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Come Let Us Harass Them
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| Parent(s) |
Issue
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| Contributor | Jason |
| Last Edited | Jason Oct 21, 2009 02:46am |
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| Category | Opinion |
| Author | John Fund |
| Media | Newspaper - Wall Street Journal |
| News Date | Tuesday, October 20, 2009 06:50:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Americans claim to favor open and honest debate in the democratic process, but when it comes to gay marriage it appears some proponents would rather intimidate their critics. In Washington State, gay rights groups have demanded public release of the names of 138,000 people who signed a petition to put forward a November ballot measure to protect traditional marriage. The gay groups want to put the names online, which could lead to signers being harassed along the lines of what happened to donors to Proposition 8 in California last year. Yesterday, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who authored the landmark decision overturning state anti-gay laws, nonetheless blocked a federal appeals court ruling that would have allowed release of the names.
The prospect of harassment is real. Last year, activists hounded those who had financially supported California's Proposition 8. Scott Eckern, artistic director of the California Musical Theater in Sacramento, the state's largest nonprofit performing arts company, was forced to resign over his $1,000 donation to the "Yes on 8" campaign. Los Angeles Film Festival Director Richard Raddon was similarly forced to step down. Marjorie Christoffersen, manager of the famous Los Angeles restaurant El Coyote, resigned after her restaurant was subjected to a month of boycotts and demonstrations because she had contributed a mere $100 to the campaign against gay marriage.
Charles Karal Bouley, a former columnist for the gay publication The Advocate, was moved to ask if such measures weren't "overkill" on the part of those angry over Prop 8's passage. "Marjorie Christoffersen had the right to donate $100 to yes on 8," he wrote. "Americans have the right to be wrong. . . . Even Barack Obama said marriage was between a man and a woman at a time when we needed his voice on our side on equality. He let us down, too, remember, and many of you still gave him a job." |
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