The strategy worked. Overruling the courts and lawmakers, voters defeated gay marriage ballot measures in California last year and in Maine this week after conservatives convinced residents that same-sex unions would become common classroom fodder without any say from parents.

The punch-to-the gut claim has emerged as the latest tool in the ever-evolving playbook of same-sex marriage opponents, and the Achilles’ heel of the gay-marriage movement. Voters seem to be swayed by the notion that gay marriage will be a corrupting force among children, even though critics blasted the message as a blatantly misleading case of fear-mongering.

“It was very effective. It’s drawing on the fears of the unknown,” said Sandy Maisel, director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at Maine’s Colby College. “There’s no evidence that it’s going to happen, but there’s very clear evidence that it’s an effective campaign tactic.”

Gay marriage opponents discovered the effectiveness of the schools message in last year’s successful effort to pass Proposition 8 to outlaw gay marriage in California.

After signing up to lead the campaign, political consultants Frank Schubert and Jeff Flint knew they had a problem: Polls were showing that residents tended to not have much of a problem with gay relationships.

With the help of focus groups, surveys and ammunition unwittingly supplied by their opponents, Schubert and Flint soon found a new way to frame the issue, by focusing on education.

It was a departure from past elections when the issue was defined in simpler terms – that marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman. The various strategies have helped conservatives win 31 consecutive ballot initiatives on gay marriage.

“We bet the campaign on consequences, especially on education,” Schubert recalled in March when he and Flint were named the “public affairs team of the year” by the American Association of Political Consultants for their work in California. “Education from the beginning, while it was one of three consequences, it was the one that was the most emotionally charged and the most powerful.”

In California and Maine, gay marriage supporters countered the claims with spots featuring prominent elected officials – California’s chief of public instruction, Maine’s attorney general – who insisted that same-sex marriage had nothing to do with schools.

They also angrily denounced as deceptive the visuals the Sacramento team employed, including a Massachusetts couple who lost a lawsuit seeking parental consent before same-sex families are discussed in elementary classrooms.

But the response did not defuse the hot-button issue, advocates on both sides of the issue observe, in part because they failed to address what many parents knew to be true: Many public schools already have lessons that include references to gay families in the younger grades and confronting anti-gay discrimination for older students. Although the topics usually are broached in the context of appreciating diversity and tolerance, for some parents any discussion of gay people is too close to talking about gay sex.

“The trend that we are seeing is homosexuality is being promoted more and more in schools, and the increase in this is creating a hostile environment for kids with Christian or socially conservative viewpoints,” said Candi Cushman, education analyst for the Christian group Focus on the Family.

Cathy Renna, a public relations consultant in Washington who is married to a woman and has a 4-year-old daughter, said that equating references to gay parents with sex is “like saying that introducing someone’s mother and father to a class means you are talking about heterosexual sex.” But Renna agrees that same-sex marriage supporters need a different comeback to the kids-and-schools argument.

“This idea that gay people are coming to eat your children is a long-standing tactic of the right wing,” she said. “The response to those ads that not only has more truth, but more integrity, is that we live in a diverse world and our kids know that and it’s irresponsible for us not to talk about the world we live in in age-appropriate ways. Dismissing them as lies actually does a disservice not only to the people in our community, but to the public that knows better.”

In California, some gay rights groups want to try to repeal Proposition 8 at the ballot box next year. There has been talk about including language in the new measure that would state that nothing in it is meant to mandate the teaching of same-sex marriage in schools. Some gay rights advocates fear, though, that the wording could be used to undermine the way gay subjects are treated in schools now, said Chaz Lowe, founder of Yes! on Equality.

Melissa Murray, an assistant professor at the UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law who researched the messages used in the Proposition 8 campaign, said gay marriage advocates underestimated how deeply Schubert and Flint’s carefully crafted schools message resonated with the public.

One reason it resonated so deeply is it changed the debate from one of equal rights to the equally cherished notion of individual rights, something gay activists should keep in mind as the marriage moves to other states, Murray said.

“Parents are always thinking about how do I keep unwanted influences out of my children’s lives, and it’s a lot harder to do that as a parent if that influence is the state,” Murray said. “That’s the fear they are tapping into. … and they are just going to keep repackaging it, because it works.”

The singer’s spokesman Gary Farrow says John was at home Friday and was feeling fine. He left the hospital early Thursday.

He says John planned to resume his suspended tour and would play scheduled U.S. dates with Billy Joel starting in Oakland, California on Nov. 14.

Illness has forced the 62-year-old musician to cancel several gigs in Britain, Ireland and the U.S. over the last few weeks.

Though it looked likely, it was still nice to see the official announcement that the “everything but marriage” ballot initiative passed in Washington State. Now, I know that Washington is a much more liberal state than Maine and equating the two would be a mistake. But I wonder, how much the removal of the word marriage assisted in the ballot victory?

