At a discouraging moment in the long brutal struggle to end Jim Crow, Martin Luther King, Jr. said in one of his most brilliant speeches, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it curves toward justice." On this day where all progressives mourn another close loss on whether gays and lesbians will have equal rights in this country, that speech gives me comfort not only because of it's eloquence but because history has shown it's truth.
This country has seen a lot of terrible things in our history - slavery, Jim Crow, the horrendous treatment of Native Americans, the long term discrimination against women, the ill-treatment of immigrants - but we have also made incredible progress and overcome many setbacks. What was incredibly controversial not very long ago is widely and comfortably held public opinion today. When King gave that speech 5 decades ago, he was one of the most controversial people in America. Today, he is a national icon with his birthday a national holiday.
To my friends in the LGBT community, I say this with confidence: your time is coming, and coming soon. History and demographics are on your side, and we are close to the tipping point. With more strongly pro-equality young people coming into the electorate every year, we will very soon start winning these ballot fights by narrow margins rather than losing them, and with each passing year we will start winning them with higher and higher percentages. 20 years from now, I believe that gay marriage will be as widely accepted as ending Jim Crow or having women work outside of home are today. You can hold your heads up with pride for having fought so hard now, because you are laying the groundwork for true equality soon- not soon enough, but it is on the way.
It is a terrible hurt for a majority of voters to say that discrimination is okay. But that bigotry is getting eroded every single day. Never give up, and never give in. Keep fighting that long good fight, because the arc of the moral universe curves toward justice, and it is curving your way soon.
Since I've arrived here in Maine, I've been intrigued at the element of religion in the debate, religious activism around marriage equality. Earlier this month, Nate Silver calculated that support a marriage ban rises on a one-to-one level with religiosity in a state. Maine is the third-least religious state in the Nation, according to Gallup, so he argued that bodes well for our prospects.
I don't doubt the statistical analysis, but what I think is being missed is the element in which people of faith mobilize to support marriage equality.
On Thursday, I went to a packed-to-the-walls talk by Bishop Gene Robinson in the Cathedral of St. Luke's here in Portland, where he spoke movingly about Question 1. Yesterday, I went to a large march that concluded with a several-hundred person rally in a Unitarian Universalist Church in the afternoon (this is on a Sunday afternoon in the rain in seemingly a Patriots-rabid area).
What amazed me was the degree to which people of every faith had turned out for this campaign. Nearly every religious creed was represented. I spoke with a number of people at the rally who self-identified as regular worshipers and people of faith- those would respond affirmatively to the Gallup question. But they were not only against Question 1, they were activists.
I talked with Pastor Stephen Carnahan of The Open House United Church of Christ in Portland, who MC'ed the rally:
The United Church of Christ of which I'm a part, and the Unitarian Universalist churches, we've been out on front of this issue for some time, so there's been a groundswell of support among progressive Christians in the Maine community... the Catholic Church and some of the conservative Protestant chruches, progressive Protestants on the other. There are a LOT of progressive Protestants in this area, though, so it's been a large and growing number... I don't think we're any less spiritual than any others.
He went on to mention how approximately 140 ministers had went to testify on marriage equality at the state legislative hearing, the congregation has done phone banking, and so forth. This, I think is something that's being missed in analyses like Nate's.
It really is heartening to see this, because in many places, there's prevalent assumption that if it's religious, it must not bode well for LGBT people. I have a lot of friends who feel this way, and I personally have a reflexive antipathy towards religion until I went to the famous Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, an incredibly community of volunteering and welcoming towards all people of all walks of life, but where members of the congregation were just as religious as any other. That congregation, and the ones in Maine I saw gathered on Thursday and today, prove the assumption wrong.
Check out this video of AMERICABlog's Joe Sudbay at our Maine fundraiser on Saturday night. Joe's a Maine native, and he just got back from the state this past week. He hits on some of the latest details from on the ground.
The part that really gets me is that last year, while we were winning across-the-board in Congress and Obama won the White House, we lost California. It was a bittersweet victory. When someone at the party asks Joe "why does this matter to the other 49 states", Joe rightly replies, "because we've never won one." He's right. We have to break that streak, and we have to do it in Maine.
