Proposition 8: Now What?
The euphoria from the election of Barack Obama hasn't faded yet and each day that we get closer to seeing the last of Bush fills us with excitement. It certainly helps to learn that Obama will be overturning over 200 of Bush's executive orders, he'll be closing Gitmo, and he'll making careful and disciplined appointments. All this while giving people a reason to be involved again.
At the same time we can't help but feel thoroughly disappointed in and angered by the passage of Proposition 8. California has always tried to be at the forefront of personal freedoms and this is a total slap in the face. It's a terrible step backwards and it may take some time to correct this and hopefully we learned a few things
For one thing, the passage of the measure was not by some overwhelming majority so we really need to make sure to get out the vote better among ourselves for next time. Our advertising was too subtle and we needed to put the Yes on 8 people on the defensive rather than doing "victim advertising". We needed to start earlier with our campaign rather than this last push when too many people had decided. We knew the Mormon Church was helping to fund the measure and didn't push back-until now (see below).
All that said, there are some good things to come out of this.
---It has energized the LGBT community and their friends. We're obviously NOT going to give up the fight.
---It looks like the Prop 8 proponents may have overreached legally. It's very possible that the California Supreme Court will overturn it.
Unfortunately not all the companies you list are Mormon owned or operated. Avista Corp has no affiliation with the Mormons or any other church group.
Frankly I think this is an ill conceived idea. You will only be hurting employees of these companies by boycotting them. How many employees do you suppose are part of the GLBT community? Avista certainly does not discriminate on the basis of gender preference, just like we don't discriminate on the basis of religion race, gender etc.
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I think further research needs to be done on these companies to figure out which ones are owned by Mormoms who did NOT contribute to anti-gay legislation and who have a 90 or higher HRC rating. Those companies should not be targeted, even if they are mormon-owned.
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Unfortunately not all the companies you list are Mormon owned or operated. Avista Corp has no affiliation with the Mormons or any other church group.
Frankly I think this is an ill conceived idea. You will only be hurting employees of these companies by boycotting them. How many employees do you suppose are part of the GLBT community? Avista certainly does not discriminate on the basis of gender preference, just like we don't discriminate on the basis of religion race, gender etc.
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Many thanks to those who commented--we've got a follow-up blog coming right up.
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