Wayne Besen - Author, Activist, Columnist, Public Speaker

Friday, August 01, 2008

Money Flows Into California Ballot Initiative

Proposition 8, perhaps the most emotional measure on the ballot, would overturn a recent California Supreme Court decision that legalized gay marriage.

At least 39% of the $3.3 million supporting Proposition 8's proposed ban on same-sex marriage has come from outside California -- much of it from Focus on the Family, the Colorado Springs group headed by conservative Christian James Dobson.

Opponents have drawn 52% of their $5.7 million from outside the state.

Bruce W. Bastian, an Orem, Utah, philanthropist who helped found WordPerfect Software, gave $1 million two weeks ago to the No on 8 campaign and hopes his contribution will encourage others to do the same.

"There are a lot of other rich gay people. They can do something," Bastian said. "They don't have to be gay. They just have to oppose discrimination."

Bastian, 60, said he decided to get involved when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints decided to help raise money to support the measure.

"I wanted to level the playing field so our side has sufficient funds to tell our story," said Bastian, who was a Mormon in his youth. "I believe if you tell people the truth and let them decide and let them know who we are, people will come down on our side."

Mr. Bastian has also contributed to Truth Wins Out. His generosity should be applauded and more people should follow his philanthropic lead.

28 Comments:

As a native of SLC, I have had the opportunity to meet with and see the good works of Bruce Bastian first hand. He is a remarkable man who has done great things for the gay community, both in Utah and the nation. A big Thank You for all the good you do!
posted by Anonymous, at 8/02/2008 8:58 AM

I hope this prop goes down in flames, Obama becomes pres. and the dems route the rethugs. in the house and senate on Nov. 4th. Then the fascist right will know how we felt the day after bush stole his second "election".
posted by Anonymous, at 8/02/2008 11:41 AM

paging David Geffen
posted by Anonymous, at 8/02/2008 9:40 PM

I just read your book and enjoyed it. I must say though, in defense of John Paulk, it really does seem as though it was a one time lapse in judgement on his part. I don't think he is staight, but he is probable faithful to his wife and I have never heard even a rumor that he is not. He is straight enough to make a baby, more than I can say for myself. I doubt that even on that fateful night he would have gone home with another guy. I think he loves his kids and his lifestyle even though he is likely in a sexless marriage. But that describes a lot of marrages, gay or staight. This is common in Lesbian relation ships, sometimes refered to as lesbian bed death. You did the right thing in exposing him though.
posted by Anonymous, at 8/02/2008 9:53 PM

Anonymous at 9:53, you say of Mr Paulk "I don't think he is straight,"

That - not whether he is faithful, happy, or celibate in his marriage - is the nub of the matter.

The whole point, which Mr Besen makes so admirably, is that John Paulk was one of those touted, featured, advertised, by those selling "reparative therapy", as having become straight.

THAT is the whole issue.

If Mr Paulk knew, when he wrote and posed for the the "therapy" salsemen, that he was not in fact sexually attracted to the opposite sex but remained attracted to his own sex, then he was, I am afraid, participating in the selling of a lie.

The issue is not whether he was right, or had a right, to marry; or whether his marriage is faithful and/or happy.

The issue is that he said his sexual orientation had changed, when apparently it had not.

Like you, and like Mr. Besen, I too "don't think he is straight".
posted by Anonymous, at 8/03/2008 9:16 AM

I agree with you Phil, but I think he is happy now. I think he owes a lot of people an apology and a little truth. I see a lot of unhappiness in the gay community. To much drugs an alcohol. He could have done worse with his life. He could be dead for that matter. That does not excuse the lieing and piety though. I think the transformation thing, from gay to straight, was a little of fooling himself and fooling others.
posted by Anonymous, at 8/03/2008 2:53 PM

What "gay community" are you talking about, anonymous? Not any one I belong to.

Very few of my gay friends drink or do drugs. I do much more of that when I'm hanging out with my straight pals. And very few of my friends, gay or straight, are unhappy. Probably because I choose to hang out with healthy, educated people who don't have that many issues, and seek professional help when they do.

There is no monolithic "gay community" that you can assign attributes to. People are all different.

And if any gay person is unhappy or having a problem with drugs, then go get help with those problems, and find some new people to hang out with. Don't go blaming it on the supposed ills of some mythical "gay community", or on every other gay person in existence.

