08-20-2010, 02:56 AM
Protect Marriage is the group behind Proposition 8 and similar measures in other states.
http://www.protectmarriage.com/
Less than two weeks before Election Day, the chief strategist behind Proposition 8, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman in California, issued an urgent appeal and in a matter of days raised more than $5 million, including a $1 million donation from Alan C. Ashton, the grandson of a former president of the Mormon Church. The money allowed the drive to intensify a sharp-elbowed advertising campaign, and support for the measure was catapulted ahead; it ultimately won with 52 percent of the vote.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/us/pol...riage.html
But Judge Vaughn Walker gave a victory to Proposition 8 opponents by ruling that the Proposition 8 ballot initiative denying marriage rights to same sex couples in California was unconstitutional under both the due process and equal protection clauses of the US Constitution. What moved this conservative Republican judge was evidence presented at trial that children of gay couples do as well as children of straight couples, and that gay couples are as much full contributors to society and as psychology healthy as straight couples.
Now the question: given that for years gays have been the victims of institutional discrimination and regular acts of violence, and have been denied the emotional, social and economic benefits of legal family relationships, isn't it time to consider reparations? Perhaps Alan C. Ashton, who provided so much of the funding that caused Prop 8 to pass, should now be forced to pay for all the weddings of gay couples in California.![[Image: smile.gif]](http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr217/darkside_999/smile.gif)
http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2010/08...eddings-ca
http://www.protectmarriage.com/
Less than two weeks before Election Day, the chief strategist behind Proposition 8, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman in California, issued an urgent appeal and in a matter of days raised more than $5 million, including a $1 million donation from Alan C. Ashton, the grandson of a former president of the Mormon Church. The money allowed the drive to intensify a sharp-elbowed advertising campaign, and support for the measure was catapulted ahead; it ultimately won with 52 percent of the vote.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/us/pol...riage.html
But Judge Vaughn Walker gave a victory to Proposition 8 opponents by ruling that the Proposition 8 ballot initiative denying marriage rights to same sex couples in California was unconstitutional under both the due process and equal protection clauses of the US Constitution. What moved this conservative Republican judge was evidence presented at trial that children of gay couples do as well as children of straight couples, and that gay couples are as much full contributors to society and as psychology healthy as straight couples.
Now the question: given that for years gays have been the victims of institutional discrimination and regular acts of violence, and have been denied the emotional, social and economic benefits of legal family relationships, isn't it time to consider reparations? Perhaps Alan C. Ashton, who provided so much of the funding that caused Prop 8 to pass, should now be forced to pay for all the weddings of gay couples in California.
http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2010/08...eddings-ca