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Loading ...Major Calif. Company To Fight Anti-Gay Ballot Measure
07.30.2008 10:37am EDT
(San Francisco, Calif.) California’s largest public utility has given a quarter-million dollars to the fight against a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage in the state.
In addition, the publicly-owned PG&E announced it will become a founding member of the Equality Business Advisory Council, an organization that will challenge other businesses to join in the fight against the ballot measure.
“We are thrilled to partner with PG&E to ensure that the laws of our state are not used to treat people unfairly,” Equality California executive director Geoff Kors.
“Across California, individuals and businesses like PG&E are pledging to vote no on Proposition 8 because they know it’s wrong to single out one group of people to be treated differently,” he said.
PG&E serves more than 15 million Californians in Northern and Central California.
“For years, PG&E has advocated for equality and fairness in the workplace, and across California,” said PG&E spokesperson Nancy McFadden.”
” In that same spirit, PG&E is honored to be a founding member of the Equality Business Advisory Council and urge our business colleagues to join us as we work to guarantee the same rights and freedoms for every Californian.”
Supporters of the proposed amendment also have received large gifts from business leaders in the state.
Among the major donors to Protect Marriage are a group of San Diego County businessmen. Developer Doug Manchester alone has contributed $125,000 prompting gays to urge a boycott of his properties. Manchester owns the Manchester Grand Hyatt and the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina.
Mission Valley developer Terry Caster has donated $162,500, Carlsbad car dealer Robert Hoehn gave $25,000, and La Jolla businessman Roger Benson has given $50,000, according to state records.
This week Protect Marriage filed a lawsuit against California Attorney General Jerry Brown after he changed the wording that would appear on the ballot in November.
The ballot question had been described as a measure to limit marriage between a man and a woman. Last week, Brown changed the description to say the proposed amendment would eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry and that it could result in California losing tens of millions of dollars in taxes.
A poll released this month suggests the measure is likely to be defeated.
Fifty-one percent of likely voters said they would vote against the proposed amendment while 42-percent would support it.
Great comment, Stephen Clark!!
And the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department is also opposing Prop 8, very publicly. Two generations also the LAPD loved the harass and lock up gay people.
This news combined with the new ballot wording and the broadside denunciation of Prop.8 by the AFL-CIO are good news indeed.
But given that fact tha McCain and Obama will not shut up about their superstition driven opposistion to same sex marriage it’s not enough. The election is too close. Were still at 51% in the Field Poll.
The fight against Prop. 8 is without question the most critical issue for GLBT communities this year.
It’s too close because there are always people who lie to pollsters but revert into Mr. Hyde in the voting booth. It happens to African American candidates all the time and goes by the name of the Bradley effect. We have to pull much further ahead to take care of the stealth bigot vote.
Another major problem is that precious little effort is being made to reach out to women, feminists, African-Americans, Latinos and Filipinos. They’re potential allies who comprise large segments of the states population. The failure to invest substanital efforts in winning their support was not the only reason we lost the battle for same sex marriage on the last go-around but it was a big contributing factor.
It’s a given that fundamentalist preachers, pastors and priests in some of those communities are going to be doing all they can to deny us our rights and if we abandon the field to them we do so at our peril. If we lose we lose big time and on a national scale. The bigots get a big boost. It’s critical that we win and our energy and resources shouldn’t be diverted and wasted campaiging for either of the pigheaded opponents of same sex marriage, Obama and McCain.
McCain is a rancid right-winger with the Rev. Pat Robertson attached at the hip.
Obama is Bill Clinton (DOMA, DADT, NAFTA) in drag with the Rev. Donnie McClurkin attached at the hip.
Good for PG&E. That’s a large % on ether end of the spectrum BUT with some good money behind us we can help get the word out to many people who don’t even know what or how the Religious Right Devils misrepresent us AND A Big Thankyou to Jerry Brown for telling the public what is exactly what the RR Devils are trying to do and that is write Discrimination in our Constitutiton.
Congratulations to PG&E. Every fair minded business should do the same. Bigotry and religious hatred – that is all it is, which has in some ways poisoned our society, has no place in America. Especially in the Name of God.
It’s worth pausing for a moment to consider how remarkable this contribution is. When a small band of gay activists in San Francisco started campaigning against employment discrimination in the late 1960s and early 1970s, PG&E was one of the discriminating employers that they targeted. We forget sometimes how much things have changed in just two generations.
No it doesn’t matter. I could not vote for any candidate of the hateful Republican party.
Where were you guys yesterday??? THIS IS OLD NEWS!!!