Jennifer Kerns was hired last month to the position of Communications Director for the Yes on 8 campaign, the folks behind the California initiative to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry.
Five short years ago, Jennifer Kerns was Vice President of External Affairs for the Orange County Young Republicans. What follows is the tale of two rallies, told in photos from two events that Ms. Kerns organized back in the days before gay marriage had emerged as the primary threat to our republic.
Schubert Flint Public Affairs has been hired to run the Yes on Prop. 8 ("Protect Marriage") initiative. If you've happened to notice the names Jennifer Kerns, Frank Schubert, or Jeff Flint in media coverage of California's Proposition 8 initiative, that would be because they all work for Schubert Flint.
After the break, I've posted an invitation from Schubert Flint Public Affairs to join them for an Open House on August 14th to celebrate the opening of their new Irvine office.
For reasons of my own (also posted after the break), my initial impulse when I saw this invitation was not to RSVP, but rather, to wonder if some other response might not be more appropriate for such an event? What would you suggest?
According to local pastor Wiley Drake, the 5.8 earthquake that hit Southern California on Tuesday was not just one of those typical seismic events that take place with some regularity in these parts, but it was "Another queer quake trying to get California's attention." Apparently, the Lord is mad about the legalization of gay marriage in the state. He can't be that mad, given that the quake didn't cause any death or much destruction, but Rev. Drake offers a warning: "We had better listen. 5.8 this time what is next!?"
Drake is something of a caricature of a religious right figure, so it's not fair to depict his crude opposition to gay marriage as typical of that found in Orange County's conservative evangelical communities, but ultimately most opponents of gay marriage rely on their Scriptural interpretations to justify it. Foes of gay marriage are backing a November initiative, Prop. 8, which would insert these words in the state constitution: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognized in California."
As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I support same-sex marriages.
Even though I don't understand homosexuals, I support their rights as human beings. God created them, just as he did everyone else, but he endowed them with different feelings of attraction and intimacy.
All humans, regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation, deserve the same protection and rights under the law.
Married heterosexual couples are protected in issues of joint ownership, government or workplace benefits, and making life and death decisions for a spouse, and it is discriminatory to judge a person unworthy of these same rights simply because of who they are.
Being different should never be the core issue when determining if someone is worthy of being treated as an equal child of God. Jesus taught us to love one another, to bear one another's burdens, to visit the sick, the poor and the fatherless. Never has he charged us to reject anyone.
When we tell someone they are unworthy of the same human rights and protections we enjoy simply because they live and act differently than we do, I wonder if Jesus is pleased with how we are handling this issue.
A recent post over at Pam's House Blend notes the sudden departure of one of the more "interesting" voices from the Yes on 8 side of the Prop 8 battle:
"I no longer feel comfortable being allied with the people running the Prop. 8 campaign ... I have made a tentative decision not to publicize the disturbing information that caused me to end my promotion of man-woman marriage in the United States. But there is very little that I know about those subjects that a journalist, blogger, or activist cannot find out through diligent googling ..."
-- former proprietor of the disturbing blog "Gays Defend Marriage," David Benkof to Truth Wins Out's Wayne Besen, July 14
A journalist, blogger or activist I may not be, but a googler? Pardon me, but as Harvey Lime might say ... googling is my forte.
