10/20/08

8 Against 8: An Online Fundraiser for CA Marriage Equality

IMPORTANT UPDATE: TODAY IS THE LAST DAY
TO REGISTER TO VOTE IN CALIFORNIA


Welcome to the 8 Against 8 campaign. Eight influential lesbian bloggers have come together in a coordinated effort to help place the discriminatory ballot initiative called Proposition 8 in its rightful place in the dust heap of history.

The 8 Against 8 includes:
Grace Chu and Grace Rosen - Grace The Spot
Renee Gannon - Lesbiatopia
Lori Hahn - Hahn At Home
Kelly Leszczynski - The Lesbian Lifestyle
Dorothy Snarker - Dorothy Surrenders
Pam Spaulding - Pam's House Blend
Sinclair - Sugarbutch Chronicles
Riese - This Girl Called Automatic Win

The idea came about last Friday when Grace Chu of Grace the Spot logged onto Facebook and saw a few of her Facebook contacts openly campaigning for the passage of Proposition 8 via their status updates. “My initial reaction was to delete them from my Facebook contacts, because if you’re actively campaigning against my rights, you’re not my friend,” she said. “It totally ruined my morning.”


But instead of deleting her contacts, Chu decided to channel the power of the blogosphere to drive much-needed funds into the coffers of Equality California, the umbrella organization of the No on 8 campaign. Over the weekend, Chu assembled eight prominent lesbian bloggers to help get the word out and fundraise on behalf of Equality California’s No on 8 campaign. “Among the eight of us, we reach tens of thousands of eyes per day,” she said. “If we come together in a coordinated and unified effort, we could send a really powerful message, raise a ton of money, and make a real difference in the fight against Prop 8.”

We've joined the NO on 8 campaign because we believe every Californian deserves the freedom to marry the one they love. Prop. 8 would create a separate set of rules for same-sex couples, treating them differently under law. Regardless of how you feel about marriage, it is a right that belongs to all of us, without exception.

Please join us in making a donation to NO on 8 - Equality California. Every little bit counts, from $1 to $1,000. Your generous contribution will help NO on 8 defeat a measure that is not only unequal under the eyes of the law, but wrong. The bloggers' 8 Against 8 campaign donation page is located at the following URL: www.8against8.com.

Thank you for standing with us to support freedom, fairness and equality.

PROMOTIONS

~ I will be offering a free month of advertising space on the Lesbiatopia homepage & a "The Only Bush I Don't Like" t-shirt for free to anyone that donates $500 or more (with email confirmation)
~ TLL and Grace the Spot will also be offering a week of free advertising on TLL and Grace the Spot to any company or business that donates 100 dollars or more!
~ Kelly at TLL will be offering a free “My Heart is not for you to Judge” T-shirt to the first 5 people that donate over $150.00 and forward me their confirmation email.
~ Pam’s House Blend: if a business or blog donates $100 or more, you can receive a week of free ad space on the Blend. If you donate $500 or more, you will get a month of free space on my blog — and a Pam’s House Blend T-shirt and mug.
~ Hahn at Home: Anyone donating $100 or more through my site will receive a Hahn at Home coffee mug
~ This Girl Called Automatic Win: Anyone who sends me a photo for the No on 8 Quilt and/or donates to 8 Against 8 and forwards me their confirmation email will be entered in a drawing to win fun prizes.

Here's a great website that's keeping a running list of all the upcoming No on 8 rallies, events and actions on their page at:

http://www.myspace.com/noonh8

and have signs, buttons and more at our not-for-profit CafePress page:

http://www.noonh8.org

Proposition 8: Changes California Constitution to eliminate right of same-sex couples to marry. Provides that only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

“Proposition 8… would eliminate the fundamental right to same-sex marriage. The very act of denying gay and lesbian couples the right to marry – traditionally the highest legal and societal recognition of a loving commitment – by definition relegates them and their relationship to second class status.” Los Angeles Times Editorial, August 8, 2008

It’s not the government’s place to tell couples who have been together for years whether or not they are allowed to marry. In California, we let people decide what is best for themselves – without government interference. Eliminating fundamental rights for same-sex couples treats them differently under the law – AND THAT’S WRONG. Vote No on 8.

Domestic Partnerships are NOT the same as marriage. Domestic partnerships are just legal documents. They don’t provide the same dignity, respect, and commitment as a marriage. In a marriage, a paramedic doesn’t tell you that you cannot get into an ambulance with your spouse. Married couples can automatically make life or death decisions for each other in these crisis situations, no questions asked. Vote No on 8.


6 comments:

Heather said...

Love it. LOVE it. I will forward this link on to everyone I know. Let's raise some money!

ReneeG said...

Thanks Heather! And look, we're already up to $1,030!!!

Anonymous said...

Obama's campaign shows how small contributions add up. His record-breaking collection of $150 million in one month sported an average donation of $86. If you can give $100 or more, that's great! But if you can't, your donation of $10,$25, or $50 still helps! Maybe you can find three friends to give $22 each, and the four of you together will make an "average" difference.

The GLBT community and their friends form a group of size comparable to the Democratic Party. Even if you don't think this matters that much because marriage is not for you, it does. Marriage rights are more than a symbolic gesture of respect for our families: Withholding those rights is a clear expression that our families are inferior. As long as our marriages are not recognized, our families will be discriminated against and so will individual community members.

Polly said...

Thank you, Renee!

The No on 8 campaign manager has made it so clear: if we do nothing, we will for sure lose this thing. And if we all step up, we will for sure win.

It's so close, so winnable. And we have, thus far, so clearly under-organized and under-fundraised, compared to the Mormon machine, which Ma'amselle Lezident has so clearly broken down in yesterday's post here.

For both in-state and out of state folks, donating money is the quickest most effective way to help. (Here are more ways to help.) Dollars are being turned into ads within about two days by the No on 8 folks, and they're going right up in the critical areas where Yes on 8 has been carpet-bombing the airwaves with disinformation and fear-mongering.

Thank you for making it so easy for your many readers to kick it up and kick in. Yes on 8, at last count, had 60,000 individual donors, to the No on 8's 30,000.

Now I KNOW there are more than 30,000 queer people in California alone. Like, at least another 970,000. As everyone's been saying: how much are your civil rights worth to you? Let's all show them how much.

Anonymous said...

What you guys are doing is totally awesome!

Anonymous said...

awesome job i just did a blog myself after having a chat with my neighbor of the corn who has her yes on 8 sign she proudly has her kids pound in every morning. funny after our chat i haven't seen it up latly.