Alan Stock, the head of the large movie chain Cinemark, which also goes by the names by Century Theatre, CineArts and Tinseltown, gave $9,999 to the ‘Yes on 8’ campaign.
The chain has over 2700 theaters in 12 countries (you can see U.S. locations here) including the Holiday Village Cinemas in Park City, Utah, whose world famous film festival is facing a potential boycott later this year. The company reported $20.4 million in profits last quarter. America Blog started the call for a boycott of both Cinemark and the Sundance Festival.] and it’s since gone viral.
fredo777
Couldn’t just do the whole 10K?
A bastard and cheap.
The Good Doctor
Boycotting his Orange County theatre won’t be hard. The only one nearby (the Century Stadium Theatre near Angel Stadium) is always lacking in the cleanliness department and is super expensive.
Bad Touch Football
I live in small-city pennsylvania, where two of the three movie theaters are cinemark owned. It would be very difficult for me to boycott if I didn’t already not go to them. In addition to being part of a major corporate state, they lack in cleanliness, and are severely tacky. Ugly to the point of sin. bad bad bad bad bad.
faghag
Boycotting is the way forward, fight for your rights.
These are exciting times undeed.
faghag
@Bad Touch Football: What’s more important to you, the fight for equality or watching the latest hollywood blockbuster.
Get your priorities right.
michael
Thanks for the info! We have Cinemark right here in Vancouver B.C. so I will be on the net today making sure the gay media outlets here know this as well. We will to what we can here in Canada to help you girls and boys as well. Canadians don’t like
nasty corporate types anyway and discrimination we like even less. Its important that this information be posted so that we make sure it goes beyond the states. This is going to be the most expensive$9,999.000.00 he ever spent. And as history as shown, when the economy is bad, the film industry does better, why? Because people have to find cheaper ways to entertain themselves as well as the escape films provide. So its good timing.
michael
@Bad Touch Football: You could consider waiting for the films they show to come out on video. If a boycott is successful they will be going there sooner anyway.
RS
@fredo777: It’s my understanding (but I could be wrong) that any donations of $10k and above are reported immediately, and anything below $10k gets reported during regular intervals. I heard that the Morman Church was advising members to donate below $10k if they wanted their contribution to remain unseen for a bit.
Catherine
@ Michael and Faghag
“It would be very difficult for me to boycott if I didn’t already not go to them.”
I think Bad Touch Football was trying to say he doesn’t go to them. He worded it akwardly, which is what caused the confusion.
I don’t think Cinemark has any theatres near where I live, so boycotting him won’t be a problem.
DaveO
San Francisco: The small one in West Portal and the big one in the Westfield Mall downtown.
Eric
Correction: The theater in question is in Park City, Utah, not “Sundance, Utah.” There is a Sundance ski resort in Utah, but the film festival is held in Park City.
Keith
One of the most popular theaters for the Gays is a Cinemark in Evanston around the Chicago area. I’m spreading the word. There is a new digital projection theater in Rosemont that is better anyway.
ggreen
Of course Cinemark is being totally chicken shit about it. Cinemark is refusing to comment on the donation(s) or on the boycotts. I guess they believe the gays will just forget and shut up. Four words Coors, Florida Orange juice.
Road2Nowhere
Do you know where there’s a list of all companies and businesses that endorsed and supported Proposition 8?????
Bondable Cactus
Boycotting Cinemark because of one guy is a dumb idea. I don’t get it. How will it help?
Yup
Lets boycott all the No on 8 in return.
michael
@Yup: Go ahead, its your right to be a bigot. Dumb ass.
Jeff
check them at Yahoo finance, find the Wall St. analysts that cover Cinemark, if the analysts know the seriousness of the protests………then Cinemark could have a harder time borrowing money
Wolf
@Eric:
Well the Funny thing is THE MAJOR THEATRE where alot of the Screenings are for the Sundance Festival in Utah IS at a Cinemark Theatre.
AND to make Matters worse. The lead donor for Prop 8 who donated 20,000.00 just happens to own the Marriotts where Sundances Headquarters is going to be.
