I’ve received many requests to add my name to an online petition to Gov Schwarzenegger in the past few hours to redress Prop 8s injustice. Accompanying the petition is a nice list of corrections of popular arguments for Prop 8. You may have seen it too. I don’t believe Schwarzenegger will change his past 2 vetoes of gay marriage (which passed the CA Legislature) and I don’t think that a law like that could even happen now that Prop 8 has passed and the Constitutional has been Amended (by popular intent if not under the correct legal method which is being litigated)

I checked in with a legal/political pal who knows what’s up and here’s what she says if we want a genuine petition to put gay marriage back on the ballot:

To qualify an initiative for the CA ballot, you need to get a certain # of physical signatures by registered CA voters within a certain timeframe set by the second of state. the # you need is a percentage of the # of people who voted in the last election in CA. don’t remember what that percentage is, but it’s easily findable on second of state’s website.
A petition drive has to register with the sec of state and have the specific legal language in place before gathering a single signature. 

As for starting a petition drive, I recommend following EQCA‘s lead (Equality California, the gay lobby).  They will have the resources to put it together, to hire lawyers, figure out the statewide political strategy, etc.  For example, picking the time period to collect sigs is very important, which will depend on which upcoming election you want to qualify for.  some off-year elections will have low turnout, which is bad for us, and a lot will depend on whatever else is on the ballot at the time.

Also, the rules for a statewaide petition drive, including what the petition looks like, and who is qualified to gather signatures, are highly technical, and require advice of counsel to make sure you get it right.

If you want to sign up something to Overturn Prop 8 join this facebook groupso that you can be part of whatever drive occurs. This way you can be contacted by EQCA or whomever does the drive and we won’t lose al the momentum.

Posted by email from heathergold’s posterous

Prop 8 just passed. I have an angry moment. I am trying to follow the useful influenced insight of a passing busboy who suggested never comparing our hurt or struggle to that of another civil rights movement.

I posted a slimmer version of this response to Lessig’s blog tonight.

Larry,
I would gladly do a show or series of shows similar to the structure of the Corruption show I did with you (mashup up of diverse viewpoints around universal question with a lot of audience involvement if some of this goodwill and concern about the issue now could fund them.

As you know I was very involved in trying to stop prop 8 and put out a call to geeks, sadly too late. The Net involvement really picked up a great deal in the last couple of weeks due to a totally volunteer group of mostly queer geeks who just showed up at the campaign and made it better. In the last few weeks No showed much greater momentum than the Yes side. The Log Cabin Republican leader who took the helm and the many volunteers did an amazing job of finding discipline and energy. But the bottom up / grassroots approach came too late for the official campaign which unfortunately chose not to focus on this approach from the beginning and so the energy spread too late. As far as I know there were no dollars dedicated to the Net as recently as a month ago. The campaigns focus was really targeted on the swing people in the middle and the messages that tested well. It is no clear that wasn’t enough.

I and many other gay people have our own need for honest, to love and desire that drives us to come out. Our families have their love for us and, our leadership (it took me 10 years with my family) in our case, our wedding(s) provided an amazing moment for that. But many Californians may not have these drivers.

I agree that we need to engage people more deeply and we need to reach farther to connect with the support that is already there to make our case. I also agree that the Courts, while we may have good legal arguments, aren’t going to give us the feeling of safety and understanding that comes from the hard work of actually meeting each other and reaching out to each other. If Barack Obama’s campaign taught me anything, it was that.

My hunch is that there are many religious people who feel that they want to “come out” about who they are in terms of their faith and they feel harmed somehow, by my being gay and married. They probably want affirmation and acknowledgment too. I’ve yet to meet a human being who doesn’t. And so many of my queer brothers and sisters aren’t as fortunate as I am to have family support. Every College I perform at has some kids who have been disowned for being who they are. So many queer folks fear for their physical safety, job and housing security because they’re not gender conforming or because of who they love. For those Christians who profess to “love the sin but not the sinner” this seems to be a good place for them to begin taking action on that love if it is real.

There were almost no gay faces in the No on 8 Campaign. Young folks support gay marriage likely because they know and care about gay people. We need to at least meet each other in a space in which we do not have to be afraid of being physically harmed for existing.

The City of San Francisco has already filed a suit and the official No on 8 Campaign is awaiting absentee ballots. My geeky desire is to just do this. I see that same desire in your post and in others. What can we actually do? We know that over time, the older folks who supported Yes on 8 will die and that younger people strongly favour inclusion in gay marriage. We can wait or we can engage.

The thing I know how to contribute is to host a live conversation that will let us dig into he kinds of things the campaigns didn’t. Did everyone feel they were voting on the right of gay people to be married. Did they feel they were voting against discrimination/ for gay equality? for their faith? How do we know? Even if we appeal up the US Supreme Court and win, is that enough?

