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Loading ...Hollywood joins protests over Prop 8
11.08.2008 3:32pm EST
(Los Angeles, California) Thousands of protesters are angry about California’s ban on gay marriage – and so are the stars.
Many celebrities grieved the passing of Proposition 8 in California this week. Some – such as Wanda Sykes, Rose McGowan and Lance Bass – attended a Wednesday protest criticizing the state’s gay marriage ban. Others – like Ellen DeGeneres, Rosie O’Donnell, Madonna and Melissa Etheridge – vented their frustrations online, on TV, and onstage.Blocks away from the Thursday rally of more than 2,000 gay-rights advocates outside the gates of a Mormon temple, several stars – including James Cromwell, Patricia Clarkson, Anjelica Huston and Sean Penn – said they supported the protesters while walking the red carpet at the BAFTA L.A. Brittania Awards at Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel.
“I think it might be an idea to go out and join them shortly,” Penn said. “It was a shameful decision that was made.”
Etheridge, who exchanged vows with her longtime partner in a 2003 ceremony, declared in a blog entry posted Thursday on TheDailyBeast.com that she wouldn’t pay her taxes. The gay Oscar- and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter said that without the right to marry in California, she didn’t think she should have to pay taxes because “I am not a full citizen.”
“I don’t mean to get too personal here,” Etheridge wrote. “But there is a lot I can do with the extra half a million dollars that I will be keeping instead of handing it over to the state of California. Oh, and I am sure Ellen will be a little excited to keep her bazillion bucks that she pays in taxes, too.”
DeGeneres, on her show and the show’s Web site, provided a brief message of support Friday for President-elect Obama and the gay-rights advocates protesting Proposition 8. The talk show host, who married actress Portia de Rossi in August, previously donated $100,000 against the ballot initiative and starred in a commercial lamenting the measure.
“So there was a demonstration here on Wednesday night,” DeGeneres told the audience, “and just before I walked out here, I was watching the news and there is a huge, huge, peaceful demonstration going on in the streets, and I say, good for you, and I support you, and if I weren’t here, I’d be out there with you.”
O’Donnell, who lives in New York, responded to comments and questions about her stance on the issue on her Web site. When one person said he understood why she didn’t come out against the proposition, O’Donnell responded: “I AM AGAINST PROP 8. DUH.” She also wrote she believes the estimated 18,000 gay marriages would be annulled “like mine was years ago.”
The former talk show host, who lives with partner Kelli Carpenter and their four children, publicly wed Carpenter in San Francisco in 2004, two weeks after Mayor Gavin Newsom authorized granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The licenses were later voided by the California Supreme Court.
Also ranting online was celebrity disc jockey Samantha Ronson. Lindsay Lohan’s gal pal blogged Thursday that she was shocked that California voters approved an animal-rights initiative but that ballot measures about gay marriage and adoption in California, Florida, Arizona and Arkansas were shot down.
“I guess people care more about farm animals than they do their fellow man, that’s really sad to me,” Ronson wrote on her MySpace blog. “Yes, I am glad that the chickens will have more room and better conditions as they wait to die, but I just think it’s frightening that people show more compassion for tomorrow’s dinner than for the chef.”
Other celebs used time in the spotlight to decry the decision. Madonna took a moment during her concert at Dodger Stadium to declare to the audience that she was sad “because African-Americans are equal finally, but gay marriage is not.”
Singer Christina Aguilera also spoke out against the ban.
“I think it’s discrimination,” Aguilera said in a Thursday interview with MTV News. “I don’t understand how people can be so closed-minded and so judgmental. We chose an African-American president who means so much in a time in history of great change and open-mindedness. Why is this any different? It just doesn’t make sense to me.”
For one celebrity, voting on the ballot measure itself didn’t make sense. In a rambling message posted on her MySpace blog Friday, former Hole frontwoman Courtney Love wrote that the language on the California ballot “was confusing and people were voting yes when they meant no or something.”
This makes me sick.
It really does.
Marriage a public show of two peoples’ love for each other. Love is an emotion. You’re telling me that because I choose to be with a football player and not a cheerleader my love is fake? Thats the same as saying “Oh, you want to marry a red head? Too bad, we’re only giving licenses to blondes now. Your love is meaningless”. Sick. Just plain sick.