Lucky Pierre
Oh crap! I love the SF theater (at Westfield). It’s right next to my office and . . .
Back to Metreon, I guess. 🙁
Don Otvos
If you’d like to let Alan know your thoughts on the matter:
Alan Stock, Chief Executive Officer
Cinemark
3900 Dallas Parkway – Suite 500
Plano, TX 75093-7869
(972) 665-1000
[email protected]
And if you *really* want to get their attention, start contacting the Cinemark board of directors (who are essentially Alan Stock’s boss) and let them know how Alan’s action is going to affect their company’s bottom line which they have a fiduciary responsibility to protect. Emails and direct phone numbers where known:
Lee Mitchell, Chairman
Cinemark
3900 Dallas Pkwy – Suite 500
Plano, TX, 75093-7871
(972) 665-1000
[email protected]
Benjamin Chereskin, Managing Director
Madison Dearborn Partners
3 First National Plaza
70 W Madison St – Suite 3800
Chicago, IL 60602-4342
(312) 895-1310
[email protected]
Carlos Sepulveda, President
Interstate Battery System of America
12770 Merit Dr – Suite 400
Dallas, TX 75251-1296
(972) 991-1444
[email protected]
Raymond Syufy, President
Cinemark Holdings
150 Pelican Way
San Rafael, CA 94901-5550
(415) 448-8400
[email protected]
Enrique Hernandez, Managing Director
Allen & Company
711 5th Avenue
9th Floor
New York, NY 10022
(212) 832-8000
Vahe Combalagian
Madison Dearborn Partners
70 W Madison St – Suite 4600
Chicago, IL 60602-4342
(312) 895-1000
[email protected]
Peter Ezersky
Quadrangle Captial Partners
375 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10152
(212) 418.1700
[email protected]
Roger Staubach, Executive Chairman
The Staubach Company
15601 Dallas Pkwy – Suite 400
Addison, TX 75001-6055
(972) 361-5001
[email protected]
Donald Soderquist
Cinemark Holdings
3900 Dallas Pkwy – Suite 500
Plano, TX, 75093-7871
(972) 665-1000
[email protected]
Steve Rosenberg, CEO
Centego Marketing
4965 Preston Park Blvd – Suite 190
Plano, TX 75093
(972) 985-2500
[email protected]
David
@michael: The thing to stop and think about Michael, is that the Cinemark Theatres are actually very supportive of The Queer Film Festival in Vancouver and have been so for many years now. Just because the guy in charge might be an asshole it doesn’t mean the whole company is…
chase
I wonder if roger staubach is the football palyer. is this the same guy that banned brokeback. Most people rent movies online anyways.
Brian Miller
@David:
Doesn’t matter if the “company” is “supportive.” A portion of every dollar you spend there goes directly to the advancement of anti-gay laws to revoke your rights.
I’d rather see the money go to a good cause, personally.
Scudder
It doesn’t hurt the gays to boycott these businesses, but we have PROOF that patronizing them will lead to our detriment via their financial support for causes that limit our freedoms.
Pay no attention to the trolls trying to derail us.
Scudder
PS—make sure your straight allies are on board with this, too.
Yup
Thanks Michael. I just dont understand the whole marriage issue in the first place. What is the point? You know God will not recognize gay marriage if it ever passes here on Earth. And the point is God recognizing and blessing a unity into one flesh. So why do I keep hearing “its all about love” and “Gods loves us all”. I mean, he does, but he has our rules for us to. If someone can help me better understand it respectfully other than Michael, who I know wouldnt be able to, if someone of intelligence can explain how it is acceptable to God, maybe I would be more supportive of it. Because I wonder where my right goes knowing that bibically….in text….Gods idea was for unity between man and woman, and that is why the gay community has rivals. We know this is in our book, so why is it challenged? And with God not blessing the marriage, why even bother?
dzerobc
In Vancouver, the queer film fest is held at the Tinseltown location. They are strong supporters of the festival and the community in Vancouver.
