Most of us are now aware of the legal battles and disputes that have occurred and continue to flame the differences between the Gay and Heterosexual Communities since the birth of Prop 8. The religious, secular, and political, communities have voiced their opinions and the legal outcome is yet to be determined by a higher court. California, The United States, and the World awaits the outcome of this legal battle which in many respects has set a precedent and perhaps shined light on some very outdated, prejudiced, bigoted beliefs. With that
said, within the complexity of the issues, lies a blatantly obvious misnomer that has been adopted to define the Gay Community’s fight for marriage equality.

The Gay Community’s stance and feverish fight to have equal legal rights under the definition of “marriage” has been mislabeled “Same Sex Marriage.” This title is being used   Read More »

Carl Wood is the Democratic candidate for the CA 65th Assembly District, the most depressed area in the nation after Detroit. Carl is a lifelong labor guy with deep roots in the community. As Public Utilities Commissioner, Carl Wood helped guide the state through the disastrous energy crisis, protecting the interests of workers and working class utility consumers. Wood is unapologetically liberal and direct, in a very pleasant way. Here he is at the California Democratic Convention last April 2010:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juWCJN2JeLc&feature=channel

 Crossposted from Calitics

   Read More »

San Francisco Mayor and California Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor Gavin Newsom is no stranger to adversity. He grew up in a single-parent household where he pulled his weight to help make ends meet and in school he struggled with a profound learning disability. Gavin’s upbringing instilled in him a strong work ethic coupled with an intimate understanding of some of today’s most complex social and economic issues. Above all, the obstacles that Gavin faced growing up taught him to live his life with confidence and optimism-two attributes that he strives each day to help his constituents find within themselves.

Contrary to popular belief, Gavin Christopher Newsom was not born and raised in a world of wealth and privilege. His mother, Tessa Newsom gave birth to Gavin in San Francisco when she was eighteen and to his sister Hilary when she was twenty. Gavin’s mother (who died in 2002 after a five year battle with breast cancer) and his father, Judge William Newsom, who lived together in Cole Valley and the Marina District of San Francisco, separated when Gavin was two and divorced when Gavin was just five years old. After the divorce, Gavin was raised by his mother in Corte Madera and Larkspur, California, where she worked hard at three jobs (secretary, paralegal and waitress) to support Gavin and his sister. Growing up, both Gavin and Hilary worked on the weekends as well as every summer to help their family make ends meet.The family also took in several foster children over the course of Gavin’s childhood. Gavin has  said that “I have always understood you can’t take things for granted. You have to fight hard every day” and he credits his mother with being a “model of that, of sacrifice and hard work.”

From his father, Gavin learned about the complicated world of politics. Judge Newsom is good friends with the Getty family and has familial ties to the Pelosi family. In 1975 then-governor (and current Democratic nominee for governor) Jerry Brown appointed Judge Newsom to the Superior Court of Placer County and later to the State Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Unlike his powerful friends, however, Judge Newsom did not have much money due to what Gavin refers to as Judge Newsom’s “extraordinary selflessness.” Gavin recalls that his father “helped more people financially, people in need to a degree that is unimaginable to me.” As a child Gavin did spend time with the Getty’s, going with them on exotic vacations which exposed Gavin to a totally different environment than the one he knew at home with his mother and sister. Gavin has said that his mother “had a way of not making us feel privileged. If we had the privilege of going on a summer trip with the Getty family, we would come back and my mother would remind us real quick: ‘That was great, but here’s reality.’ ” These experiences traveling between two drastically different worlds caused Gavin to become sensitive to the stark differences between the lives of  those who have plenty and those who do not.   Read More »

The dream called California. Thats where I live,work enjoy my time, raise my family,and was born here as well.
But something has gone wrong here. When I travel I use to see the cleanest rest areas in the country, but as of late thay are dirty and run down. This is just one sign of the times, and a growing part of California is looking like that. No one in state goverment is held accountable so they all pass the buck. No one will stand up to do the right thing anymore, even if it is only cleaning the rest rooms at a rest area. No one cares because there job will allways be there due to the unions and all of the power that they now have as a emplyee union and that is just wrong my friends. Meg Whitman is the answer I belive. Now all of the unions are worried about her wanting to clean up the state and break there hold on power.
I say let her clean up our state and make it shine again. Don't you like to stop in a clean restroom, or do you like the dirty ones?
I say let her clean up our state so we can be proud or our Dream called California once again!!!!!!!!!!!

