A couple of days ago I got a mailing from MassEquality describing some Stupid Bigot Tricks (hereafter SBT) that the opponents of equal marriage are playing here in Massachusetts.
It is part of a longer letter--which describes the new tactics of the petition signature gatherers who are trying to get the hateful ballot initiative instated here.
(I searched the diaries for MassEquality, but no reference to this material was found. I'll delete if this is a re-run.)
I can't find the letter text on the website, but here is a related article:
Gay-nuptial foes hire Calif. consulting firm: Petition efforts raise eyebrows
by Scott Helman and Frank Phillips, Boston Globe
Here are some excerpts from the letter from Marty Rouse, of MassEquality.
This part is what I would expect:
This Sunday, at Catholic and conservative Protestant churches throughout the state, our opponents will be collecting signatures in an effort they are calling ''Protect Marriage Sunday.'' This effort is being led by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, along with some of the largest anti-gay groups in the country including Focus on the Family, and their local partner, the Massachusetts Family Institute.
But, the bigots go further--here are the actual SBTs:
And they do not stop there. Our opponents are paying professional, out-of-state signature-gathering firms to collect signatures. The signature-collectors are carrying several petitions on unrelated items, including one to allow the sale of wine in grocery stores. They get paid for every signature they collect, so they are trying to collect signatures on multiple petitions at once. This presents the possibility of ''bait and switch'' tactics where a signature-collector asks someone to sign a petition in support of wine sales, but then actually hands them a petition on marriage.
I actual saw this happen at my grocery store in Medford MA on Wednesday. A signature-gatherer approached me on my way out of the store. I stopped--because part of my plan is to spend time talking to these weenies so they can't talk to anyone else in the meantime. To hell with my frozen food....
Let me say first that he did not do anything illegal, as far as I could tell. He asked me if I would consider signing a petition about wine sales in grocery stores. I said I would look at it. He asked me my town, and shuffled through a large pile of petitions to pull out the wine one. He turned it over to the signature side--so you couldn't read the text. But I turned that over to make sure it was the one he said. It did have the text of the wine one.
He didn't press me any further.
But I wanted to warn MA Kossacks about this; spread the word that the Republican culture of fraud is going on here as well.
For those of you not in MA, help us out: provide some good names to use on the petitions....If I got one, I would like to sign as: Ima Bigot. Another neighbor was considering: Sofonda Hate, of Belchertown. (that is an actual town here!) But of course, these names are for the purposes of humor only, I am not advocating illegal behavior....heh....