The database of contributors to the campaigns, for and against, California proposition 8 must be lagging a tad behind because my first contribution of $500 still isn’t in there.  But just for kicks and grins I took a stroll though the listings of contributors from Maryland, and was gratified at the overwhelming support No On 8 was getting from my neighbors.  Out of something like a hundred and thirty names, only about five or six were from folks who gave money to support cutting the ring fingers off same sex couples.  None of them were names I recognized.

I dontated another $500 dollars to the No campaign today.  That makes my stake in the fight an even thousand now.  But everyone who donates money between now and midnight Sunday (tomorrow as I write this) gets their contribution matched…

Dear Bruce,

Thanks to the outpouring of support in response to the $1 million match grant announced on Thursday, we are nearly halfway there.

Help us meet our ONE MILLION DOLLAR CHALLENGE. Every contribution made by midnight Sunday will be matched in value — and impact — by philanthropist Steve Bing and Equality California.

We will be able to buy double the amount of air time for our new, hard-hitting ad. That means more opportunity to reach important undecided voters.

Donate now before Sunday’s midnight deadline. Please forward this message to everyone you know. It’s going to take everyone we know to fill this match. Urge your friends and family to donate at http://www.noonprop8.com/challenge

In solidarity,

Geoff Kors
Executive Committee
No On Prop. 8

The Yes campaign is now dragging out the usual Homosexuals Want To Prey On Your Children scare rhetoric…some of which is being targeted at California’s ethnic communities.  Box Turtle Bulletin has a post up on a Yes ad aimed at Chinese readers, that directly links same sex marriage and pedophilia.  Also incest and polygamy.  The hate mongering from the Yes crowd has turned what was a likely victory for same-sex marriage, into a dead heat, largely because the No side is being outspent and out organized…largely with the behind the scenes support of the Mormon church.  The Latter Day Saints as they like to call themselves, account for 40 percent of the Yes money bucket. 

They’ve been swamping California TV with ads that portray gay people, both directly and indirectly, as child molesters, and claim that same-sex marriage will give homosexuals the legal means to go into schools and conduct recruiting activity even in kindergarten.  They’re also claiming that churches will be forced to marry same sex couples under threat of prison if they don’t comply.  It’s like Watching Anita Bryant’s campaign all over again.  All that’s missing is Jerry Falwell standing up in front of a room full of reporters saying that a homosexual will kill you as soon as look at you.

That’s why the polls have tightened.  We could loose marriage in California…possibly for generations, if people don’t step up to the plate and give.  Now.

I’m single.  It’s looking now as though I’ll always be single.  So why should I care.  Because I still believe in love.  Love hasn’t looked at me twice but I still believe in it.  And I can see with my own two eyes all the happy, contented, loving couples out there and they deserve a chance to make a home together, grow old together, have a life together.  So I’m in for a thousand.  Before its over I’ll probably give more.  If we loose California the bitterness will just go on and on and on and maybe I’ll never live to see the end of it.  But at least I’ll know I was one of those who did something, took a stand for freedom and justice and love even when it seemed hate would win anyway.  What is freedom worth to you?  What is equality worth? 

What is your safety worth to you?  Do you consider yourself a danger to children?  The Mormon church says you are.  They are telling every one of your neighbors that you want to enter their kid’s schools and teach them to be homosexuals.  Probably so you can have sex with them. 

Do you want to put the neighborhood pastor in jail?  The religious right says you do.  They are telling everyone, every single person you will ever walk past on the street after this election is over, that you want to put their pastors in prison if they don’t marry same-sex couples.

Do you want to put your neighbors in jail along with them.  The right wingers backing proposition 8 say you do.  They are telling your neighbors that you will have them arrested if you aren’t allowed into their kid’s schools to teach them how to have sex with you.

Maybe you don’t care all that much about same sex marriage.  But the hate mongering going on to get proposition 8 passed, if allowed to go unchallenged, could get you killed.  Or someone you love.  Maybe that someone in your arms.

We are not supposed to exist.  But we do.  We are not supposed to love.  But we do.  We are not supposed to have a share of the American dream of liberty and justice for all.  But it is the human dream, and we are as human as they.   We exist.  We love.  We dream.  Now we take our stand, for love, for life, and in the doing so, tell the world that we believe in the righteousness of our love, and our dream of freedom.  Because it is righteous.  Because our dream does not need us to hate our neighbor to make it real.

Donate Here, to No on 8.   If you do it before midnight tomorrow whatever amount you donate will be matched.  Any small amount…any at all…can help make a difference in leveling the playing field. 

If you donate between now and election day online (for any amount), and send me your confirmation email, I will draw, if you wish, an editorial cartoon on the topic of your choice. Or…alternately…a Mark and Josh cartoon on the topic of your choice.  Or…if my cartoons don’t do it for you…you can have a signed 11 by 17 print of the image of your choice out of any of my photo galleries.