Not that I believe marriage without the term is sufficient. It’s not. Legal distinctions between groups based on personal characteristics like sexual orientation matter even if the distinctions don’t result in a concrete rights disadvantage for one group. But, if we could create a national situation where civil union-like status existed for all same-sex couples, we’d be in a pretty good place to start a Supreme Court legal challenge.

Once the relationships are the same, there would be a good equal protection argument in favor of adding the word marriage to both kinds of relationships.

That’s how it happened in Canada: fight for civil unions first, get marriage second.

Washington might just have proven how sound that strategy is.

On Oct. 30, the Ricketts family became the new owners of MLB team, the Chicago Cubs.

The family bought the team and Wrigley Field for $845 million.

Laura Ricketts, one of the purchasers, is an open lesbian who serves on the board for Lambda Legal, the nationwide advocacy organization for gay and lesbian rights.

The Times reported that Ricketts is now the first out individual to own a professional sports team.

In an interview with MarketToMarketLLC.com, she said:

“I came out to my family I would say early to mid 30’s. I think for a long time I wasn’t really out to myself growing up in Omaha, Neb., to a Catholic conservative family. It took me a while to come out to myself and not long after that I came out to them. I think that it really couldn’t have been a better experience. They were all immediately supportive. … I have been really, really fortunate in that regard.”

Now Laura, 42, lives with her partner in Chicago, Ill. and is one of four members serving on the Board of Directors for the Cubs.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Friday that the director of the Duke Catholic Center has lodged a complaint with researchers. The Rev. Joe Vetter says the study doesn’t promote relationships.

The study asks female students over age 18 to attend the events that are similar to Tupperware parties but with erotic toys, lingerie and games. The women complete surveys about their sexual attitudes before and after the parties and get product discounts.

A spokesman for Duke said the sex-toy party project went through the peer review process. Vetter says he plans to discuss the topic at Sunday mass.

Let’s end a tiring week (the Maine vote and yesterday’s Fort Hood incident) on some levity. Former reverend and present fame supplicant Ted Haggard is returning to spiritual guidance. In his living room.

Yes the man who described himself as  “a heterosexual with complications” (loves, as in utterly, that line) is back to preaching.

“We wanted to do something in our house to connect with friends,” Haggard said.

I bet Ted wants to reconnect. Let’s give the man credit for a smart move. Get some cute guys to come to your house for “spiritual guidance.” A much shorter walk from the living room to the bedroom. Mrs. Haggard? Sweetie?  I would be worried if I were you because I know what a booty search looks like. Unless you are a perv too and like to see your man work his magic. Nothing wrong with being a perv by the way, as long as you are an adult and your perv stuff involves others of age.

Apparently Haggard’s income comes from traveling to churches talking about himself and those “complications.” Why a church would want this guy to talk is beyond me.  I understand what it means to be a failed human being (trust me), but this guy only functions when he is at the center of any spotlight.

With about 72 percent of the expected vote counted Thursday in unofficial returns, Referendum 71 was leading 52 percent to 48 percent, with a margin of about 60,000 votes.

Sen. Ed Murray, a Seattle Democrat who spearheaded the law, called it “a great step forward for equality in Washington state.”

“I’m relieved,” he said. “I was very concerned that if the voters had said no, it would have been a major setback for gay and lesbian families in Washington state.”

The measure asked voters to approve or reject the latest expansion of the state’s domestic partnership law, granting registered domestic partners additional state rights previously given only to married couples.

Full-fledged gay marriage is still not allowed under Washington law.

Gary Randall of Protect Marriage Washington, which opposed the law and pushed to get the referendum on the ballot, said they weren’t ready to concede.

“We’re just going to wait and watch it play out,” he said.

Randall said that while they’re waiting until all the votes are counted, “going in, we knew that we had a pretty tough task ahead of us.”

“We knew there was a chance we would not prevail,” he said.

Two national gay rights groups – the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Family Equality Council – say that voter approval of such a measure was a first. Gay equality laws in other states, ranging from civil rights to gay marriage, have either been implemented by the courts or legislative process. Voters have rejected gay marriage 31 states, most recently in Maine, where voters repealed a gay marriage law on Tuesday.

“Our state made history today,” said Anne Levinson, chairwoman of Washington Families Standing Together, which fought to keep the law on the books. “This is a day for which we can all look back with pride.”

The expanded law in Washington state adds benefits, such as the right to use sick leave to care for a domestic partner, and rights related to adoption, child custody and child support.

During the campaign, opponents argued the law is a stepping-stone to gay marriage. Gay rights activists countered that while the marriage debate was for another day, same-sex couples need additional legal protections and rights in the meantime.

The law was to take effect July 26, but was delayed because of the referendum campaign. It will now take effect Dec. 3, according to the secretary of state’s office.