I applaud you for crafting a letter to Judge Walker about camera's in the courtroom. I signed it, but also included the below personal note.

Propriety aside, it is self defeating to "insist" that a Federal judge act in your favor. He is not subject to bluster like a politician, and he is not impressed by arrogance like so many citizens.

He is immune to bullying but not to your tone. Please be careful to set the right one.

--------

The first sentence of this letter reads "we are writing to insist that the trial of Proposition 8 be televised."

Please excuse the zeal of the Courage Campaign. The word "insist" does not convey respect for your position or abilities. Obviously, this is your decision, and you will weigh it judiciously.

As you know, many people are impassioned about this case. A handful will be in the courtroom. Millions more will be elsewhere, checking the internet and television for updates.

Video can give them incomparable access. It lets them see the lawyers' arguments with their inflections and gestures intact. It helps them understand the care you put into your deliberations. It provides access to our justice system, fosters understanding of it and instills trust.

I am a nonfiction writer, and I admit that print cannot compare. It is an excellent medium for stories, ideas and opinions, but the written word inherently distorts the truth. Video just shows it. Even when it is edited, video is an eye not a brain. Of the two, I think that it is the better tool for conveying the realities of this case.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

(Closing speech I delivered at Camp Courage Sacramento at 4:45PM today. Camp Courage Sacramento burst forth with warmth, embrace and power. What great folks!)

This past Monday morning, I found an envelope in my front yard. It was addressed to “Courage Campaign.”

A year ago, in the wake of Prop. 8, I was afraid to open some of those envelopes, not sure if they’d contain hate mail or something worse.

People on the other side were unhappy that we had called them to account for their lies during the campaign.

But this note was very different. Let me read it to you:

“Courage Campaign,
I just turned 3 and I told my friends that I didn’t want any presents. Instead, I asked them to make a contribution to you. My Dad tells me that you give a voice to those people that don’t have one and what you do changes the world. I hope that more of my friends contributed on line. Love, Libby.”   Read More »

Hello everyone.

Since you're on this site, I'm sure it will come as no surprise that California is in trouble.
California, the richest state in the Union, also has the worst credit rating, has asked for a bailout from an equally crippled federal economy, and now sits on a 12.2%
unemployment rate, as I write this. Who knows, as you read this, it may be more.
I'm not hear to be the voice of doom, but rather yet another voice of action. Our country has been dragging us down an economical death spiral since Milton Friedman and the Chicago School. Corporations have been ravaging economies, leaving in their wake thousands of jobless, homeless and hopeless citizens. Aren't we supposed to be a government of the people, for the people and by the people? If you see what I see and notice as I do, the state of our state, you can tell, that's not been the case.
I'm here to act, with you all, concerned people that want to change things. Unfortunately, not all people see the need or desire to work for a healthy government and economy. Let's change this state from a crippled shadow of what it once was to a new, modern splendor that can once again be looked at with pride by its inhabitants.

As I write this, we are beginning to hear results from Maine’s version of Prop. 8 and will soon enough hear about right wing attempts to quash freedom in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Washington state. How well we all remember election night here in California last year, that flash of impossible joy and elation at the election of Barack Obama juxtaposed with the horror of the loss of equal rights. How could both be true? How could we elect Barack Obama and simultaneously watch our fellow Californians vote away our rights?

