To me one of the clearest targets for the Prop. H8 boycotts and protests is Cinemark.  Their CEO Alan Stock gave $9,999 to tear apart my family; that’s my ticket money recycled to attack me.

One facebook group has popped up to boycott the movie Milk at any Cinemark Theater.  Another is calling for a boycott of all Cinemark films, and a national picket on January 15, the opening day of Sundance, where Cinemark’s Park City theater will be under protest by lgbt allies.

Now they’re worried.  How do we know?  They sent out the house gay to make nice!

Bill Shimmin is a corporate Vice President of Cinemark (for “food and drink” hilariously enough).  His PR firm wrote this letter begging the gays to be nice.  Check it out:

Here’s the appeal-to-emotion intro:

As a gay man and as a vice president at Cinemark Theatres (whose CEO, Alan Stock, has been singled out in blogs for his $9,999 pro-Prop 8 donation), this controversy has weighed heavily on me.

Two years ago, I was hired by Alan Stock, and my life partner and I relocated to Plano, Tex., from the San Francisco bay area.  Moving to Plano and effectively leaving behind our cherished Domestic Partnership document, signed by California’s Secretary of State, took much consideration. As did the prospect of leaving the progressive Bay Area for life in a “red state.”

Here’s the money quote for why Cinemark isn’t bad guys, other than funding H8:

However, I quickly discovered – and the past two years have confirmed – that Cinemark Theatres is committed to treating its team members, customers, and colleagues with dignity and respect.

During my job interviews, I discovered that Cinemark has an LGBT liaison for community outreach; Cinemark provides domestic partner benefits for California team members; Cinemark hosts the annual Vancouver Queer Film Festival; and Cinemark works with the North Texas GLBT Chamber of Commerce as well as the Collin County Gay & Lesbian Alliance to arrange advance screenings for movies of interest to the LGBT community.

So yeah…they have a liaison to sell tickets to the gay…they only provide domestic partner benefits when compelled by (California) law…and they work with events and groups to sell tickets to the gays.

Well, gosh, Bill when you put it that way, the need to boycott cinemark becomes even more apparent: gays seem like a major part of their business plan.  Meaning Cinemark is vulnerable to losing their business, and it is all the more offensive when their head ticket-taker skims off some of the pink ticket for his homophobic pet projects.

So please let’s keep the pressure up.  It is important that businesses and businessmen know that attacks on the lgbt community are bad business.  Please make sure that Alan Stock (972) 665-1000 [email protected]  knows that his shareholders’ profits are diving because he decided to strip some customers of their civil rights.

Another nasty trend is emerging from the homophobes behind the Yes on 8 campaign.

Apparently shocked by the national uprising in support of full equality under the law for gay/lesbian families, leaders of the Prop. H8 campaign have rolled out a new tactic: threatening the Supreme Court.

Andrew Pugno, their attorney  turned up their dangerous rhetoric this weekend:

 What could get opponents of same-sex marriage in the street, however, would be the state Supreme Court tossing out the vote, he said. San Francisco city officials, joined by the city of Los Angeles and Santa Clara and Los Angeles counties, have petitioned the court to do just that.

“I think you’ll have a revolution on your hands at that point,” Pugno said.

His partner in H8 crime, Frank Schubert, the Republican lobbyist who managed the campaign, went str8 to the Karl Rove playbook and equated civil rights activism with the “T” word:

But Prop 8 supporter Frank Schubert said, “Cowardly acts are intended to terrorize people they mean to frighten and to intimidate the people who supported proposition 8 and those who have stood up for traditional marriage. This is the very definition of terrorism and that’s what’s occurring in California today.”

And uber-Repbulican nutjob Jon Fleishcman takes it one step further:

Writing in Sacramento’s Capitol Weekly, Jon Fleischman, former executive director of the state Republican Party, growled: “If the court overturns 8, I think you will be able to count the days before a very organized and well-funded recall of the justices voting to do that will begin. Given the passion on this issue, and the financial resources available, a recall of these justices would be on the ballot lickety-split, and then the justices who didn’t believe in the primacy of the voters can understand what it feels like to feel their wrath. … Remember Rose Bird?”

Now there’s a nifty bit of intimidation masquerading as a defense of popular sovereignty.

They’re freaking out.  Good.  It’s clear that the backlash to the vote has energized and strengthened the gay/lesbian rights movement in a nearly unprecedented way…and tarred the image of the Mormon Church and of anti-marriage activists.

Let’s recall that is was the Yes on 8 folks who invented the camapaign tactic of intimidating and demonizing No on 8 donors.

Clearly the people voting with their feet-and with their pocketbooks and picket signs-have had an impact.  

Despite this, the lgbt community gatekeepers, who were so ineffective during the campaign], are criticizing the protest and boycott movement.   But given this description of the online and offline activists who have been leading this movement, I don’t expect the gay gatekeepers to be too successful:

“They are not connected to the supposed leaders. All they know is that their rights have been taken away and that the majority has successfully curtailed the freedoms of the minority.”

My response, of course, is what else are we supposed to do?  Let hateful attacks go unanswered?  Count on the Supremes to save our bacon?

That’s why I will personally be boycotting Cinemark H8 theaters this Holiday Season…and leading a picket on Jan. 15 at their Park City screen that will be hosting Sundance.  Will you join me? (While Blogger decides if I’m a spammer, you can join the movement to boycott Cinemark on Facebook.)