And really… porn is so much better when viewed in a theatre with 200 other people… and the munching sounds of popcorn.
Just because there are assholes as head of a company, doesn’t mean the whole company is that bad.
I say we get organized. Select the top 5 businesses who supported yes on 8 *AND* have poor records on gay/human rights. Target those businesses on a large scale and very publicly.
Hojo
@Yup: You need to look up intersex Yup. God creates one every 600 births. They technically have no opposite as they are chromosomally both. Do you honestly believe God would create something capable of love and then deny it the full expression.
People of religion always cry FAITH when you can’t explain something that defies common sense, yet when it comes to sexual orientation you suddenly want scientific proof.
Intersex look it up!!!!
Hojo
@Yup: Marriage as a legal institution is the one in which we have every right to enter.
I would be fine with removing the name ‘marriage’ from the legal document that contains 1049 rights and call it whatever.
Remove the legal rights from the marriage document and make it a religious institution only, than each church would have sole discretion over whom could enter into it.
Yup
I have also read that a gay and straight man have no different genes according to one study. Who knows what study is really true though? But I do know what God says about homosexuality. And that we are also born as sinners. Note the BORN AS part, since most of you like to say you were born Gay, and I believe that may be true. Yet we are here to then walk the right path. God does not say just accept who you are right away, you get born again, and you get saved, you follow the commandments, thats all bible, not my opinion. But I wanted proof that God will accept Gay marriage, but there isnt any, which I say once again defeats the real purpose. The Civil Unions should be acceptable with more additions to your rights instead of taking something from what I believe in (marriage between man and woman according to God) and changing it. Nobody has a better way of how marriage works other than God. Thats the point I am getting at. Why rub my rights away for your rights which doesnt apply to God anyway? I have gay friends btw, I select my friends based on if they are a true friend, and nothing else. So dont take my messages as Anti-gay. You all could be cool for all I know, but I must obey God first, so this marriage issue I dont approve of obviously.
Abqdude
What I find amazing is that Milk is scheduled to be screened at a whole lot of Cinemark theaters when it opens in a few weeks.
They’ll screen a gay themed movie, take our money and donate it to something like Yes on 8.
Check the link for release dates on Focus Film’s website
http://www.filminfocus.com/focusfeatures/film/milk/groupsales
Neil aaron
I spend at least $1000 a year at these theaters. It is my one thing I spend excess money on. I will now be forking over my gay dollars to the competitor.
pickles
Just an fyi- I wrote to all the emails above (thanks for posting them!). Many were duds, unfortunately, with ‘delivery status notification (failure). If anyone has the accurate (or updated) addresses, please post. Boycotting is one of the strongest ways to convince people who might benefit from opening their minds as wide as their wallets.
AUDREY
ALAN STOCK EITHER IS GAY OR MAYBE HIS BEST FRIEND TOLD HIM HE WAS GAY AND HE FREAKED OUT BECAUSE HE IS A CLOSET CASE. I AM SO SICK OF NOT HAVING BASIC HUMAN CIVIL RIGHTS. ITS GOTTA END. MAYBE IT WILL W/ OBAMA IN THE WHITE HOUSE AND A DEMOCRATIC HOUSE AND SENATE MAJORITY! WE CAN ALL PRAY AND WRITE OUR STATE OFFICALS UNTILL THEY LISTEN.
Webster
@Yup:
Gee, that might bother me too — if I thought I had to run my life based on a work of fiction — or if I believed in an Invisible-Sky-Thingy-in-Charge who answers my entreaties and sits around waiting for me to adore Him/Her/It. But I don’t. I believe in the U.S. Constitution and the equality of all people and that there is a separation between church and state when it comes to laws.
Oh, and I believe in boycotts.
Bondable Cactus
Boycotts don’t work and this one is really dumb. Why boycott a whole company because of one guy.
I don’t think it makes us look real smart.
J
I’m not surprised. I live in Canada and just last week I went to apply for a job at Cinemark. The application I had to fill out was from the US and it went on about equal opportunities and how they are open to hiring veterans of the Vietnam war. At the end of the application on the second page, it had a place for employers to tick off whether you were caucasian, hispanic, black or asian.