A year later, regardless of the outcome of these elections tonight, the progressive movement is much broader, more determined and smarter. We know what must be done to change the way people think. We know that multiple tactics, ranging from court fights to ballot box battles to marches to push for federal legislation all must happen simultaneously. We also know that those who invest in repression, in damaging families and in singling out LGBT people (or other minorities) for discrimination must be called on their actions and their investments.   Read More »

I'm at a beautiful retreat house on a hilltop in the mountains north of San Luis Obispo as thirty volunteers led by Courage's brilliant field team learn the skills to be community organizers. The spirit and energy in the room outshine the magnificent California countryside.   Read More »

Camp Courage Day Two. It's Sunday at about 1030 and the room here at the Gloria Molina Community Center is electric. After the Courage Lounge hosted by Javier Angulo and his colleagues at HonorPAC last night, I joined my partner Shaun for dinner with an out of town friend. At 11:30 or so, Lt. Choi arrived at our house, which is sort of his house now, too.   Read More »

I'm sitting in the Gloria Molina Community Center in East LA with 250+ Camp Courage campers. Sixty two people here are monolingual Spanish speakers. We're brown and black and white and Asian and gay and straight and lesbian and bisexual and transgendered. Forty or so people here self-identified as knowing no one else in the room. They just showed up to learn, to experience, to experiment.   Read More »

Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it was that an amazingly gracious church who, on a hot, San Bernardino summer day, had 200 sweltering people emotionally overheated and packed into its hall with an AC struggling to keep up.

Or maybe it's because the California LGBT population has cannibalized its leadership to the point where no one is willing to take the unpopular stance of leading this wounded community made up of people that will bite anyone's head off who has a slightly different opinion from theirs.

Whatever you believe the reason to be, the Leadership Summit on Sunday was an utter failure. And we have no one to blame but ourselves.   Read More »

July 2nd could mark the beginning of the end to Prop 8, the controversial initiative that stripped California's LGBT population of the right to marry.

Why? Because on July 2nd, the first hearing of the federal case brought against Prop 8 by power team Ted Olson and David Boies will be heard in the North California U.S. District Court with the case assigned to Judge Vaughn Walker.

Even more dramatically, Olson and Boies, who have an amazing track record of winning cases, had requested a preliminary injunction against the initiative while the courts heard the merits of their case. In other words, this would have put the enforcement of Prop 8 in the Golden State on hold during the trial, consequently allowing same-sex marriages to occur again.

The hearing on July 2nd would've centered around the merits of the injunction, but Judge Walker had other thoughts in mind, calling recently for a move to “proceed expeditiously to trial."

“Given that serious questions are raised in these proceedings ... the court is inclined to proceed directly and expeditiously to the merits of plaintiffs' claims," the judge declared. “The just, speedy and inexpensive determination of these issues would appear to call for proceeding promptly to trial."

(See Case Document and Motion for Preliminary Injunction, Judge Walker's Order for Trial)   Read More »

Let me preface this by saying that I'm a straight male who was born in Texas and raised in Indiana. While normally I wouldn't define myself by my sexuality or my residency I think it has to be done to give credence to the plan that I hope to outline.

Overturning Prop 8 won't be easy, we are kidding ourselves if we think we can simply walk to the polls in 2010 and have enough voters to overturn it. This is uncharted territory not just for California, or just the United States but it is uncharted for the entire free world. The world is watching. Here are my proposed steps:

1. Let the lawyers do their job. This nation is ripe with intelligent lawyers who see the injustice behind Prop 8. We need to rally and unite them under a common belief and clear goals.   Read More »

I mean this is really getting out of hand. And before it goes any further, we need to establish a few things that the Yes on 8 campaign seems not to understand.

The current state of marriage does not make the words "bride" and "groom" hate speech. Gays are not the same as unicorns. No matter what Tom McClintock thinks, gays are not dogs either. The notion- in this country of all places- that equality would be "armageddon" should be outrageous to anyone. And most certainly, eliminating human rights would not be the same as defeating Hitler. Just stop. But hey- Yes on 8: if you've got an actual point, let's hear it. No really. One that's true.

So far there isn't one. I'm actually a little surprised. Given the tens of millions being rushed to California by Mormons and the great monied patrons of the religious right and the lather being worked up, you'd think that somewhere there would be a reasoned argument. Even if it wasn't front and center. There's lying and there's fear mongering and there's divisiveness. I've gotten those messages. And it's all capped by the evocation of the most horrific genocide the world has ever known.

