By Adam Bink
To vote for us to get $50,000 from Pepsi, no strings attached, to fight LGBT bullying (not to mention, do less fundraising for projects from folks like you!). We’re in #3 and if we are still in the top 10 at the end of the day on June 30th, we’re in the money.
Please vote.
And vote again (using a different account if you like).
And text our voting code (106897) to the number 73774 on your mobile phone.
You might even share it on Facebook and Twitter when you’re done, if you really could take a second and go the extra mile.
You all rock!
June 28, 2011
By Adam Bink
I received this e-mail yesterday from Equality Maine:
Dear Adam,
By now, you’ve heard the inspiring news — our friends in New York have won the freedom to marry!
Congratulations to the coalition in New York that worked to secure this victory. EqualityMaine was proud to support this effort by mobilizing our volunteers to contact New Yorkers and urge them to call their legislators in support of the marriage bill.
This important victory in New York generates wind in the sails of the national movement to win marriage, and more specifically, of our efforts here in Maine.
Let the celebration of what New York achieved serve as a reminder that our movement is strong — and that state-by-state, we will win the freedom to marry for all Americans.
To that end, stay tuned later this week for an important announcement about winning marriage in Maine.
Word has it that advocates are expected to announce signature-gathering efforts (they need 57,000) to go back to the ballot in Maine to overturn the 2009 decision, which invalidated the law legalizing marriage equality for same-sex couples. The signature-gathering is not likely to be the toughest part, but rather the financial effort and actually winning at the ballot.
June 28, 2011
By Adam Bink
Over at KQED, Scott Shafer wonders what the effect of New York legalizing same-sex marriage will be on California. I noticed this excerpt on the California Supreme Court:
Here in California, Prop. 8 is mired in legal battle. While supporters of same sex marriage have won important legal victories, including the recent rejection of a motion to strike down Vaughn Walker’s Prop. 8 decision, the issue is in some ways on the slow track.
The appeal of Walker’s decision is stalled at the 9th Circuit, which awaits legal advice from the California Supreme Court on whether Prop. 8 backers have legal standing to appeal Judge Walker’s decision. A date for oral arguments has not been set. It was thought to happen in September, but until a 7th justice is appointed by Governor Brown to replace retired justice Carlos Moreno my guess is the court will be reluctant to schedule it. Otherwise there’s a risk that a random Appeals Court judge will sit in as the 7th justice and take part in the decision — not a good scenario for the new Chief Justice.
[...]
That said, at least two other states — Minnesota and N. Carolina — are said to be considering ballot measures banning gay marriage. So — this issue is far from done.
One clarification, which is that Minnesota has already put this issue to voters at the ballot. The second is that regarding the California Supreme Court, Chris Stoll and Shannon Minter over at NCLR commented to me over e-mail that the court, since Moreno retired, has been picking an appeals court justice alphabetically at random to fill the seat on different cases, and is expected to do so here as well. They also commented that they believe it is unlikely the court will delay the case until Gov. Brown fills the seat.
We’ll have to wait and see how the timeline plays out. Hardship has already come to couples who are forced to sit in limbo since the 9th Circuit certified the question to the California Supreme Court. Hopefully, a great deal more waiting does not come, as well.
June 28, 2011
By Adam Bink
Okay, one poll is one thing, but two polls is an agenda.
Last week, I wrote about the News 930 WBEN poll (WBEN is a popular radio station back home in Western New York) providing four choices opposing the marriage bill and one supporting it:
Source: www.wben.com
Despite this, by the time everyone here and everywhere else was done voting, the one choice supporting equality was beating the other four combined with over 70% of the vote.
Today, WBEN has this new poll up:
Source: www.wben.com
This is really ridiculous. Again, I realize these things aren’t scientific, but they aren’t fair either. “What bothers you most” sets the tone from the start, implying that Grisanti acted incorrectly in some way, instead of something like “How would you rate Mark Grisanti’s handling of the same-sex marriage issue?” Any approval poll should have neutral language such as “How would you rate President Obama’s handling of x issue?”
Second, we again have two choices against one instead of a neutral scale. And third, since when did Mark Grisanti refuse to “discuss the issue prior to the vote?”
Here’s a piece from the Buffalo News quoting Grisanti on June 14th discussing his wrestling with the issue and his religious beliefs. Here’s another piece from June 19th where he mentions he will wait to see what changes are made in the bill with respect to religious exemptions. Here’s Sen. Grisanti’s chief of staff discussing his boss’ views. Here’s a piece even documenting how Grisanti sat down with gay and lesbian community leaders in March to discuss the issue. Perhaps WBEN is confusing “refused to state his position” with “refusing to discuss”, but the voting choice is just misleading at best, factually inaccurate at worst.
The reason this matters is because poll results like these get reported on-air, mentioned by word-of-mouth, and noted by other news sources, which influences opinion. As of this post, “they way he voted” is winning with 56% of the vote. The impression here is that Grisanti did something wrong. Let’s correct the record.
The poll can be found here, and you can once again drop station manager Tim Wenger a line. You might tell him to stop running (and fix) poorly worded, biased polls. You can also tweet @NewsRadio930.
Update: Comment of the day, IMHO, from Greg:
Prop8TrialTracker should add its own poll:
What bothers you most about WBEN’s slanted polls? (Please choose one)
1. Their loaded questions
2. Their innuendo and anti-equality bias
3. The set of answers stacked in favor of an anti-gay mindset
June 28, 2011