Blacksteel: “Never underestimate how misinformed the public actually is”.
Hmmm…how could we underestimate, with acceptance of religion so widespread?
The American public is totally dumbed down to not think for themselves. That is what churches prey on. They even convinced blacks to vote against civil rights….the irony is killing me.
Some here asks where is Obama? That really confirms what Blacksteel says.
Who could have watched this election for TWO YEARS and still assume Obama will parachute in to rescue us?????
I’m hoping for change too but lets be realistic. He’s a political figure with a future to manage. What would make him take risks now he was never willing to take?
Get real..we lost a gay hater, that’s all. We gained normalcy, not an advocate. Remember Clinton anyone?
I was in San Francisco at the begining of October and all I saw on TV were Christian ads denouncing gay marriage. There were very few signs on balconys, windows or lawns that were pro marriage.
Where was the gay community?
Where was the visibility…. the energy…the need to be seen and recognized?
I kept wondering where was the gay community in San Francisco?
As a young gay man in the late 70’s we were out… vocal, visible and into making a difference, but then we were Canandian! I think we up here look to change as a positive thing and we also are very aware that rights are reversible and make no bones abouts it!
Thanks to the USA we up here are reminded that rights can disappear over night!
“Courtney Love wrote that the language on the California ballot ‘was confusing and people were voting yes when they meant no or something.’”
What she said was true. A couple of weeks before the vote, a local TV news station interviewed people on the street about Prop 8. Many thought the proposition supported gay marriage and planned to vote for it. According to a follow up report, the number of people who planned to vote for the proposition for that reason was thought to be as high as 5%.
Apparently, the No on 8 campaign recognized the problem. Within a short time afterward, the No on 8 TV ads placed a strong emphasis on what a yes vote would mean, and strongly urged a no vote. How well it succeeded is open to question. It’s possible that the prop passed because of ignorance.
Never underestimate how misinformed the public actually is. After all, a majority of Americans still believe that being gay is a choice. That’s why the Yes on 8 campaign was so successful with its “I can marry a princess” TV ad. It was designed to play to the fear that your child could be influenced to become gay. The No on 8 campaign never seemed to understand that powerful subliminal message and never countered it.
I could not agree more with Randy’s comments. Seems nothing really changes in America. My tolerance of religious and racial minorities is being sorely tested. I get afraid when the persecuted become the persecutors
Where were you idiots during the campaign? You stupid morons did nothing while your rights were taken away, you just kept on partying and being oblivious to the fact that we live in momentous times and that we must fight and bleed for the very right to live our lives. I did more than you by donating to NO ON 8, even though I’m a college student in New York. You fools are no better than the religious-right. I hope this teaches you a lesson.
Boycott Utah – RELOCATE THE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL TO DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES, THEATER DISTRICT BEFORE JANARUY, LETS STOP BRINGING TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO MORMONS EVERY JANUARY.
Courtney Love gets confused when she has to get out of bed.
I’d hardly call her a celebrity. But connecting her name and the word “Hole” does see appropriate.
SAY IF WE DID A BLUE FLU KIND OF THING WHERE EVERY GAY PERSON ALL ACROSS THE NATION DID NOT SHOW UP FOR WORK LIKE HAIR DRESSERS, NEWS ANCHORS, POLICE, ETC SEE HOW THAT WOULD EFFECT THE ECONOMIE AND THE NATION AS A WHOLE WE HAVE POWER IF WE CHOOSE TO USE IT IN UNITY….HIT THEM WHERE IT HURTS. JUST A THOUGHT!
Drew Barrymore joined the protest against Prop 8 last night in LA:
http://worldofwonder.net/archives/2008/Nov/09/barrymore_drew_a_crowd.wow
“former Hole frontwoman Courtney Love wrote that the language on the California ballot ‘was confusing and people were voting yes when they meant no or something.’”
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“Shall the California Constitution be changed to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry providing that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California?”
What exactly is confusing about that?
You might think that a leader elected to be a “transformational” president, and who gloated that “change has come to America” might have something constructive to say about the protests and vigils and marches that have been going on for days in reaction to the discriminatory law passed on the same night he was elected. Where’s the leadership? Where’s the change? Where’s Barack?
COME ON HOLLYWOOD -BACK US UP -DONT LET US DOWN !!THANKS!!