Brad Dacus, of the Pacific Justice Institute, rallied supporters of Prop 8 in Sacramento on Oct. 28, 2008, where he made his now infamous speech about how failing to defeat same-sex marriage was the same as failing to defeat the Nazis. Free speech is a lovely thing, especially when it’s exercised twice. In follow up remarks, when asked about his comments, Dacus told a reporter: “Obviously I wasn’t trying to infer that anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area was akin to the Third Reich or in favor of any cause of the Nazis. That would be a ludicrous understanding of the point that was being made.”
Just in case Olson and Boies need another piece of evidence to buffer their “Yes On 8 was about discrimination” argument.
FakeName
Brad Dacus: “Obviously I wasn’t trying to infer…”
It’s imply, moron.
Wade MacMorrighan
OMGs, that was seriously warped, because gay men in particular were persecuted and executed by the Nazi regime to a far greater extent, according to historians, than even the Jews!
B
Also William Tam will most likely be in the hot seat on Friday, when he is supposed to testify as a witness for the plaintiff. I guess Olsen and Boies decided that Tam’s rantings were too juicy to pass up.
http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ci_14179875 notes that
“11:54 a.m.: Video of Prop. 8 supporter William Tam played in court
“The plaintiffs continue to play the videotaped deposition of
William Tam, one of the leaders of the Proposition 8 campaign, as Yale Professor George Chauncey remains on the stand (almost as an afterthought at this point). In the depo, Tam answers a variety of questions about why he opposed gay marriage, including what he perceived as a threat to children. He testified that children would opt to be gay if they know same-sex marriage is permitted. ‘Since it’s in the air, then they think, why not?’ Tam said in his deposition.
“The plaintiffs are expected to call Tam as a witness in the trial Friday. A thrust of the lawsuit will be an attempt to persuade Walker that Proposition 8 was driven by animus against gays, and Proposition 8 supporters are certain to be grilled on that topic.”
There are also some comments on the Supreme Court ruling, specifically quotes from the dissenting opinion.
Totakikay
@No.2 Wade,
Why would the Nazis persecute Gay men, but not including Lesbians and suspected Transgender and Bisexuals, to a more high extent? You need to add reasons for this statement. I feel puzzled.
Nazis of World War 2 and Neo-Nazis across the world today hate and discriminate non-Christian, non-heterosexual, non-white, including women and the disabled people. The Nazis hate and discriminate an entire group of people on the sole basis of their immutable characteristics: In this case body color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and disability. The main ideology of Nazis are to hate and discriminate anyone “different” than they are. I put quotes around the term ‘different’ to signify the social/political exploitation of innocent human groups who have been historically discriminated against on the basis of their immutable characteristics by the Nazis.
Therefore, I disagree with what these historians are saying about the case of Nazis vs. European Gay Males, since Nazis hate anyone different than them.
TommyOC
@Totakikay:
You’re making the assumption that the Nazi party (National Socialism, for the record) was founded strictly to hate on people who were “different.”
That is not true. The Nazi party had a platform for actual government change. They had enemies and people to which they could point fingers – as all parties do when pinning the blame for a nation’s woes – and used that animosity to get themselves into power. Hitler’s rise to power rested solely on his ability to motivate and inspire his supporters against these enemies.
In effect, the Nazi movement, like ALL nationalism movements, needed a common, usually external, enemy to rally its supports. And Hitler had a good one.
And it wasn’t primarily the gays, nor the Jews. At first.
It was the Communists.
It was only after the Nazis got rid of the Communist influence that they decided to have another group be their enemy.
There is a lot of truth about the saying (I don’t know it’s attribution, and I paraphrase): “At first they came for the Communists, and I said nothing; then they came for the gays, and I said nothing; then they came for the Jews, and I said nothing; and when they came for me, there was no one left to say anything.”
The Neo-Nazis of today only hark back to the ACTIONS of the Nazis, not their motivations. Most Nazi’s didn’t wish death upon the Jews – they claim to not even know it was happening, many of them (ignorant as that was) – they simply saw them as the source of their problems.
Mr.Woo
Come to China. No nazis there.
Wade MacMorrighan
@Totakikay: Actually, lesbians were targeted to a FAR lesser extent; but Gay man so excessively, because they were viewed as an abnormality who were robbing Germany of the children she was owed. A very powerful documentary on the subject is “Paragraph 175”. Lesbians, it was argued, was more of a phase and women could still produce children.