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Loading ...Prop 8: What went wrong
‘Missed opportunity’
With this question hanging in the air, the finger-pointing began. Most of the criticism has focused on the organizers of the No on 8 campaign, which included representatives from more than 70 member organizations.
Critics say their campaign wrongly focused on intangible concepts such as discrimination and justice without offering a positive alternative argument for the morality of same-sex marriage.“It seemed like there was a missed opportunity here for education in general,” says Cathy Renna. After more than a decade with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), Renna is now managing partner of Renna Communications, based in Washington, D.C.
Renna and other critics say what was fatally missing from the No on 8 campaign’s advertising was the presence of actual gay and lesbian families telling their stories. By holding back on the emotional punch and choosing instead to focus on cold principles, they say the campaign failed to move people on the opposing side.
“I think the whole marriage debate in general has not been framed in a way that takes our relationships and our families out of more than a superficial or abstract context,” Renna says.
“We’ve not dug deep enough and tried to touch people’s hearts. Marriage is, at the end of the day, something that protects the most vulnerable in our community. That is a story that would deeply touch people and would help people understand why we want to get married.”
“I’m all for being polite,” Renna added, “but ‘please treat us equally’ doesn’t always work. It’s a little naïve.”
Comments by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that appeared in Maureen Dowd’s New York Times column on Nov. 23 seemed to support Renna’s assertion. Feinstein, who formerly opposed same-sex marriage rights, said her mind was changed as she learned about the positive effects that marriage had on the lives of her constituents.
“The longer I’ve lived, the more I’ve seen the happiness of people, the stability that these commitments bring to a life,” Feinstein said. “Many adopted children who would have ended up in foster care now have good solid homes and are brought up learning the difference between right and wrong. It’s a very positive thing.”
Next page: Why we lost
Turning point
I still think apathy played a huge role. However, that doesn’t mean the money was managed well. You hear that flushing sound? It is 43 million dollars down the toilet.
With 43 million dollars in the bank, you can win control over one branch of the U.S. federal government (literally). In 2006, the DCCC spent 38.5 million on the House races. The Republicans spent 21.6 million defending their seats. The result? Democrats picked up 30 seats. Of course, there was other factors besides the money – an unpopular war, skyrocketing oil prices, and such. But you can’t make your case without advertising. And if the House Democrats can run a fifty state campaign with only 38.5 million, does “No on 8″ really expect us to believe they can’t flood one state with advertising for 43 million?
LOrion,
Yeah, there was just no visibility with the No on Prop 8 campaign. I live in Northern California and I never saw a No on Prop 8 ad or heard it on the radio except ONE time, and that was on the night before the vote.. Meanwhile, like you, I kept hearing on the radio Pro prop 8 ads, on t.v. seeing that commercial with the little girl wanting to marry a princess, even on the internet through embedded ads I even saw Pro prop 8 ads on sites that had nothing to do with this issue!
The problem wasn’t money or complacency, it was just that the No on 8 campaign just failed, it didn’t give a face to the problem, didn’t counter the negative ads and show the truth, and didn’t target the right people.
I mean seriously, I even heard pro prop 8 ads while working out in the gym on a rock music station..
From my personal experience the No on Prop 8 campaign just literally did not exist.
I donated a substantial amount of money (for me) to No on Prop 8. I have a question for Mr. Kors. If he and his colleagues basically wasted my donation, why should I believe that, had I given more, they would have put it to good use?
Time for the “career” gay activists to step aside for people who can do the job better.
Rodney,
You’re basically correct. It was hubris. That annoying blend of Californian apathy and arrogance did us in. And I’m saying this as someone who has lived in this state for two decades.
The blaise attitude towards Prop. 8 was best exemplified by Schwarzenegger’s statement during an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno: “It’ll never happen. We have no use for such an amendment in California.” If this is the kind of moronic rethoric coming from the state’s governor, you can imagine what the gays and lesbians were thinking. Thanks to the false ideology of California exceptionalism, a million of them didn’t even bother to vote.