I remember in California, a lot of celebrities woke up at the very last minute to the notion that we might lose. They even held this big swanky fundraiser at Ron Burkle's mansion less than two weeks, where Melissa Etheridge got up on stage and offered to play any song for a $50,000 donation. There was an awkward silence for quite some time when no one volunteered. It was kind of sad that it had come to that.
That's why giving before October 15th- the day early in-person voting starts and the campaign finance deadline occurs- is so critical. So the campaign, unlike Prop 8, has the resources it needs when it needs them.
Click helow to chip in and take us across the finish line. We're at just $1,866 on the OpenLeft/Better Dems page. Let's take it well past $2K today.
Last night I wrote about the Yes On 1 Campaign's stupid ad trying to push the debunked line that a change in Maine law would force children to learn about marriage equality (the horror).
The ad says to voters "go ahead. We've got nothing to hide. Decide for yourself whether the book teaches Maine values", which is straightforward and honest. Excellent idea.
You just broke through $1,000 in contributions for the No On 1 campaign on our OpenLeft/Better Dems page. Now, we've got a larger goal to help keep ads like these on the air. I'll be heading up to Maine Oct. 14th, and early in-person voting starts the 15th. This thing is winding down to the finish line. The last poll showed us up 51-40. Let's put the nail in the coffin. We're close to $1 million for the campaign all across the netroots. If we can hit $1 million by the day voters start going to the polls on Oct. 15th, that'll help give the campaign the resources to finish the job.
And remember, as Maine goes, so goes the nation. This'll impact marriage contests all across our country. Please chip in below, and thanks for helping out.
The Yes On 1 campaign in Maine has a stupid new ad:
I'm no ad expert, but the ad asks readers to focus on too many things at once, and seems to be an attempt at creating a tit-for-tat over the "whether marriage will be taught in schools" issue. The Yes On 1 side knows they're lying, as the Maine Department of Education itself said through a spokesperon that state law does not affect local curricula, and that Maine is not Massachusetts. Multiple newspapers have stated that Yes On 1 is lying. But if they want to burn their dollars through fear, go right ahead.
Our side, on the other hand, is pushing out some smart and useful resources. Here in DC this weekend, there's a big march. Instead, I'll be spending Saturday night raising money for Maine (if you're in DC, come on by!), and Sunday doing calls to Maine voters from my computer. You can join. Courage Campaign has set up an easy tool to sign up for a time block. If you don't have any money to contribute, and can't take time to get to Maine, you can sit right at home, put the baseball playoffs on mute, and ask some Maine voters to support equality.
If you can get some time off, or are self-employed, head on up to Maine. Because of generous contributions from folks like you, I'll be up there Oct. 14-23. Travel For Change, which helped Obama volunteers travel to swing states, is making it possible to join me- even if you don't have a lot of funds. Come on up and join. If you need incentives, I have multiple hilarious stories of Mike Lux and I on book tour to share with you over a beer.
I don't have a lot of reaction to the news that Obama will speak at the HRC dinner this weekend, except a few recommendations by channeling my inner David Gergen "Well, Wolf, here's what Obama has to do tonight" pre-speech prognosticating.
Announce something, and announce something big. Karen Ocamb has some recommendations. This is not the kind of dinner where you can do the "we'll get there one day on x issue!" and expect an uproar of "Yes we can!"'s. This is not a place where you can expect anyone to celebrate your accomplishments mostly symbolic gestures. You have to make news, or people will line up at the bar and their laptops and grumble.
Talk about the referenda in Maine, Washington, Kalamazoo, and since it's in DC, maybe even our own DC marriage bill that will be introduced tomorrow. It would help to demonstrate that you're focused on battles around the country and not just federal legislation. And it would also help our side win those campaigns.
Provide a timeline. We all know there's a full plate of issues, but there's an expectation that something, anything, big will be done on the LGBT plate. No one knows when that will be and all we have are tea leaves to read, and that generates anger and vitriol instead of help. "I am determined to get hate crimes and an inclusive-ENDA done by Valentine's Day so you have something to celebrate while in each other's arms" beats "I need your help to pass hate crimes and ENDA".