And then there's The Call. Leading untold thousands to my city on Saturday to pray for Proposition 8. You do that. I'd like to think that this will be a positive event, but nothing so far leads me to expect a break from the nonstop divisiveness and the out-and-out lying and the histrionics (not to run this into the ground, but in the world of rhetoric, a Hitler comparison is the last stop on the hyperbole express). I'm sick of it, and if that's what I can expect on Saturday, take it elsewhere. I'm sick of the lies, I'm sick of the blackmail of my local small businesses, I'm sick of this being considered a remotely appropriate level of political discourse, and most of all I'm sick of being told that people are not created equal. That's the entire point of this country existing. It's the very first self-evident truth. Don't get angry at me if you don't like it. Take it up with the Declaration of Independence.

So while Prop 8 supporters pile into Qualcomm to pray, the Courage Campaign is joining with other allies of equality and freedom calling for volunteers to stop Prop 4 and Prop 8. When Rick Jacobs emailed Courage members earlier today, he noted that "the religious right is calling Proposition 8 its 'decisive last stand,'" which tells you the stakes on this. If you doubt at all how seriously they're taking it, check out the Call video on the volunteer page. It's pretty shocking.

Look: this is how the religious right keeps winning elections. For all the (very important) stories of voter suppression and ballot box rigging and corruption, the fundamental strategy hinges on drowning everyone in so much vitriol and general negativity that they give up entirely and stay home. It can't work this time. We can't let it. There's simply too much on the line. At a time that it's almost hackneyed already to rally around hope and change, it's all the more vital that California stand up collectively and say enough is ENOUGH. Lying to us won't work. Trying to wear us down with the rhetoric of alienation will not keep us home. Trying to make us miserable will not keep us quiet.

6 days left. I'm spending my Saturday with Lou Engle and James Dobson because there's some question as to whether equality is a human right in this country. How can we allow this to be a debate any longer? Enough is enough. Do something. And if you have time, do one more thing. If we don't stop this crap now, then when?

Andrew Sullivan notes today that one of the biggest financial supporters of the Yes on 8 campaign is Elsa Prince Broekhuizen, who has pumped $450,000 into the campaign. Broekhuizen is the mother of Blackwater founder and owner Erik Prince and Bush Pioneer Betsy DeVos. She's also quite the patron of the religious right.   Read More »

Proposition 4 is another bad anti-choice proposal: parental notification, an automatic child abuse investigation if the young woman doesn't want to notify her parents and can't find a judge to approve. And if she is able to find a judge, the judge then has to declare her mature enough, and the judges have to make annual reports, county-by-county, on how many abortions are approved for young women each year.   Read More »

Finally, our state legislature has reached a compromise budget that should earn Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature. It's a no thrills blend of expected budget cuts and the closure of tax loopholes with no tax increases. But the $15 billion budget deficit only balances through accounting procedures and heavy borrowing against the state lottery, which means today's leaders are passing the buck to future leaders once again.

If you wanted tax increases, just wait a few years when the state will be forced to decide how they will increase revenues to maintain basic services as the percentage of general fund revenues spent on retiring debt continues to increase. No new taxes, no new revenues. A slumping economy, projects lower revenues in the years to come.   Read More »

Disclosure: I've been with this campaign since the 2007 CDP convention.

Manuel Perez has a significant, double-digit lead over his Republican opponent and
is well-positioned to win back the seat for Democrats in California's 80th Assembly

That's the latest polling we have (Source: Heidi von Szeliski and Associates), and it looks good all over.

This has been a district made for Democrats to win since the last redistricting, and yet we've lost over and over. But now California Democrats are heading into the general of a key battleground for our 2/3 majority fight with four major factors in our favor: numbers, nominee, polling and ground game.



Maps, polling, links galore over the flip. (Originally posted at Calitics.)   Read More »

Conventional thinking leads the likes of President George W. Bush to believe that 'immigrants take jobs Americans don't want,' but a new study by the Migration Policy Institute finds that in California, immigrants will be needed to fill jobs, avert a skills shortage in labor pool that could wreak havoc on state economy.   Read More »