Scary.
Andrea
@Yup: This is not a theocracy. Some churches are OK with blessing same sex marriages and others aren’t; that is irrelevant to what the government should do.
Church and state are separate. All of this is about LEGAL marriage, not whatever whim your pastor or priest has about who can have a wedding there.
Some churches won’t marry divorced people unless they pretend their previous marriage was invalid and get an annulment. The government has no problem letting divorced people marry but the church can make whatever rules it wants about who to bless.
horus
i have many choices for movies, and i will make sure it is not CINEMARK or SUNDANCE.
Cinemark employee
I am a Cinemark employee and an openly gay man. This controversy has weighed heavily on me. During my time with Cinemark, Alan Stock has always treated me with respect. My partner attends company and industry functions and has been treated as my spouse by everyone at Cinemark.
Am I troubled by Mr. Stock’s personal donation to the Yes on 8 campaign? YES.
Have I ever seen Mr. Stock’s religious convictions as a Mormon interfere
with his fair and equal treatment of employees or customers of Cinemark
Theatres? NO.
I empathize with all the same-sex partners that have married since the California Supreme Court ruling. A few years ago, when my partner and I
received our Domestic Partner certificate from the California Secretary of State it was a momentous day in our lives. Then, when we moved to Texas, it was disheartening that the document was effectively meaningless. I look forward to the day when same sex marriage is legal in every state across the nation.
When a corporation or a religious institution takes a stance against equality then it is our obligation to stand up and voice opposition.
Unfortunately, there are far too many companies and religious groups that promote hate and intolerance. However, it creates a dangerous precedent when corporations are held responsible for the individual religious or political beliefs of an employee. When I make donations to the Human Rights Campaign or the Democratic Party I am required, by law, to report my position with Cinemark Theatres. It would be wrong for
anyone to suggest that my donations represent anything more than my personal support for those organizations.
I am proud of Cinemark’s commitment to diversity in our workforce and the range of viewpoints expressed in film’s exhibited at our theatres.
Examples include:
– Cinemark offers Domestic Partner benefits to California employees.
– Despite some comments posted to the contrary, Cinemark played Brokeback Mountain at all our theatres across the county; it was a competive theatre in Utah that banned the movie.
– Cinemark hosts the GBLT Film Festival in Vancouver.
– Cinemark regularly arranges free advance movie screenings for Dallas/Plano GBLT groups
– Cinemark has a corporate GBLT liason.
I am saddened by Alan Stock’s religious stance on gay marriage. And I am hopeful that people can differentiate between the actions of a company and the beliefs of an individual.
Cinemark employees 15,000 people with beliefs that span the spectrum. Cinemark did not take this action…one employee did.
JT
Apparently this man and his company already have too much of our money. I’ll make a point of not giving him any more of it, since he doesn’t think I’m worthy of deciding for myself who I love or take as my spouse.
While I appreciate the considered and heartfelt response of “A Cinemark Employee” it looks more like damage control after the man was caught, found out. With all of that tolerance, how much did Cinemark give to the NO ON 8 group? Show me that they stood up for equality and that the corporation donated at least as much, and I’ll reconsider. Meanwhile, they’re on my S-list.
It’s long past time we started fighting back when people try to abuse us and our rights.
JT
@Yup:
Then I suggest you pay closer attention to a foundational, very simple rule: Love your neighbor as yourself. That was what your Jesus taught. On the event of his ascending, he said “Love God above all else, and do unto your brother as you would have him do unto you.” So unless you want others telling you that you’re unable to pick your spouse, you’re OBLIGATED by that directive to support us.
Peace,
JT
JT
@Don Otvos:
A good number of these board members’ emails bounced back. It’s all the more embarassing when I add that I’ve CC’d them to inform them of his actions and how we feel about them…. and he knows that the emails are invalid.
