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Traditional Marriage and Gay Rights -The Battle Lines are Drawn in Fresno
Traditional Marriage and Gay Rights
The Battle Lines are Drawn in Fresno
The Battle Lines are Drawn in Fresno
Traditional Marriage and Gay Rights
The Battle Lines are Drawn in Fresno
By Mike Rhodes
August 22, 2004
Fresno Mayor Alan Autry is joining with the religious right to hold an event for "traditionally married couples" on the front steps of City Hall. The event, which will be held on Sunday, August 29 at 6 PM will be met with a series of counter and alternative actions sponsored by a variety of progressive community groups.
A Renewal of Vows of Love and Commitment for ALL the people of the Fresno area will take place at 1 PM on August 29. This event will be held on the patio of Wesley United Methodist Church, which is at 1343 E. Barstow, halfway between Cedar and First Streets. All the people of the Fresno area-- young and old, gay and straight, of whatever race or class, representing all faith traditions centered in love, are welcome. From the steps of the City Hall to the meadows of Woodward Park, from the rolling hills of Clovis to the flat lands of western Fresno County, all are welcome! For more information call the Rev. Bryan Jessup: (559) 227-6146.
For the more militant, there will be a counter demonstration held at City Hall during the mayor’s event. Organizers are planning to meet on the west side of P Street, across from City Hall. At yesterday’s planning meeting supporters were told that the Fresno Police Department (FPD) will attempt to restrict protestors to the west side of P Street. Supporters were told that there would be a line of cops standing in the middle of P Street and any counter protestors that enter the City Hall grounds will be immediately arrested.
Protestors planning to be on the West side of P Street should use the large parking lot near the Water Tower on O Street just south of Fresno Street. Assembly time is currently set for 5:30 p.m., in the lot. People are encouraged to come in groups and not alone.
Everyone coming to the counter demonstration might not be planning on staying on the west side of P Street. There are people (gasp!) that believe that Fresno City Hall belongs to them too. They believe that if the mayor is going to hold an event in the "Free Speech Area" at City Hall then they can be there too.
To find out more about the demonstration at City Hall, on the west side of P Street contact Baltimore & Robert, Marriage Equality of California, MECA, Fresno Chapter Heads at (559) 227-4624, email involved.ccpn@sbcglobal.net or call (559) 486-2216. There is no contact information for the ad-hoc wild and crazy group that believes they have Free Speech Rights on the Public Property at City Hall.
For more information:
http://www.fresnoalliance.com/home
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Was Alan Autry an actor who played a southern cop on the "In the Heat of the Night" TV show? He looks a lot like him.
Yes ... thats him in the picture. Anyone else not surprised that Mayor Bubba is holding a hate rally?
When this guy was elected I told everyone I knew that if Fresno was dumb enough to want this guy they deserved what they got. After reading this, I take it back. Nobody deserves a guy like this for Mayor.
Y'all git on back to Sparta there, Bubba! Y'heah?
Y'all git on back to Sparta there, Bubba! Y'heah?
Suggesting that the people of Fresno got what they deserved when they elected Alan Autry is a lot like saying that a women got what she deserved when she was raped. It is a-historical and it is wrong. The business community, the religious right, and Republican party got Autry elected by plowing money and resources into his campaign. Poor and working people in this community have been alienated, disenfranchised, and prevented from voting and coming to power by a ruthless ruling class that owns the media, maintains two political parties that do their bidding, & makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. Our unemployment rate is always in the double digits, our high school drop out rate among the highest in the nation, and our children die from a lack of nutrition and health care. Some people would blame the victim for this situation! If you really want to help, rather than blaming us for the reality of a class war being waged against us, then roll up your sleeves and organize. There is a lot of work to do.
mmmm.... he sure looks scrumptious in that cop uniform. I know a few bars where he'd be really popular in the men's room dressed like that.
All people deserve the same rights ... the same economic rights and duties and the same priveledges in this society ... not just married people ... why not lobby and rally for a better tax structure for all the working poor and one that does not even differentiate between married and unmarried people ... ? If I want to participate in some farcical, left-over, male-dominated ceremony that was foisted on agricultural societies by self-serving elites in the clergy of the Christian Church during the dark ages - then, well and good for me and I should be able to marry whomever I choose. But, if I don't want to participate in this thing called marriage, don't I also deserve rights? Don't I deserve the same tax breaks as the next guy or gal? I mean common leftists, you have been seriously played this time .. and is getting so easy to play you ... if the elites are getting ready to roll back civil liberties, kill a bunch of innocent civilians, ignore the fact that the entire planet is spiraling into environmental crisis and cut working class earnings in half, while also increasing their tax burden ... Fine ... all we have to do is pull out the abortion thing, or dangle some strange carrot like the sanctity of christian marriage for gay people in front of their eyes ... getting all the liberals talking about that while bombing holy shrines in mesopatamia and dragging us into resource wars ... rock on elites ... score two points for you ... uhh, "progressives" where are you? Caught with a speck of rice in your eye, or an angry old white God stuck up your bum ... get a clue
so "rights for all" are achieved by arguing a minority should not have the same rights enjoyed by the majority?
that's bullshit
that's bullshit
I remember people saying that CA deserved the energy crisis because they voted in the legislatures that allowed it.