For those who've read my writing on LGBT before, you know I adopt a more patient outlook on all this, but I think we need a better performance from the President, including a timeline, and not just words.
Update 2: We blew past $40K and now have a goal of $50K by midnight. If you haven't given yet, give up that afternoon cup o' joe and chip in a few bucks.
Update: I've been keeping an eye on the ActBlue total- the total went from just under $28,000 to over $34,500 in under 90 minutes. Fantastic. Chip in here.
This is fantastic news, although I am entirely cautiously optimistic. A colleague who worked extensively on the No on 8 campaign pointed out to me that they were at 54% in the poll around this point too and ended up losing 51-49%. That's a 5-point swing. Another point to note is that, like Josh Friedes (the campaign manager of the Referendum 71 campaign in Washington State) pointed out, younger voter participation drops off dramatically in off-years. This campaign in particular is a very, very short campaign in terms of duration, as well as in an off-year. The polling may not reflect that. And above all, the No On 1 campaign needs the resources to win and turn these voters out.
We cover a lot of stuff here at OpenLeft- health care, party primaries, cap-and-trade, Afghanistan, and lots of other important issues. Only one of those issues has a deadline we can't move- Maine. It's 34 days until the election, 15 days until people can vote early in person, and people are already voting by absentee ballot.
Today is the end of the quarter for fundraising purposes, and the No On 1 campaign has a goal- $28,000 $40,000 by midnight tonight. We're close. Like campaign manager Jesse Connolly wrote here at OpenLeft last week, a dollar can go a long way in a state like Maine. Please chip in here and help get the job done in Maine.
If you're signed up for ActBlue Express, you can also contribute via Twitter using the following Tweet (mine was $10, feel free to insert your own contribution amount!):
First, I want to thank everyone who contributed for me to go to Maine next month and blog on the ground about this campaign. If you haven't chipped in yet, you can do so here. Thank you so much for your generosity, and look for some great content here at OpenLeft in just a few weeks!
Earlier this week I wrote about the anti-equality campaign's new ad in Maine, which is a carbon copy of the Yes on 8 campaign's ad in California. The two campaigns use the same consulting firm, Schubert Flint Public Affairs. The ad was about how marriage equality would force school districts to teach the principles of equality in local schools (oh, the horror).
Our side hit back, and the ad was universally debunked as misleading at best and a lie at worst.
Gerald at Dirigo Blue called the Maine Department of Education, which then released a statement saying a change in Maine's definition of marriage would not require local school districts to change their teaching requirements.
Maine legislative leaders, several former attorneys general and law experts wrote a memorandum ripping apart the argument in the advertising as completely false.
Our side successfully hit back against the right-wingers in the journalistic department. Today, the No On 1 campaign is hitting back on TV:
There are multiple ways to help take this further. If you're in Maine or know someone who is, ask them to sign up for the No On 1 e-mail list, and to write a letter to the editor on how false the other side's ads are. If you're not in Maine, go to your Facebook wall and/or Twitter feed, and post the response ad (here's the link) and this link to sign up for the No On 1 campaign. Because even if you don't know anyone in Maine, you may have friends out there on the internets who do. If you're either, you can go vote in this local FOX poll (right side of the page).
I wrote yesterday about an interconnected movement. Fighting back- bloggers, you, and No On 1- together is how we can string together victories that demoralize and help defund the right. Let's get it done.
As many of you know, I've been writing about the marriage equality ballot initiative in Maine for some time. I've been writing about this campaign not only because I care as a gay man, but because I care about the broader progressive movement.
As I wrote here, I think a win or loss in Maine will have a profound impact on the LGBT movement. A loss will mean the right-wing is batting 1.000 on marriage initiatives since 2004- through constitutional amendments, Prop 8, and now this. It gives the haters something to go back to their right-wing funders with, it shapes the media narrative that the country isn't "ready" for gay marriage. And it means couples will remain second-class citizens.
But I also think it will impact non-LGBT progressives. Here's why:
I often hear the theory that issue movements are disconnected- that a win or loss on marriage equality has nothing to do with, say, a win or loss on climate change. Ergo, the straight individual living outside of Maine won't be impacted by what happens in Maine. I don't think that's true.
