I can't lie. I'm worried
We're down a percentage point or two in the final polls. The fucking annoying "whether you like it or not" Gavin Newsom ads the Yes people have been running - with the help of that $20 million courtesy of the Mormons - have apparently been working. Thx a lot for that wholly unnecessary premature arrogant gloating, you dick
What's more bothersome are the print ads in ethnic and subcultural press. I see all these "Yes on 8" ads in Korean and Chinese - paid for by the churches, i'm sure - in different publications lying around my 'hood. The Hispanic vote could really determine this...blah blah blah...after campaigning on this all summer i just want it to be OVER already
it's going to be a big day on either side. either a mass exhalation of thousands of married couples, or massive internal panic at the coming of armageddon, etc.
― Vichitravirya_XI, Monday, 3 November 2008 16:44 (fifteen years ago) link
below is the email from my friend j4r3d who is out campaigning on the streets somewhere, and why this is hitting home for a lot of us now. unlike some other states we have FOUGHT for this thing for a very long time, thinking we had a chance to win this. oh, was it just naivete? i spent june/july working in a No on 8 fundraising job. the polls were with us, the momentum was with us, maybe the (cringe) "novelty" was with us. all before the autumn hit, with those stupid ads....
seriously, it's going to be hard to sleep tonight.
"Hi Everyone,
It's been a while since I've used this email address.
I regret that I'm contacting you right now because I need your help, and not just to say hi.
I'm asking you to give me 1st-class citizenship. I'm asking you to vote NO on Prop 8.
There are several reasons why I don't like saying what I'm about to tell you. Today, however, when the religious right is attempting to impose their beliefs on my personal life, I feel like I have no choice but to assert publicly:
I no longer identify with being a bisexual.
I'm gay.
Saying so is hard for me because a) I don't think most people are truly gay or straight and b) after 27 years of living in a hetero-centric, Christian-dominated world I have a lot of fucking internal homophobia I have to deal with. I have a lot of shame and self-hatred I have to deal with. Ask any gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender person if they can identify with this. Ask them.
I've been carrying a NO on Prop 8 sign with me on the subway to and from work. It's amazing how hateful people have been.
I don't "act gay" so I've heard many horrible homophobic things said throughout my adult life by people who assume that I'm straight.
I can handle shaking heads, sneers and whispers on the train when I hold my sign.
I can handle being called "Faggot" and "Homo" and seeing signs like "Gay is not the way" flashed by drivers when I stand on the street with other No on Prop 8 volunteers.
But what I cannot handle is my mom telling me that she's voting Yes. My mom, who has 2 kids out of wedlock and lives with a man for 14 years without marrying him. My mom who has a gay kid. My mom who votes pro-choice even though she thinks abortion is murder (because she'd hate to see a woman lose her right to choose). My mom.
I asked her "What if I married a man?"
She said it should be illegal because it's "unbiblical, unhonorable and wrong."
This I cannot handle.
So here's the deal. I can't very well cut my mom out of my life. But know this:
If you vote Yes on prop 8, either don't EVER tell me or do us both a favor and cut yourself out of my life.
I DON'T NEED THE GOVERNMENT TO INSERT HOMOPHOBIA AND DISCRIMINATION INTO OUR CONSTITUTION. I have enough to deal with on my own. Long story short, in addition to MANY other reasons to vote NO on Prop 8 I need you to remember that I will become a 2nd-class citizen with fewer rights than other people if it passes.
Please vote NO on Prop 8 and please tell other people to do the same.
Sincerely Yours,
― Vichitravirya_XI, Tuesday, 4 November 2008 00:02 (fifteen years ago) link