Posted on 11/14/2008 10:42:35 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
A prominent theatrical director in California, a Mormon, has resigned under pressure because of his support for Prop 8. Excerpt:
Marc Shaiman, the Tony Award-winning composer ("Hairspray"), called Mr. Eckern last week and said that he would not let his work be performed in the theater. "I was uncomfortable with money made off my work being used to put discrimination in the Constitution," Mr. Shaiman said. He added, however, that the entire episode left him "deeply troubled" because of the potential for backlash against gays who protested Mr. Eckern's donation.
"It will not help our cause because we will be branded exactly as what we were trying to fight," said Mr. Shaiman, who is gay. "But I do believe there comes a time when you cannot sit back and accept what I think is the most dangerous form of bigotry."
So if Shaiman feels bad about it, the blacklist he and his ilk are setting up is okay? What's next? Will all conservative Christians, Jews and Muslims, as well as all social conservatives, have to get out of the arts or stay in the closet at risk of their professional career? (A Christian friend who works in the entertainment industry told me if he had let it be known in his office that he supported Prop 8, he would have been stoned). Will they get around to boycotting newspapers until they fire writers who oppose gay marriage? Where does it stop?
Andrew Sullivan sounds like he supports a blacklist, though he now denies it. Look, I support in principle the right of anybody to withhold their labor or their trade from another person or institution. I support the right of conservative Christians to boycott Disney over its gay-friendly policies, though I wouldn't have joined the boycott and thought it a waste of time. I also think that, with an exception for religious institutions, gays should be protected in law against dismissal from their jobs because of their homosexuality.
But what happens when people like this Mormon theater director start losing their job because of their political and religious beliefs?
It's called a blacklist.
Eugene Volokh, the UCLA law prof who supports gay marriage, once wrote that one of the key goals of the gay rights movement is to punish and marginalize people who in private life hold views they see as anti-gay. I'm working on a column for Sunday in which I discuss why it's in the interest of prudent social conservatives and prudent gay rights activists to come to some sort of settlement that would allow for gay marriage while establishing a zone of protection of religious liberty around religious institutions, for the sake of religious freedom. But I fear that the gay rights movement isn't interested in that -- that it's only interested in crushing its enemies. The blacklisting of the Mormon director is a very bad sign.
UPDATE: Here it is, the "Anti-Gay Blacklist," official and everything. What this calls up is a conservative boycott of businesses and individuals that opposed Prop 8. Which is stupid, and counterproductive, but there you go.
Freedom cannot be tolerated. It’s frequently attacked by zealots.
I’t’s called “rainbowlisting” though “Lavenderlisting” or “pinklisting” sound better. A freeper coined rainbowlisting the other day, I’ll look back through my comments and find his name so I can give him proper credit.
http://www.sfgate.com/webdb/prop8/
Some interesting things are discernible using this tool: there was a lot of out-of-state money opposing Prop 8.
“Rainbow listing”
Heheh.
What makes you think we have one today? Other than we aren't quartering soldiers in private residences...
What makes you think we have one today? Other than we aren't quartering soldiers in private residences...
Unless your business is in West Hollywood or the Castro district of San Francisco, this is hardly anything to worry about.
So let me see if I understand?
Liberals are not happy with the result of the recent election, and demand the result be changed?...
;)
Yes, they seek to destroy the churches, imho. And any other conservatives who disagree with them. They will stop at nothing, I believe, nor will any concessions be enough.
Satan hates the cross.
We’re in SoCal. There have been a bunch of demonstrations down here. Since Prop 8 passed by a majority, we have a majority. If we all act separately, we have no power. But if we Catholics band together with the Mormon Churches and anyone else who worked hard to fight Sodomite Marriage, we will have the wherewithall to fight this. Think medieval city behind a wall.
“They came for the Mormons, but I was not a Mormon, so I did nothing.”
AND we have to fight, not re-act. And it’s not really just in California — they’ve attacked the Mormon Church in SLC and that church back in Minnesota? Wisconsin?
Curious, isn’t it? as someone posted a few days ago — you don’t see the gays attacking any mosques, although you can bet the Muslims fought this measure too. I just wonder why...
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