RENWL

Okay. Let’s put the breaks on this here for a sec. We don’t wanna get the wheels turnin’ too fast and trip ourselves up. That’s what we’ve been accused of right from the start in this fiasco.  But amazingly enough, the complexities as it were keep expanding by the day.  So we’re gonna slowly process this scenario and make sure our deductions are not retarded. From the top: last weekend we posted How To Sabotage the CA 2010 Marriage Equality Campaign;Twitter Style which revealed that some individuals in support of a 2012 marriage equality campaign were sending out tweets discouraging other folks from signing onto the 2010 marriage equality ballot initiative if asked by 2010 supporters; the initiative needs 1 million signatures to make it to the 2010 ballot.

Well this created somewhat of an uproar since the names of EQCA and Vote For Equality (VFE) were involved.  Among the “decline to sign” tweets sent out were those from EQCA board member Jordan Rustin Coalition’s Ron Buckmire and a former VFE employee Michael Beck. Speculation of course turned to the agendas of both of these orgs since they were embroiled in battle earlier this year as pro’2012 against 2010ers Courage Campaign and Love Honor Cherish (LHC.)  Since then, Courage Campaign has quietly dropped its bid for the 2010 marriage equality run and left the playing field for LHC to alone take a shot at all the hopes ‘n’ glory next November—if LHC can get the 1 million sigs, that is.

Enter Andrea Shorter, EQCA’s Deputy Director of Marriage and Coalitions (interesting title).  Ever the conscientious and politically correct leader, Marc Solomon senses a smallish but nagging pr snafu with all this decline to sign twitter talk.  So he dispatches afro-nubian EQCA stormtrooper Shorter to post a statement here on most times afrocentric RENWL disclaiming any and all accusations of the organization sponsoring a Decline To Sign campaign and thoughtfully thanking us for the opportunity to post her disclaimer. You can read about it here:  EQCA Sends Black Person To Set Decline To Sign Rumors Straight.

So, hey. We take her word as gospel. Story over. No harm no foul, right? Weeeeellll (as our fav’ tv character Samantha Stevens from Bewitched used to say) that unfortunately is NOT the end of story. Our dear friend and scholar the breathtakingly beautiful USC Associate professor Ange-Marie Hancock, had to do a little last minute grocery shopping this evening in preps for tomorrow’s holiday feast. And of course one would expect she’d be picking up those  items at that fashionable Pavillion’s in Hollywood on Vine no less.  But apparently the poor dear’s quickie shopping expedition was all but ruined when she witnessed this political atrocity that she immediately shared with the world on her Facebook update once she got home:

“Was just at Hollywood Pavilions watching pushy EQCA folk cajoling people into signing ‘the pledge’ for 2012. Didn’t want to believe others’ accusations until I saw it with my own eyes. Wish I believed they didn’t know that this could limit signature gatherer for 2010…”

Alright. Let’s move slowly here.  This last piece of info has all the makings of a landmine.  Okay, so, here’s the part that we find a tad confusing: if you’re pursuing people at supermarkets to take a pledge for 2012….umm—what does that mean in terms of them possibly providing a signature for 2010? Should the subject come up of course. It sounds to us—and we could be wrong—that if you’re getting people to take a pledge for 2012 then you’re actually in some roundabout backdoor-ish nobody-said-anything-about-2010 sorta’ way discouraging them from possibly supporting a campaign in another year. Like, say ah eh ohhhh I dunno—2010 maybe?

So to those of you who now feel that you’ve been misled—–okay lied to with Miss Shorter’s heartwrenching statement left here on RENWL—we  think you’re correct in assuming as such.  Maybe she just forgot to tell us the part about the 2012 petition.  It happens. In any case, the fact is there really is  a Decline To Sign campaign against 2010 going on right now by EQCA. They’re just calling it Pledge To 2012.  And what they’re doing is getting people to commit to 2012 by explaining to them why 2010 is not a good idea. And then getting them to sign some silly form saying that they now completely understand that 2010 is a bad idea by EQCA’s standards and that they pledge not to support it. It’s that simple. And it’s pretty devious.  And uncool. Let the people decide guys.

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