** Bubba did not run on a platform that he was against Gays, or that he was against Schools, or that he was against the
Human Rights Commision.. but just like others in our
government he showed his true colors. The Republican Party is nothing but con men, liars and cheats. They use the CHUMPS that support them to get financially ahead.
** I do not understand how anyone decent and with half
a brain could stay a Republican.
*** Bubba, the Idiot Sheriff of Fresno, Duncan, the Smithcamps, ... the list goes on of the jerks in Fresno."
So lets see, they have gone after the Latinos, Blacks, Poor, Homeless, Children, Gays... mmmh. the Mentally ill, oh yes,
the Liberals, Women, (not the doormats) but real Women. the working class. Who is left??, about 1/16th of the population of the Central Valley? Who is doing the voting?
or maybe who is watching the voting machines.
** Well I hope others come out and over and up and down to support the Progressives of Fresno.
** Bubba did not run on a platform that he was against Gays, or that he was against Schools, or that he was against the
Human Rights Commision.. but just like others in our
government he showed his true colors. The Republican Party is nothing but con men, liars and cheats. They use the CHUMPS that support them to get financially ahead.
** I do not understand how anyone decent and with half
a brain could stay a Republican.
*** Bubba, the Idiot Sheriff of Fresno, Duncan, the Smithcamps, ... the list goes on of the jerks in Fresno."
So lets see, they have gone after the Latinos, Blacks, Poor, Homeless, Children, Gays... mmmh. the Mentally ill, oh yes,
the Liberals, Women, (not the doormats) but real Women. the working class. Who is left??, about 1/16th of the population of the Central Valley? Who is doing the voting?
or maybe who is watching the voting machines.
** Well I hope others come out and over and up and down to support the Progressives of Fresno.
"for gays who want to marry"
and as for those who want helathcare without having to marry into it?
the real dichotomy in this society is that what should be universal rights are controlled by access to privilege, i.e. they cost large amounts of cash.
any real progressive movement is aimed squarely at this universal inequality, and supports the right of all humans to freedom regardless of ability to pay for it.
that's why the gay marriage thing is a fake. some of our hetero bretheren could be more articulate about this. any signs of sensitivity on their part should be encouraged. i like to think averyone is capable of healing from decades of oppressive programming against "others," as the whole progressive proposition ultimately rests on this possibility. that is not a pass for homophobia.
but nor is it carte blanche for bourgeois-supremacists who expect the rest of us to shut up and blindly fall lackstep into their campaign for their *ahem* special rights to play house while the rest of us go die, preferably as profitably as possible.
So there. Don't ya wish I weren't queer, you'll be reduced to screaming "self-hater," which is as ridiculous as it looks.
Yours for human freedom..... --Anonymous.
and as for those who want helathcare without having to marry into it?
the real dichotomy in this society is that what should be universal rights are controlled by access to privilege, i.e. they cost large amounts of cash.
any real progressive movement is aimed squarely at this universal inequality, and supports the right of all humans to freedom regardless of ability to pay for it.
that's why the gay marriage thing is a fake. some of our hetero bretheren could be more articulate about this. any signs of sensitivity on their part should be encouraged. i like to think averyone is capable of healing from decades of oppressive programming against "others," as the whole progressive proposition ultimately rests on this possibility. that is not a pass for homophobia.
but nor is it carte blanche for bourgeois-supremacists who expect the rest of us to shut up and blindly fall lackstep into their campaign for their *ahem* special rights to play house while the rest of us go die, preferably as profitably as possible.
So there. Don't ya wish I weren't queer, you'll be reduced to screaming "self-hater," which is as ridiculous as it looks.
Yours for human freedom..... --Anonymous.
People make contracts all the time. Marriage is a contract. When two adults are not allowed to enter into a contract with each other, you better believe that has to do with freedom. Talk all the trash you want about how people shouldn't have rights you don't agree with and call it a fake issue. Under your so-called "progressive" arguement we'd all have to keep our mouths shut until the waters parted and manna fell from heaven. Sounds to me just like just another way to sit on your ass and not do anything.
It is apparent that those advocating the marriage "issue" don't give much of a crap for anyone but themselves and their own property rights; that's why this campaign is about equal rights and not about freedom.
