Vote for Equality is working to change that with a bold, smart social science experiment. So many people wailed, “What were they thinking?” after the Prop 8 results that Vote for Equality decided to find out.

Vote for Equality is the organizing arm of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, and with the help of dozens of volunteers, they are organizing a “1,000-hour conversation” – one-on-one conversations with California residents to find out what people really think about gay marriage through door-to-door canvassing and phone banking.

By studying the conversations we have, we can gain insight about what really moves people and learn how to make future campaigns more effective.

The canvassing is combined with a fascinating look at ad campaigns from past ballot initiatives. Taking a hard, honest look at what has and hasn’t worked in the past will help us make more persuasive campaigns in the future.

One of the most important focuses of the messaging trainings is on understanding the point of view of the opposition or the undecided voter. Ads that move us won’t necessarily reach someone outside the community.

A voter who is strongly opposed to gay marriage won’t respond to an ad that just tells her she’s wrong – she’ll probably just dig her heels in even harder. And a voter who isn’t tuned in to the gay marriage debate won’t necessarily be moved by things that are meaningful to those of us who are.

Reaching that tuned-out or undecided voter is tricky. It’s important to have a clear message – and to repeat it. A voter who half-sees a commercial while he’s making dinner and talking on the phone needs to see it five to ten times before the message really sinks in.

And about those messages…

Fleischer and Clemente’s first session focused on contrasting the ads the GLBT community tends to use with the ads of anti–gay marriage activists. Ads for our team tend to be focused on fairness and rationality, because duh: If you really think it out, same-sex marriage bans make no sense.

Unfortunately, the other side bypasses the brain and goes straight for the gut and the adrenal glands. Our commercials sit the voter down for a nice chat over a cup of herbal tea. The other side grabs him by the lapels and starts screaming about how the gays are going legally force him to turn his church into a venue for naked gay circuit parties and there is NOTHING HE’LL BE ABLE TO DO ABOUT IT.

And with a lot of voters, that wins. You can’t think rationally when you’re panicking. It’s like asking someone to finish up her taxes before dealing with the zombie attack.

Ads from anti–gay marriage forces tend to focus on loss of control (“It will be illegal for your church to voice its views on homosexuality”) and wide-eyed children being turned gay by storybooks. In other words, they jab at the voter’s instincts to defend his rights and protect the innocent.

Both of those themes come up over and over, so we need to stop being surprised by them and deliver quick responses. And since the other side is already working of the voter’s emotions, it might be time to be less afraid of using emotional messages ourselves.

We don’t have to whip up the hysteria any further, but getting people in touch with a different set of feelings can’t hurt. In training for door-to-door canvassing, we learned to talk about personal experiences rather than falling back on detached logical arguments. It’s scarier, yes, but it does get the conversation going.

Perhaps the hardest – and most interesting – challenge is learning to empathize the voters who are against gay marriage. As hurtful as they’ve been to the LGBT community, most of them don’t wake up in the morning thinking, “Myoohoohahaha! Can’t wait to get started on the oppressing!” And most would be offended at the suggestion that they’re bigots.

Starting a debate by jabbing a finger in someone’s face and telling that he’s wrong and an awful person will cause him to shut down. It certainly won’t help him change his mind.

As hard as it is sometimes, we need to assume the best and give people credit for being the good people they are sincerely trying to be. That’s when we can get a real dialogue going instead of just a slogan-shouting competition.

There are a lot of questions to be answered – and hours and hours of conversations to go – but Vote for Equality is making some exciting progress toward creating clear, direct, honest messages that can help change minds.

On the other hand, what if we made a really awesome commercial about a storm instead?

To learn more or volunteer for Vote for Equality, contact the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center.

Charlie Davies, 23, died in hospital 12 days after the attack last June.

His ex-lover, Nadim Kurrimbukus, 25, and a second man, Yusuf Dulloo, 27, are charged with murder.