We know how it went wrong. Now we need to get it right…to get the Rights back….and here is how. MILK, Milk and more milk…it’s good for ya. The more I hear about this movie…it should have been out before the election, but the producers wanted to ‘keep it pure’ and not seem political. HUH?
Here from a review piece of how much it could have helped and why: University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee Professor Paul Brewer, author of “Value War: Public Opinion and the Politics of Gay Rights,” cites recent research on the “Virtual Contact Hypothesis” – a theory from the University of Minnesota that holds that “knowing” even fictional gay people from TV or movies reduces hostility of homosexuality as a whole – as evidence that TV and movies can sway opinion. But he says the most powerful effect is in the aggregate collection of pop culture portrayals.
“If I had a hunch, I wouldn’t focus too much on any one movie or TV show. One can certainly start debate – like ‘Philadelphia’ or ‘Ellen’ – but what we know about media effects is that exposure to any one medium tends to fade over time…… It’s the steady exposure to positive images of gays and lesbians that changes public opinion.”
Got that STEADY EXPOSURE TO POSITIVE IMAGES… I kept emailing daily to the EQCA group.. Get the stories out, get the stories out..make this about REAL PEOPLE not ‘constitutional’ crises…People crises. But no we just got garbage..and they threw Newsom back in our ears, over and over and over.
Up here in No Calif. I must have heard that Newsom ad every half hour for weeks!
STR8 Against H8
Prop. HATE passed for one reason and one reason only, and NEVER forget it: Kraven Konservative Kristianist Kultist Krazies (KKKKK) and their PAGAN FERTILITY CULTS, who have now written their WHACKED-OUT, NUT-JOB *sectarian* definition of marriage into the *secular* Constitution of our *secular* Federalist Republic form of government in the State of California.
This violates both the letter and the spirit of the First Amendment. Eventually we have to win before the US Supreme Court on those grounds, as well as violation of the Equal Protection and Freedom OF (and FROM) Religion clauses.
MY church performs same-sex marriages. Do WE have fewer rights before the law than the Romans, the Mormons, and the KKKKK (see above)?
NO! WE DO *NOT*! Prop. Hate, among other things, is BLATANT *RELIGIOUS* DISCRIMINATION.
Blame the PREACHERS of the Kristian Reich, not the Latino, African-American, AND white sheeple who are still in thrall to them!
Bud Burgoon-Clark
one of the 2nd class citizens created by the vote of the above-mentioned wing-nut-cases, WHATEVER the color of their skin.
I also blame a number of right-wing radio talk shows which in my opinion are VERY powerfull.
“It was difficult raising money because of those polls,” said Geoff Kors, head of Equality California…
Oh for goodness sake! They raised $38 million!!! That’s hardly complacent. People from all over the country sent them money for the fight. Let’s face it: the No on 8 campaign was poorly organized, politically inexperienced and ineffectual, and the organizers were stuck in a 1980s “let’s not offend people by being ourselves” attitude. That’s what lost this election. Next time, maybe the organizers should quit wanting to grab the spotlight and bring in some real political savvy to run the campaign.
Until CA gets right on Prop 8, the only money I will spend there is related to my helping with the eventual overthrow of Prop 8. Just food and accommodations.
and only from gay and gay-friendly busineses.
I intend to write to Utah tourism to tell them of a gay tourism boycott due to the very heavy contributions of Mormon church funds Yes on Prop 8.
Of course they have already heard about it. But I will tell them that Prop 8 will cost them in money and in their stste’s reputation. Utah tourisn will have no choice but to spend big advertizing bucks to attract vacationers to Utah because of the heavy association in peoples’ minds of Utah with the Mormon church and vice versa. And of the Mormon church with the failure of gay marriage in CA WHEN IT WAS ALREADY HOMOPHOBIC LATINO AND BLACK VOTERS WITH A “PRE-EXISTING” HOMOPHOBIC MINDSET (before the hearvy conservative relighious cash contributions arrived at Yes on Prop 8.) silenting translating their homophobia in the privacy of the voting machine into voting in Prop 8. In the end, it’s voters’ hands PHUSICALLY ENTERING THE VOTES powered by their own made up minds that count, not money to this or that.
