Marriage Equality

The Fight to Repeal Prop 8 in California Runs Through Maine and Washington

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We lost Prop 8.  No matter how you want to slice and dice it now, who you blame, or what organizations were at fault, we lost Prop 8.  The fight to repeal Prop 8 will be long and arduous, whether that is next year or in 2012.

But the fight to repeal Prop 8 is always continuing.  Two ballot measures from opposite sides of the country deserve our attention at this very moment. It cannot wait.

Paul Hogarth has done a great job bringing the Maine story back to California (and Calitics) by going there to do canvassing and other campaign work. In Maine, the legislature passed a marriage equality bill, and it was signed into law by the Democratic Governor there, John Baldacci. Unfortunately, the opponents of marriage equality were able to gather enough signatures to put the law up for a vote as “Question 1.”  You might recall many of these same organizations from the Prop 8 fight.  The biggest donor to the anti-equality Yes on 1 Campaign is the “National Organization for Marriage.” NOM, as it is known, was very active in Prop 8 helping to raise money and spread lies and distortion about what exactly marriage equality was all about. And the Yes on 1 Campaign is even using the same consultant as the Prop 8 campaign, Frank Schubert. And yes, even the same ads, just replace the Pepperdine professor with a professor from Boston College.

But the No on 1 Campaign is fighting back.  They’ve launched several ads (also available over the flip) that directly respond to the lies and distortions.   However, while they’ve booked the TV time, they can still use resources to get the message out. Please consider giving to the No on 1 Campaign on our  ActBlue Page:

And in Washington state, some right-wingers are trying to repeal domestic partnership rights.  If Referendum 71 fails, we will be back at square one in our West Coast neighbor. It is imperative that this measure succeed in protecting rights for same-sex couples. Here on Calitics, Laurel has been giving us updates from Washington.

You can give to both campaigns on the Calitics ActBlue page. Alternatively, you can fly up to Seattle for $40 from SFO or $60 from LAX on Virgin America. I imagine it’s similar on other carriers. Seems like a small cost to help protect human rights from the right-wing attacks.

Check the Maine ads over the flip.

One thought on “The Fight to Repeal Prop 8 in California Runs Through Maine and Washington”

  1. There are some volunteer opportunities on Question 1/ Ref. 71 in the state:

    • Courage Campaign has infrastructure set up to let you phonebank into Maine from home. You basically call in at a set time to receive a brief training session and then you’re given a series of numbers to call. (Maine Equality/No On 1 has a similar program calling the same numbers with the same call script’s, but using Courage Campaign’s local infrastructure will let you avoid long-distance charges.)
    • EQCA is running evening phonebanks into Washington out of their state offices. You will need to call your local office for details but I’m told this is happening in at least 7 locations.
    • Various local groups throughout the state are doing in-person phonebanks for Maine using the Courage Campaign infrastructure. In my area this is organized by Marriage Equality SIlicon Valley, I”m told however that there are similar programs in SF, Alameda and all over the state. If you’d prefer phonebanking with a group to doing it at home, you can contact one of Courage Campaign’s regional organizers to see if there is a group near you: Hope Wood for northern CA, Arisa Hatch for Southern CA, or Anthony Ash for Central CA.

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