After the arrests, Kurrimbukus denied the attack and Dulloo said he only drove Kurrimbukus to Davies’ home.  But Dulloo then told police, according to one of the investigators, that the following day when they met up Kurrimbukus said he had “lit the guy.”

Dulloo allegedly told police that when they arrived near Davies’ home, Kurrimbukus got out, asked Dulloo to wait for him, then took something out of the trunk of the car.

According to the police account of Dulloo’s questioning he said: “I’m listening to the radio and then I hear kind of like a scream… then he comes back and he is like as if he has been running. But I didn’t account that to anything to do with the screaming.”

Under police questioning Kurrimbukus denied Dulloo’s account. Kurrimbukus said he only went to Davies’ home to collect a phone charger.

Earlier in the trial one of Davies’ neighbors described seeing her neighbor engulfed in a “big ball of fire”.

The woman, whose name is being withheld for her own safety, said that she was coming home and as she approached Davies’ home she heard screams and saw him stumbling down his driveway on fire.

She also testified that she saw a man running down a nearby alley.

“He covered his face, first of all he had his hood up, he had sunglasses on and then he had something covering the from the tip of his nose across the face,” she told the court.

She said she and other neighbors called for help but Davies had suffered massive burns.

The prosecution claims that Davies was murdered by Kurrimbukus in revenge for the break-up of their two-year affair.

Rachel gave us a quick rundown of the more hypocritical grandstanders, including Senator Mitch McConnell, who – Oopsie! – opposed executive pay limits in the bailout.

She also called out Senator Bob Corker, who I must defend because his name is Bob Corker. Clearly he is not a real person. He is a high-living, bathtub-gin-drinking, dim-but-lovable character in a Roaring 20’s novel, and thus cannot be expected to understand the ramifications of financial deregulation and collapse.

Rachel pointed out that the argument for deregulation is that it generates wealth. (Well, as long as you count temporary fake “wealth” based on wild overvaluing and the assumption that what goes up will never come down. You’re better off investing in Leprechaun gold.) But the fake wealth gets skimmed off and pocketed by the guys at the top right before the wealth in your pension fund turns back into gumdrops.

David Weidner of Marketwatch believes that re-regulation will happen, but explained that there’s a lot of flow between Washington regulators and Wall Street guys.

Rachel wondered who has the financial chops to regulate without being “infected by Wall street culture,” and spreadsheet action star and attempted Bernie Madoff whistleblower Harry Markopolos came up. YES!!! I want to see Markopolos kicking in some doors.

Scrub. Rinse. Repeat.
The new administration got used to it! President Obama endorsed the U.N. declaration for the decriminalization of homosexuality.

President Bush refused to sign the declaration because he was so terribly, terribly concerned about States’ Rights. Yes, I recall Bush’s deep personal commitment to decentralizing power.

This Way Out?
Rachel reported that the military is no longer banning the media from covering the flag-draped coffins of fallen soldiers and is cutting way down on the Hotel California system of military retention.

So everything’s gonna be cool now as we ramp our military forces down and… Oh, right. Afghanistan.

Nobody knows what’s up with Obama’s Afghaniplan yet. He’s taking some heat for that, but I’m glad he’s not dashing off a quick ‘n’ easy response for the nation that specializes in sending major world empires home broke, weeping, and unable to stop chasing the dragon.

Combat journalist Dexter Filkins joined Rachel to totally bum you out about how long this is going to take to untangle. He also talked about how ludicrously corrupt Afghanistan’s government is at every single level.

Rod Blagojevich? I think I hear the next phase of your political career calling.

Ms. Information
Sure, the government of Afghanistan may be corrupt, but for sheer for Wild West craziness, Russia will really give you a run for your money. “Vote for Lugovoi and Maybe He Won’t Give You Radiation Poisoning” isn’t a pithy campaign slogan, but it tests well across an unusually wide range of demographics.

