In-your-face intimidation and harassment were early hallmarks of Hitler’s Nazi’s. So, too, with gay activists in California who are growing more desperate and strident as Proposition 8 gains momentum. Lowell Brown at Article VI Blog shares this e-mail from a Mormon Prop 8 supporter:
This weekend we have stake conference. [Ed.: A “stake” is a geographic unit of LDS congregations, and is the rough equivalent of a Catholic diocese.] Our stake conference always begins with a stake temple session on Friday or Thursday night.
Early Friday morning I received a call from [a local church leader] . . . that there would be numerous protesters outside the temple, and to . . . stay calm and to drive carefully. The beautiful Oakland Temple is located right across the bay from San Francisco, very close to the city of Berkeley. Apparently the [opponents of] Proposition 8 . . . have realized the deep involvement of the [LDS] church and begun to protest right outside of the temple and harass temple patrons. The fastest way to get to the temple from our house is to take the 680 freeway, but the exit is a bit tricky. The off ramp is extremely short and straight uphill. You then make an almost blind left turn, an immediate right and another left into the parking lot.
As we approached the off ramp, I realized there would be trouble. There was a backup onto the freeway from cars stalled on the off ramp. As we moved forward inches at a time, we realized this was due to a large group of loud protesters who were standing on both sides of the street, yelling, screaming and waving signs. When we got to the top of the offramp, ready to make our turn, one protester jumped out right in front of our car. . . .
This is what gay militants like to call honoring “diversity” and “civil discourse.” And they wonder why normal Americans feel it necessary to pass constitutional amendments protecting their rights to think and say what they believe about homosexuality. We ain’t seen nothin’ yet from this crowd. It’s only going to get worse, regardless of the passage or failure of Prop 8 and the victory or defeat of Barack Obama.
My question: Where were Oakland’s finest when its citizens were being harassed on their way to church? If they had been headed to an abortion clinic instead of a temple, I think the blues would have been there in force. Don’t you? But Oakland, for the most part, is populated — borrowing a line from Lawrence of Arabia — by vicious, little, silly people, if their congressional representation is any indication.
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Here is a great article by Orson Scott Card: “Disagree but don’t be unkind.”
http://mormontimes.com/mormon_voices/orson_scott_card/?id=4740
And another from Meridian Magazine, written by Michelle Worley: “I Hope You Know We’re not Haters.”
http://www.meridianmagazine.com/articles/081023prop8.html
One family with a Yes on Prop 8 sign on their lawn had the window on their living room smashed with a baseball bat — fortunately, the family member who had been sitting next to that window had moved away moments before. Or he would have been showered with shards of glass.
Lots of others have had Prop 8 signs ripped, stolen, or spray-painted with obscenities. This is tolerance?
No one wants to take away gay civil rights — and most of us have gay friends. Prop 8 Supporters just want to retain their own right to freedom of conscience, and to be able to teach their own children their own moral values. But everywhere that gay rights are established, it seems religious freedom is suddenly in second place. It’s Kafkaesque.
Next they’ll be banning the Bible as “hate speech.” That is not sarcasm; the Bible makes a very clear case on this question. Which in many places people are no longer allowed to do.
http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/916008237.html
One pro- prop 8 man physically attacked.
Where is the “tolerance” of OTHER lifestyles?
April is right..the Bible in full or in part is “hate speech” and many pastors behind bars for even just quoting.
I agree its not right to spray paint or break windows but this is another group of individuals who experience hate crimes against them daily. Every group has over zealous individuals as do we. The church has taken a political stand and we have to live with those consequences. Some decisions we face are not popular but as a group we have to hold our heads high. As we embark to single out an entire class of people we can not get to upset when they try to suppress our opposition.
Put –
You can only be a gay troll. What utter foolishness. Thanks for so nicely proving the point that Prop 8 is all about free speech.
Any resident of this country who doesn’t get upset — when anyone is told they can’t say what they think in a public place about gays, protestants, Mormons or Islamists — is not an American. Whatever “hate crimes” are “experienced” by gays has zero to do with the rights of pro-Prop 8 Americans to say what they believe without fear of anything but a dissenting opinion.
No one in this country has any right to respond to rhetoric with threats, harassment or violence. That you see such violations of civil rights as a natural consequence of protected political speech paints you as a gay activist shill.
do you people not realize how stupid you sound? how dare you say that the gay activists were ridiculous in protesting. i do not agree with protesting violently, but are you blind? can you not see the countless times where gays and lesbians have suffered at the hands of people who cannot see beyond the surface. how can you act like this? as if the people had a choice. as if they said, you know what, i feel like making a lot of people angry. i think ill be gay. yeah right. you really make me sick.
whatisWRONGwithyoupeople 05.18.09 at 12:56 am
as if the people had a choice
The scary thing is that they really believe that.
Plain ignorance.
WhatisWRONG: Does it occur to you that you are? Swinging baseball bats at windows of innocent people does not give much credibility to gay protesters.
Gays, the vast majority at least, DO have a choice. This is NOT a genetic thing. Genetic aberrations of any kind are rare. Violent gays are not.
Science has looked long and hard trying to find a gay gene. There is
none. Homosexuality became “genetic” and not a matter of choice a generation ago, in order to market it as acceptable. That’s a matter of record, part of the history of the gay movement.
So tell me Gravitas, when did you decide to become straight?
And why did you make that choice?