Theater company leaves in protest

SAN DIEGO — Ion Theatre, a small but well-regarded young theater company, has vacated its performance space in what it calls a protest of the property owner’s personal contributions to Proposition 8, the November ballot initiative that banned same-sex marriage in California.

“It is with a very heavy heart that we make this decision,” said Glenn C. Paris, Ion’s producing artistic director. “(But) we believe theater teaches us to act.”

The Grantville theater space, known as the Lab @ the Academy of Performing Arts, had been Ion’s full-time home since fall 2007, though the company has staged occasional shows there since 2003. Ion subleased the space from the performing arts school that in turn leases from the property owner, the Caster Cos.

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San Diego Union Tribune – San Diego,CA,USA

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Donors poured 83M into Prop 8 campaigns

(San Francisco, California) More than $83 million was donated to support or oppose the ballot initiative that abolished same-sex marriage in California, according to campaign filings released Monday.

The new filings cover the weeks immediately before and after the Nov. 4 election. They show that elected officials, businesses, churches and individuals …

“Will of the Voters” must be obeyed – unless it embarrasses those thin skinned Marriage Ban Donors

SAN FRANCISCO — In many ways it is a typical map, showing states, highways, cities and streets.

But also dotting the online display are thousands of red arrows, marking spots from Bryn Mawr, Pa., to Jamacha, Calif., identifying the addresses of donors who supported Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex marriage in California.

It is exactly those arrows that concern supporters of the measure, who say they have been regularly harassed since the election — with threatening e-mail messages and sometimes boycotts of their businesses.

“Some gay activists have organized Web sites to actively encourage people to go after supporters of Proposition 8,” said Frank Schubert, the campaign manager for Protect Marriage, the leading group behind the proposition. “And giving these people a map to your home or office leaves supporters of Proposition 8 feeling especially vulnerable. Really, it is chilling.”

So chilling, apparently, that supporters have filed suit in Federal District Court in Sacramento seeking a preliminary injunction of a state election law that requires donors of $100 or more to disclose their names, addresses, occupations and other personal information. In particular, the suit seeks to stop the final filing for the 2008 election, which is due Jan. 31. That filing includes donations made in the closing days of the campaign, when the proposition surged to victory.

James Bopp Jr., a lawyer from Indiana who filed the lawsuit on the behalf of Protect Marriage, said the harassment of Proposition 8 supporters violated their constitutional rights of free speech and assembly.

“The cost of transparency cannot be discouragement of people’s participation in the process,” said Mr. Bopp, who has argued several prominent cases challenging campaign-finance laws in California and other states. “The highest value in the First Amendment is speech, and some amorphous idea about transparency cannot be used to subvert those rights.”

The election law in question, the Political Reform Act of 1974, was approved by California voters as Proposition 9, and gay rights advocates say there is rich irony in supporters of Proposition 8 opposing the earlier ballot measure.

“They believe in the will of the people if it’s in tune with what they believe,” said Jennifer C. Pizer, marriage project director with Lambda Legal, the gay rights legal organization, in Los Angeles.

Opponents of Proposition 8 are also suspicious of the intent of trying to prevent donors from being identified. “Do they want to hide something?” said Shannon P. Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco. See Marriage Ban Donors Feel Exposed by List New York Times

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Proposition 8 Gives Rise to New Generation of Gay Leaders

After state voters passed Proposition 8 on November 4, gays, lesbians and their straight allies took to the streets in Los Angeles and West Hollywood, demanding the repeal of the ballot measure that bans same-sex marriage in California. The outrage over the vote also brought about several boycotts that forced “Yes on 8″ contributors like L.A. Film Festival director Richard Raddon out of a job.

But one of the more interesting and sometimes overlooked post–Prop. 8 developments has been a shakeup within the gay establishment and the rise of younger activists looking for a seat at the power table. Dave Valk, a 21-year-old senior at UCLA, and Joe Townley, a 30-year-old Internet entrepreneur, founded, with others, an activist group called Demonstrate Change. Vincent Jones, a 32-year-old staffer at Common Cause, expected to do more outreach in the African-American community, which mostly voted for Proposition 8.

In the meantime, the California State Supreme Court will hear arguments from gay-rights lawyers probably in March, asking the court to overturn Prop. 8 and legalize same-sex marriage in this state once again. To keep the “No on 8″ cause alive, Valk, Townley and people like them have been gearing up for protests in January and February, as well as a possible March on Washington in April. Other gay activists in Los Angeles — young and old, rookies and veterans — are also organizing a more grassroots-oriented gay-rights movement, with Rick Jacobs of the Courage Campaign providing support.

In our article published shortly before the election, polls showed voters who opposed same-sex marriage gaining ground on voters who backed same-sex marriage. The article, “Riding the Cultural Divide with Proposition 8,” explained the national consequences of either outcome, as well as the mounting turmoil and trouble unfolding inside the campaign to defeat the measure.

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LA Weekly, CA

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Battle to reverse Prop 8 begins

(San Francisco) LGBT groups have begun efforts to put a repeal of Proposition 8 on the 2010 ballot.

Prop 8, passed by voters in November, bars same-sex marriage in California. The constitutionality of the measure will be taken up by the state Supreme Court in 2009, but LGBT groups say they …

Ammiano Inspires Gay and Straight Youth

Some 500 gay and straight young people gathered at San Francisco’s Everett Middle School Saturday to attend the Youth Empowerment Summit 2008.

The event was designed to discuss how life is changing for gays of all ages.

Newly elected California Assembly member Tom Ammiano was among the keynote speakers.

“Someone like me who has been around for a long time really is happy to play as the torch. These young people have a lot of energy [and] they’re really sophisticated,” said Ammiano.

He says the conference focused mostly on Proposition 8, the measure that banned same-sex marriage in California.

Ammiano says the young people were also interested in his long career in San Francisco politics, and his memories of gay rights pioneer, Supervisor Harvey Milk.

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KCBS, CA