These people need to be educated by knowledgeable people from their own racial or ethnic background speaking their own language and understanding how their culture works in their lives. White people (straight or gay) and GLBT organizations caa’t reach them quite like their own folks can.
Well, prop 8 was meant to loose but, thanks to the mormons here we are. I feel like crying sometimes but then I see the rallies and I feel energized. I know will get marriage equality in California and for all 50 states.
Boycott Cinemark, boycott Sundance and Utah!!!
Drewski,
It was far more that the far right religious donators to Yes on Prop 8, it was many thousands of Latino homophobes and black hommophobes voters who helped bring about voting Prop 8.
Sure the Mormons, Catholics and Kniights of Columbus contributed millions toward Yes on Prop 8, but the vaery minorities Latinos and blacks that gays befriend, defend and support on voting day are the ones who more than any others who got Prop 8 passed, THey are the Californians who got this passed,who made the final decision in the privacy of their voting machine irrespective of massive contributing from outside the state to both sides of this issue.
The liberal reputation of California is a fairly simplistic stereotype of the state.
What are needed are two things, blacks and Latinos on TV and in their communities explain gay marriage to therr own communities in a way their people from their own cultures understand. Whitey can’t do that, only thay can.
And the second approach is more and more rallies and demonstrations about Prop 8 throughout USA and throughout California to keep the message upfront before the American people.
Restricting purchases to gay and progay businesses in all 50 states is another very important consideration.
Avoiding busimesses like McDonalds that caved into boycott threats by the antigay extremist group American Famiily Association and patronizing only those that refuse to cane into AFA boycott threats.
And unrelenting pressure against prop 8 to the all the CA legislators and unrelanting thank you notes to those who championed our cause. Because our enemies are pounding away and sending nasty antigay marriage messages to our friends and allies.
Hope this helps. Have a nice day.
Very nice post Rodney. I struck on the arrogance and self centered nature of many Californians in another topic.
It’s time for many on the West Coast to wake up and realize that everyone’s poo stinks.
You forgot to blame the all-powerful Mormons. *cough*
You mean to say we lost this on our own, through ineffective planning, fund raising, communication, and strategy? Couldn’t be. *cough*
Best article I’ve read on the issue. Thank you for making real, constructive observations and criticisms without using group fill-in-the-blank as a scapegoat.
Californian arrogance, that’s what went wrong.
California people are so damned full of themselves as a collective group. There are people in California who really believed and many still do, that California is somehow different, more progressive, more enlightened than the rest of the country. Think of George Clooney’s acceptance speech about how Hollywood is ahead of the curb. (Hollywood is rife with homophobia, racism, sexism and all the problems of America amplified, but I digress). Californians have this superiority complex, they honestly felt and many still do that California is immune to the social ills of bigotry experience elsewhere in America. Those who were fighting Prop 8 believed that they had public opinion on their side, because California is “oh my like God, California”. There are other regions of the country which, like California, believe that bigotry is somehow limited to the South(and Midwest) and that their progressive region is just better.
The Facts are California is part of the United States of America and being that, is susceptible to all the social ills any other state has. Most people in California are apathetic to gay rights one way or the other. They are tolerant, as in they tolerate gay people, but they don’t embrace gays and lesbians as equals. The No on Prop 8 groups didn’t sufficiently personalize the campaign. Prop 8 was not exclusively political, it wasn’t a proposition on a tax or new red light, it was an attack on the rights of human beings. The No on Prop 8 people played politics as usual on a Proposition that was far more personal than political. Those behind Prop 8, believed, partly due to the all too civil tone of gay “leadership” that we could all sit down, agree to disagree and gay people would calmly and civilly sit back and “have a bloody mary” as Corvino suggests and let a motley crew of Mormons, Catholics, homophobic Black religious parasites vote to take away more than 1,100 rights.
I’ve read MANY posts on this site which described how anti-8 fell so totally short. For people in Cali, what did you see? I keep hearing/seeing that it was a kinda deny-the-totally-obvious fight. Thoughts?