People took to the streets throughout the U.S. last weekend to protest passage of California's Proposition 8 - which bans same-sex marriage.
Protests were held from California to Nevada, to even North Carolina, with gay-rights activists arguing that gay couples deserve the same marital rights and recognition that heterosexual couples enjoy. But some of the protests are getting downright nasty, and, by some reports, are turning into sheer anarchy.
There are reports (Chuck Norris has a little list) that: Prop 8 protestors in California shoved a 69-year-old woman who was bearing a cross, spit on her, and stomped on the cross; Prop. 8 supporter Jose Nunez, 37, was assaulted while distributing yard signs to other supporters after church services at the St. Stanislaus Parish in Modesto, Calif.; a 25-year Mormon artistic director of the California Musical Theatre was forced to resign because of his $1,000 donation to the campaign to pass Prop 8; and non-Latter Day Saints Hispanic women were beaten up for cleaning up vandalism at an LDS temple. (The Mormon Church, by the way, rounded up about $20 million to spend on getting Prop 8 passed.)
"They began grabbing me. It was like a dog pack," said Phyllis Burgess, a Prop 8 supporter who had expletives and slurs yelled at her. "The crowd was very angry that someone was here that they felt didn't belong here ... But I've lived in this city for 30 years."
The video shows one protester grabbing the styrofoam cross from Burgess' hands. Another protesters is shown stomping on it. Burgess says she was struck on the head and spit on.
"I don't want to keep it peaceful anymore," one protester yelled. "We should fight! We should fight!"
The area's Calvary Chapel Chino Hills was spray painted by vandals after they learned that the church served as an official collection point for Prop. 8 petitions.
African Americans, 70% of whom voted yes on Prop. 8, according to a CNN exit poll, are also targets of the gay hate. Racial epithets have been used against African Americans at protests in California - with some even directed at blacks who are fighting to repeal Prop. 8. Gay rights activists are now publishing lists online exposing individuals and organizations that have donated money in support of Prop. 8. This is sometimes resulting in violence.
And by many accounts, these actions are turning more people off to the movement.
For example: one LA Weekly writer who was marching with the Proposition 8 opponents over the weekend says: "I can also see that we are quickly coming to a point where reckless protesting may turn off all kinds of people, whether they are gay and new to activism or they are straight and new to walking alongside gay activists. If that happens, we will miss the chance to build newer, stronger, and broader coalitions and movements for decades to come. We will need these coalitions because the fight for equality is far from over, and our opponents will continue to attack one way or another. We, the gay community, can go our own way, but we will probably squander the goodwill that Proposition 8 has now handed us." Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic argues that the gay-rights movement is lacking a strong leader to rally the troops in productive ways, and that the Human Rights Campaign certainly isn't doing the job. Daily Kos says the organization to defeat Prop 8 just wasn't there.
Regardless of the reason for Prop 8's success, the conclusion is: the voters of California have spoken - for better or worse.
Does berating a near-elderly woman who supports Prop 8, and spitting on her for having beliefs different than you, help the cause? I don't think so. Yes, there's frustration, but funneling that frustration into more productive, effective methods of pushing your cause will do a lot more good than just further alienating those whose support you could use. If the idea is to encourage others to be more open-minded and accepting of those different from them, beating them into submission (metaphorically speaking, hopefully) might not be the best route.
Liza Porteus Viana has been a political journalist for almost 10 years, both in Washington and New York. She loves politics - the smell of it, the sport of it...more
If homosexuals want to establish their right to marry they should organize to amend the US constitution. There are those on the anti-gay marriage side who have proposed an amendment to ban it. However most amendments were passed to assure/provide rights not explicitly stated (anyone heard of the Bill of Rights?). By doing so they would not only demonstrate their sincerity to the cause but create the right in all 50 states rather than on a state by state basis.
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Rev. Don Spitz
12:27AM Nov 19th 2008
This proves that homosexuals are terrorists. Whatever you think, you will not be able to change God's Word and will one day have to pay the price for not believing what God has written. Leviticus 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Leviticus 20:13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
Romans 1:22-27
V22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, V23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
V24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
V25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, Who is blessed for ever. Amen.
V26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
V27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
SAY THIS PRAYER: Dear Jesus, I am a sinner and am headed to eternal hell because of my sins. I believe you died on the cross to take away my sins and to take me to heaven. Jesus, I ask you now to come into my heart and take away my sins and give me eternal life.
