was essentially born out of and driven by the black church; social justice and religion are inextricably intertwined in the black community. To many blacks, civil rights are grounded in Christianity — not something separate and apart from religion but synonymous with it. To the extent that the issue of gay marriage seemed to be pitted against the church, it was going to be a losing battle in my community.
Then there was the poorly conceived campaign strategy. Opponents of Proposition 8 relied on an outdated civil rights model, engaging the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People to help win black support on the issue of gay marriage. This happened despite the warnings of black lesbians and gays that it wouldn’t work. While the NAACP definitely should have been included in the strategy, it shouldn’t have been the only group. Putting nearly a quarter of a million dollars into an outdated civil rights group that has very little influence on the black vote — at least when it comes to gay issues — will never work.
Likewise, holding the occasional town-hall meeting in Leimert Park — the one part of the black community where they now feel safe thanks to gentrification — to tell black people how to vote on something gay isn’t effective outreach either.
There’s nothing a white gay person can tell me when it comes to how I as a black lesbian should talk to my community about this issue. If and when I choose to, I know how to say what needs to be said. Many black gays just haven’t been convinced that this movement for marriage is about anything more than the white gays who fund it (and who, we often find, are just as racist and clueless when it comes to blacks as they claim blacks are homophobic).
Some people seem to think that homophobia trumps racism, and that winning the battle for gay marriage will symbolically bring about equality for everyone. That may seem true to white gays, but as a black lesbian, let me tell you: There are still too many inequalities that exist as it relates to my race for that to ever be the case. Ever heard of “driving while black”? Ever looked at the difference between the dropout rates for blacks and for whites? Or test scores? Or wages? Or rates of incarceration?
And in the end, black voters in California voted against gay marriage by more than 2 to 1.
Maybe next time around — because we all know this isn’t over — the gay community can demonstrate the capacity and willingness to change that America demonstrated when it went to the polls on Nov. 4. Black gays are depending on their white counterparts to finally “get it.”
Until then, don’t expect to make any inroads any time soon in the black community on this issue — including with this black lesbian.
Who’s Really Lying?
A little while ago, I saw the new No on Prop 8 commericial with Jack O’ Connell the California superintendent. In this ad, he said that the “Yes on Prop 8″ campaign is lying. ” Proposition 8 will not effect children in schools. That teaching about marriage in schools is voluntary.” He is telling the truth, but only a small portion of the truth. Here is the rest of the truth from the California Department Of Education’s website :
HIV/AIDS prevention education and sex education are nearly universally
taught in California today. Ninety-four percent of surveyed schools
provide HIV/AIDS prevention education, as is mandated by law, and an
even larger number, 96%, provide sex education despite having no
requirement to do so.
(Sex Education in California Public Schools (PB Consulting and ACLU Northern California, 2003).)
http://www.aclunc.org/docs/reproductive_rights/sex_ed_in_ca_public_schools_2003_full_report.pdf?ht
Education Code (EC) 51933 specifies that school districts are not required
to provide comprehensive sexual health education, but if they choose to
do so, they shall comply with all of the requirements listed below.
… Instruction shall encourage communication between students and their
families and shall teach respect for marriage and committed
relationships.
(http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/se/sexeducation.asp).
the CDE’s Checklist for Comprehensive Sexual Health Education, described in the
document as a tool for school districts “to help guide your review of material for compliance with Education
Code (EC) 51933,” also states that to be in legal compliance the school must ensure that “Instruction and
materials teach respect for marriage and committed relationships.”
Then Thursday evening I came across this lovely little gem:
WorldNetDaily
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Some parents are shocked to find their children are learning to be homosexual allies and will participate in “Coming Out Day” at a public elementary school tomorrow – and they claim the school failed to notify parents.
One mother of a kindergartner who attends Faith Ringgold School of Art and Science, a K-8 charter school in Hayward, Calif., said she asked her 5-year-old daughter what she was learning at school.
The little girl replied, “We’re learning to be allies.”
The mother also said a Gay Straight Alliance club regularly meets in the kindergarten classroom during lunch.
According to a Pacific Justice Institute report, Faith Ringgold opted not to inform the parents of its pro-homosexual activities beforehand. The school is celebrating “Gay and Lesbian History Month” and is in the process of observing “Ally Week,” a pro-“gay” occasion usually geared toward high school students.
The school is scheduled to host discussions about families and has posted fliers on school grounds portraying only homosexuals. According to the report, a “TransAction Gender-Bender Read-Aloud” will take place Nov. 20. Students will listen to traditional stories with “gay” or transgender twists, to include “Jane and the Beanstalk.”
Some parents only recently noticed posters promoting the school’s “Coming Out Day” tomorrow – celebrated 12 days after the national “Coming Out Day” usually observed on Oct. 11. When WND contacted the school to confirm the event, a female representative replied, “Yes, it is scheduled on our calendar.”
When asked if the school made any efforts to inform parents, she refused to answer and said Hayward Unified School District would have to respond to additional questions. However, the district did not answer its phones or e-mails, and a voicemail recording would not take messages. “Coming Out Day” is not listed on the district’s online school calendar.
(Story continues below)
Some of the parents contacted Pacific Justice Institute for representation when they learned the school was pushing pro-“gay” events for young children without warning.
Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, said opponents of California’s proposed ban on same-sex marriage, or Proposition 8, often say the measure would not have an effect on public schools – but this is one of many recent developments that prove otherwise.