All of your reactionary attacks on this critique reiterate the point. Keep up the great work!!
All of your reactionary attacks on this critique reiterate the point. Keep up the great work!!
Okay, your still sitting on your ass. I have a rule, anyone who doesn't support gay rights is pretty much of an automatic ass-hole on every thing else too. Sorry, but it works. Vote for Bush he hates queers and everything they represent too, but then you wouldn't mind voting for a killer as long as he hates queers as much as you do. huh?
Having the right to choose. If you don't want to get married- well just fine and dandy then don't. Marriage is not for everyone. But you have no right to prevent others from having that right, regardless of your beliefs. Can you get your head around that or not? We don't have to agree, we just have to agree about our basic human rights.
just keep luring all those allies over to your side with all that sweet talkin, huh? and if that dont work, just call them names. wins em every time, dunnit?
yup, yer a pretty smart feller alright.
yup, yer a pretty smart feller alright.
for remembering that little fact.
how about the little freedom to choose not to have anything to do with your petty agenda? why is that so consistently construed as an attack by you gals and guys?
hmmnh? or is it back to the ad hominems and ad feminems...
hmmnh? or is it back to the ad hominems and ad feminems...
is it too much to ask for you to allow others their own agenda and their own rights?
but where, exactly, did i stop you?
no, i only questioned you in a way that revealed embarrassing contradictions, double standards, and hypocrisy.
and that sure hasnt stopped the mass-wedding parade... which used to be the exclusive domain of certain far-right, very rich, nuts with messiah complexes. not to digress.
why are you so threatened that everybody's not aboard?
no, i only questioned you in a way that revealed embarrassing contradictions, double standards, and hypocrisy.
and that sure hasnt stopped the mass-wedding parade... which used to be the exclusive domain of certain far-right, very rich, nuts with messiah complexes. not to digress.
why are you so threatened that everybody's not aboard?
married or not married. but what the hell business is it of yours if we want to be or don't? getting in everyone else's private business is fine, but you better have a lot of time on your hands.
"But you have no right to prevent others from having that right, regardless of your beliefs. Can you get your head around that or not?"
or is this the segue to another polemic? oh the sands, how they shift...
or is this the segue to another polemic? oh the sands, how they shift...
you can't seem to make any logical arguments, lets give you the last word you little tyrant. night.
Here is a picture from the demonstration at City Hall. More pictures and an article will be posted soon.
For more information:
http://www.fresnoalliance.com/home
dodgy.
oh the tyrrany of words, of thoughts, oh how oppressed you are by me....
oh the tyrrany of words, of thoughts, oh how oppressed you are by me....
but is that the best you can do? oh you bad, you done whupped my ass with your scathing dissertation, wowwee. I'm so worn out I must sleep now.
thinking about how oppressed you are by me, and how much you wish your spouse would oppress you similarly, for about 10 or 15 minutes.
nighty-night.
nighty-night.
now that's a real relationship. similar to yours perhaps. Sweet dreams little Benito/Benittina. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...
don't forget to turn that thing off before you pass out.
nice of you to have so much care for others in your condition. now, don't hit your head on the bedpost on the way to bed. if you do, just suck on some ice and put a towel on the pillow. kisses!
and you're welcome, but not enough to marry *wink*
maybe there's an 800 number you could try? All right then.
For real now though, good night, it's not just rhetoric. Let's cut to the chase. I disagree with you, nothing personal, since I have no idea if you're capable of anything truly personal. We disagree, so then:
We're both idiots, and in fact everyone who disagrees with us is an idiot. Everyone on Indymedia and the wide world is an idiot if they don't agree with either you or me or what we posted here tonight. Feel better now? Good! Have a nice life sweetie.
For real now though, good night, it's not just rhetoric. Let's cut to the chase. I disagree with you, nothing personal, since I have no idea if you're capable of anything truly personal. We disagree, so then:
We're both idiots, and in fact everyone who disagrees with us is an idiot. Everyone on Indymedia and the wide world is an idiot if they don't agree with either you or me or what we posted here tonight. Feel better now? Good! Have a nice life sweetie.
Yup, the polemic is indeed apparent enough, and the rest is just banter, wedge-issuing and sanctimonious lies of the dominant class dressed up like victims, and its lackeys, in short, like you, dear. You wear it better than some others 'round here. Please, don't think I can't recognize quality in a "debating" opponent.
Furthermore, rest assured, there is no need to deal with other people's ideas in a linear or rational fashion, especially if you already disagree with them or worse, they already disagree with you. Just emote for what you want, and then name-call and deride when you don't get universal adulation, and then call in the cops to do your dirty work when the rabble won't go away.