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Arthur
12:41AM Nov 19th 2008
I`M ALL FOR ANARCHY , THE MORE PEOPLE KICK THE S#!T OUT OF EACH OTHER THE BETTER. THIS WAY WHEN ALL OF THEM ARE DEAD, WE NORMAL RATIONAL THINKING TYPE PEOPLE CAN WORK OUT ANY DIFFERANCES BETWEEN US, THAT IS UNLESS YOU DISAGREE WITH ME AND THEN I`LL JUST TAKE MY LEGAL HANDGUN AND BLOW YOUR F**KING HEAD OFF.
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jen
1:49AM Nov 19th 2008
blueunicorn - The firetrucks were stuck in traffic behind the rubberneckers.
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warren MacIsaac
3:34AM Nov 19th 2008
please keep in mind that violence is the foundation of US foreign policy: ask the iraquis and the afghans.
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kevin
9:51AM Nov 19th 2008
people like Ms. Viana and Bill O'Reilly need to stop highlighting one careless person who acted out of malice as representing the actions of the thousands who are protesting peacefully against the Prop 8 legislation is dishonest. The Reverend Fred Phelps of Kansas has threatened 'Death to fags' for years, but wiser folk know that his actions do no represent the sentiments of thousands of Southern Baptists. I accuse those people who are brining this up at all of phony outrage. The protestor with the crucifix couldnt be happier that her sign was swatted down, given the response.
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Tom
10:25AM Nov 19th 2008
equal rights for ALL, ALL, ALL and seporation of church and state!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We need to get these religious cults freeks out of our tax supported government once and for all!!!
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Rachel
11:48AM Nov 19th 2008
Sorry, but I don't believe these unsubstantiated rumors about gay people shoving little old ladies. Doesn't this sound made up to anyone? It's the stuff urban legends are made of! Notice they're always very specific about the victim (a 69-year-old woman bearing a cross or non-Mormon Latino women) and very nonspecific about the attacker(s). Does anyone really believe there a wild bands of homosexuals roaming the street beating up innocent people? Gimme a break! In fact, the protests have been incredibly peaceful.
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chris yantis
1:13PM Nov 19th 2008
MARRAGE IS BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN....ONLY GOD MADE ADAM & EVE.....NOT ADAM & STEVE
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wa
2:26PM Nov 19th 2008
Our government is based on fight for civil rights. There is not a single group since the writing and signing of our constitution that has not had to fight for equal protection. Gay rights is very much a civil rights issue. Struggles are often violent. Lets all just breath a sigh of relief that this struggle is not as violent as past struggles. Or as violent as the fights in places like Northern Ireland or Israel.
As for the L.D.S. church is concerned this is not the first time they have been on the wrong side of the issue. Mormon church leaders came out just as strongly against granting civil rights to African Americans.
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crfqueen
4:38PM Nov 19th 2008
I think that there were a lot of people that voted YES thinking that they were voting to support gay marriage. I think that the gay struggle has been around far longer most groups universally. They have been battling discrimination and genocide through the ages including in Moslem countries today. Gay bashing has been around for centuries. Hundreds of thousands lost their lives along with Jewish people and gypsies and others in WWII in concentration camps. "Homosexuals quickly became the target of medical, psychiatric, and legal intervention, and as early as the 1870's they came together in such places as Bavaria to fight criminalization of sodomy. Until the Nazis destroyed Magnus Hirschfeld’s homosexual archives in Berlin and hundreds of thousands of homosexual people were sent to die in concentration campus, the homosexual movement in Germany was widespread and influential." 1
I sympathize with the AA struggle, however I think that they are being as discriminatory as they say people are towards them as a group. They should be sympathetic BECAUSE of their history and there are plenty of AA gays they should support. Marriage and all rights and consideration should be given everyone. To the people who still frown...remember the days when people looked down on Bi-Racial couples. I sure do. It is time to co-exist.
I am sure that you must think, this must be coming from someone who's gay; sorry I am a married lady of 31 years. I have been blessed with great friends that are gay and I support their plight.
crfqueen
Footnote: 1 excerpt: A "Brief History of Homosexuality in America"
Compiled by Ladelle McWhorter, University of Richmond
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Eric
6:33PM Nov 19th 2008
This report is such a lie. An old woman pushed her way in the middle of a gay rights rally spouting homophobia and shoving her cross in their faces. The crowd responded in kind.
There were protests all over the country that were peaceful with speeches, marching and singing. You can see the footage on Youtube.
This right wing SPIN is trying to get gay people not to protest their civil rights being taken away. It's absurd.
