Serious question. Is this article why there was little to no outreach among groups which voted against Prop 8? Is this article also a clue into what was behind the virulant and vehement anti-black rhetoric immediately following Prop 8?
Following excerpts from San Francisco Gate article : Wealthy Gay Men Fund Majority of Prop 8 Opposition (by John Wildermuth, Chronicle Staff Writer)
My immediate reaction was: hello to the new boss, same as the old boss.
A handful of the nation's wealthiest gay men pumped more than $4.5 million into the campaign against Prop. 8, part of a flood of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender money that accounted for more than half the $38 million raised in the unsuccessful effort to block the same-sex marriage ban in California.
Why wasn't those gay men's race mentioned? Was this a true rainbow coalition? or a white one?
Also, only one man's religion was mentioned -- and that was the ex-Mormon Bruce Bastian. What were the religions of the men who donated, since this is also boiling into a religious issue. They can't all be atheists or agnostics...... can they?
Can't one be religious and gay?
More importantly (for me), only TWO women were mentioned! Former San Francisco city Supervisor Roberta Achtenberg ($250), and Comedian Ellen DeGeneres ($100,000). Why is this important to me? Because Melissa Etheridge wants to talk smack about not paying taxes since Prop 8 passed -- but where is her name and her donation listed? It isn't.
I'm pulling up People Magazine and reading of Etheridge prostituting her voice at an October Prop 8 fundraiser, "Etheridge offered to sing for a donor in return for a $50,000 donation to the cause." A couple took her up on it. Her personal donation is not up at her website, though it does speak of donations made from album sales to breast cancer awareness.
Are lesbians and their contributions not important enough to mention?? Particularly since the author took the time to mention a speck in the eye $250 donation. Is the author trying to make a point only about gay men? Just how big is the economic divide between lesbians and gay men?
"It's the people who are affected who get involved, and you'll always find a few people with deep pockets taking the lead," (Edwin Bender, executive director of the National Institute on Money in State Politics) said. "Ballot measures are direct democracy at its purest, and when you talk about issues like ... marriage rights, it becomes very personal."
That's all well and good. But what happens when direct democracy says 'eff you' -- as it did on Prop 8?
To me, it's an incongruity to appear to praise direct democracy............ and then fight the results of that direct democracy. Which is it? Is it only direct democracy when you like the results?
It wasn't all big donors. San Francisco City Treasurer Jose Cisneros gave $1,000, while former city Supervisor Roberta Achtenberg donated $250. Campaign sources estimated that more than half of No on Prop. 8's 100,000 donors gave less than $100.
It only had 100,000 donors??! No way! but later in the article, a source says No on Prop 8 averaged $500,000 DAILY in donations towards the end.
What happened towards the end that rich gay folks decided to put their money down? Was there a catalyst within the affluent gay community which wasn't there earlier?
Also, (and I mention this because the class issue that's being revealed, particularly in regards to the difference between how the gay struggle is handled and how the black, brown and red struggles are handled) I don't know what to make of the 'Super Friends Homosexual Justice League' (as it is named in the article) rolling around the country donating BIG money to issues from state to state.
At the end of the day, Bill Cosby and Barack Obama -- and Clarence Thomas -- will still have trouble hailing down a cab in certain parts of the nation no matter how much money they make or high they rise. They can't hide. The struggle is external as well as internal.
How much of that money goes to outreach to non-gays in those states the Super Friends Homosexual Justice League rolls through? you know, so that it's not just 'folks from outside' making decisions for the people who actually live in a state.
How much of that Super Friends money reaches gays of color and issues relating to gays of color?
How much of that money reaches poor gays and issues specifically relating to poor gays?
Finally, if the movement and its money are dominated by wealthy white men who aren't religious and don't reach folks who aren't wealthy, white, male, and/or less-than-religious....... even when folks who aren't wealthy, white, male and/or less-than-religious may want the same results.... what's the point?