Whiny Prop. 8 supporter wants opponents to shut up and leave him alone...

John Diaz of the San Francisco Chronicle has written an op-ed piece about the backlash against the passing of Proposition 8. In it, he talks about a man who wrote a letter to the editor defending Prop. 8. The letter-writer's name and address were published, allowing the public to access information about his business, his website, his clients, etc. Since then, he has been the "victim" of harrassment from angry Prop. 8 opponents, who have picketed his business and basically made his life miserable.

"They're intimidating people that don't have the same beliefs as they do ... so they'll be silenced," he told me last week. "It doesn't bode well for the free-speech process. People are going to have to be pretty damn courageous to speak up about anything. Why would anyone want to go through this?"

Why, indeed? Perhaps this guy needs to receive an education in what gay people have had to deal with for years. Protests at their weddings, their funerals, their places of worship... Yes, we are "pretty damn courageous" to speak up for our rights. We would prefer not to go through this ourselves.

Mr. Diaz, in his op-ed piece (which can be found in its entirety here) condemns the actions of Prop. 8 protestors who have called for boycotts of businesses and institutions that funded the "Yes On 8" campaign:

"Blacklists" of donors who contributed to Yes on 8 are circulating on the Internet, and even small-time donors are being confronted. A Palo Alto dentist lost two patients as a result of his $1,000 donation. The artistic director of the California Musical Theatre resigned to spare the organization from a fast-developing boycott. Scott Eckern, the artistic director of the Sacramento theater group and a Mormon, had given $1,000 to Yes on 8.

This out-of-scale attempt to isolate and intimidate decidedly small players in the Yes on 8 campaign is no way to win the issue in a court of law or the court of public opinion.

Oooh...the poor widdle dentist wost two whole patients. I guess that's the price you pay for standing up for your beliefs, right, Doctor? And as for Mr. Eckern, there's so much hypocrisy going on there when you look into the story, I can't even begin to fathom it.

Besides, it's not like gay people invented the boycott. I seem to remember boycotts being called against movies, Proctor & Gamble, hell, even frickin' Disneyland because something done by the people in charge didn't sit well with religious organizations.

Look. I don't approve of the protestors who are actually out there hurting people, or defacing property, or endangering the safety of those who disagree with them. Nothing hurts our cause more than overzealous fanatics stooping to the level of the bigots on the other side of the issue.

But please. There are very few methods of protest more peaceful and more civil than boycotts. Hitting your opponent in the wallet, taking away business to show them you disapprove of their views. That's been an American institution for decades now. And the people who are whining now because they don't think it's fair that we're using that tactic against them? Perhaps they're in need of a little history lesson.