Don Otvos
@JT: Please let me know which emails bounced. There may be a chance they’ve been changed since I published this as only one bounced the day I sent it. I may be able to get corrected emails.
JT
Don Otvos, here is the list of who it was sent to, followed by the bounces, and then the text of the letter itself. The only ones that DIDN’T bounce were Stock and Chereskin, as I recall.
To:
[email protected]
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected]
[email protected]
Bounces:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Mr. Stock,
This nation was founded upon equality, and a separation between Church and State. Religion has no place in government, and Government has no business being prejudiced. You trying to impose your religious views upon equal, fellow citizens is anathema.
Separation of Church and State is sublime and essential to our government and our nation’s citizens. That you express yourself (honestly) is your right. That you, as head of the Cinemark Corporation, should make a donation towards denying people rights, singling them out to do so, is patently Unconstitutional and both morally and ethically void. If you were a lesser employee, I wouldn’t associate the company with the veiled donation. As CEO, your actions have earned my contempt both personally and professionally; I will not be giving any more of my money to your corporation.
Don’t bother to protest that you’re so gracious as to screen gay and lesbian films. You do so for profit. Screening war movies is no indication that you approve of war, either.
Until you can demonstrate to me that Cinemark has already done at least as much to vote AGAINST such discriminatory laws as California’s Prop 8 and the even more offensive Prop 2 of Florida, you’re unworthy of my money. I CC your fellows and superiors, so that they are clear about how your prejudicial action, and how we feel about it.
Sincerely,
—
“All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void.”
–Marbury vs. Madison
“Optimists refuse to acknowledge reality. Idealists remind us that it isn’t fixed.” – Susan Neiman
“It’s not who you are underneath, It’s what you do that defines you.” — C. Nolan/D. Goyer
“The Europeans see offshore wind turbines as sentinels,” Mandelstam told me, “protecting them from energy domination by foreign powers. When you put that against a few winter days of seeing turbines on the beach as you walk your dog, I think that’s a very easy trade-off.”
“The opposite of War is not Peace. It’s Creation.” — Jon Larson (Rent)
Bondable Cactus
You know this boycott idea has me really angry. A whole lot of people worked really hard during the election and have worked for years to change peoples attitudes about our community.
You can not earn people’s respect and support with a stick. If we attack this company and turn some 15,000 people against us and possibly an industry that has been supportive we don’t gain a thing. We will lose supporters. Even if we had every gay and gay friendly person voting we would still be short. WE need to bring people to our cause to win our next battle. Figure it out please.
Falc
Bondable Cactus: Wake up and smell the Starbucks. We have worked hard. Yes, WE have. But don’t go deluding yourself into thinking that the people behind this corporation support us. If they do, where was THEIR voice of support? Where was THEIR money saying No to these direct attacks at us and our equal rights? (and where the hell did you get 15,000 people from?) An industry that has been supportive? Again, wake up and smell the coffee, sweet-pea. We ARE that industry! Take the gay people out of Hollywood, the town would be half empty.
You’re right. Even if we had every gay or gay-friendly person in the state voting for us, we’d still lose. Which is EXACTLY why, as I’ve said all along, Civil Rights, must NEVER be allowed to be doled out by the States, or by majority vote. Just as race equality under law had to be gained in court, we will have to petition the branch of government which is there to protect all citizens equally. We must procure our civil rights, if they are being denied to us. So I will take that $8.50 or $10, and put it towards getting the U.S. Supreme Court to state plainly that we cannot be treated as lesser citizens by ANY government or law.
Meanwhile, I suggest, my brother/sister, that you figure out that this is war. They fired the first and subsequent shots. We’re not going to be able to make nice-nice to them. If they had their fondest dreams, we would not exist.
LDS, Cinemark, and anyone else who went out of their way to try to deny us our rights, who sponsored and created ads that lied so blatantly, used kids against us — all these filthy, dishonest tactics intended to cause fear in the hearts of voters… anyone who had a part in that is our enemy, and not because we wanted enemies, but because they fired at us deliberately and intentionally. I will not give them one red cent more, knowing that they’ll use my money to buy bullets to do it again.