“Do we need any further proof that gay activists will target children as early as possible?” he asked. “Opponents of traditional marriage keep telling us that Prop. 8 has nothing to do with education. In reality, they want to push the gay lifestyle on kindergartners, and we can only imagine how much worse it will be if Prop. 8 is defeated. This is not a scenario most Californians want replayed in their elementary schools.”
Concerned individuals may contact Faith Ringgold School of Art and Science by calling (510) 889-7399. The Hayward Unified School District can be reached at (510)784-2600 or by filling out the district contact form.
Please don’t be misled by the “no on prop 8” movement they are misrepresenting the facts. Please don’t be fooled check the facts yourself. Vote Yes on Prop. 8 to restore things to the way they were before Gavin Newsom decided to take the law into his own hands, and four activist decided to overturn what 61% of Californians voted on in 2000. YES on Proposition 8. Show them that we will not be taken advantage of.
Some very good videos in support of Prop.8
These videos do an excellent job of explaining Prop.8:
I’m not Catholic but I found this video very inspiring:
Here are a couple of videos I thought were funny, but they do a great job of illistrating their point:
I just like this video:
My experience on constitution day at the local college
I had a very interesting experience today. Today was constitution day at Moorpark College and they had a speaker. I didn’t go so I don’t remember who he is. I think he was some sort of adviser for Richard Nixon. Anyway from 9:00- 12:30 they had tables set up in front of the performing arts center. Their was a libertarian table, an Obama table, a young republicans table, the environmentalists club table, a Prob. 4, a No on Prop. 8 table, and a Yes on Prop. 8 table.
A couple of friends and I sat at the Yes on Prop. 8 table to inform people about the upcoming measure. I’m sorry to say that we have to vote to amend the California constitution to say ” That only a marriage between a man and a woman is legal and valid in the state of California.” What an awful state our society is in that we have to vote to up hold such a basic truth. I never thought that there would ever be any question about this. Reading “The Proclamation on the Family” it only strengthens my testimony of our prophets, knowing that they are truly called of God and that they do really receive revelations for us here on this earth today. What a blessing to have that revealed to us 12 years ago.
Most of the time the people we talked to were supportive of Prop.8 and 5 or 6 people signed up to have signs in there yard. There were a couple of people who just wanted to pick a fight, or trap us in our own words. For example, there were two young girls and an older lady. One of the girls was a journalism major, she was supposed to be collecting information. Instead she was trying to prove that we were wrong. She was wanting to know why we cared what other people did because it didn’t effect us or our children. So I said it actually does effect my kids. That if Prop. 8 doesn’t pass then they will have to teach kindergartners about gay marriage, and I don’t want my kids learning about that in school. The older lady said that if I didn’t want my kids learning about gay marriage in school, I must be a Christian and as a Christian I must also not want my kids to go to school with Jews or Muslims. WHAT?! Are you kidding me? So I told her that I teach my children that everyone is entitled to the own opinions and beliefs, and that they don’t have to agree with them, but they do need to respect them. They wouldn’t leave. So finally Jill said she was a journalist, and as a journalist you are supposed to be objective, and she told the girl she was not. So she stormed off and the old lady followed.
Then a little while later this punky kid came up. I asked ,”Do you have any questions?” I told him that Prop. 8 would return the power back to people because in 2000, 61% of Californians voted that in California only marriage between a man and a woman was legal and would be recognized in the state of California. Then four months ago 4 judges said that this was unconstitutional, so Prop. 8 would amend the California state constitution making it harder for that to happen again. This kid must have just left a political science class, he proceeds to tell me that we are not a true democracy, and then tries to get into a debate with me. I told him I was not there to debate. That I was there to provide information that is all, he could do with it what he wanted. He tried to get me into a debate for at least five minutes. I just kept repeating the same thing, “I’m not here to debate. I’m here to provide information. Your are not going to change my opinion. You are wasting your time.” It became my mantra to keep me from loosing it. Finally the last time I added, ” and please stop wasting my time.” Then I didn’t acknowledge him anymore. Finally he got the hint and left. There were a few other situations, but those are the ones that stick out in my memory the most.
Most of our experiences were positive. The one I remember most was : A young guy coming up to the table and he said, “is this the proposition that is against gay marriage?”. I said yes, and he let out the hugest sigh of relief. You could see the peace and relief fill his countenance. Then he said were do I sign up. In order to get into the plaza area from the rest of the campus , you needed to walk by the No on Prop. 8 area. They had three tables and a ton of people. A few times they sent people over to get our information, and one girl walked behind people we were talking to and said “No on Prop. 8”. It was very interesting to me the contrast of our set ups. We, three moms, were just sitting there with one sign and our information, minding our own business and nonjudgementally answering questions. While the opposition had three tables, a ton of people, a ton of yard signs, and they kept mingling in the crowds, and coming over to our side. Who knows what they were saying! I just hope and pray that the people we talked to could also see and feel the contrast. My prayer is that they see the truth, that they have courage and know that they are not alone if the choose to stand up for the truth. Not once did I say anything negative about homosexuals or gay marriage. I just repeated the facts. “I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman. This proposition restores things to the way they were before the four judges took it upon themselves to over turn the will of the people. It does not take away any rights or privileges already afforded to registered domestic partnerships.” 
This was another disturbing thing I saw today. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The opposition says they are standing up for equality for all. Yet they so freely desecrate our flag. Our nation’s symbol of unity and freedom. Do they not know what our flag stands for? 
Using My Voice 