LA Times: Protests to be a key test for Proposition 8 opponents [View All]

[bluedawg12]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-prop815-2008nov15,0,897834.story

LA Times Protests to be a key test for Proposition 8 opponents

Rallies will show whether Web activism can be turned into a movement to overturn gay-marriage ban.

By Tony Barboza, Cara Mia DiMassa and Jessica Garrison
November 15, 2008


Over the last 11 days, advocates have used the Web to organize scattered protests at places like the Mormon Temple in Westwood and Sunset Junction in Silver Lake and mount boycotts against businesses that supported Proposition 8. Those efforts snowballed, and marches against the proposition are expected in more than 300 cities across the country.


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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told a Times editorial board meeting Friday that proponents of gay marriage should take the issue again to the California Supreme Court and review the strategies that failed to persuade voters to defeat Proposition 8.


"I can't imagine for them to say anything else but what they've already said, that it's unconstitutional," Schwarzenegger said of the state high court's ruling on earlier barriers to gay marriage. The governor opposed a ban on gay marriage.

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The Los Angeles Police Department said officers will be out in force for Saturday's demonstration at City Hall. Authorities estimate that as many as 40,000 people could attend, more than previous Proposition 8 marches but nowhere near the size of immigration rights protests in 2006.

Organizers have marches planned across the country, from Boston to Anchorage.

Nick Velasquez, a spokesman for the group Freedom Action Inclusion Rights, which was formed last week to organize a march in downtown Los Angeles said that his organization wants to push marchers to think about the future.

"From the streets to strategy, being constructive, not doing things that are counterproductive. . . . There needs to be some thought put into what the next steps are," he said. "Overturning Prop. 8 is the goal."

The burst of activism has some wondering whether this is a temporary phenomenon or the start of real movement.

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]Palmdale resident James Jackson, a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints who gave $1,000 to the Proposition 8 campaign, said he felt that the good works of his church had been forgotten in the midst of attention on the protests about the vote.

"I'm not a bigot," said Jackson, 48. "I want to be a good person. But there are certain things I just don't believe are right."

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Please note the red herring argument, no one is asking his opinion on what is “right” we demand only what is just and fair, namely, justice and human rights.

A great example of an aplogist... "I am not a bigot..." argument.