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utahcowboy
7:27PM Nov 19th 2008
MARRAGE IS BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN....ONLY GOD MADE ADAM & EVE.....NOT ADAM & STEVE
I AGREE
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Jesse
7:41PM Nov 19th 2008
And how many hundreds years of anti-gays getting their crosses broken, picketed and yelled at will make up for all the beatings, harrasment, exclusion, murders, etc, that gays had to put up with for so long? You cannot use grave violence to oppress minorities for centuries and then get upset when they fight back just a little bit.
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Bot
8:54PM Nov 19th 2008
The anti-Prop 8, pro gay marriage groups ran ads charging this whole idea that public schools will teach gay marriage is just a "lie."
The same groups now charging it’s a lie (public schools will teach about gay marriage whether parents like it or not) — were just in court in Massachusetts filing amicus briefs arguing parents don't have any right to opt their children out of the pro-gay marriage curriculum.
From the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Amicus Curiae Brief: “In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where the right of same-sex couples to marry is protected under the state constitution, it is particularly important to teach children about families with gay parents.” [p 5]
From the Human Rights Campaign Amicus Curiae Brief: “There is no constitutional principle grounded in either the First Amendment’s free exercise clause or the right to direct the upbringing of one’s children, which requires defendants to either remove the books now in issue – or to treat them as suspect by imposing an opt-out system.” [pp1-2]
From the ACLU Amicus Curiae Brief: “Specifically, the parents in this case do not have a constitutional right to override the professional pedagogical judgment of the school with respect to the inclusion within the curriculum of the age-appropriate children’s book…King and King.” [p 9]
Which side is really telling the truth here about its aims? I suspect the “Yes on 8” folks keep many more of the Ten Commandments (including “Bearing false witness”) than the “No on 8” side (some of whom subscribe to the “Ten Suggestions”).
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Mandy
10:20PM Nov 19th 2008
Most of these protests have been PEACEFUL. Why do the few stupid violent people get all the press?
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pinkandbluefilms
11:49PM Nov 19th 2008
It is absolutely amazing that here, in the 21st century, there are still those who attempt to justify treating another class of people as being subhuman & unworthy of human rights. Future generations will rightly look at this as being extremely shameful just as we look back at the similarly shameful antics of previous generations (towards 'minorities').
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Henrik Petaisto
11:57PM Nov 19th 2008
I love the spin by the "to sort the spins"
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Raptor
10:21AM Nov 20th 2008
Funny thing, sex. You see, there are not just two sexes in the world (XX and XY), there are few different versions (XXY, XYY, ect).
These people are medically and physically BOTH sexes. There are true hermaphrodites (people who have both male and female parts) walking among you, and they are not rare. How are they supposed to get married?
The argument that being gay is learned, that they aren't born that way, doesn't work here. Hermaphrodites were born that way, they literally are both. Sometimes they might tend to be one more than the other, or even puberty hits and suddenly they become one (not always the one that was first written on their birth certificate either). And I don't mean they start acting like the opposite sex, oh no, they literally go through the physical changes.
It doesn't matter if you believe if gays should get married or not. The fact of the mater is that you are defining a state of being for people. That they can only be one sex or the other and if they are anything else, then they have no right to be married. That because of the way God (or whatever) made them, they are neither male nor female and cannot get married.
They were born that way (and there is no denying this, it is not learned, it is not the work of the devil, it is not anything else that can be attributed to anything else but the physical presences of both) and any time a law states that because of the way someone was born, they are denied a right, then the law is wrong.
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Raptor
10:21AM Nov 20th 2008
Oh, btw.. the use of violence is generally how these sorts of things get attention.
If you're all nice and sweet, no one pays attention to your cause. This has been proven time and time again anyone fights for the rights of anything.
Yes, there are extreme cases that people should never go to. But people are violent and there will always be a few extreme idiots.
Should they go to jail? Yes. But should that diminish or make the cause wrong? No.
Rights for women, non-whites, religion, ect, all failed until people started making a show of force. Until people started to demand that this was right, even though (in all those cases above), they were out numbered by the majority that could vote.
Majority doesn't make an issue right, or wrong. What makes an issue like this right or wrong is if takes rights away from any group of people.
In this case, it does. Being married gives you a whole slew of rights. And no, telling them to just marry the opposite sex doesn't work either. Now you are denying them the right to happiness.
They are not asking for special rights. They are asking for equal rights. The same rights other people enjoy when they get married. That's it.