J Dvorak
Leave your comments here:
http://www.cinemark.com/contactus.asp
Businesses won’t change their actions unless we let them know they are going to lose our money…
Ric
I’ve given this a lot of thought and I don’t think a boycott of Cinemark is the way to go. This is one guy making a heinous donation, not the tenor of the whole company. I know people who work for Cinemark and they’re the ones who will be hurt by this boycott. Could you really sleep at night knowing you got the ticket taker or person in the refreshment stand fired? – you can bet it won’t be Mr. Stock who loses his job.
No matter how vile we may find Mr. Stock’s contribution, it was his money to spend as he wanted. If we start punishing the company he works for for his bad action, that opens doors for our employers to start looking into how we and others spend our money. How would you like to get heat at work for being an Obama supporter or for being against Prop 8?
I just don’t see how a boycott of Cinemark helps make our point.
josh
simple,
just dont got to them doh
watch a movie on cable or netflix
stupid
josh
mormon reply
Lou
@Cinemark employee:
There’s the public CEO and the private CEO:
The private CEO is whoever he wants to be.
The public CEO knows the Right Thing to Do and the Right Thing to Say–it’s how he got to be a public CEO, but there’s a glass ceiling or pink ceiling or whatever. If you’re lucky, the company is big enough that you’ll never be blocked.
* * *
My partner and I have gone to Cinemark for over 10 years, and we’ve saved every ticket stub. We’re not in LA, Chicago or NYC, so we have only a few options for a decent screen. It’s not pleasant.
JT
CEOs don’t have a private life, any more that the President does. More to the point, CEOs make a performance bonus, get paid by how well the company does. They hired a bigot. It SHOULD cost both of them. For certain, I’ve every ethical right to not put money in either of their pockets.
Is there a lesson to be taught? Yep, for both parties. For Cinemark, to be vetting who they put in their top spot a bit more carefully and not hire a bigot. For the bigot himself, to keep his judgmental BS out of lives that don’t affect him. If I found out someone who worked for me was a member of the KKK, private life or not, he’d be looking for a new job. Not because we disagree, but because HIS private life goes out of its way to attack and place huge negative impact on other peoples’ lives. Even if they never hung one person themselves, what they teach spreads hate, and causes others to do so. Same with this CEO. His contribution helped to cause anguish to many thousands of people who he’ll never meet and wouldn’t ever have been affected by. Not okay.
We must not be boycotting loudly enough. I don’t here Cinemark making apologies. Oh, wait, that’s right! The bigot is still running the show, so it’s not likely to happen.
Boycott. Do so loudly; Let people know what he and they pulled… and let Cinemark know that and why they’re not getting your money any more.
technicolornina
@Bad Touch Football: If you are in my part of the state, there are plenty of other theatres, they’re just teeny-tiny and often don’t get movies until they’ve left Cinemark. Are you west or east PA?
Devin Duke
Stop with all the dumb comments! My partner and I respect the rights of people that donated for and against prop 8. Key word is respect. Let us kill them with kindness.
All of you that claim seperation of (Church and State) ,just shut up! You are not Lawyers and need to go to Law School. I have a harder time with people that make comments that have no law degrees. My reliable sources say that the LDS church never said anything to their members. Also the LDS church has donated more money to the Red Cross then you are aware of.
JT
Ah, but Mr. Duke, some of us DO have law degrees. Do you? Constitutional law? Didn’t think so. If you’d had any sort of training in critical thinking, you’d have realized that what donations to the Red Cross we are or are not aware of are nevertheless entirely irrelevant to the subject of civil rights. Even more to the point, they’re irrelevant to the concept of Non-Profit status given to churches in exchange for a non-political stance and their expected service to society. As to your reliable sources, that’s quite laughable, as the LDS position on homosexuality is well known and widely taught. That alone makes them political, in this particular case… but none of that’s holding any water anyway. If a Deacon or Elder speaks to you off of LDS property, that doesnt’ make him any less a representative of LDS when he does so.
