Wednesday, May 27, 2009


SF Chron:
Prop 8 Protest Was 'Well-Scripted'


Maybe the co-opted protest organizers should be awarded an honor, perhaps something from GLAAD, for their highly-orchestrated action yesterday. It sure as hell lacked originality, urgency and spontaneity.

Nice of longtime political writers Phil Matier and Andy Ross to run this item in their column this morning in the SF Chronicle:
Newsom wasn't the only star playing for the cameras Tuesday: The anti-Prop. 8 protest that started outside the state Supreme Court building on McAllister Street was pretty well-scripted, too.

Protest organizers met with San Francisco police in the days leading up to the court's decision and negotiated just how the arrests would go down.

The organizers even sent out a press release Friday announcing the plan.

The cops were to start the arrests with protesting clergy members, many of whom had to get back to their churches for afternoon services. The arrests also began at noon- just in time for the live TV shots for the noon news.

Organizers even had preprinted forms for protesters to fill out so they could get out of jail when the time came.
The spirit of the Stonewall Rebellion is not alive and well on the streets of San Francisco.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

When the history of the California marriage movement is written, it will be said that it was about Newsom and his political aspirations in the beginning, and will be at the end.

The cameras were turned on Massachusetts in '04 for America's first legal, equal marriage licenses. Just in advance of that, Newsom gave out rogue licenses on the steps of his City Hall. My goodness, he is telegenic. It opened up a very expensive and risky shitstorm that continues to this day, a shitstorm that in truth the movement did not need. But hey, Gavin wants to be Governor.

Now, there will likely be a high-turnout, national-attention creating ballot question to amp up his prospects. Imagine that. Good for him.

It will also represent the first time that marriage has not been used as a weapon against the Democratic establishment, but as an asset. It has been about Newsom, in California, since 2004. Of course, it's accidentally about the rest of you, of course it is. But tear at all apart -- even the loss last year -- and it's damn funny how well it works for him.

Charlotte said...

I was disappointed to not see at least one flaming newsstand thrown through a plate glass window yesterday. Now I know why.

All that planning takes away the anger and without anger there is no change.

Anonymous said...

Watching Hardball on MSNBC, Chris Matthews talking to Lorri Jean. She was right there, next to Joe Solomnese of HRC, talking about "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" and then a few other things.

Lorri takes in a salary of $327,00 a year running the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center.

She was on the losing "No on 8" Executive Committee, and went on a one-month-long vacation over the summer leading up the autumn vote. I don't know, it's just not when I'd schedule a month-long vacation.

If Lorri Jean was paying any attention to the losing, malpractice-ridden "No on 8" campaign, you'd kinda want to ask her why she let the Democratic nominee Barack Obama's opposition to "8" sit there, unleveraged, unused, ignored. It could have made an enormous difference. It could have made THE difference. But it's possible her DNC friends would not have liked that. Hey, take a vacation.

Now, she's on Hardball criticizing the guy she and her friends protected in November.

This is the national, high profile leadership, folks. Yes, there is a huge, state-by-state winning streak going on. But if you want to know why we lose when we lose, there it is. A $375,000-a-year vacationer, beholden to people who are not you, not me, not even close. Not only has there been no accountability, but "we" put her on Hardball.

And so it has always been, and still is.