Anti-Gay Marriage Activists Using Bait and Switch Tactics? You're Kidding!
Probe Launched Into Mass. Gay Marriage Petition Fraud Allegations.
Massachusetts legislators will hold a special hearing on accusations supporters of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions are using bait-and-switch tactics to collect signatures.
'Vote On Marriage' - an umbrella group made up of the Catholic Church and evangelical groups (don't they have other things to do with their life?) - needs 65,825 signatures by Thanksgiving for the measure to be considered.
The names then would need to be verified by the Secretary of State. The proposed amendment would then go to the legislature where it requires the support of 50 members. The earliest it could go to voters would be in 2008 (when public opinion will have grown so much more in support of same-sex marriage, it will not pass).
But, since the group began collecting names there have been a growing number of people who complain of illegal practices being used to get signatures.
A number of people have complained to authorities while others have contacted newspapers throughout the state. A spokesperson for Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, said Reilly's office has received about a dozen complaints. A special investigator has been assigned to follow up on the complaints.
They all appear similar the Boston Globe reports--shoppers at plazas and beer stores say that after signing a separate petition to allow beer and wine sales in grocery stores, they were asked to sign a second petition with little or no explanation. That second petition was the gay-marriage measure.
Vote On Marriage hired a private company, Arno Political Consultants--a firm with ties to Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger--to collect the signatures.
A spokesperson for Vote On Marriage said it was confident that there is no widespread fraud on the collection of names... so why the investigation?
Arno Political Consultants, of Sacramento was used by Schwarzenegger most recently to help sell his legislative reform package which goes to voters in a special election this November.
The company has been involved in a number of conservative ballot measures nationwide including the anti-gay marriage amendment in Ohio. That measure passed by a wide margin last year. It has also worked for the Republican National Committee to register GOP voters in Florida.
At the State House, the Joint Committee on Election Laws will hold a special hearing on Oct. 18 to examine the complaints of fraud.
Opponents of the ballot measure say that if the complaints are substantiated it could be grounds for challenging the proposed amendment in court. Remember people, The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ALREADY cleared the way for lesbian and gay couples in the state to marry, ruling back in February 2005, that government attorneys "failed to identify any constitutionally adequate reason" to deny them the right. Chances are that this measure could be overturned even if it were to pass.
Why is it that a simple majority of the public can vote to ban the civil rights of the minority? If we'd rely on the Constitution to grant us the rights and protections, rather than a simple 51% of the public, we'd be much better off. What happened to liberty and justice experienced by all people? That is what we were founded on after all.
Posted by Bryan Harding
portions via 365gay.com
This entry was posted
on Thursday, October 06, 2005 at 12:30 AM.
Want to discuss? Leave a comment below.
ByWow, 12 whole complaints? Sounds like you have a real conspiracy on your hands Bryan. And no, we don't have "better things to do" than protect the traditional family in this country. It's kind of important to us.
By
How many times have I complained to that political hack Bradbury? Quite a few.
As for families, protecting the traditional family as the societal norm is very important to me.
I believe that children are better off in a household with a married biological mother and father.
I personally do have other things to do (I can't speak for a group) but thankfully I am able to multi-task.
By
"I believe that children are better off in a household with a married biological mother and father."
Oh, for goodness sake we all must SAVE THE CHILDREN!!!
Guess what. Saving children doesn't mean going off half cocked, and actually HURTING THE KIDS in the process, which is exactly what you're doing. Kids are being denied the resources of their parents- desperately needed resources. Especially in today's "No child left a dime" status quo.
But preachers and politicians are great at getting the emotional and the credulous all worked up at an imagined threat- empty air, described by the power-hungry and cruel- as jagged hell.
Completely without research, the right wingnuts have been trumpeting SAVE THE CHILDREN for a while now.
And when they do include "research" it is never secular, and always comes from a biased source.
*sigh*...
Keeping same-sex parents as legal strangers is good for children. Just ask someone that REALLY knows kids. Like I dunno... the American Association of Pediatrics maybe??
http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=123807&page=1&pp=25
And it seems that the AAP's endorsement of gay marriage was applauded by the American Family Therapy Academy too.
And here's just another coupla things I came across...
Happy reading, everybody!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12616800
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=11329644
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=8868496
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12674522
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12082205
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12361102
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=1446541&dopt=Abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12518806
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=9222029
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=7611338
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=6630329
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15056307
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15271625
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15056307
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15056307
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=11826220
PS- Hey Bryan,
I don't suppose that you could maybe add a disclaimer to this neat-o site, saying that if people are going to say horrible things like "gays are bad for kids" or other bullshit, then they need to back it up with reliable documentation or links or something?!?!
-Tanya
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