The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force bestowed a Leadership Award to San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom on April 6, calling him "a galvanizing force for marriage equality."
Meanwhile, the creator of a highly effective anti-gay marriage ad on behalf of California's Prop. 8, using a news clip featuring Gavin Newsom, won a very different award, from the American Association of Political Consultants. As the San Francisco Chronicle reports:
[Frank Schubert] was happy to give the political pros from across the country a 45-minute seminar on his victorious campaign, where he was asked: "How did you come from 14 points behind in the polls and win?"
Well, Schubert explained, they were very disciplined, they had tremendous support from the faith community and they had "a gift from God: Gavin Newsom."
Whereupon Schubert showed the same-sex-marrying San Francisco mayor delivering his infamous "it's gonna happen, whether you like it or not" line that became the anchor for Schubert's TV campaign.
The place exploded in laughter.
Like many on the left, Newsom gets credit for standing up for marriage equality, but he did so in a way that spoke to the gay community and our supporters, while letting opponents of same-sex marriage know just what he thought of them. That didn't work out so well in the end, did it. But it's the mindset of today's progressive activism, which directs its energy inward on group affirmation rather than outward on constructive engagement with those who see the world through a very different lens.
9 Comments for “Two Awards for Gavin Newsom”
posted by Jorge on
Yeah, Newsom was gavanizing, all right.
posted by Carl on
“Like many on the left, Newsom gets credit for standing up for marriage equality, but he did so in a way that spoke to the gay community and our supporters, while letting opponents of same-sex marriage know just what he thought of them. That didn’t work out so well in the end, did it.”
Hasn’t this site been critical of Democrats who run far away from gays and gay marriage, aside from taking our money?
Now when a politician does fullthroatedly support our rights, they’re also criticized.
Since this site has often been annoyed at gay groups who give time and money to those who have no use for gays beyond our checkbooks, I thought they’d be pleased with Newsom.
posted by BobN on
Newsom is guilty of being too emotional and triumphant.
The award for Schubert and the laughter show just how craven the advertising industry is.
posted by avee on
Carl: Hasn’t this site been critical of Democrats who run far away from gays and gay marriage, aside from taking our money? Now when a politician does fullthroatedly support our rights, they’re also criticized.
Steve never suggested we shouldn’t take a strong pro-gay marriage message to our opponents; quite the contrary (did you read the item?) His point is that you need to engage and convince, not just denounce them as bigots.
posted by Carl on
“Steve never suggested we shouldn’t take a strong pro-gay marriage message to our opponents; quite the contrary (did you read the item?)”
Yes, I read the item. I think where I’m distracted is that for years on this site, there’s been criticism of GLBT groups for rewarding Democrats who have no time for anything involving gay rights. So now, when a very vocal gay rights supporter gets an award, it’s time to criticize this organization for rewarding him?
“His point is that you need to engage and convince, not just denounce them as bigots.”
There’s no real way of engaging or convincing people who believe that homosexuals will destroy their churches or will force their children into homosexuality. That was the main point of the anti-gay campaign in California, and saying, “No, we’re not,” is never going to convince the 51% of voters needed to defeat a referendum.
It’s all about appealing to the worst fears of the public. Those who work against gay rights are more willing to do that. That man who did the ad is laughing it up at the idea of gays losing the right to marry. No qualms of going all out.
Those who try to defeat these ballot measures are usually so afraid of causing offense that they come across as having reason to be ashamed.
What can we say to convince people to tolerate or support us? Besides, “We’re nice people, really,” and, “Please don’t be mean to us” and, “We mean no harm.” We have done all of that and at the ballot box, it doesn’t work. And that hurts more than an ad featuring some pompous windbag like Newsom.
posted by North Dallas Thirty on
There’s no real way of engaging or convincing people who believe that homosexuals will destroy their churches or will force their children into homosexuality.
Especially when those pesky, pesky, pesky, pesky facts keep getting in the way of the gay community’s PR spin.
And you inadvertently hit on the problem.
se who try to defeat these ballot measures are usually so afraid of causing offense that they come across as having reason to be ashamed.
And you should be ashamed, Carl. You and your fellow gay-sex liberals are so spineless that you not only tolerate the gays who do as I outlined above, you are terrified of speaking out against them, lest they not “like” you or you get some of the same kind of vitriol you encourage them to hurl at religious people.
posted by Patrick on
Same old tired song ND30.
Why dont you read the heterosexual menace over at the Box Turtle Bulletin. Much more scary what these Heterosexuals are up to than teh Gays.
This from the BTB-
Do you like older guys?? a 42-year-old Colorado Springs man who listed his employer as evangelical ministry Focus on the Family asked 11 minutes after initiating contact in an Internet chat room with a girl he believed to be younger than 15, according to an arrest affidavit released Monday by the Jefferson County District Attorney?s Office.
Turns out the ?teenager? was really an investigator with the district attorney?s office, as Juan Alberto Ovalle discovered the next afternoon when he was arrested on two felony counts in Lakewood after arranging to meet the girl for sex, according to the affidavit.
..Ovalle told the girl to describe what she liked to do when she had sex and then wrote, ?I like all my face to get wet.?
So this is what the Heterosexual Conservatives are all about!!!
posted by North Dallas Thirty on
Why dont you read the heterosexual menace over at the Box Turtle Bulletin. Much more scary what these Heterosexuals are up to than teh Gays.
Not really. The difference is that heterosexuals who engage in that sort of behavior are arrested, prosecuted, and jailed; they don’t have people running around trying to argue that adults having sex with teenagers is “common” and that people who object are “heterophobic”, or that dressing up children as sex slaves and taking them to a sex fair constitutes an “educational experience”.
Liberal gays, on the other hand…..
The hilarious thing is that you don’t see websites like BTB condemning this behavior on the part of gay people — only on the part of heterosexuals. It’s almost as if they are trying to make excuses for their own behavior by claiming that “other kids do it too, so it’s OK.”
posted by leszek on
I know, I know… it is absolutely dreadful of us to fight for gay equality. If we were decent people, we would just wait for straights to hand it over to us on a plate… you know, when they thought the time was right. After all, they know what is best for us.
How dare we step out of line to demand our rights? We should know our place, under the table, sucking on crumbs.