PROP 8: To protest or not to protest, to litigate or not to litigate
Supporters of equal rights are funneling through the streets in California over the passage of Prop 8. Protestors are even targeting Mormon temples and churches, and litigation is charging that the constitutional revisions are illegal.
However, are civil disobedience, protesting, and litigation the correct actions to take in order to declare rights, and how should they be conducted?
Andrew Sullivan, a prominent gay blogger who married his partner in Massachusetts, is calling for the gay community to “calm down” and to “stop the litigating” over the passage of Prop 8, and Lee Stranahan at The Huffington Post takes a similar position. Stranahan argues that the activists should employ the Obama model, but this isn’t a political race and the rules are somewhat different.
In spite of Sullivan’s and Stranahan’s advice, I believe the gay community and their supporters should be litigating, protesting, and using civil disobedience to facilitate change. Waiting patiently for someone to hand over or declare your rights by not protesting and not litigating the issues are absolutely ridiculous things to do.
According to Dale Carpenter at The Volokh Conspiracy “if marriage had been denied to blacks, Mormons, Catholics, or almost any other group, it’s hard to imagine the reaction would have been as mild as it’s been.” However, Carpenter is worried that if gay-marriage supporters focus too much on the Mormon Church, then the supporters will look anti-religion, since Prop 8 was apparently won by using false anti-religious claims (i.e., churches losing their tax-exempt status).
Ultimately, there is a minority in America that want their rights, and eventually these rights will come. Some images from the uproar are below:
“Those Who HATE R IN THE DARKNESS”
“H8 IS NOT A FAMILY NOR CHRISTIAN VALUE!!!”
“CIVIL RIGHTS SHOULD NOT BE A POPULARITY CONTEST!”
“8 =RELIGION + POLITICS IN BED TOGETHER AGAIN”
“LOVE OVER HATE”
“VOTE TO VOTE NO ON THE MARRIAGE BAN”
“LOVE is THE LAW”
“I HAVE A DREAM TOO”
“I SERVED 2 DEFEND FREEDOM AND EQUALITY!”
“NO ON HATE”
“I WANT 5 WIVES TOO!!!”
“What About Our American Dream?!”
“NO MORE MR. NICE GAY. Equal Rights For All People”
“CIVIL RIGHTS SCOREBOARD” Chickens 1; Gay Marriage 0
“U WANT 6 WIVES. LET ME HAVE 1 HUSBAND.”
“KEEP YOUR MAGIC UNDERWEAR OFF MY HUMAN RIGHTS”
“Just Married 6/17/08; Segregated 11/4/08″
“WTF, California?!?”
—
Photo source for attribution here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. The authors or licensors of these images do not endorse my work or me and their images are protected under an attribution license.
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
For information on Prop 8/Gay Rights boycotts, marches, letter writing campaigns and more, visit kickingalion.wordpress.com.
Simply put – the Mormons have proved with their complete obsession with PROP 8 to be a Tax-Exempt Hate Group.
Heterosexuals – You better wake up. Instead of pondering a cerebral concept like how gays want the “1,138 rights of marriage”, you need to educate yourselves about the CONSEQUENCES when one or more of those 1,138 rights are denied. GOOGLE “Freeheld” or “Tying the Knot”; watch the DVDs. Write it down now.
Your laws HATE us, and we’ve had it! Yes, I did said HATE – I stand by it. Because how else can you explain these 3 realities?:
A police woman loses her life in the line of duty; her wife of 13 years is denied all pension benefits.
A rancher loses his husband of 22 years; his inlaws evict him and try to take the home he built and lived in with his beloved.
A detective spends 25 years risking her own life while protecting society; she has to spend her remaining days on this earth worrying whether her earned pension will be transferred to her wife (while living with terminal cancer).
YES, H-A-T-E. And your silence on this matter is a serious affront to our families’s safety and security. FAMILY – isn’t that a cherished concept in the U.S.A.?
So now after decades of disinterest, some of us in the LGBTI community have AWAKENED. And we will refuse to pay one penny of income tax to the IRS until the government (i.e. – you) decide you WANT our tax dollars as EQUAL CITIZENS.
This ain’t a vote.
This ain’t a debate.
This ain’t a popularity contest.
You will PAY OUR TAXES until we have what your family ALREADY HAS; your apathy is costing you money as you read this.
GAY TAX PROTEST!