The conservative movement is very interconnected. The right-wing foundation which funds anti-LGBT orgs also funds clean coal "studies", right-wing press outlets, and more. A win on any of these issues keeps right-wing money flowing overall, while defeats help to interrupt right-wing resources in other areas. Resources won't dry up, as there will always be die-hard activists, but they can lessen if there are across-the-board losses for conservatives on health care this fall, on marriage in Maine, on cap-and-trade later this year.
For our side, if we string losses together on issue after issue, it becomes demoralizing. It's demoralizing to movement activists as well as to many donors and foundations. Doubtful? Think of how many people you know who said they haven't felt so inspired- or even voted- since Kennedy in 1980, or McGovern in 1972, or even Kennedy in 1960, until Barack Obama. Winning and losing matters, and it matters across a multi-issue plain.
Because I believe in this inter-connectedness, and the critical nature Maine plays in a movement of which OpenLeft is a part, I'm going to travel to Maine next month to blog on the ground about the campaign. I'm traveling in conjunction with the New Organizing Institute's National LGBT Blogger and Citizen Journalist Initiative, another critical part of our movement. I'll be doing video interviews with key folks on the ground- including campaign staff, bloggers, traditional media, activists, and even a right-winger or two. I'll be talking to local voters, and sending back lessons on the politics of marriage equality, something we're going to be looking at here in DC very soon. I'm also hoping to explore how the campaign impacts progressives across the country, and shed a little light on Maine politics, including our favorite senior Senator there.
For this, I need to ask for your help.
As you know, such a venture has expenses, I'd like to ask for your support to help cover travel expenses (the rest will go to OpenLeft projects). I assure you that your dollars will be going to generating quality, interesting daily content here at OpenLeft on the Maine campaign, as well as instructive and productive lessons on our progressive movement overall. Between coming to the finish line on health care next month, getting a view from on the ground in Maine, and continuing to build an inside-outside progressive movement, I guarantee OpenLeft will be in its element.
And surprise, surprise, Schubert Flint, the same consultants who worked for 2, 4, 6, 8, Let's All Go Discriminate Yes on 8 campaign in California, are consulting for Yes On 1, the campaign trying to strip LGBT couples of their rights.
Our side should hammer back with the message that Maine voters aren't drones whose buttons can be pushed by the exact same, word-for-word ad in California. A new ad, perhaps web ad, with the two cut side by side is one idea. If what the folks I know on the ground tell me- that negative ads in Maine don't work well above and beyond what you would expect in other states- there is potential to blow this up into a backlash.
Especially since Jeremy Hooper points out the "teacher" in the Maine ad, Charla Bansley, is actually the state director of Concerned Women for America of Maine, a teacher at Calvary Christian Chapel School, and has worked on behalf of anti-marriage equality campaign, Yes On 1. Wow.
So the Hey Hey Ho Ho Equality Has Got to GoYes on 1 campaign in Maine came out with their first ad, and the good news is that, well, it's not so great.
Aside from being a classic fear ad, it strikes me as wholly inauthentic. I don't know what's with the Boston College expert walking around his office (did they just flip through their rolodex and pick a name at random?), freaky Thriller music and lots of words running across the screen all at once. Contrasted to the first two No On 1/Protect Maine Equality ads below with two authentic families, it's a dud.
Here's the bad news. The Break Up FamiliesYes on 1 campaign's ad buy is $700,000, enough for each voter to see that ad 20 times.
But there's also some more good news. The No on 1/Protect Maine Equality campaign just launched a peer-to-peer fundraising tool to use to hit up friends, family and colleagues you have. I've played with it a bit, and it's pretty easy to use.
I just thought about it, and I have plenty of LGBT friends who are not invested in this campaign because it's way up in Maine, but should be, the same way we all care who wins a random primary election somewhere else. I believe the Maine campaign- particularly in the wake of the Prop 8 loss- will be an important moment in progressive and LGBT politics. If they win, their side is batting 1.000 on marriage ballot votes since 2004. That's critical for the haters to keep receiving support and funding from the right-wing. Our side will also be severely demoralized after this and Prop 8. If we win, we preserve the rights of Mainer families and have an important victory to take to the bank. We have to win.
