If you believe in equality for all United States of America citizens, I urge you to boycott the following businesses. Each of them gave money to the hate-based “Yes on 8″ anti-civil rights propostion in California.

If you patronize any of these businesses you are no better than people who supported racist laws, policies, and businesses prior to the civil rights movement.

Best Western Coral Hills, St. George, Utah ==> Wittwer Management, LLC, the corporation that owns and runs the Best Western Coral Hills, donated $10,000 to “Yes on 8″

Wilkinson Electric, Inc., St. George & Springville, Utah ==> donated $10,000 to “Yes on 8″

A complete list is located at:

http://qsaltlake.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=840&Itemid=35

And here is a list of individual contributors to the anti-gay “Yes on 8″ campaign, ordered by date of contribution:

http://www.sfgate.com/webdb/prop8/?appSession=68549264450379

or ordered by amount of contribution:

http://www.sfgate.com/webdb/prop8/?appSession=18449264711637&RecordID=&PageID=2&PrevPageID=2&cpipage=1&CPIsortType=asc&CPIorderby=Amount

Courtesy of bluree.com are a collection of print-and-tape-to-your-Protest-Sign PDF files.

Toler8 - Civil Rights for All God's Children

Saturday, November 15, 2008

1:30 p.m. EST * 12:30 p.m. CST * 11:30 a.m. MST * 10:30 a.m. PST

Join the Impact! Support Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Rights in the United States of America. Protest the Proposition 8 vote in California, which was bought and paid for largely by anti-gay churches (Mormon, Roman Catholic, Evengelical), which enjoy tax-free status.

Click here to find out where the closest rally is in your state on Saturday, January 15, 2008

Superb email message from Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign:

	Dear Reader, Will we be extremists for hate or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice – or will we be extremists for the cause of justice? - Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail Our anger is just. Our goal is vital. Our cause is love. The passage of hateful initiatives has ignited the passion of thousands. Sign the pledge to keep fighting, loving, and listening – and overturn these laws. On November 4, voters in California, Arizona, and Florida declared that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are not equal under the law. Our rights were stripped. Our love was branded unworthy of the name marriage, though our commitments and responsibilities to each other are worthy of nothing less. We are angry – and that anger has moved to the streets. This Saturday, thousands of people across the country, spontaneously organizing themselves in a truly grassroots movement, will convene to raise the call for equality. To find an event near you click here. But as the LGBT community and its allies exercise our uniquely American right to protest, I hope we will remember that our actions in the streets will set the tone for the ongoing debate about marriage equality. Will we reduce a human rights movement to tactics of recrimination? How we respond to these hateful amendments will say much about who we are. Let the joyful faces of the couples receiving Connecticut marriage licenses for the first time yesterday remind us: our cause is love; and only through love can we win the freedom to marry. Join with me and thousands of others – pledge to become an ‘extremist for love’ and fight to overturn these amendments. The Mormon and Roman Catholic Churches played a huge role in the travesty called Proposition 8, forcing me to question whether members of those communities have forgotten the lessons of their own struggles against persecution. It is chilling to realize that the Catholic and Mormon Churches knew they were telling lies – that marriage equality would require children to learn about homosexuality in school, that priests would be required to solemnize marriages of same-sex couples – and they lied anyway. In the wake of commanding support for Prop. 8 among African Americans, we are also asking ourselves why the community that has endured the most violent and persistent discrimination in our country’s history failed to understand our struggle for human rights. In this campaign we reached out to diverse communities, but we obviously failed to communicate to African Americans the interdependence of our struggles. Have we heard the concerns of the people we asked to listen to us? We assert that marriage rights are basic human rights; we must also show that our concern for human rights does not end with marriage. As we ask communities of color and religious communities to engage and partner with us, we must, in turn, demonstrate our commitment to the people and issues they care about. We must show that we will not turn away from the forty-seven million uninsured once we have domestic partner benefits, and that non-discrimination laws are not complete justice when legions of children are denied equal opportunity due to failing schools, violence, and racism. Today, I recommit myself to being an extremist for love. I will engage my friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers – no matter what their religious beliefs or cultural backgrounds – and will ask them to engage me in their lives. I am ready to listen and act on their behalf, even as I make my case for their support. At the same time, I will speed HRC’s public efforts to overturn these laws: Our Religion and Faith program is organizing a wave of dialogues with churches; We support the lawsuit to overturn Proposition 8; We are working to pass hate crimes, workplace equality, and other laws that will help more LGBT people to come out, since openness is the key to changing hearts and minds; And HRC will support all future measures to overturn these hateful amendments. I ask you to join me today in promising to keep your anger and passion alive, and to turn them to the tasks that will broaden support for our cause. Take the pledge to work for justice – and understanding – until equality is the law of the land. November 4 was neither the beginning nor the end of our struggle. It showed us how much work is left to do, but it also brought out the passion we will need to do that work. That passion will win in the end. We must hold on to it, and use it wisely. Warmly, Joe Solmonese President
© 2008 The Human Rights Campaign. All rights reserved. Human Rights Campaign | www.hrc.org 1640 Rhode Island Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036-3278 Phone: 202/628-4160 TTY: 202/216-1572 Fax: 202/347-5323

As reported on Pam’s House Blend, a young couple refused to sign their California marriage license to protest the inclusive language contained therein.

After the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality, “Bride” and “Groom” were replaced with “Party A” and “Party B” on the California marriage license.