Rachel also gave us a list of members of the Bush administration who have been sent to the slammer. So far they’ve made it up to eight. Only 130 to go to match the Reagan administration! We miss you, Gipper!

The Conservadems are back! Because there is no better time to oppose your party’s policies than when it is finally popular and in a position to actually get laws passed. Did you guys hire AIG’s PR firm?

Never forget: If you really piss her off, Rachel will put your name on the Crawl of Shame.

“Evil People”
Dick Cheney continues to fill his new-found free time by visiting the home of every single American to lurk under the bed and whisper hints of doom just as they’re falling asleep.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson has had enough of this and several other varieties of bullpuckey. Wilkerson is the former chief of staff to Colin Powell and five-time Grand Champion of the national Sound Just Like Everyone Hopes a Real Colonel Will Sound Contest. Enjoy.

GOP in Exile
George W. Bush is writing a book on his toughest decisions, so that there will be “an authoritarian voice” saying what happened.

I guess he’s better with the nuances of big words than we thought.

Heroes
Rachel went power-mad and scored an interview with Chad Lindsey, genuine hero and off-Broadway actor with the happiest agent in the whole wide world.

Lindsey was humble about his amazing rescue, wisely avoiding the Peter Brady swelled-head trap. He was also agreeably honest about the fact that it all happened so fast that he didn’t remember a lot of it.

Take those upcoming roles and enjoy the hell out of them, Mr. Lindsey. You’ve more than earned them. And in the meantime, enjoy Rachel’s frank admiration of people who do good things. Aww.

Until tomorrow, remember that not everyone can be a hero, but it’s easy to become someone’s grinder.

And don’t forget to check under your bed with a flashlight before you go to sleep.

…Except for the part where the Obama administration is still trying to hold people in custody indefinitely without trial. Huh? Oppression? Medieval Europe?

Maybe he’s trying to illustrate the importance of health care reform by giving us all debilitating mood swings.

Rachel Nerds Out Harder Than She’s Ever Nerded
Rachel recognized the Congressional recognition of Pi Day, noting that one of the votes against was due to the reasoning that pi should go on forever.

Sensing that a geek gauntlet had been thrown (it looks a lot like an electrician’s glove), Rachel upped the ante and calculated when Pi Second would be.

Ms. Maddow, I usually have great respect for you and your show, but all this talk about pi is just shameless ratings grabbing. If I see one word about Avogadro Salad Days, I will be forced to consider other networks.

Still Going
After her exhilarating pi rush, Rachel further strengthened her powers by running the MSNBC Election Theme. Did you see her eyes? I’m pretty sure that if she’d tried just as the last note played, she could have broken a brick with her forehead.

Anyway, things are still enjoyably nuts in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Lawyers for Norm Coleman and Al Franken have given their final arguments, and any day now we’ll know who gets to be the second Senator for Minnesota and who gets thrown to the Ice Monsters so that spring may come.

As you may know, Coleman’s campaign had been soliciting heavily for donors to keep the court battle going. Select donors were rewarded with a public acknowledgement of their gifts, complete with their personal information and credit card numbers.

Coleman has made a few dark hints about evil hackers trying to do him political harm, but the supercool Adria Richards of butyoureagirl.com came on the show to simultaneously defuse that rumor and make that one nerve in your cheek start twitching by pointing out that your personal information is in convenient, easy-to-reach places all over the ‘Net.

Ms. Information
Freshman Florida Congressman Bill Posey is a “Birther”. Which sounds like the same thing as a breeder, but really only is about 98.3% of the time.

Birthers don’t believe that President Obama was actually born in the United States, because nobody has ever seen his birth certificate! Except for the part where the State of Hawaii released it online! But that can’t possibly be real, because… Actually, I’m not up on why Birthers don’t think it’s real. A lack of telltale poi stains? Or is it just what the Lectroids from Planet 10 told them, and theirs is not to question why?

