HELP CALIFORNIA BEAT THE BALLOT TO BAN GAY MARRIAGE!

[thoreau]

Starting yesterday - the Yes on 8 Campaign slapped down six figures to run the Newsom "Whether you like it or not" audio commercials on all three of the stations I work for. Running them lit up the switchboards with listeners angry that we'd run them. It was an honest case of they paid for the time - and that the "equal time" laws only apply to the presidential campaign. So - unless No on 8 provides a spot and the dollars - our stations (nor any radio station) is required to run a "counterpoint" on initiative campaigns no matter how much we disagree with them. Some listeners went as far as skimming the website for any email address and writing personal - angry emails about our running the Yes on 8 commercials to anyone that they could find. It was very hard to read the emails and become the target of such anger and misplaced vitriol - this initiative hits people in very very private places. Whether it's your husband sitting next to you and you are a NO ON 8 person - or you have your faith and religious values that say YES ON 8 - - its an intense, emotional topic.

Equality California Executive Director Geoff Kors declared Tuesday, "We are going to lose this election if we don't raise the money we need to stay on the airwaves." The latest SurveyUSA poll sponsored by CBS5 in San Francisco showed that 47 percent of likely voters statewide would support Prop 8, while 42 percent would oppose it. However, the survey, released Monday, noted, "polling on ballot measures in general is an inexact science, and polling on homosexuality in general is a tricky business. So, not too much should be made of the five points that separates 'Yes' and 'No.'" In other words - they are perilously close to the simple majority (50%) that is required to amend the California State Constitution. There is a myth out there that it requires 65% or 2/3s - but California only requires a SIMPLE majority for this to pass. So this is a life-altering desperate situation.

PLEASE - donate to the No on 8 campaign. Help stop organized efforts by the Mormon Church, Christian Evangelicals and others to bankroll bigotry and religious hate in California. This is a critical step in the long march to equality for GLBT Americans. WE NEED YOUR HELP!

I'm giving all I can to the effort and David and I just made a nice joint donation.

Any amount will help - and we need all the help we can get.

I had this fantasy in my mind when I left Idaho for California that I wouldn't have to have these fights - that I could take a break from politics. Unfortunately - in America - there are some forms of bigotry and activism you simply can't escape.

boy oh boy was I ready for some time away from the office after the last couple of days.

I so desperately want Barack Obama for President; a Democratic majority that is filibuster proof in both houses of Congress; and I want Initiative 8 to fail. I don't care of Obama wins by a single electoral vote; or if the Democratic Filibuster Proof Majority is within 5 - or if the initiative fails by just a few points.... it simply MUST fail. At least then all three things would happen - and November 4th - we can all let out a deep sigh of relief.

until then - I'm hugging my boyfriend, working out at the gym, doing my job - and staying out of it all. I put my 'vote-from-home' ballot in the mail this morning - I know how I voted. I've done my part. and now I simply need a rest. I'll come back after this and talk to everyone I know about Prop 8 - Barak Obama - and the need to let the "Grand Old Party" know just how much they've fucked our beloved country. Bush, McCain and the rest of the GOP have run the country into the ground. and deserve to be sidelined in Washington with a good ole ASS STOMPING election.

its that simple.....

Comments

[blt4success66.livejournal.com]

Not that I'm looking for a pat on the back, but I sent some money today. It's not a lot, but it's something.

Thanks!

Paul

[pulsecub.livejournal.com]

Not to be rude about this, but your station(s) could've just refused to take the ads in the first place...

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

actually we could not refuse the ads - that opens a pandoras box in political ads. thats like telling a television to do the same thing - which they'd never consider. As a public station we are obliged never to turn away ads during political seasons regardless of their position.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

GO YOU! :) thanks Paul!

[blt4success66.livejournal.com]

Time to step up and be a "gay" man...I kind of like it.

[pulsecub.livejournal.com]

You could if the policy of the station was to refuse all ads regarding this particular issue, in which case, there is no expression of bias.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

then no radio station or television station should run a political ad? thats not the best business advertising model is it?

[pulsecub.livejournal.com]

I didn't say that; I said the station could've refused to take any ads regarding Prop 8, which is a very specific issue. It's not unheard of, in fact. Many media outlets have refused political ads in the past, especially when they have found them "negative" or "inflammatory."

I understand you want to defend your place of employment, however, I believe they made a poor decision in this instance, and are doing a disservice to the markets they serve.

Just my opinion.

[audrabaudra.livejournal.com]

Judging from the audience response you describe, the "Yes on 8" campaign might have exactly the opposite effect that the bigots intend -- it might galvanize the "NO ON EIGHT" vote.

My uncle wrote to me the other day, asking me to give to the Obama campaign. Although I've voted in every election since I turned 18 (and never once voted for the Repugs), I've never given to a campaign before. I gave for Obama.

Right now, the US has the most people in prison per capita and the most homeless people in the Western world. I said those two facts to Ross and finished up with "What's wrong with us?"

"You've been taught to hate your own countrymen and everyone else. You fight wars constantly. You don't look after your own."

Well. That was clear commentary from Down Under.

Middle America has been duped into believing that the culture wars are about "purity," when they are really about hatred and its opposite, love. Didn't Jesus tell these people to "love thy neighbor?" DIDN'T HE? Oddly, because Middle America elected politicians who basked in the cold light of hatred, they're being punished on what looks increasingly like a biblical scale. Those same politicians that were preaching hatred of gay men, single mothers, women's rights and all things "LIB'RUL" were raping and pillaging Middle America's banks, mortgages, 401(k) and future. Sins of the Repug fathers visited on the next seven generations, sins begat by hatred and bigotry being put forward as acceptable American values.

[abearius.livejournal.com]

How can you keep working for Goebbels Radio?

[sierrabiker.livejournal.com]

I donated $200. It's not a lot but hopefully helps. I may donate more later.

I read yesterday that only 30,000 individual contributors have donated, that is pathetic. Hopefully that number improves soon. Hollywood and gay celebrities have been very frugal as well.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

of the radio clusters of commercial radio go in the Bay Area - Entercom (KDFC, KOIT and KBWF) is the most progressive company to work for - they are overtly gay supportive and friendly in their benefits and diversity training and corporate culture.

You can't blame a business like radio or TV for running ads during the season - its not like we come on after and say - We're KDFC and we approve this message. It's just like any other commercial that a client pays for.

[geometrician.livejournal.com]

Bob, could the station run a human-interest news story about the response it has gotten to running the Yes ads? Just a thought. They could relay the statistics of the responses, and quote some of the emails.

[wrascalbc.livejournal.com]

Any amount will help - and we need all the help we can get.

Done.

[designerotter.livejournal.com]

Good post ! - I've already contributed to NO on 8, but will probably do so again.
Have composed a note to my bro about the proposition - he and his wife are California residents.