The couple insists that the State change the marriage license to read “Bride and Groom” or they won’t sign it. Until the State of California succumbs to their wishes, the “newlyweds” [sic] will remain unmarried in the eyes of the law. 

Ironically, they’ll soon discover what every committed gay couple knows: Not being legally married sucks.

This story also has me wondering if the couple knows the etymology of the word “bride”?

The term [bride] used to mean ‘daughter-in-law’, as newly married women at one time moved into the husband’s family home. Further back, the word possibly comes from the Teutonic word for ‘cook’. Source: http://www.answers.com/bride

Of course, if they fit the typical social conservative mold (I don’t know if they do or don’t), this young man and woman will already believe that the female spouse should obediently obey and serve her male spouse and his family!

The etymology of “groom” befits the man’s superior status:

The term “groom” has the Indogermanic root of “earth” (for “ghmún”), which evolved into Latin humanus and Germanic and English “man” and “groom”. Source: http://www.answers.com/groom

The groom is simply the man and he ain’t servin nobody! Heck, he already had to give up that damn rib to begin with–isn’t that enough sacrifice!?

Of course, there is that other definition of the noun, “groom” -

A person employed to take care of horses or a stable.

But OMG that would mean that the wife is the property of the husband and would be treated similarly to the man’s steed! :-O

Sally Kern probably doesn’t care one whit that Fortune 500 companies will cross Oklahoma off their list of potential business locations.

I wonder if it matters to her constituents?

Pam’s House Blend has the story …

Ed Brayton reports on a study that showed that gay parents are more involved in their children’s education than the average heterosexual parent.

But of course gay and lesbian citizens should not be able to adopt or even have custody of their own children because it might make them gay, no wait they’ve proven that wrong … I know! Because they don’t know how to be parents! Oh wait, this study kinda brings that claim into question … Well, when all else fails:

“It’s in the Bible, I believe it, and that ends it!”

Ah it feels so good to be right all the time.

Mark

P.S. Can you tell I’ve lived in the South? That saying is a favorite among Southern Baptists–you know, the folks that believe that “logic” is a dirty word.

Imagine if I said:

Christians Are The Biggest Threat Our Nation Has, Even More So Than Terrorism …

Or:

Because what’s happening now, the Christians are going after, in schools, two year olds. You know what they’re trying to get everyone into their religious schools or home schooling networks? The Christians want to get our young children into their schools so they can indoctrinate them.

Wouldn’t you be offended if I said something like the above quotes? I would be offended if someone said stuff like that!

Most Christians I know are caring, responsible, and open-minded folks who don’t spew hate-speech and rattle on about their paranoid delusions, like Sally Kern.

Thus, since it’s wrong to make such hate-filled statements about Christians as a group, why is it okay for Sally Kern to say almost the exact same crap about gay people?

Think about it.

- Mark Worthen

P.S. To make absolutely sure no one misinterprets my headline:

I Believe That Discrimination and Hate Speech Against Any Group Or Individual Based On Gender, Ethnicity, Race, Class, Nationality, Abilities, Sexual/Affectional Orientation, Or Religion Is WRONG And IMMORAL.

P.P.S. Here’s another hypothetical quote that I find particularly ironic:

… and this is important because when you start looking at who’s contributing to races, say that particular statewide race we’re all concerned about, look for some of these names. These Christians don’t give more than a 1000 dollars because they don’t want to draw attention, okay, but they will give up to a 1000 dollars and so you start looking for these names. And what the Christians do, their strategy is very under-the-table, very stealth, and their goal is to find state legislatures that are very tight in their, you know, Republican/Democrat, and if just a few races can make the difference to switch it from Democrat to Republican, they’re going to target that. And their goal is, in doing that, to intimidate Democrats.

Imagine if Sally Kern had declared:

Jewish People Are The Biggest Threat Our Nation Has, Even More So Than Terrorism …

Or, imagine she said:

The Jews are getting involved politically on the most local level there is, city council, city government and they are winning elections and the first thing they’re doing is passing, uh, laws, anti-discrimination laws and hate laws and things like that.

… and then she went on to encourage her audience to fight the establishment of such laws.

Would that be acceptable to you? If your answer is, “Yes” then you’re probably beyond hope.

If your answer is, “No” then why is it acceptable for Mrs. Kern to say the exact same things about gay people?

Think about it.

- Mark Worthen

P.S. To make absolutely sure no one misinterprets my headline:

I Believe That Discrimination and Hate Speech Against Any Group Or Individual Based On Gender, Ethnicity, Race, Class, Nationality, Abilities, Sexual/Affectional Orientation, Or Religion Is WRONG And IMMORAL.

Imagine if Sally Kern had declared:

African-Americans Are The Biggest Threat Our Nation Has, Even More So Than Terrorism …

Or, imagine she said:

The Blacks are getting involved politically on the most local level there is, city council, city government and they are winning elections and the first thing they’re doing is passing, uh, laws, anti-discrimination laws and hate laws and things like that.

… and then she went on to encourage her audience to fight the establishment of such laws.

Would that be acceptable to you? If your answer is, “Yes” then kindly leave this website and get ready for your next Klu Klux Klan meeting.

If your answer is, “No” then why is it acceptable for Mrs. Kern to say the exact same things about gay people?

Think about it.

- Mark Worthen

P.S. To make absolutely sure no one misinterprets my headline:

I Believe That Discrimination and Hate Speech Against Any Group Or Individual Based On Gender, Ethnicity, Race, Class, Nationality, Abilities, Sexual/Affectional Orientation, Or Religion Is WRONG And IMMORAL.