Will we lose our 31st state?
By Julia Rosen Thursday Oct 15, 2009 1:00pmIn 19 days we will know whether we beat back NOM and the Catholic Dioceses and protected marriage equality for Mainers, or took yet another step backwards at the ballot box for equality. 30 states have had votes on marriage equality since 1998 and the right-win has won in all 30 of them. We are going to stop that streak in Maine, but we can't do it without the resources to fuel a massive get-out-the-vote operation.
Today at midnight is the last major financial reporting deadline and it also marks the first day of early voting. If you were planning on giving to No on 1 and haven't yet, or have the resources to give again, today is the day to do it. Luckily, we at Blue America have a little sweetener, courtesy of Howie:
Meanwhile we have something nice to offer to donors today. The first 9 people who kick in at least $30 at the Blue America '10 page each wins a special DVD of Barbra Streisand's spectacular 1966 television special Color Me Barbra (which includes a rare poster). And if that wasn't fabulous enough, we also have something pretty mind-blowing for the person who donates the most by 6AM (PT) tomorrow. The picture is above. It's a gorgeous Joan Osborne RIAA custom double platinum award for both Relish and "One of Us." It's rare, collectible, unique and... well, what a gift it would make for anyone who you happen to know who went bonkers over the song below! And, more important, what an opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Maine!
There is new polling out that shows us up 51.8% to 42.9%, but Bill in Portland Maine over at the great orange satan reminds us of why poll numbers are crap:
I take you back to 1997 when, after nine attempts spanning 20 years, the Maine legislature finally passed a basic civil rights bill preventing discrimination in employment, housing, credit and public accommodation on the basis of sexual orientation. Governor Angus King signed it. The law was put on hold while the religious conservatives---trying to marginalize our very existence by denying us any official state recognition---launched a war to repeal it by a citizens veto referendum, very similar to the kind they're waging now. They got the signatures they needed and the fight to take away our newly-won civil rights was on.
The polls had our side up by several points. The result? The 1998 referendum passed. The fundies won. The final vote: 51.9% to 48.1%. It's one thing to feel disappointment when your favorite candidate loses. It's quite another when you are the one being voted on by your neighbors, and a majority of them agree that, yes, it should be legal for a Maine business owner to pull you aside and say, "I don’t want no faggots workin' here. You're fired." It took another seven years to finally make that against the law. To this day I still get a knot in my gut when I think about what happened 11 years ago.
The only way we stop this from happening again is to make sure that we can get our voters out to the polls. The No on 1 campaign needs your help to make sure they have the resources to execute their field plan. So give today and maybe take home a platinum Joan Osborne album, or a rare Barbara Streisand poster and DVD.
The Courage Campaign is sending me back to Maine in a week or so. Expect more reports from on the ground there on how your generous donations are being spent. I was there a couple weeks ago and can assure you, the campaign is a tightly run ship, simultaneously on the offense and firing back at the lies spewed from the other side. No on 1 is IDing and turning out their voters, relying on thousands of in state volunteers and assisted by out of state phone bankers from around the country. They know how to win in Maine "and can do it with your help.
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has it become acceptable to VOTE on civil rights for people?
Isn't the very idea of this completely wrong? I don't remember anyone voting on the Emancipation Proclamation. Should we go back and vote on that?
As long as there is a het majority, gay people will never have complete equal rights. And that is wrong.
Sadly Liberal, it appears the majority of this backwoods country is homophobic. Sadly.
Can someone please remind me what the fuck century we are living in?
two steps back.
I'm guessing somewhere either in the late 1950s or early 1960s.
Human rights should not be up for a vote. Yet in this stupid assed venal greedy mo fo of a country, they always seem to be, whether it's for ethnic minorities, GLBT people or the human right of the people to have free access to health care.
Referendum 71 will be voted on, which decided whether to roll back the domestic partnership law, which grants homosexuals everything but marriage. Opponents have gotten a big lift from $200K thanks to out-of-state meddling from James Dobson's "Focus on the Family" group.
Homophobia and hate are the truest expression of Xtian love. . .
(who would Jesus hate?)
Queers, according to the Christians In Name Only.
Federal appeals court allows release of information on people who signed R-71 petitions
Thursday, October 15, 2009 6:39 PM PDT
By Gene Johnson
The Associated Press
SEATTLE — Washington’s secretary of state can release the names and addresses of people who signed petitions calling for a public vote on the state’s expanded benefits for domestic partners, a federal appeals court said Thursday.
A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a previous decision by U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma to block release of the petitions. Settle held that releasing the names could chill the First Amendment rights of petition signers.
Despite the appeals court ruling, the names weren’t immediately released because a state court order remained in effect. Janelle Guthrie, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Rob McKenna, said her office must now persuade a Thurston County judge to lift a temporary restraining order issued Wednesday forbidding the release of the petitions until the 9th Circuit could rule.
An assistant to the judge said he would not hear arguments until next week at the earliest.
Settle’s ruling last month stunned open-government activists.
“These petitions are not like a secret ballot, but amount to taking part in our legislative process, which is required to be open and accountable,” Secretary of State Sam Reed said.
Referendum 71 asks voters to approve or reject the so-called “everything but marriage” law, which grants registered domestic partners the same legal rights as married heterosexuals.
Conservative Christian groups that sponsored R-71 want to keep the signed petitions out of public view because they fear harassment from gay-rights supporters, some of whom have vowed to post the names of petition signers on the Internet.
The conservative groups lost a fight to keep the identities of their campaign donors secret.
Referendum sponsor Gary Randall of Protect Washington Families said he, another campaign organizer and their lawyers were considering whether to ask the 9th Circuit for a rehearing with more judges.
“There’s been calls and harassment and confrontation of people who donated who just thought they were participating in the democratic process,” he said. “I don’t think it’s right.”
The state attorney general’s office argued that there’s little evidence of threats or harassment amounting to more than a few rude phone calls.
In its brief order, the 9th Circuit panel said Settle used the wrong legal standard in granting the preliminary injunction that barred release of the petitions, and that the injunction therefore must be reversed.
The judges said they would later issue an opinion explaining their reasoning.
who sees the monumental hypocrisy of the Catholic Church being anti-gay?
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