We wish it weren’t the case, but we knew it would happen: San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom’s taking the blame for gay marriage failure in California. Writes Phil Bronstein: “Gavin Newsom screwed it up” by not campaigning in opposition areas. [San Francisco Chronicle]
Scapegoat.
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Wolf
NOT TRUE and HOW DARE THEY! Without Gavin we NEVER would have gotten as far as we did. Phil Bronstein is a horror as a journalist anyway.
WE LOVE YA GAVIN!
chadnnocal
It is the Mormon and Catholic churches that are fault.
Gavin, you da man! I would vote for you in a heartbeat!
ILOVEZ
CERTAINLY IT IS A FAT LIE!!!!!
fredo777
It’s not even all Mormons, just those who sent millions of dollars to the Yes on 8 campaign.
Some Mormons, however, were on our side, including some Mormons who are gay themselves.
http://www.towleroad.com/2008/11/report-from-wes.html
CHURCHILL-Y
Mayor Gavin Newsom has been and is one of our best allies, and I totally agree with Wolf we wouldn’t have gotten an inch close to where why did had it not been for him.
It is both the Mormons and blacks who overwhelmingly voted for this ban to to pass the ones that are at fault not true friends of our community like the Mayor.
fredo777
Cunt-hill, you are so transparent in your race-baiting it’s disgusting.
“Our community” is multi-cultural + includes black gays, as well.
Gary
Gavin Newsom’s reckless arrogance just destroyed many thousands of marriages, drove a knife in the heart of the gay community and set our rights back for decades. That big-mouth attention whore just eviscerated our community – how can you be so stupid as to continue to support him?
I will never vote again.
gay as life
I have great respect for Gavin Newsom, but I’m sure even he regrets the speech he gave in which he bragged, “It’s gonna happen, whether you like it or not.” It was arrogant and obnoxious and I cringed a bit when I first saw it. I certainly was not surprised that the “yes on 8” bigots used it in their own ads.
That said, Newsom has done far more FOR the gay community than any damage he may have caused.
iceblinkjm
It was AA’s voting for Obama who helped pass prop 8. Not surprising and not surprising that he sat on his ass and did not one thing. Gays are getting what they deserve for backing such a looser.
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10909847?source=most_emailed
Jason
I don’t think Gavin should be the “scapegoat,” per se, but I do think he deserves some of the blame.
Face it guys, Gav used us as a political wedge to build his career, just in the way the Republicans used us in 2004 (and every other time…). Only difference is he was on our side. His careless grandstanding and continuous over-reach of his power was greatly responsible for hurting us so badly. Marriage is not an issue for an individual city to decide.
And as the SF Chronicle article mentions, he didn’t really try and help us where it’d count; he stayed around San Francisco to greet throngs of adorers. His ego is huge, and he does not deserve praise.
I will not be voting for him if he runs for Governor.
Bill Perdue
Newsom is a Democratic politician, which means that like Republican politicians he’s an opportunist hustler. If he was running for mayor of Omaha he’d run as a bigot without batting an eye.
He did us a favor but only because of the weight of the GLBT communities in SF.
Obama and McCain’s unending and hateful bigotry about same sex marriage, “god’s in the mix”, plus the unprincipled cowardice of Democrats who were too timid and too stupid to call Obama on his bigotry, plus the typical ineptness of No On 8, a wing of the Democrat Party plus the assault by the cults combined to wreck our chances.
Obama’s unchecked bigotry galvanized and emboldened bigots of all flavors, especially EuroAmerican bigots who came out in droves. Then we got clobbered. End of story.
Newsom was a very minor figure in that.
Bill Perdue
Churchill is a pig. Why talk to pigs? Nobody else is listening.
CHURCHILL-Y
SWEEP….SWEEP….Blacks voted 70% in CA in favor for the ban…SWEEP….SWEEP….SWEEP…Blacks voted in favor of a similar ban in FL 71 %…SWEEP….And SWEPT under the rug!
Meanwhile Mormons as vile and hateful as they are make roughly 2% in CA and unlike African Americans are not hard line Democrats……SWEEP…SWEEP….SWEPT!
The MORMONS ARE TO BLAME!
fredo777
While you’re housekeeping, Cunt-y, make sure to sweep those millions of white voters in Cali + AZ who voted against gay marriage under the rug, too.