Rachel responded with a one-two punch of a genius hyphenate and a Lyndon LaRouche reference. I told you the election theme made her stronger!

She talked about the Jim Cramer–Jon Stewart fight, which she enjoyed as much as you did. No, I don’t mind if you click over there and watch it again.

This Way Out
Rachel knows that nothing fires up your Friday night clubbing like some sobering perspective on the situation in Afghanistan.

Leslie Gelb of the New York Times joined Rachel to make damn sure that you stayed in and listened to that Top 100 Dirges playlist on your iPod instead.

Persian Grapplers
The U.S. participated in a 10-nation wrestling tournament in Iran and I cannot believe that Rachel did not take the chance to mention our disappointed badminton team, who had to fly home with their shuttlecocks in their hands.

Iran won more matches, but they also wrestle under some crazy rules where you can’t jump off of anything or throw chairs.

Hope Floats
Shepard Fairey stopped by! He chatted with Rachel about being brought up on graffiti charges, which sucks in the short-term because he doesn’t seem to have done it, but in the long run probably cements his place in the Outlaw Artist pantheon.

They also talked about the fight over the AP photo by Manny Garcia which, yeah, does look juuuuuust a bit like the Hope poster. I can see both sides of that argument, and it’s making my default Defend the Creative Guy circuits melt.

Cocktail Moment
The Web is 20 years old! Only 25 more years until it starts being mildly less interested in nudity and guys getting racked while trying to skateboard down railings!

2008: The fight for gay marriage takes two steps forward, three steps back, with the emotions especially high in California.
365gay News is counting down the top gay news stories of ‘08. Here are # 4 and # 3.

A multi-millionaire, Gaydamak is considered a dark horse in the campaign to lead the city. He currently is placed third in public opinion polls.

Gaydamak told an audience at a hospital he owns that he is prepared to lie down on the road and risk death to prevent the parade from taking place.

Nevertheless, he said he was not homophobic, telling supporters that gays are a part of society and must be accepted. He said his objections to the parade were based on religious concerns because Jerusalem is considered holy to Jews, Christians and Moslems.

This year’s gay pride parade went ahead despite attempts by the city to get an injunction blocking it.  The Supreme Court denied the injunction in June.

More than three-thousand people marched through the city, guarded by some 2,000 police.

At one point a small group of haredi, the ultra-Orthodox sect that disrupted pervious pride celebrations, were blocked by police from coming close to the parade route. One protestor was arrested. 

Last year, moments before the gay pride march was to begin in Jerusalem, police arrested a man carrying a homemade bomb. Police said the 32 year old said he planned to detonate it near the parade route to scare people away.

The arrest was one of nearly 200 as members of the haredi rioted for several days leading up to the parade. Garbage cans were set on fire and stones thrown at police.  Twenty-two officers were reportedly injured.

Last year some 7,000 police – many brought in from other cities – were stationed along the gay pride parade route, far outnumbering the the marchers estimated at about 1,000.

At one point police rerouted about 500 haredim armed with eggs and bags of excrement. At another point on the parade route, only a few blocks long, protestors tried to pour cooking oil on the road so marchers would slip and fall.

The 2006 pride march was cancelled following a week of rioting in Jerusalem by the haredi.

Thousands of sect members took to the streets for a week, setting fires and injuring more than a dozen people.

Instead of holding a march, Open House held a pride concert and celebration at Hebrew University where anyone entering the grounds was checked by police. There were no incidents.

In 2005 the parade was marred by violence. More than a than a dozen protestors were arrested and three people were stabbed.

Almost 1,000 protestors lined the parade route. Bottles of urine and bags containing feces were hurled at marchers.

Shortly after the parade began Shai Schlissel, a haredi member, rushed into the marchers on Ben Yehuda Street stabbing a man and a woman.

Others in the parade attempted to subdue him. The third victim was a marcher who went to the aid of the other two victims. Schlissel is in prison for the attack.