Gay Gangs Plan To Harass Christian Grandmothers

You know that here in Montgomery County, Maryland, there is a bit of a controversy over a new law that prevents discrimination on the basis of gender identity. It's a pretty standard law, lots of places have this sort of thing, but a certain small group of people in our community decided it violated their moral standards or something, and they have worked hard to bring back the right to discriminate against transgender people. Besides several publicity stunts that mostly backfired, they put a lot of effort into getting petition signatures for a referendum to repeal the law.

Gathering the signatures, they would stand outside grocery stores and other public places and tell people just about anything. They said the law would let perverted men lurk in ladies locker-rooms. They said that cross-dressers would expose their genitals to children. Predators would have access to women's bathrooms and shower-rooms and there would be nothing you could do about it. We heard them say these things, even the President of the County Council that passed the law got into an argument with one of them, who was trying to tell him what was in it.

On a couple of weekends, a small group of us went around to where they were gathering petition signatures. Sometimes we would talk to store managers and explain what was going on. Sometimes we'd stand there and explain the facts to people who had just been told something fictional. Generally this worked. People understood that the law was being misrepresented, they understood what the issue was, and when they understood they realized they did not want to sign. Of course they're against perverted predators in the ladies room, but they are in favor of equal rights for transgender people, and that is what the law is about.

Some members of our group were transgender, and so the other side tried to portray us as "transgender gangs" harassing their poor signature gatherers. Maybe it's me, but I get a kick out of the idea of transgender gangs. The images that are called to mind ... whatever, there is potential humor in it, let's say.

Now up in Maine it looks like they're going through a similar thing. The Christian Civic League up there has decided they're going to get petition signatures to recall the state's gay-rights law in the November 2009 election. Here's the Morning Sentinel:

The proposal, which could appear on the ballot in November 2009, would lift the state's ban against discrimination based on sexual orientation and prevent unmarried couples from adopting children. It also would eliminate funding for the civil rights teams that the state sends into Maine schools, prevent the state from recognizing civil unions and prohibit city and town clerks from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The state already has a law on the books that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Group takes aim at safeguards for gays

So the nuts are declaring all-out war on gay folks up there in that state. The group is planning to collect signatures at polling places during the Maine June 10th primary elections. And so the battle shapes up.

Skipping ...

[Betsy Smith of Equality Maine, the state's leading advocacy group for gays and lesbians, ] said the referendum is about "taking away (other) protections" that already exist. Hoping to discourage voters from signing the petitions, Equality Maine plans to send volunteers to the polls on June 10 to talk to voters. Heath refers to that as a "petition-blocking operation."

Smith says her group's "truth squads" will assure that voters are fully informed. Smith said her group sent a few volunteers to a few polling places during an anti gay-rights petition drive in 2005, but "our goal is to make this a broader effort -- more people, more polls."

So one person is standing there trying to get signatures while someone else is explaining to people why they shouldn't sign. Signers can hear both arguments and decide if they really want to sign or not.

"Truth squads," I don't know, is that a little too much? Ah, I guess I like it: truth squads.

You will be shocked to know that the fine folks at World Net Daily don't like this.

In a report in the New England Blade this week, Betsy Smith, executive director of the Equality Maine activist organization, outlined "a plan that asks volunteers to stand with the people the [Christian Civic] League recruits to collect signatures for the petition."

"I think it is disgusting that so-called 'gay' groups plan on harassing dear Christian grandmothers who simply want to gather signatures on Primary Election Day. Shame on Equality Maine," said Michael Heath, chief of the CCL.

"They need to call off this totalitarian campaign of intimidation and apologize. Yesterday wouldn't be soon enough," he said in a statement today. Transgender lobby to intimidate petitioners: Targeting supporters of pro-family referendum

They still can't even use the word "gay" without the preface "so-called" and quotes around it.

And can you see any way that this referendum is even vaguely "pro-family?"

In the New England Blade, the leader of Equality Maine added something interesting.

But Smith outlined for the Blade on Wednesday a plan that asks volunteers to stand with the people the League recruits to collect signatures for the petition. This way, said Smith, signers will not misinterpret the petition’s purpose and understand before they sign that the so-caled “equality” the League wants is really equality for straight couples, not equality for all. A complete copy of the legislation must be made available to anyone from whom the League solicits a signature.

“There is a belief in Maine that people have the right to vote on things. That’s why we’re not running a decline-to-sign campaign,” said Smith. “At the same time, we will offer a pledge for equality, so that people who are opposed to this can take action that day.”

Her group has also encouraged members to write letters to the editor criticizing the measure. Dozens of such letters have appeared in the state’s major daily papers, all of which have written editorials against the initiative. Anti-Gay Maine Referendum Language Certified: EqualityMaine Plans Voter-Education Efforts

In our county, the idea was to ask people to "decline to sign." You can stop a referendum at two main points. If they can't get enough signatures, the referendum dies. But if they do and the referendum goes to a vote, the voters can reject it. It seems that it is a lot cheaper and easier to keep it off the ballot in the first place. For instance, in our county, if the relegalization of discrimination is put on the ballot, somebody will have to launch a major educational campaign to teach the public about gender identity. What is a transgender person, and why are they like that? Are they dangerous? Are they weird? Most people don't know anything about it, and so for our law to come to a vote it will be necessary to spend a lot of money and effort making sure the voters are qualified to address such a question.

At this moment, lawyers in our county are preparing the case for a court date in June. Thousands of signatures on the Montgomery County petitions had problems and should have been invalidated, and there is a lawsuit to throw them out. If that argument prevails, there will be no referendum in MoCo this year.

In Maine, even though the majority of citizens clearly support gay rights, these nutty people have muddied the water with their struggle for "equal rights" for straight couples only, they're going to start up the same thing we saw here. And people who support gay rights are going to do what we did, stand out there with them and tell people what the petition is really about. I mean, gay gangs will be harassing Christian grandmothers, that's the ticket.