Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Election The Unintended Consequences of R-71
Posted by The Stranger Election Control Board on Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 3:50 PM
Whether the bigots who put Referendum 71 on the ballot meant to do this or not, they inspired exactly the sort of gay-rights activism outside Seattle that gay leaders, including State Senator Ed Murray and State Representative Jamie Petersen, have been trying to encourage for years.
“We've had ongoing phone banks in Ellensburg, the Tri-Cities, incredible local leadership in Vancouver, Washington, great work in Bellingham and in Skagit,” says campaign manager for Washington Families Standing Together Josh Friedes. He adds that the approve R-71 campaign has also done “very robust" work in Spokane and Yakima.
“We have built a very long donor base, identified thousands of people who are willing to support LGBT rights with their money. Huge numbers,” Friedes says. Numerous other organizations, including Fuse and the ACLU, also jumped on board.
At least one election watcher thinks R-71 has good odds of being approved, but Friedes is concerned that it could fail if young urban voters don't mail their ballots. Either way, anti-gay bigots have spurred one of the greatest—if not the greatest—gay organizing campaign in state history. Friedes says, “Now the question is how do we harness this truly powerful coalition?”
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1
They also ensured a fairly high turnout in Seattle, and probably thereby doomed 1033 and Hutchinson.
Don't think it changed the Mayor's race - amongst gay friends it's pretty evenly split.
Don't think it changed the Mayor's race - amongst gay friends it's pretty evenly split.
3
Here in Oregon, we have the anti - gay bigots to thank for the existence of Basic Rights Oregon, for example. The bigots may also be responsible for the demise of the GOP in our State. Homophobes don't seem to realize what a galvanizing force they are. Is it necessary for me to say (a la Nelson Muntz) "Ha ha!"?
4
Either way, anti-gay bigots have spurred one of the greatest—if not the greatest—gay organizing campaign in state history.
Ironic, and encouraging. Awesome.
Ironic, and encouraging. Awesome.
5
Harness it? WTF? Why is everything with Gay people about sex. Oh? it was not a sexual innuendo? Harness meant controlling it in a productive way and not in black leather? Oh sorry never mind.
6
Sargon, in this case "harness it" means "email it every thirty seconds, and phone four times a day".
7
A) No harnessing, please. We like to think for ourselves.
B) "don't call it marriage" - You can call anything anything. I'm a mushroom, for example. And I'm a married mushroom. I'm married to another male mushroom. You can call me and my relationship whatever makes you comfortable, bub. Just like I'll call you.
C) How to keep the momentum going: Continue to teach and preach safe sex so the current new generation doesn't get sick and die like the early 80s all over again. Marriage rights are great, don't get me wrong. I am personally using my Washington State Domestic Partnership Rights, myself. However, the upcoming generation is going to relive 1985-1990 is we don't keep up the education.
B) "don't call it marriage" - You can call anything anything. I'm a mushroom, for example. And I'm a married mushroom. I'm married to another male mushroom. You can call me and my relationship whatever makes you comfortable, bub. Just like I'll call you.
C) How to keep the momentum going: Continue to teach and preach safe sex so the current new generation doesn't get sick and die like the early 80s all over again. Marriage rights are great, don't get me wrong. I am personally using my Washington State Domestic Partnership Rights, myself. However, the upcoming generation is going to relive 1985-1990 is we don't keep up the education.
9
Help get something similar to R-71 passed in other states, especially in states with a referendum process. Include language that the legislature of the state in question formally request of the US Congress that a national convention be assembled to consider proposal of a related US Constitutional Amendment (i.e., the alternative, lesser used route to amend the US Constitution). This will not only get something similar passed in another state, it will start building pressure on the remaining states to step up on the issue. And it will generate a larger donor base.
10
Other places don't need to pass their own R-71s unless they have strong domestic partnership laws already on the books that the phobes try to overturn.
12
Isn't this the same thing they said about the Obama organizing? Where the hell were the Obama voters when the town halls were erupting?!
13
Josh Friedes: "look, we got all the dumb fuckers to keep giving us money! we've got a plan! just follow our orders and lgbt people will be equal in 20 years!"
14
So, the very next order of the day will be the Repeal of Washington's Defense of Marriage Act? Hell no! ERW must have another fundraiser! Come pay $40 to hear them tell what they want you to do next! Isn't a coalition about coming together to figure out a way forward and NOT simply obeying Josh Friedes' barking orders?
15
@13 & 14:
Josh Friedes (with the help of some amazing volunteers) just won this fucker for you and all of us. You'd think you'd be willing to show a bit more gratitude instead of slinging sour grapes and being pissed off no one asked you for your opinion.
Josh Friedes (with the help of some amazing volunteers) just won this fucker for you and all of us. You'd think you'd be willing to show a bit more gratitude instead of slinging sour grapes and being pissed off no one asked you for your opinion.
16
Um, actually no #15. THOUSANDS OF ORDINARY PEOPLE won this for us. Read the Slog post. It was not one man. It was not one organization. It was hundreds of organizations and thousands of people, lgbt and straight, standing up and defending our rights. Give us queers some credit that we actually have an interest and the desire to protect our rights without some professional fundraiser telling us to.
Josh Friedes is not a messiah and had the campaign been left entirely in his hands, we would be in the same situation as Maine. But we didn't leave the fight for OUR rights in the hands of one man. Again, thousands of ordinary people phone banked, canvassed, waved signs across the state, talked to people in person and through social networking, marched, picketed, and donated. WAFST had the same corporate strategy as the No on 1 campaign in Maine. We won, they lost. The difference? Here in Washington, dozens of grassroots activists came up with their own strategies for visibility and outreach for the campaign. We had grassroots activists who ignored WAFST's commands to talk about "shared values" with bigots and actually used the words "gay", "lgbt" and "same sex" in their work.
We won despite the odds and despite the conservatism of the official campaign. But we're still not equal. It's time to demand full equality. We deserve it. There is no good reason for anyone's civil rights to go up for a vote. This step-by-step, state-by-state strategy is a failure and is not moving us forward.
Josh Friedes is not a messiah and had the campaign been left entirely in his hands, we would be in the same situation as Maine. But we didn't leave the fight for OUR rights in the hands of one man. Again, thousands of ordinary people phone banked, canvassed, waved signs across the state, talked to people in person and through social networking, marched, picketed, and donated. WAFST had the same corporate strategy as the No on 1 campaign in Maine. We won, they lost. The difference? Here in Washington, dozens of grassroots activists came up with their own strategies for visibility and outreach for the campaign. We had grassroots activists who ignored WAFST's commands to talk about "shared values" with bigots and actually used the words "gay", "lgbt" and "same sex" in their work.
We won despite the odds and despite the conservatism of the official campaign. But we're still not equal. It's time to demand full equality. We deserve it. There is no good reason for anyone's civil rights to go up for a vote. This step-by-step, state-by-state strategy is a failure and is not moving us forward.
17
How lovely that Josh Friedes and Equal Rights Washington think of us queers as "a very large donor base" instead of real live working lgbt people who are suffering from discrimination and second class citizenship. We are "volunteers and voters" and not people fighting for our own civil rights. That is exactly the model that has failed us for the last 30 years and it's a model we must reject. Goodbye, Gay, Inc.! Hello, LGBT Civil Rights Movement!
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