That's why I'm writing tonight, using this tool, to ask them to support a campaign that will affect us all. And you'll support quality ads and what I and many colleagues know to be a very good campaign staff. I hope you'll join me.
A little while back, I wrote about how the haters in Maine are using fear of "gay sex education" in public schools as a weapon to scare people into stripping rights away from gay couples in Maine. Here's the bulk of the original e-mail Stand For Marriage Maine sent out:
For many of us, this week marks the start of the new school year. So in honor of back-to-school season, let's try a little pop quiz. Which of the following does not belong in the same group as the others:
(A)History
(B)Mathematics
(C)English
(D)Homosexual Marriage
If you guessed ''D'' - you're right! Mainers firmly believe homosexual instruction has no place in the classroom. Maine's public schools should focus on reading and writing, not mandatory gay sex education.
There's only one problem: an irresponsible piece of legislation known as LD1020. If allowed to take effect this law would throw to the trash heap our decades-old interest in promoting traditional marriage. It would legalize homosexual, genderless marriage. And if marriage is redefined to be genderless, then same-sex marriage must be taught as being the same as traditional marriage. This has profound consequences for your child's classroom education.
Today, Bill Nemitz of the Portland Press Herald picks up the theme debunks the e-mail while ripping the chair of Stand For Marriage Maine, Marc Mutty, a new one:
All of which raises an intriguing question: Who really wrote this - and what have they done with the old Marc Mutty? Mutty was out sick Thursday and thus unavailable to explain what's causing him to see things in Maine's same-sex marriage law that, from any reality-based angle, simply aren't there.
But the Rev. Bob Emrich of the Emmanuel Bible Baptist Church in Plymouth, a member of Stand for Marriage Maine's executive committee, said the group stands by Mutty's claim that the same-sex marriage statute will require "explicit homosexual instruction in the classroom."
One problem. Emrich and Mutty are wrong. Nowhere in the law do the words "school" or "classroom" even appear.
And if you're looking for phrases like "explicit homosexual instruction" hidden in some obscure statutory subsection, trust me - it's not there. Not even in code.
[...]
In a statement issued via e-mail Thursday, Jesse Connolly, campaign manager of No on 1/Protect Maine Equality, predicted that Maine voters will "see through these cynical campaign tactics" by Mutty & Co. as the debate heats up in the coming weeks.
"This is an attempt to divert attention and raise unfounded issues," said Connolly. "Question 1 has nothing to do with schools and no one is voting on curriculum in November."
Connolly is right - and anyone who's taken the time to carefully read Maine's same-sex marriage law knows it.
Including, of all people, Marc Mutty.
This hits the nail right on the head. We still have a fight on our hands, though. The Catholic Bishop in Maine is taking up a second collection in churches around the state for money to fight LGBT equality. Karen Ocamb, who in my opinion has done the best reporting on the optics of the Prop 8 fight in CA, has a brilliant expose at Dirigo Blue on how the same entire religious right that mobilized there is setting up shop in Maine. The haters in Maine are using the same consulting firm, Schubert Flint Public Affairs, that the Yes on 8 campaign used in CA.
Stand For Marriage Maine, the right-wingers trying to repeal same-sex marriage equality in Maine, just sent out this awesome mailer:
For many of us, this week marks the start of the new school year. So in honor of back-to-school season, let's try a little pop quiz. Which of the following does not belong in the same group as the others:
(A)History
(B)Mathematics
(C)English
(D)Homosexual Marriage
If you guessed ''D'' - you're right! Mainers firmly believe homosexual instruction has no place in the classroom. Maine's public schools should focus on reading and writing, not mandatory gay sex education.
There's only one problem: an irresponsible piece of legislation known as LD1020. If allowed to take effect this law would throw to the trash heap our decades-old interest in promoting traditional marriage. It would legalize homosexual, genderless marriage. And if marriage is redefined to be genderless, then same-sex marriage must be taught as being the same as traditional marriage. This has profound consequences for your child's classroom education.
Gay sex education?! They teach that now?! Where can I sign up?
