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01/20/2009

If we move to Anaheim, we'll prob. have to look elsewhere for shrubs

by Jeremy Hooper

Anaheim, California's Marina Landscape Inc. gave $15,000 in support of Proposition 8. But not happy with simply taking away our marriages, their company's staff is now sending us odd bits of rage in which they seem to connect Rick Warren with Prop 8 with Obama. With full awareness that we are doing so, here now are this staffer's thoughts, followed by our own:

Okay, first off: We never called for Rick Warren's invite to be rescinded. We knew that was an impossibility. And in fact, we wouldn't have even been comfortable with it being taken away once it had been granted. All we wanted was to make our voices heard loud and clear so that the Obama team would understand why this was such a big matter of concern to certain people. We believe it worked.

Twist and turn words? Spread lies? We will not even dignify that silliness. We especially will not dignify that silliness when it comes from a forceful supporter of Proposition 8, a campaign that fed on lies like a particularly malnourished vampire feeds on blood.

Thirdly: The people have spoken on what? That they want Barack Obama, who we think is the most LGBT-friendly president in history, to be our commander-in-chief? That they want Barack Obama, Proposition 8 opponent, to served as their president? That they want Barack Obama, whose administration just posted a promising list of LGBT-related goals, to be this nation's leader? Well guess what? We speak with them! Loudly and proudly! And we can't wait to see where this bright new hunk of hope takes our national conversation.

Rick Warren's invocation was a jarring disconnect of this inauguration day. Juxtaposed against the backdrop of true inclusivity, his words range hollow. Compared with Rev. Lowery, whose heartfelt speech came across as pure and soulful, Warren's prose made him seem like a pretender to the inclusive throne. We know what lies behind his calls for peace and acceptance, because we've heard his real thoughts pour directly from his mouth. We know that in his worldview, we gays should not even act on our truths. And we know that if we do, then our relationships are likely to be compared to pedophilia and incest.

But we weren't the only ones who saw this. Because of the outcry about his forcefully anti-gay comments, much of America watched it through a different lens. In doing so, they were forced to ask themselves: Do I have a place at Rick Warren's table, or will I be among the next group to have my entire existence undermined by his odd brand of "inclusivity"?

Marina Landscape Inc

Your thoughts

Actually (and I know folks shy away from thinking of these things as having winners and losers) I think the lgbt community won this one. Other than a silly and bad cover up of Warren's comments about incest and pedophilia from Fox News (via Mike Huckabee of all people), when news casters talked about the Warren situation, I noticed how they framed it as us being angry at Warren specifically because of his debasement of lgbt relationships instead of the connotation that he is a victim of persecution because of his support of Proposition 8.

Posted by: a. mcewen | Jan 20, 2009 6:27:01 PM

Nice Response. Hopefully you sent this reply to the person who sent you that email. He or she should learn to research before rattling off nonsense.

Posted by: Sam | Jan 20, 2009 6:28:31 PM

Just curious ... why are you concerned whether or not the person who sent you the email is aware that you are posting the email on your blog. Also, why do you hide their identity

i.e. the email address. I am not trying to make any waves .... I am just curious. Thanks!

Posted by: Donald | Jan 20, 2009 7:13:29 PM

Our friends at Marina are correct - the Obama administration has indeed spoken. They have spoken out in full support of LGBT rights. Here's the Obama agenda for LGBT rights that was posted this afternoon to whitehouse.gov: * Expand Hate Crimes Statutes

* Fight Workplace Discrimination

* Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights

* Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage

* Repeal Don't Ask-Don't Tell

* Expand Adoption Rights (ensure adoption rights for LGBT)

* Promote AIDS Prevention

* Empower Women to Prevent HIV/AIDS

Posted by: Markl | Jan 20, 2009 7:18:30 PM

My blog isn't a huge as Jeremy's but I have not put out email addresses either (and in posts having nothing to do with Proposition 8). It's a simple matter of courtesy.

Posted by: a. mcewen | Jan 20, 2009 7:45:51 PM

The withholding of contact info for the mailer is appropriate. I keeps them from a deluge of angry hate mail. So this is typical and curteous. Also, I would like to add, posting this person's contact info would have been seen as yet another way the bigger than christianty gay conspiracy is persecuiting the few believers that are left in the world.

Posted by: Someone in Pittsburgh | Jan 21, 2009 1:51:00 AM

I find it ironic that the company considers itself an "equal opportunity employer" on their website. I know if I were working there, I'd feel like I was in a hostile workplace.

Posted by: Daimeon | Jan 21, 2009 11:06:35 AM

Over at Pharyngula, PZ Myers has this to say: "I reserve the right to publicly post, with full identifying information about the source, any email sent to me that contains threats of violence." But this one didn't have any threats, so perhaps you were right to mask the full address. (Note also that from addresses on e-mails are easily faked. I can do it myself very simply with an Apache webserver running php.) TRiG.

Posted by: Timothy (TRiG) | Jan 21, 2009 3:08:43 PM

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