And Paulk can go to hell, I don't care how happy he is because he's an enemy of the truth, and he's no doubt contributed to the misery of a great many people who believe his lies. Paulk doesn't deserve to be happy.
posted by Anonymous, at 8/03/2008 8:35 PM

There is a lot of drug use and alcohol abuse among gays as with many minority groups. There is a big campagine against meth use among gays, for example. I also hang with educated healthy gays, but that is not the point. Statistics speak for themselves. In Seattle here, we aknowledge the problems in the gay community (for lack of a better word) and have an organization called Gay City health project to help address these issues. I am just saying that we gays as a community, as opposed to us as individules, can do better and we can expect better.
posted by Anonymous, at 8/03/2008 11:55 PM

Wisdom from Dan Savage:

We’ve been down this road before—Achilles’ heels located, targeted, hopes raised, and then… back to the ol’ drawing boards. These researchers say they’re at least five years away from any treatment for people with HIV, so let’s not go out and stick our asses in the air just yet, boys, okay? And remember: Even if we do one day have a vaccine or an effective treatment for HIV, recreating the gay communal-sewer sex culture of the ’70s is a Very Bad Idea. One important lesson—one of the top lessons—of the AIDS epidemic is this: Given the right conditions, new sexually transmitted infections can emerge and kill you and all your friends.

Remember: Straight people should have more sex (and more sex partners) than they do; gay people should have less sex (and fewer sex partners) than we can. Balance, balance, balance—oh, and anal sex is not a first-date activity; use condoms for anal sex with casual partners to protect yourself from HIV and other STIs, known and unknown; and lower your inhibitions the old-fashioned way—therapy and beer—and stay the fuck away from meth and meth users.
posted by Anonymous, at 8/04/2008 12:13 AM

Just my own conclusion : I think there's a tendency for gays to use more drugs because they don't have kids. I know lots of straight folk that would party a lot if they didn't have children and had to (do the right thing) and be responsible. Many gays, being footloose and fancy-free, can continue partying like teenagers. (This is just a general rule, with lots of exceptions, and only based on my own observations).
posted by Joey, at 8/04/2008 3:42 AM

Joey, there are many married str8 people with kids who do drugs and many single straight parents who do likewise. There are many gay parents who have kids, ever heard of bisexuals who've married and have kids? Some of them divorce and get custody of their kids, some even marry their same-sex partners, would you say that they would be inclined to do drugs because they're not straight but have kids? Not all do drugs. Having kids doesn't preclude someone from not having an inclination to take drugs. Why do the children of a two parent straight family do drugs?
posted by Anonymous, at 8/04/2008 11:07 AM

Turn on almost any episode of Judge Judy or Dr. Phil and you'll see that our heterosexual friends have the same challenges that we all have when it comes to life and love. As for gay men, specifically, however, it must be noted that the "gay bar crowd" is of a particular sort; it is like seeing heterosexual people in Las Vegas. We mustn't establish our sense of self-worth based upon that crowd of gays which reveals itself at 2 o'clock in the morning. We should keep that in mind the next time we've had a couple of drinks and are feeling alone or down about ourselves; if you look at the heterosexual party crowd, you see the same actions.
posted by Anonymous, at 8/04/2008 1:13 PM

As my late partner said to a friend of his many years ago: "Honey, It's 2am. Time to lower your standards!"
posted by Anonymous, at 8/04/2008 4:47 PM

Robert NYC : Go read the last sentence in my post again.
posted by Joey, at 8/04/2008 5:08 PM

Thanks for the humor Ben, it keeps us sane; that's one thing those sourpuss puritans can never take away from us. Gays are still the wittiest, funniest people around.
posted by Anonymous, at 8/04/2008 6:01 PM

"Many gays, being footloose and fancy-free, can continue partying like teenagers."

Is this guy shitting everyone? Is he SERIOUS?? I'm 23 - and even when I was an actual teenager I never "partied like a teenager." Or is that because I'm a gay WOMAN it doesn't matter b/c we're not testosterone-driven bathhouse patrons. COME ON! Nobody in the gay alliance at my college was a "gay partier" who took Tina and hit the circuit every weekend. But we WERE all hard working students (and those who haven't graduated yet still are). I'd say as gays we have MORE to deal with, because people 1) give much less of a crap about us than we do each other 2) have much less protection legally and 3) are much more likely to end up in a situation that is directly or indirectly life-threatening (job-loss, hospital bills, murder, the usual suspects). And if you think having kids or getting married or whatever is the only thing that gets any human adult to "settle down" and face responsibilities, you haven't met any of my aunts and uncles. One of whom is a gay man.
posted by Emily K, at 8/04/2008 7:37 PM

Yes, Emily, being a woman is a WHOLE different thing. Drugs have never been as big a complication in the lesbian community. How many meth/tina/whatever lesbian addicts do you know? I guarantee you (guaging by my lesbian friends) it's way less of a percentage than with gay men.
posted by Joey, at 8/04/2008 9:19 PM

P.S.- My hetero single friends party way more than the ones with kids too. It's not a criticism. In fact, it's been brought up by prominent gay activists before./////Emily needs to go back and read my last sentence on the original post again. I'm starting to wonder about the reading comprehension of some of these posters.
posted by Joey, at 8/04/2008 9:28 PM

Joey, your condescension to some of us is risible. Just because you said it was your general observation doesn't mean that its the norm for the majority of single gay people which is what you seem to imply. That said, you don't address the number of single straight people who likewise "being footloose and fancy-free, can continue partying like teenagers." Your naivete is dazzling!
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