Personally, I will laugh myself to sleep later imagining the contortions by which you will rationalize voting for John Kerry despite his sustained opposition to the One True Issue in your book, and what you'll call people who support real alternatives, including those ostensibly standing for what you want. Hardee harhar. That's called comeuppance.
But that's where life leads you when nothing really matters but what you want now, and/or what you want to consume next.
Pleasant dreams.
Furthermore, rest assured, there is no need to deal with other people's ideas in a linear or rational fashion, especially if you already disagree with them or worse, they already disagree with you. Just emote for what you want, and then name-call and deride when you don't get universal adulation, and then call in the cops to do your dirty work when the rabble won't go away.
Personally, I will laugh myself to sleep later imagining the contortions by which you will rationalize voting for John Kerry despite his sustained opposition to the One True Issue in your book, and what you'll call people who support real alternatives, including those ostensibly standing for what you want. Hardee harhar. That's called comeuppance.
But that's where life leads you when nothing really matters but what you want now, and/or what you want to consume next.
Pleasant dreams.
This same anti-gay marriage troll has been harrassing us over at Indybay.org--the obsession with "the polemic," the refusal to allow people the right to disagree with honor, the demonization of the other. It's the same person pushing the same divisive agenda.
There, as here, I notice the troll is now trying to turn all discussions of gay marriage into discussions about John Kerry.
I think the troll is a conservative attempting to divide and conquer the queer community, and to weaken Kerry's support among queers. But I could be wrong. Caveat emptor.
There, as here, I notice the troll is now trying to turn all discussions of gay marriage into discussions about John Kerry.
I think the troll is a conservative attempting to divide and conquer the queer community, and to weaken Kerry's support among queers. But I could be wrong. Caveat emptor.
There's a lot of the "usual suspect" trolls posting nothing on comment after comment. It keeps them off the streets I guess. I bet this one isn't even gay. Probably another protest warrior hack.
and all that
Right on time.
I wonder if Fresno gays will be convinced to abandon the fight for gay rights in order to appease the angry, patronizing extremist troll? Hmm. I wonder.
I wonder if Fresno gays will be convinced to abandon the fight for gay rights in order to appease the angry, patronizing extremist troll? Hmm. I wonder.
A reader asks:
I wonder if Fresno gays will be convinced to abandon the fight for gay rights in order to appease the angry, patronizing extremist troll? Hmm. I wonder.
*************************************
Answer: NO! For details see:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/08/1693583.php
I wonder if Fresno gays will be convinced to abandon the fight for gay rights in order to appease the angry, patronizing extremist troll? Hmm. I wonder.
*************************************
Answer: NO! For details see:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/08/1693583.php
For more information:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/08/169358...
bad choice of word to say the least.
There's not much to say, really. The choice of words doesn't matter, when the position is as untenable as yours. Fluff and distraction, merely.
Best of luck maintaining your unmanagable contradictions.
Best of luck maintaining your unmanagable contradictions.
The troll is now attempting to turn discussions of gay rights into a diatribe against gays voting for Kerry, as predicted. This is the troll's pattern--attack gay rights, attack the gay community, attack our support for John Kerry, attack our faith in voting. Who has something to gain from such an agenda? Bush. Conservatives. The wealthy. Straight bigots.
Duh, indeed.
Earth to you.
Earth to you.
Where does this person think they are, at a John Kerry blog?
who brought up kerry in the first place? troll
Hypocritical contradictions don't go away for not being mentioned.
You're just pissed that you got nailed so square. Refresher: you attack Gay Shame for not supporting gay marriage, but campaign for Kerry who doesn't support it.
Difference: Kerry has social power. Oh, and money. That is textbook hypocrisy.
You have sold your souls, you hypocrites, and you try to pass this off as some sort of mandate. (Womandate, for those for whom gendered language matters so very much here. So much for breaking down barriers.) I'm just giving you the news that it's illusory.
And here come the cudgels. Gee, maybe that's why a lot of people in the gay milieu are so silent-- rather than from the assent you imagine. Maybe your reactionary privileges just don't matter that much in the grander scheme of most people's lives.
You're just pissed that you got nailed so square. Refresher: you attack Gay Shame for not supporting gay marriage, but campaign for Kerry who doesn't support it.
Difference: Kerry has social power. Oh, and money. That is textbook hypocrisy.
You have sold your souls, you hypocrites, and you try to pass this off as some sort of mandate. (Womandate, for those for whom gendered language matters so very much here. So much for breaking down barriers.) I'm just giving you the news that it's illusory.
And here come the cudgels. Gee, maybe that's why a lot of people in the gay milieu are so silent-- rather than from the assent you imagine. Maybe your reactionary privileges just don't matter that much in the grander scheme of most people's lives.
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