The underlying domestic partnership law, which the Legislature passed in 2007, provided hospital visitation rights, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations, and inheritance rights when there is no will.

Last year, lawmakers expanded the law to give domestic partners standing under laws covering probate and trusts, community property and guardianship.

More than 12,000 people in Washington state are registered as domestic partners, and most are gay. Under state law, senior heterosexual couples can register as domestic partners as well, if at least one partner is 62 years old or older. That provision was included by lawmakers to help seniors who don’t remarry out of fear they could lose certain pension or social security benefits.

Washington state, along with California, Oregon, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia, have laws that either recognize civil unions or domestic partnerships that afford same-sex couples similar rights to marriage.

Same-sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa and Vermont, and will start in New Hampshire in January. Voters in Maine on Tuesday repealed a gay marriage law that was passed by the Legislature there earlier this year.

Gov. Chris Gregoire said that the vote on R-71 made her “very proud.”

“I think Washington state stood out in this country on Tuesday by saying one of the inherent values in our state is equality,” she said Thursday.

Results weren’t known until Thursday because almost all voters in Washington cast their ballots by mail, and even those ballots postmarked on Election Day are valid. That means close elections often drag on for a few days or longer.

Rachel once again did separate 9:00 and 11:00 broadcasts as she tried to sort out Thursday’s tragic and baffling events at Fort Hood.

As of the first broadcast, almost all that was known was that the shooting suspect is U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hassan, a military psychiatrist, and for much of the first broadcast he was believed dead.

A press conference with Lieutenant General Bob Cone clarified the matter, but raised more questions about the flow of information.

Rachel spoke with Danny Coulson, a former Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI.

Murder in the Military

In trying to figure out how and why something like Fort Hood can happen, Rachel and Salon.com’s Mark Benjamin took a disturbing look at similar incidents in the past and the possible strain that can be involved in helping soldiers deal with the trauma of combat.

Fort Carson murders

Rachel continued with an unsettling piece on the extent to which proper mental health support is just not available to returning soldiers.

Lee Christopher Smith of Rolling Stone joined Rachel to talk about Fort Carson in Colorado, where 14 soldiers have been charged with murder in recent years.

Republican Option

In a story that was fun much earlier in the day, Representative Michele Bachmann led her “emergency house call” for the teabaggers on Thursday, and she continues to think it’s adorable to use violent rhetoric and imply that it’s time to overthrow the government.

Are we sure that Bachmann knows she’s a part of the government? I can’t tell if she’s really that loony or if she can just be induced to say absolutely anything when she thinks she’s on a roll.

Anyway, apparently it’s super-patriotic to encourage people to be belligerent toward their elected representatives and litter in the halls of the Capitol.

If you ever get invited over to Bachmann’s house for tea and crazy, make sure to tear up papers and throw them all over her foyer. She loves that.

I guess it’s a good thing that Bachmann is cute and thin enough for Levin’s political standards or the day could have been awkward, huh?

Paterson wants the Senate to give final legislative approval to same-sex marriage. But there’s no guarantee there are enough votes to carry the measure, which has already passed in the Assembly.

While the Legislature must attend the extraordinary session called by Paterson for Tuesday, lawmakers don’t have to act on his agenda.

That agenda includes addressing a deficit of more than $3 billion with midyear cuts to school aid and health care, among other measures.

The Democrat also wants lawmakers to consider long-sought reform of public authorities, a so-called “shadow government” that’s been caught in several scandals.

After the announcement today about the Fort Worth Bar Raid, I think it’s about time we had a frank discussion about police officers. Throughout LGBT history in the United States, the gay/trans community has been pitted against police. It’s police, in fact, who inspire our holiest of high holidays: Pride.  The clashes are universal, span from coast to coast and need to stop.

But it’s not suspensions and internal reports that are going to end this problem.

To be a police officer in Fort Worth, TX one must have completed high school or achieved a G.E.D. And that’s it. No diploma from a community college. No college degree. No Masters program in criminology or forensics or law. Then officers are trained, by the police force rather than an independent body.

A Lieutenant in the Fort Worth police department gets paid $36,000 a year.

But police officers are outfitted with guns, given immense amounts of power and asked to make sophisticated legal decisions in an instant. Are we surprised that they screw up a lot? Are we surprised that the people they recruit are not the most open-minded, educated members of a community?

The Fort Worth police department wants to solve this problem by doling out a few suspensions or by instituting training that considers the rights and experiences of LGBT community members.

I think there’s no chance the Fort Worth Texas police force, or pretty much any police force, is going to improve their relationship with the LGBT community until we start insisting the officers get more life experience and academic training, the salaries increase to be competitive with degree requirements and the force itself start to take its job seriously enough that bare minimum standards just aren’t good enough anymore.