Kill ’em with kindness? Yeah, right. We’ve been doing a fine job of emulating the passive, limp-wristed, impotent fags for far too long already. Asking them, teaching and educating them, playing nicely, that’s what cost the vote this time. It’s well past time they were shown that the dog has teeth. Let’s just hope that the CA SC handles it so we don’t have to.
fredo777
@Devin Duke:
Btw, the Red Cross won’t even accept gay blood.
So, suck on that.
Rob
Since this report speaks directly about the movie “MILK” and its relevance to today’s issues, it seems worth remembering Milk’s own feelings with Proposition 6. He felt that, if Prop. 6 was passed, that the gay community would rise up in an angry and perhaps violent offensive that would have been entirely understandable. The unfinished business of Milk’s time is still affecting us today and it this generation’s responsibility to carry it forward.
We are not in the midst of a polite debate. We are not haggling over a trinket in a foreign bazaar. Prop 8 singles out gays. It strips them of rights. It undermines the very foundations of the Constitution of the country – which has no relationship to biblical belief or religious fanaticism. If gays are going to be singled out through the passage of this proposition, then the supporters of it should expect to be targeted themselves. If they are in positions of power, such as CEO of Cinemark, then the foundations of their power ought to be attacked and brought down.
Cinemark is fair game as is the Mormon Church. We are not engaged in a friendly disagreement. These people have mobilized to strip Americans they don’t like or respect of their civil rights. That’s not politics. That is war. Gays have learned how to fight back and we ought to throw our full fury at individuals who funded this fight against us AND their power bases – period.
Civil Rights or Civil War. Gay Rights Now!
JT
@Rob: Rob, you’re damned sexy when you’re right.
I’m pleased to see I’m not the only one who recognizes that we are under attack — both us as gay people, and the Constitution itself, as those bigots would run roughshod over civil rights, attempt to override the Equal Protection of this nation for their own personal selfish reasons.
I am willing to allow Cinemark to recant, since others have spoken out for them in regards to equal rights positions. They’re in the near-neutral zone, if they do so. Why not a Friend? Our allies support our equality with more than convenient lip service. That their board may not have known what their CEO’s personal agenda was, this is possible. But they didn’t go out of their way to stand at our side either. Were there any No On 8 stickers on their windows? Any formal statement of support? Any contribution to speak of?
This is indeed a war. They expect to win because they can’t conceive of us as being anything but impotent whiners. News Flash: The Republicans thought they could beat Obama because they couldn’t conceive of a black man being that smart or overriding their home (read: white) court advantage.
That a black man who openly supports our equality can be elected President, that is a sign that this is our time as well. Regardless of what the polls showed on Prop 8, the People know better. They know prejudice is wrong, and the majority are willing to accept that we have equal rights.
There are many who would say that this is not the right time, that there is too much going on otherwise, with the economy and the war. If it were not those excuses, the same people would come up with some other irrelevant cause to shove us back into the closet, to wait quietly and politely for our time. History has demonstrated, again and again, that there IS no “good” time. There is only this time, right now. The war must happen. There is no avoiding it. NO oppressed people has ever had their equality recognized, except when they fought for that equality.
The status-quo wants us to remain disenfranchised. It will cost them millions to recognize our equality, and millions more to acknowledge our spouses. THEY don’t care about what’s Right. THEY don’t care about playing by the Rules (or they wouldn’t be breaking them to deny us our equality.) They will get away with as much as they can for as long as they can, at our expense.
The difference between fighting now and fighting ten years from now is what? Ten more years of sanctioned discrimination. Ten less years of being equal under the law. Ten more years of paying taxes so that that money can be used against us to keep us as Second Class citizens.
A business law teacher once told me “You have no rights except those which you procure for yourself.” The time to procure our rights is now.
There is no other, better time. Stand up for yourself. Respect yourself. You may be surprised at how many others, straight and otherwise, will respect you once you do. Perhaps that, then, is the beginning, the real first shot fired: When we treat ourselves as equals, and tolerate no less from others.