Jokes aside, the haters will lie and smear their way into victory during this campaign. Conflating marriage equality into "mandatory gay sex education" is insulting and a horrific exaggeration, but that's what they do. These are real families with real children being raised just like other kids. Nowhere in the legislation are there any kind of required classes. The right-wing has always used fear as a weapon, and it's fear of instilling values here.
Our side needs to counter it with the truth. This new ad launching after Labor Day is the way to do it. Sam Putnam, the teenager with two moms in this new ad from the No On 1 campaign, does not look like he has gay sex horns growing out of his head.
Maine residents will start to vote in mid-October. That's just six weeks away. The race to define this thing is on, and as I've heard from all my Maine contacts, it needs to be "live and let live." That message is up for grabs. With mail like this, the right-wingers are pushing their own version of that. We have to push ours.
Last night, No On 1 was added as the very first race on the Orange to Blue page from DailyKos. Jesse Connolly, the campaign manager of the No On 1 campaign, posted at DailyKos today about the campaign, thanking the netroots, including us, for helping raise the money to put ads like this on the air. Please rec and comment. Let's tip our hat back to him from OpenLeft and define this fight for Maine residents first, before the other side does.
Good news from Maine- the No on 1 campaign has just released its first TV ads, which will run statewide. I'm told by folks at Dirigo Blue, a Maine progressive blog, along with Joe Sudbay and the campaign team that the attitude in Maine is very "live and let live". The haters will try and push the line that those support marriage equality are "enforcing their values on us." Good for the No On 1 campaign to try and take that message and make it their own first. We have to define the debate and emphasize that the haters are trying to tell LGBT people how to live, not the other way around. This ad, I think, helps accomplish that:
And here's the other ad, which illustrates a teenager with two moms testifying on behalf of marriage equality, asking that his family not be broken up.
Now let's help keep them on the air. I think this is critical, because in Maine, we're going to see tons of ads pressuring Snowe on health care crowding out the campaign. Plus, the later ads in the marriage campaign will be the ones on which voters are going to press the "mute" button when they hit their limit. So the earliest ads define the campaign, and that means we've got to push these ones far and wide.
Got off a call on the Maine campaign to protect marriage equality, with a few updates:
I wrote last week that the campaign had a $10,000 matching grant from a donor in Maine. The donor then increased the match to $20,000, and we hit that by this past Friday. Thanks to all who gave, that is huge.
The co-chair of the anti-marriage equality group in Maine, Stand For Marriage Maine Coalition, compared LGBT couples to trees, saying:
A barren field full of stumps has had all its trees treated equally, to be sure. But that makes as much sense as looking at the extreme changes to Maine's marriage law approved recently by Gov. Baldacci and calling it marriage equality.
AUGUSTA, MAINE -- Fred Karger, founder of Californians Against Hate, an LGBT watchdog group, sent a letter detailing alleged election law violations by Stand for Marriage Maine to the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices. The request for an immediate investigation was sent yesterday to the Jonathan Wayne, the Commission's Executive Director and a copy to attorney General Janet Mills.
The nine page complaint (below) and fourteen attachments spell out how the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Knights of Columbus of Washington, DC and James Dobson's Focus on the Family had contributors give the money to their organizations, and then they in turn gave the money to the Stand for Marriage Maine in order to hide the identity of the donors.
[...]
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints (Mormon Church) created the National Organization for Marriage specifically to qualify and pass Prop 8 in California. Now they have NOM doing their bidding in Maine, Iowa and all over the Northeast," concluded Karger.
The campaign has set up a "Volunteer Vacation", a great idea, to help folks who want to help with the campaign go to Maine for a week. Immersing onesself in a campaign is really a great, and useful, experience. I did so in 2006 in NY-29 (Massa) managing field and not only was it really a get-away, I learned a lot.
I want to reiterate that this is literally a 10-week campaign until Election Day. It's going to go by fast. The campaign has set up four weeks in October to work, and will provide you with housing. We're also working with TravelForChange.org, which received donations of 11 million airline miles to help Obama volunteers travel last cycle, to help folks financially get to Maine. More on this soon. If you're all set to go with booking your own plane ticket now, sign up here. I'm looking at going up in late October. As Joe Sudbay (who's from Maine) wrote, the folks on the ground are the best, most experienced pros in the state, so you'll be in good hands.
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