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Loading ...Gay foes want Prop 8 donors kept secret
01.09.2009 9:13am EST
(Sacramento, California) Supporters of the ballot measure that banned gay marriage in California have filed a lawsuit seeking to block their campaign finance records from public view, saying the reports have led to the harassment of donors.
“No one should have to worry about getting a death threat because of the way he or she votes,” said James Bopp Jr., an attorney representing two groups that supported Proposition 8, Protect Marriage.com and the National Organization for Marriage California. “This lawsuit will protect the right of all people to help support causes they agree with, without having to worry about harassment or threats.”The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Sacramento, asks the court to order the secretary of state’s office to remove all donations for the proposition from its Web site.
It also asks the court to relieve the two groups and “all similarly situated persons” from having to meet the state’s campaign disclosure requirements. That would include having to file a final report on Proposition 8 contributions at the end of January, as well as reports for any future campaigns the groups undertake.
Proposition 8, approved by 52.3 percent of California voters on Nov. 4, reversed a state Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriage. The measure’s opponents have asked the Supreme Court to overturn it.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday cites a series of incidents in which those who gave money to support Proposition 8 received threatening phone calls, e-mails and postcards. One woman claims she was told: “If I had a gun, I would have gunned you down along with each and every other supporter.”
Another donor reported a broken window, one said a flier calling him a bigot was distributed around his hometown and others received envelopes containing suspicious white power, according to the lawsuit.
Businesses employing people who contributed to the Proposition 8 campaign have been threatened with boycotts, the suit said.
Supporters of the gay marriage ban fear the donor backlash will hurt their efforts to raise money in the future, perhaps to fight an initiative seeking to overturn the ban.
“Several donors have indicated that they will not contribute to committee plaintiffs or similar organizations in the future because of the threats and harassment directed at them as a result of their contributions … and the public disclosure of that fact,” the lawsuit said.
The suit said courts have held that laws requiring disclosure of campaign contributions can be overturned or restricted if a group can make “an uncontroverted showing” that identifying its members can result in economic reprisals or threats of physical coercion.
California’s Political Reform Act, which voters approved in 1974, established disclosure requirements for candidates and campaign committees.
The secretary of state’s office and another defendant, the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, declined to comment Thursday on the lawsuit.
But Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, the gay rights group that led the campaign against Proposition 8, called it hypocritical for supporters of the measure to try to overturn voter-approved campaign finance laws.
He said Proposition 8 supporters used campaign finance records during the campaign to threaten gay rights supporters.
“They’ve used these records to attack corporations, to attack individuals,” Kors said.
Peter Scheer, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, which supports public access to government records and meetings, said the lawsuit is likely to be unsuccessful. But he also said the plaintiffs’ arguments are not trivial.
“The problem with their argument, of course, is that campaign finance laws, both at the state and federal level, have been litigated endlessly now since Watergate and the argument has, in one form or another, been rejected,” Scheer said.
He said courts have consistently failed to agree that contributors have a right to donate directly and anonymously to a candidate or campaign. He said some states have less restrictive reporting requirements, but they always include disclosure of donors.
Abso-frakkin’-lutely DELICIOUS!
In the VERY SAME issue of 365gay.com, “Quackers” Wild-man and the American (Fascist) Family Association announced yet ANOTHER boycott, this time of PepsiCo, for their support of the “ho-mo-sex-you-all” agenda.
Campaign finance disclosure laws don’t endanger the secret ballot … anybody can vote the way they please without giving a DIME to anybody.
Boycotts are as American as apple pie … the Birmingham bus boycott and the worldwide boycott of the apartheid-era South Africa come to mind … so if the Prop Haters can’t stand the heat, they’d better get out of our bedrooms.
I say scrape some money together and post ALL their NAMES, ADDRESSES, and PHONE NUMBERS in full-page ads in the SF Chronicle, the LA Times, and the San Diego Union, for starters.
Let people make up their own minds as to how to deal with these kraven konservative kristianist kultist krazy KOWARDS (KKKKKK for short).
Violence is never the answer; using the economic clout of the “pink dollar” “creatively” IS.
We need a “BUY GAY-FRIENDLY” marketing campaign. Why not? The kristianists have a Kristian Yellow Pages (!).
