Reply #41: Allow me to educate you. [View All]

[Sapphocrat]

I maintain Base8, a searchable database of donors to all publicly-known, anti-gay ballot measures (CA Prop 8, AZ Prop 102, FL Amendment 2, ME Q1, and more).

The completed categories we've released so far are few, because we take great pains to research every record in order to present the most accurate information available.

With that disclaimer aside, let's talk about the "morality" of exposing anti-civil rights bigots.

I won't even touch the effectiveness of the Montgomery Bus Boycott (nor the way DUers generally salute it as among the finest forms of exercising First Amendment rights). Rather, I'll just quote the http://news.lavenderliberal.com/base8-faq/">Base8 FAQ (which I wrote, so I can quote as much of it as I like):

Q. Why are you doing this?

A. Because a lot of people — mainly those of us who have been harmed, badly, and in real and measurable ways — want to know who is funding our oppression, and who is helping further the recognition of our equality.

We were (and continue to be) profoundly affected by Proposition 8, and by the continuing tide of anti-gay legislation and bigotry across the United States. We’re tired of funding our own oppression by giving our money to people who turn around and donate it to anti-gay ballot measures, anti-gay causes, anti-gay organizations, anti-gay political parties, and anti-gay politicians. We know there are many millions of people just like us, and that is why we created Base8.

Ultimately, Base8 forces bigots to be honest with their clientele. They will no longer be able to smile at their gay customers and clients, take their gay money, and then use it to fund laws that keep LGBT people second-class citizens. They’ll have to drop the pretense that they “love” gay people while they actively work to deny us equal rights.

They can’t have it both ways. They can’t pretend LGBT people don’t deserve equal rights while expecting us to still be their customers, clients and “friends.” If they want our support, they cannot treat us as their inferiors.

. . .

We just want to know that if we go to Restaurant XYZ, we can avoid being served by the one person in the place who contributed to stripping us of our equal rights. (Not only do we not want to give someone like that our money, but if somebody is that homophobic, we don’t want to worry about them spitting — or worse — in our food. Seriously.)

Mind you, we don’t boycott entire companies just because one low-level employee donated to hate. When we decide whether or not to do business with a company, we take into consideration the position(s) of the donor(s), how many donors there are (on each side of the war), and, of course, whether or not the company itself has a good (or bad) track record of diversity and inclusion.

For example, you’ll find a large number of law firms with great diversity policies (which we recognize and detail here), but which, sadly, employ a few anti-gay lawyers. Naturally, we would definitely do business with a LGBT-supportive law firm, but we’d never want to use an anti-gay lawyer. (Again, not only would we not want to give him or her our money, but we would never have complete trust or confidence such a person would handle our affairs with our best interest at heart.)

We also wouldn’t boycott a hospital with one anti-gay doctor — we just wouldn’t want that doctor sticking his hands in our bodies.

One thing that will prompt us to write off an entire company is an anti-gay donation (or other anti-gay activism) on the part of a business owner, company executive, director, major stockholder, or other person of great influence or benefit. Two of the first examples that come to mind: Doug Manchester’s hotel operations, and Cinemark (Century, CinéArts, and Tinseltown Theater movie theatre chains).

. . .

As far as we’re concerned, a donation is nothing more than a statement of support for a cause. The amount does not matter; the donor is on record as denying us our birthright as American citizens.

. . .

Q. You’re making us targets! You want to intimidate us!

A. That’s not our intent. In fact, we explicitly warn visitors to Base8 that we neither advocate nor condone any malicious behavior on their part with any information they find here. Do not use any of the information from Base8 to stalk, harass, intimidate or otherwise harm any person(s) or property. If you do so, you do it without our support or consent. Furthermore, we fully support any legal actions taken by those physically or materially harmed by any individual using information found here.

That said: We wish merely to provide LGBT individuals and their supporters the opportunity to stop funding their own oppression. For years we have been giving our hard-earned cash to people who then turn around and use it to fund anti-gay legislation like Proposition 8. We don’t have to do that any longer. We have other options.

And since our votes don’t seem to matter, our choice is to vote with our wallets.

Q. Boycotts are illegal/immoral/McCarthyism!

A. Boycotts are a perfectly legal consumer action which involve individuals or groups voluntarily abstaining from buying products or using the services of a particular business, often for political reasons. Probably the most famous boycott is the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-56). No one is legally obligated to patronize any particular business.

Q. You’re destroying my/our livelihood!

A. Like anyone else, we have the right to determine where we spend our money. If we discover that certain individuals to whom we give our money are using that money against us — funneling it into anti-gay legislation, for example — we have every right to choose not to give them our money. Just as you have the right to fund whatever ballot initiatives you wish, we have the right to stop funding our own oppression and destruction.

In our opinion, if your actions cause people to stop patronizing your business, you’re destroying your own livelihood.

Q. You’re targeting us for defending marriage / participating in democracy / standing up for what we believe in / etc.!

A. You can “defend marriage” / participate in democracy / stand up for what you believe in / etc., all you want. You have every right to do so and nobody is stopping you. However, some people are choosing to stop funding your efforts with their money, and we are merely providing them information which will assist them in doing so… or not, as they prefer. We’re not demanding anyone boycott anything. It’s still (last time we checked) a free country.

Q. How dare you put my information online? This is an invasion of my privacy!

A. We didn’t. Every last piece of information you see in Base8 was already online, and publicly accessible. We merely gathered it all from various sources and put it into Base8.

If you have a problem with that, we suggest you take it up with the many sources the information came from — public donor records from the state, school alumni records, your church newsletters, etc., etc., etc.

Besides, if you don’t have anything to hide, what are you worried about?

And if you’re ashamed of donating to bigotry, or feel remorse, maybe you should have thought about that before you made your donation. (But congratulations on feeling shame or remorse — that’s a sign there’s hope for you!)

Q. How would you like it if someone made a database with all of the “No on 8″ people in it?

A. Go ahead. The donor information for Proposition 8 is available at cal-access.ss.ca.gov/…, and the donor information for every other anti-gay ballot measure of note here can be found in Our Sources . If you want to spend some 18 hours a day, seven days a week for the next year extracting the records, formatting them into something readable, and researching every last one, nobody is stopping you. Knock yourself out.

. . .

Q. Why can’t you respect our privacy?

A. We’re the ones who should be asking you that question: Why can’t you respect our privacy, and butt out of our lives?

In any case, per California law (and the law of all other states whose anti-gay donors are listed here), in a voter-approved initiative, donations to ballot initiatives are not a private matter.

As U.S. District Judge Morrison England said: “If there ever needs to be sunshine on a particular issue, it’s a ballot measure.”

The People — and, like it or not, we are “The People” just as much as you are (even if we don’t get to vote on your marriage… yet) — deserve to know who is funneling money into these measures.

. . .

More at the http://news.lavenderliberal.com/base8-faq/">Base8 FAQ.

Any questions?