Posted on 11/13/2004 10:19:56 PM PST by Former Military Chick
ST. LOUIS, Nov. 13 - In one room, young gay activists were learning the basics of opposition research and analyzing the power of get-out-the-vote videos produced by evangelical groups. In another, the opponents of recent state amendments prohibiting gay marriage debated which strategies were more effective: Going door to door? Holding town hall meetings? Asking church congregations to give them an audience?
About 2,500 organizers from gay groups across the country gathered for a conference here this weekend, the first large-scale gathering since the Nov. 2 elections, when voters in 11 states resoundingly approved amendments to their constitutions against same-sex marriage and gave a majority to a president depicted in one doctored video here as the Wicked Witch of the West.
They came running on anger, determined to learn how to outwork opponents whom they saw as better financed and better organized. They insisted that court battles over marriage would continue. But they also said that there was a longer and tougher battle ahead, summed up in the title of one of the weekend workshops: "Winning in the Court of Public Opinion." And while people here insisted that they were determined and upbeat, it was hard not to be sobered by what many here declared was the enshrinement of discrimination against gays in state constitutions.
"There is hurt, there is bewilderment, there is trauma, there is betrayal," Matt Foreman, the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the group organizing the conference, told an audience of thousands in his keynote address on Friday. "Let's not pretend it doesn't hurt. Let's not pretend that it doesn't feel like we are all walking targets, more than ever, because it does feel that way. But at the same time, let's not pretend that we are not mad as hell."
The audience applauded wildly, though as much as they were mad, many people here were also stunned. They had not expected to win the amendment battles, they said, but they were surprised at what Mr. Foreman called the "depressingly large" margins of loss - 86 percent voted for the amendment in Mississippi, the widest margin, and 57 percent in Oregon, the narrowest.
"I had thought as a matter of just public education that the nation was farther along," said Kate Kendell, the executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, based in San Francisco. "What it made clear was how much work we have to do making our lives real and not an abstraction. It's not enough that they see us as part of their communities, but that they also understand that the reason we want marriage equality is the same reason everyone else does, to protect and provide security for our relationships and our children - the kind of protection that in this society only marriage provides."
People here insisted the losses were part of a cycle seen in any civil rights struggle; a year ago, they noted, they were celebrating a decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Court that affirmed a right to gay marriage.
"There will be moments of elation and moments of great despair," Ms. Kendell said.
But she and others said they had been outraged at the post-election analysis that gay marriage, and in particular the flurry of gay weddings last spring, had hurt the Democrats and the gay movement by galvanizing the opposition.
"It was enough to have the defeats, that was hard enough to take," she said. "Then to have the champions of equality held out as responsible - they should be celebrated, not attacked."
Organizers of the conference, now in its 17th year, said that after Missouri passed an amendment against gay marriage in August, several people suggested moving this year's conference to a different city. The group insisted they could not be seen as retreating, and attendance, organizers said, was the second-highest ever, surpassed only by the 1999 meeting held in Oakland, Calif., which organizers said reflected that city's proximity to the large gay population in San Francisco.
With the 11 amendments passed, organizers here said the next fight was against a federal amendment banning same-sex marriage, which President Bush has supported, or proposed laws preventing gays from becoming adoptive parents.
Some state organizers said they would force ballot questions on civil unions or nondiscrimination laws in the next election cycle, to force the hand of opponents who said they were opposed only to gay marriage, and not to gay rights.
But people here also faulted their own movement for focusing too much on Washington and failing to build the networks that could have helped defeat the state amendments. Mr. Foreman said that Nov. 2 must be "an atomic wake-up call" to organize on the state level.
Activists here also insisted they had to seize control of the debate on moral values, by arguing that the desire to marry and give children the kind of legally sanctioned families that children of heterosexual parents have is a moral value.
"There is a sense out there that there's a group of people that hates us," said Evan Wolfson, the executive director of Freedom to Marry. "At the same time, not everyone out there is a hater."
Mr. Wolfson, the author of a new pro-gay marriage book called "Why Marriage Matters," said he divided the nation into thirds: one part set against gays, one supporting gay marriage and another "reachable but not yet reached" third.
"We understand that we need to do a better job of giving the people in the middle the both the time and the information to rise to fairness," he said.
Five years ago, activists here said, civil unions were unheard of; now they are considered a fallback position to gay marriage, even by some conservatives - a sign of growing acceptance, people here said.
"We're still at the beginning of a conversation that really only started a year ago," said Liz Seaton, senior counsel at the Human Rights Campaign. "People are voting on a topic that they're not yet engaged in. And we know that voters will vote with the status quo unless they've had a chance to have a conversation about what change means."
State organizers here were celebrating small steps brought on by those kinds of conversations.
In Cincinnati, gay groups successfully fought for the repeal of a city ordinance prohibiting any law that protects gay rights, despite having spent half what their opponents spent.
"We won by going door-to-door for a year and a half," said Ted Jackson, the field director for the Committee to Restore Fairness.
