I don’t currently have an official statement or website to link to. I will come up with something, that’s a good idea.

So far I’ve written to all of the MCC church addresses I could get online, which was quite a few. I agree that religious groups might be especially into the Thanksgiving Thank You idea.

I don’t know if there’s time to reach out to all of the faith-based groups that opposed Prop. 8 before Thanksgiving, but if you are willing to work on a list of groups and their e-mails, it would be really helpful. My wife and I are keen on reaching out to gay-friendly religious groups, since it seems to us that they are in a good position to reach out to religious groups that aren’t gay-friendly. So we would be able to use your list for future actions, after Thanksgiving has passed.

So yes, thanks, if you can put together such a list it would be great! Meanwhile I can go to the website of the larger groups, like the Unitarian Church, and e-mail their various ministers or staff.

I’ve also been writing to people who are organizing rallies around Thanksgiving time and suggesting carrying signs thanking our supporters.

I see what you mean about the Random Visitor. They probably kept scrolling down through the Honor Roll to get to the links to Elected Officials, Businesses, etc. and then they ran into the comments section, which does have some nasty comments in it. Actually, I sent a friend of mine to your site and she looked at the list of who had supported Yes on 8 and came away all hot under the collar about that! Well, what can you do? (About the lists of Elected Officials, etc. — now that you have so many names on your Honor Roll, you might consider moving the links to those lists to the top of the Honor Roll. Some visitors probably miss the links to these lists because they don’t scroll down far enough, especially once they start running across video clips. Just a thought.)

One final note. I posted my Thanksgiving idea to the Join the Impact web site. Someone posted a reply with the suggestion of creating a web page where people could thank our supporters — kind of like a big cyber Thank You card. I thought I would run this idea by you. I think it would be important to moderate it so that people couldn’t post anything negative — it would be ONLY about thanking people. Since you have a web site — something I’ve never done — do you have any thoughts about this idea? Is it the kind of thing that could be linked to your Honor Roll page, and if so, would you be interested in doing that? Or is that crazy? If a lot of people wanted to post to it, it would be a lot of work to moderate all their remarks.

Best Wishes and thanks for your help!
Lynne

All of you do yourselves a favor. Using Craigslist, check the overall tone of ::

Norcal Bay Area ‘Rants’n'Raves’ and then… Los Angeles RnR…

You will find [and also on Facebook, etc] than the bay area folks are a LOT more militant on both sides. The hate and epithets on both sides will make your toes curl compared to the relative blasé that is LA.

Most of the vandalism *I* read about happened up there and in the Central Valley [Churches defaced and pastors getting crank calls, this was on the local tv news up here]…

I guess you Angelinos are a lot more laid back…. *sigh* Sorry, just trying to be objective [tho' not very 'scientific']…

-Drunkio

0/ [had to make a zero] Many of us who voted for 8 did so after some agonizing, and not even for god or whatever. If you’ve BEEN married ’straight’ you might understand. We also have a LOT of gay friends, some of whom privately say.. we want to be together, but our way.. and marriage is the only way to describe it

1/ Straight marriage != Gay Marriage. Why do you even need the word in a state/legal context? What you need is the *benefits* and your own *identity* out of it.

2/ What gays should have gays should define, not put in ’straight terms’. And they should be equivalent in every way to what straight couples have. That’s what the Germans and French have done. And there’s acceptance over there.

3/ The straight folks I know don’t want gay values crammed down their throat[s]. Is that too much to ask outside the bay area? When you say ‘gay marriage’ it’s like anti-matter to straights. It’s like saying ’straight’ [insert unique gay thing here] and sounds just as ludicrous… hope you can understand that. When you throw around oxymorons, or the like it just comes off like agenda.

4/ Seriously, cut it out with the lists. They *do* contribute to hate on both sides. And yes, I’ve read accounts of vandalism and threats on both sides. Do you really think you’re making any converts? Face it, are you really that vengeful? Me, I’m gonna roll my eyes, still get power from PG&E, still buy Apple, etc. Oh, and the Nazis used to make lists. And check them twice.

5/ Learn from Germany, among other places. VERY gay friendly. Didn’t use the courts but took the cause to the people, and have REAL acceptance there. My German friends [gay and straight] think we’re like orangutans and the USA is the freaking planet of the apes. Or were the gorillas the dumb ones. I forget.

Sorry, that was more than a couple things. And yes, you can call me a bigot, h8tr, blah, but I believe in the Plantinum Rule, and not the Golden one. Gays need their own identity, their own thing. I don’t think ‘marriage’, loaded as the word is, quite fits in the USA, just yet. It does in other places where they can have rational convos without getting hippity hoppity mad / sue happy / threatening with each other.

-Drunkio

And I think we’ve seen enough of that all around. Ghod, what a waste of time and money. I guess we should set up a trust fund and FEED PEOPLE next time [not try and preach/convert either way].

I’ll be happy post your idea. Do you have any kind of ‘official’ statement, or a link I can direct people to?

Also, I have a suggestion and a task I’m willing to volunteer for if you’re interested. I have a huge list of churchs & other faith based organizations that supported the No on 8 campaign. Would you like me to pull together a mailing list for you – including email addresses if I can find them? I’d be happy to do that if it would be helpful. It seems like those groups would be most interested in participating in some way.

Also, there is a comment from a “random visitor” above. I think he was directed to my site through whatever mailing you sent out. I felt really bad about what he said and provided, I hope, a justification for why I’ve chosen to moderate my blog the way I do. Anyway, some of the negative comments I receive can be tough to read, and I don’t allow them “lightly.” I just wanted you to be aware you might get some feedback about this.

Peace!
Diane

Glad you like the Thanksgiving Thank You idea. If you could make my comment into a post to make it more visible, that would be great. I’ve posted the idea to the Join the Impact web site and have e-mailed several MCC churches about it. I’ll keep trying to spread the word. I’m grateful to have your site to refer people to — most of us have no idea who all of our supporters are! Next I’ll have to start tracking down some addresses for public figures that people want to write to in order to express their thanks.

I think that the media have tended to be on our side in their reports about the recent Prop. 8 actions. However, they like to have conflict in their stories, and because of this I think they are putting out some “Us vs. Them” messages that aren’t fair or helpful — e.g., “gays vs. religious people” or “gays vs. blacks.” Plenty of gay people are also religious or black or religious AND black, for one thing. And there are plenty of black straight people and religious straight people who are opposed to discrimination against gays. I’m really ready to see a big rally filled with signs that say “Thank You, Samuel L. Jackson, for your support!” and “Thank You, All Saints Episcopal Church!” and “Viva Dolores Huerta!”

Lucy Lawless is pretty darn cool too!

Best wishes,
Lynne