From the stuff many Yes on 8 people are writing on my postings, they are sometimes convinced they platonically love me while opposing my marriage or they are plain terrified and angry that I exist. Blame is just purely unproductive. It is up to us to grieve our genuine pain and make a better case. I believe that includes sharing the reality of our lives. We are facing very difficult times. Do people who voted yes on 8 really think all the gay Californians aren’t needed to make things better and vice versa? Neither of us is going to disappear. So please let me know if you’d be game to try one. If we think it works, and people are behind it, we can do more. Others on this site please let me know if you’d be able to fund this shows/forums/webcasts/space where people can engage. If you’d be game to contribute time or money or have other ideas, add them to this wiki. Last night was first so joyful and then so very painful. I am feeling the first moment of peace since Yes on 8 became. Thanks for your offer to do something Larry. I was feeling like straight Californians didn’t really care about my life a few weeks ago. The response to yesterdays loss has shown me that’s just not the case.

We’ve made amazing progress in a little more than 40 years. We have to keep coming out: not just to ourselves and our families, but as married couples and families. We need more support for queer African -American folks to come out. We need to deal with racism within the queer community. There are a lot of us. Our lives and our children are not going to disappear. And someday pretty soon it’s going to seem ridiculous that this was a struggle once. But what seems obvious still needs work to prove it.

heather

Nov 5th:

Negative campaigning will have failed for the first time in my life.Fear will have worn itself out for many.

African-Americans and every other American can rejoicethat what we have once seen as impossible is not.
Gay Californians and all Californianswill have repudiated the theocratic movement. By like 18 votes. Won’t you be glad yours was one of them?
About 35% of the country will wake up feeling like they got smacked in the headunable to fathom how something like this could have happened. These people will say to themselves, ” I am a typical American. I am not outside the mainstream. it is not radical to believe what makes sense to me.” This is how I felt in 1992 when Ann Richards and Mario Cuomo were out and Newt Gingrich and band of dittoheads swept in. Then I realized that I didn’t need to live in the entire country and that I didn’t want to live around people who didn’t respect gay people. And then I decided to get much more serious about chick. Seriously, Newt Gingrich helped me be a lesbian.

Mostly, the entire world is going to begin to exhalein that “really? it’s over?” way. And the gloomy clouds will begin to part. And the sunshine will begin to come back to the little village. And some will think it’s because there is a new leader. And some will see that the ruby slippers were on their feet all along.

Tomorrow, the world changes.

The Great Hack from The Great Hack on Vimeo.

I ask geeks to use their powers for good and defeat prop 8 (copy protection for marriage) on Nov 4th.

Join us at thegreathack.com

The people fighting to copy protect marriage spent over $20 Million. We spent $15.80

Posted by email from heathergold’s posterous

Posted by email from heathergold’s posterous

Posted by email from heathergold’s posterous

It is not lost on me that I have been drawn in by what is absolutely the best example of social media and “conversational marketing” I’ve ever seen. More on how this has worked and why it is the direction all business needs to take in my talk on Design for Conversation Nov 5th. I plan to be basking in the afterglow.
I have lived in the United States since coming to Yale to play ice hockey and further my education. I became an American citizen in America’s most unpopular year, 2001.
Being able to vote for President is one of the greatest parts of being a citizen. Voting for Barack Obama is the most meaningful ballot I have ever cast. He is the first politician for whom I am excited to vote.
I grew up in small-town Canada and know what it is like to live in a place where handguns and terrible health care and failing public schools are not the issue they are here. I am American today because even in the face of those challenges, America is still where I want to live. That says a great deal. An America without gun violence, affordable health care and good education for all will be an even more amazing place. I am thrilled to finally have a Presidential candidate to vote for who I believe will try to do something about these problems. Even more exciting to me is that Barack Obama will ask me to do something to help fix these problems. There is no way these problems are going to be solved by politicians alone.
I have had a first-class education, pursued a career as a comedian (where I benefit from the 1st Amendment every day) and have thrived among the innovative entrepreneurial culture of Silicon Valley where I worked and where I perform. I married my wife here. And while our marriage is politically contested right now in California, I know I am part of the long arc of American civil rights history which always moves toward inclusion.
I am a registered Independent. As I tell audiences, when the Democratic party can’t get a Canadian, Jewish lesbian to register Democratic, they’re in trouble.
Perhaps I’m just like many of many generation: not interested in belonging to a party or clique as much as solving real problems. And we have problems that are now so big that people can no longer pretend they can leverage their way out of them.
This campaign has already provided one moment that has thrilled me. For the first time in my life, I’ve seen negative campaigning fail to work.
I know hope. I am proud to support Barack Obama’s campaign. I will be proud to call him my President on November 5th.