CHURCHILL-Y
Don’t you ever get dizzy from all the spin you post here Mo777?
fredo777
Don’t you ever get nauseated by the stench of your own bigotry?
RainaWeather
But it IS gonna happen. That’s the way the world works, it moves toward equilibrium.
alan brickman
he polarized the bigots so maybe it’s true….
Dave
The truth is rarely pure and never simple….(Oscar Wilde). Sorry to inform you bitches, but 70% of blacks voted for prop 8. How is telling the truth racism? Some of you are Ignorant Queers. Go check the data yourself, and then who are you going to believe me, or your own lyin eyes?
Scap8
The SF Chronicle’s multiple scapegoating articles on Newsom are truly shameful. No visible, straight public official has fought as much for gay rights as Gavin has in recent times. Prop 8 passed because of the inept campaign that the No On 8 folks ran, the overwhelming homophobia of African Americans in California (yes they formed only 10% of the electorate, but if they had voted in the same %s as the average of other communities, Prop 8 would have failed), and apathy among gay and straight allies who did not vote when they should have. But most of all, because of the hateful and disgusting forces of the Christian and Mormon rightwing. The media needs to stop blaming Gavin Newsom because we need him to continue fighting for us – Arnold didn’t and Obama certainly didn’t as well.
I urge you to go to
http://www.sfgov.org/site/mayor_index.asp?id=22018
and write Gavin Newsom a note thanking him for his efforts.
fredo777
Dave, read my last comment posted here:
http://www.queerty.com/youll-want-to-punch-them-20081105/#comment-94241
pickles
BS. Gavin rocks. He stuck his head out like NO OTHER politician in recent times. Bronstein should focus on raising his child with his divorced wife -not picking on people who do some real good in this world like Newsom.
milkcluber
First, the Chronicle article did NOT say that Gavin is the reason Prop 8 lost — it laid the blame where it belongs on those who wanted to end gay marriage. It said Newsom made it easier for them, and that Newsom didn’t take the message of equality into those communities where education was needed but instead campaigned in front of gay audiences, who already were in favor but where Gavin could win points for himself. All true. Second, other non-gay politicians have confronted homophobia more directly and at greater cost than Gavin, many of you have short memories. We had a mayor of St. Paul who stood up to Anita Bryant and who campaigned against her in an anti-gay referendum in his own city, and lost his own re-election. Gavin risked nothing with the voters who elected him, and didn’t even go to the conservative parts of San Francisco where he was popular to educate them (25 percent of San Francisco voted FOR Prop 8). Throughout, he tried to make himself the issue (even the video of gay marriage has a cover picture of Gavin, not a same-sex couple), and now he’s paying the price. We in the community deserve the honor and praise for decades of work for equality, and while Gavin has a place in our history, he rode our battle for what it was worth to him. And then he screwed it up, providing the unnecessary ammunition to make opponents believe their rights were being trampled with his “like it or not” scream that said all too clearly that it was about power of one group over another, not equality for all.
Ben
I don’t think it’s fair to say that Newsom only supports gay marriage because it appeals to his liberal, San Francisco base. If Newsom really is an unscrupulous, ambitious pol, he’ll want to run for senator or governor – statewide offices that will require him to speak to rallies in Bakersfield, Fresno and other God-forsaken Republican places. Backing gay marriage makes that harder, and by doing so, Newsom may be limiting his future political prospects by putting himself so far on the left of the party.
milkcluber
Ben, you’re right. I do think he acted because he thought it was the right thing to do. One reason it took San Francisco itself by surprise is that Newsom was not known before as particularly supportive. He didn’t offer domestic partners health benefits to his own restaurant workers, saying he couldn’t afford it. He introduced a measure opposing the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s annual Easter street party because it offended Catholics, and so forth. And even now, he moves to the other side when local popularity runs against the gay community. In the election this week, he pushed hard for a public vote to put JROTC back in the city’s schools, despite its antigay “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, after the School Board (headed by a gay man) finally terminated it. Putting up to a public vote support of an anti-gay program for school kids isn’t what I’ll bet a lot of commentators here expect of Gavin Newsom, but it’s what he did — even having a rally for it on the steps of City Hall.
Snoodle
I think we all saw it coming but my god it’s unfair. That man did what he could 🙁