Thanks for stepping up, Catholic Church....

[mshades]

Bishop William Weigand, former Catholic Bishop and current head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento is standing by the Mormon Church's opposition to human rights."Catholics stand in solidarity with our Mormon brothers and sisters in support of traditional marriage--the union of one man and one woman--that has been the major building block

Comments

[anonymous]

Yeahbut....

The one the LGBT community doesn't know jack about is PR. You can't sell gay marriage simply as a civil rights thing. That's not tangible enough. And you can't say "Support it or you hate fags" because that doesn't invite those who are unsure of this change to come to your side. In fact, it sort of pisses them off.

The best thing these organizers could do is put human stories behind this. And they need to acknowledge that, to many people, this is a seismic culture shift. If you(not you personally) don't acknowledge the other sides concerns, the movement is doomed.

Plus, look on the bright side - the 18 to 29 yr old voters overwhelmingly voted against prop 8. The future is on your side. - Soulie

[mshades]

Like I said - I'll give them the years of working on AIDS awareness, and I think the success with that used just the technique you mentioned: put a human face on the issue. Bigotry arises out of ignorance, and I think a lot of people are just ignorant of what the issue means to us. Show them real people - their neighbors, their co-workers, their families - and that'll be the first step towards turning this around.

We can't compete on a religious level - as long as people are locked into their Bibles, there's no hope. The civil rights issue is the only way to go on this - the need for equal treatment under the law. Right now the anger is really close to the surface, and for good reason, and when your rage is on a hair-trigger, it's time to take a break. I think there needs to be a regrouping, a re-framing of the issue, and then it needs to be Dealt With.

All other things aside, it's going to be hard to bite my tongue the next time I meet a Mormon. It doesn't happen often, but if it does...

[mshades]

Anyway, the bright side is hard to see through the thin film of rage.

They removed people's legal rights, man. That shouldn't happen to anyone, for any reason, much less under the pressure of a godsdamned church. They lied and they cajoled and they threatened... and they won.

I'm just going to spend the entire weekend being pissed off, aren't I?

*sigh* I'm going to download Obama's acceptance speech and play it on a loop. Maybe that'll make me feel better. Stupid, irrational hu-man emotions....

[anonymous]

I wish it was just the religious who were quirrely about this. Unfortunately, it isn't.

Here's a pretty harsh thing to say. It amazes me that the African American community is so against gay marriage. This is a culture that virtually celebrates the absentee father. The single mother is the norm. If there is any group in this country that has forfeited their right to the "Strong Family Structure" arguement, it's them. - Soulie