Opponents of the amendments against same-sex marriage said they had moved polls in Oregon by 13 points over two months, and in Kentucky, increased opposition by eight points over four months. In Kentucky, organizers said they won support from 85 percent of the people who they visited door to door, in Michigan, from 80 percent.
"We just need to have more conversations," said Rachel Hurst, the statewide field director for the Kentucky Fairness Alliance. "That's what we're excited about because when we did have those conversations, Kentucky voters overwhelmingly wanted to vote with us. Regular folks are on our side. They just needed to see the full story."
I think homosexuals have bad memories...
So far I've heard pretty much the same reaction from the Queer Rights gROUPS as I have from the DU's. Sticking heads in sand seems to be a loser's reaction to a lot of things. I wouldn't know except I keep reading about them. Sandy heads make for more and more of their kind. As Martha says, "That's a good thing."
BAWAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAA Ooh my gosh, I can't stop...
Hi, FMC:
Maybe these "activists" should brain-storm the idea that they are pushing and idea and "lifestyle" that is not so popular with the masses.
Parades, Gay Days, LeatherMan competitions and their "Guest Speakers" in public schools really hasn't helped their cause.
Maybe they should "network" quietly, unobtrusively. So as to keep their "private" lives private!
Jack.
Well, at least from the look of it they finally realize that they are actually going to have to work to persuade people across the fruited plain and that lawsuits and in-your-face tactics will only get them their asses kicked (again).
"Tolerance" as those people use the word means "You must believe what we tell you, and do what we say."
Discrimination is a word whose political redefinition originated in the civil rights movement. In normal usage, discrimination is synonymous with discernment, but as used in a civil rights context it means irrational bias against a person. "Irrational" is the hidden qualifier in the term that distinguishes appropriate discernment from prejudice.
In an enlightened society there can be no rational basis for discrimination on criteria such as race, skin color or ethnicity. However, as with multi-culturalism, the introduction of morally significant criteria changes the analysis of discrimination.
Discrimination against harmful conduct is entirely rational, and in many cases necessary.
Discrimination is now synonymous with racial prejudice in the public mind. The "gay" movement has exploited this association to legitimize its own claims by adding itself to the list of minorities in anti-discrimination statutes.
Moral discrimination is "rational" discrimination.
it puts groups like this into perspective.
Hi again, FMC:
The Gays have got to stop this annoying, screeching, Knee-Jerk "Homophobic" screed. If they look at the 11 states that shot "Gay Marriage" down in flames. A large number of those voting were their "brethern" Democrats.
I don't mean to add to their woes, but there are eight more states getting ready to ban "Gay Marriage" in 2008.
They can try to "connect" with straight society on this topic. But I don't think it'll fly.
Jack.
They put on the big push and it totally backfired. During their little show in San Francisco they tried to make gay marriage seem inevitable and the answer came back from everywhere people had a chance to vote on the issue. No way, no how! The gay activists made a political blunder that set their cause back 20 years. In fact it's worse than that. The Democrats are going to have to cut these people loose if they expect to halt the decline of their party.
"There is hurt, there is bewilderment, there is trauma, there is betrayal,"
Doesn't sound like he has anything to live for. Sob sob.
But they won't. They will not untie the concrete shoes.
The "fruited" plain. Ha!
In a word, no. De-Nile is not just a river in Egypt- it's become a way of life for the Left.
I covered this subject until I got sick of it... go to the "last" here & work back for a recap of the election's results:
-A Gay ( or not! ) Old Time- GM links--
My vest-pocket take on it is 3% of the population is trying to dictate what the other 97% think and want done. Meanwhile, about 80% oppose gay marriage, for whatever reason. It is a big, big loser.
Actually, it means, "You must not only assent to what we say; you must wholeheartedly endorse, support, and encourage our every whim and desire to redefine morals and culture. Anything less than enthusiastic approval and we crush you like a cockroach."
These people seem to think that all they need is the right approach and more time and their "message" will be received.
To most of us, all the time in the world will not make a difference. I am not ready for this to be accepted as normal now, nor will I be in fifty years, if I'm here.
Note to gays...What you do with each other is not normal. It is perverted and nobody knows this more than you. There is help out there if you want to change. We don't want to beat you up, but we don't want to accept your lifestyle as normal, either. It is bad for society.
These are people who have deluded themselves into believing that the 'urges' they have make them into some sort of 3rd gender or racial ethnicity. "Because I have an urge to do it" is the foundation on which their 'civil rights' demands stand. But the plain fact is, they are human beings created with heterosexual genitalia just as all human beings are. In their case though, they want us to buy a delusional story that they weren't meant to be heterosexuals but 'something' else. If we buy into that madness, then we must buy into even more madness such as that necrophiles, pedophiles, coprophiles, zoophiles, and people with an 'urge' to pretend that they are puppies in need of paper and leash training, etc., are Also something other than heterosexuals by virtue of "what they have the urge to do."
We should never dialogue with, let alone negotiate with, madness.
ping
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