Bud Burgoon-Clark
2nd class citizen,
thanks to the KKKKKK
(see above)
YAH! My point exactly Dave! We NEED to get the list of petition signers up and running too! I wonder why the Know Thy Neighbor organization didn’t do this already? Let the whole WORLD know exactly WHO it was that put this little shit measure on the ballot to begin with! Expose these chickenshits for all they’re worth! Confront them with this knowledge and make them assume the responsibility for their actions!!
We should not be resorting to violence. Religion had its inquisition, we are better than that.
But we should PUBLISH the names before the secretary of state removes them from its website.
That guy who had a flyer circulated in his town should have nothing to complain about. We had this issue here in Mass and MassEquality would not publish the names..I offered $1,000 towards the cost.
I think we have to “out” these people! It is so easy to sign a petition or send a check, but if people know their neighbors will be judging them, they won’t do it.
Californians: run with this! Get those names out there, do not resort to violence, but embarass them. People do not want to be public bigots.
Truth to my point is in the fact that many donations were for $9,999.99. Did anyone notice that? I think people thought the 10k threshold would get them noticed.
Again, it is not cool to want to judge others..don’t let them do it in private!
Do I have this right then – you can stand up there and vote against the equal rights of your neighbour, but you cannot admit that it was you or fess up, as a so called “Christian”, that you had a hand in the evil deed to deny your neighbour their place in society. What kind of a person are you? Have you no compassion for your fellow human being or is everything in this life just about you, your needs and desires? Give it up and come out of your closet just as Gay people have to do each and every day in order to try and get through their lives!
Such cowards. They want to hide and practice their prejudice annonymously. When they attack us physically, they have to makes sure they outnumber us 4 to 1 and with weapons.
If these cowards can’t live by the consequences of their actions then so be it.
Funny how they rear their ugly heads then run like cock roaches when the lights go on.
I wonder how they would feel if some how their marriages were deemed null and void with the check of a ballot. These cowardes basterds better learn that when you decide to live by the sword you die by it.
HAHAHA! Looks like the bigots are starting to get EXACTLY what they had coming to ‘em!! Did they seriously expect there to be no retaliation?!? Amazing just how freakin’ CLUELESS these religious whackos really are! For once in a long LONG time our community is starting to come together and are hittin’ the bigots RIGHT where it’s going to hurt the most: The WALLET! Think twice next time bigots! For each and every action there is an EQUAL and opposite REaction! If these boycotts were’nt working than THEY wouldn’t be bitchin’ so loudly! Let’s keep up the pressure INDEFINITELY, until each and EVERY business and individual learns the hard way! In fact I say we post online the names and addresses of each and EVERY individual who signed that f**king petition to begin with!!! Over and OUT!
gosh -i guess these are the risks you take when you discrimminate !!
I would not jump to the conclusion that the supposed threats of violence or boycotting actually came from the gay community or our supporters. This could just as easily have come from the pro-Prop 8 suppoprts as a tactic. It’s happened many times before that a candidate for political office or a political movement uses this approach to gain sympathy. Or, in this case, sanctuary.
I believe this is pretty much for the same reason that the Ku Klux Klan wore the white hoodies.
If the lawsuit has any chance for success, it will have been brought about by the
over-the-top incivility that was conducted by “our side.”
Sounds like some people want “special rights” for themselves….
If the supporters of Prop 8 are willing to give money to a law that discriminates, then they ought to have the “balls” to be so recognized. This is also Democracy!
Funny how when it was the anti-Prop 8 donators – namely businesses – the Pro-Prop 8 forces had no fear calling for boycotts or sending threatening letters to those businesses. Open government is necessary to ensure corruption doesn’t happen. This is another attempt at separate but equal. I do not condone the harrassment of these people and businesses but I cannot support giving people special waivers at the expense of open government.
This news means that the protesters are now seeing some substantial results.
As a Canadian I am unsure of what the law is but let me get this straight. The supporters of Prop 8 state that the measure should stand because the people voted for it, yet now in the same breath, they want to have another measure (the Reform Act) which was voted on should be set aside because they are suffering the consequences of their actions.
Forgive me but from where I sit it would appear that many of the religious supporters need to be reminded of a Biblical adage that goes something like this: “…verily I say unto you, as you sow, so shall you reap.”
The supporters of Prop 8 have sown the wind and now reap the whirlwind.
As for those who are receiving threats, I do admit that that is taking things too far. Boycott yes. Protest yes. Violence…..NO. That’s been the purview of the hateful and the religious. Let’s at least show them that we are above such petty nonsense.