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Brad Pitt donates $100,000 in support of same-sex marriagePitt has donated $100,000 to fight against Prop. 8, which would ban same-sex marriage in California. Here's the quote from Pitt that went out with this news: "Because no one has the right to deny another their life, even though they disagree with it, because everyone has the right to live the life they so desire if it doesn't harm another and because discrimination has no place in America, my vote will be for equality and against Proposition 8." This isn't the first time that Pitt has come out in favor of same-sex marriage. He once said that he and Angelina Jolie wouldn't get married until everyone could get married. Submitted by karin1492 (288 points) (59 posts) on Wed, 2008-09-17 20:51. |
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Brad Pitt
I believe that it behooves the Gay Community to show reciprocity in some form or manner for Mr. Pitt's most generous support of us and our goals.
Perhaps those in the community that knit might gather together and knit booties for the children and/or quilts for each one of them individually. I'm not trying to be facetious - merely looking for ideas that same thank you to him and his lovely family on a personal level.
ah, oops....
god, i saw this article and posted it somewhere else. dont know why i didnt post it in the forums. *is an idiot*
go brad though! :-D
Question
American politics
American politics are all about marketing and advertising. This is why it costs close to a a billion dollars to win the presidency. As a people we are not very well-informed since so much of our news media is entertainment-oriented rather than genuine news-oriented. We don't have a high-standards, tax-funded national broadcaster equivalent to your BBC (I simply adore BBC News by the way, it's far superior than any American news outlet by far).
So in the case of fighting Prop 8 it boils down to funding marketing activities for and against it in an effort to shape public opinion. Both sides are pouring money into pushing for or against it.
This is considered a very important battle because California is a powerful, trend-setting state in the U.S. and whatever happens there has a ripple effect throughout our national politics. Conservatives full acknowledge the seriousness of this and have openly stated that failure to ban same-sex marriage in California could be a crushing defeat for them in the so-called "Culture Wars".
Pitt (who by the way, looks exactly like he did 15 years ago in this new movie) and Jolie are strong gay allies in addition to all the other philanthropy and activism they do. So we should be most appreciative of him stepping up for us like this. Another important factor in marketing is having big name supporters.
Thanks
Thanks for that fantastic response! It was just what I needed to understand, over here I've never known the public to vote on issues like this. It seems that in the UK the decisions are made by parlament and then seem to get edited by public response so the donations of large sums of money towards fighting for or against a proposition seems odd!
I've got my fingers crossed that the fight against Prop 8 goes well.
I haven't seen any recent pics of Pitt but then again he always seems gorgeous!
Complexities of Californian politics
It's complicated still further by the fact that California has a mechanism of direct democracy that can enable a general public impact on state law. This is a risky political tool (Schwarznegger tried it in a fight with the legislature and teacher's unions and got his ass handed to him).
California is large in terms of size and population, larger than many countries, and is thus a very powerful force even in U.S. national politics. All the more so because of the enormous media power the state has.
U.K. politics aren't as layered as our's. As you say, your Parliament has more direct control over local law. But as I understood it even some very unlikely MP's like David Cameron and other Tories voted in favor of civil partnerships in the U.K. That kind of neutralized the partisan element of the debate since it meant that none of the major parties really opposed the law, just individual members.
California Republicans are generally more moderate than most other Republicans in the U.S. Governor Schwarznegger has waffled on this issue, but now he's taking advantage of the court decision to let it stand and opposing a repeal. This is why opponents are playing the direct democracy card, because there's no real will in the state legislature to fight the court on this one. Indeed, a lot of quietly gay-friendly Republicans breathed a sigh of relief because the ruling took accountability for the issue off of them.
So now it's a battle for the hearts and minds of the average voter on the streets. The positive is that some opponents, like the Roman Catholic Church, are hobbled by having many loyal supporters who are nonetheless not U.S. citizens. Otherwise they would win the vote hands down. But it's roughly an even split at the moment so everyone is jockeying to sway public opinion.
It'll help several ways
The money is likely to help with both advertising and get out the vote efforts against Prop 8. It also helps with "free publicity" through media coverage of the size of the donation and Brad Pitt.
While not really into Brad or his films, it's nice to see someone of his Hollywood stature putting some money into this. Defeat of Prop 8 is a direct and focused effort that will ensure the state court's* real change in the socio-political landscape for CA's gays continues. Too many just flap their gums or throw their easy money at nebulous feel good projects with no real world impact.
* The CA court voted a 2000 voter approved law (Prop 22) limiting marriage to one man and one woman violates the state constitution. This ruling opened the state up to genuine gay marriage this summer. Prop 8 would ammend the state constitution to limit marriage to one man and one woman. The ruling was 5-4 and eight of the justices are Republican appointees.
A number of important CA polititians are opposed to Prop 8 including Governor Schwarzeneggar (R), U.S. Senator Feinstein (D), L.A. Mayor Villagraigosa (D) and San Diego Mayor Sanders (R).
Ok
Ok, I think I'm getting more of an idea of how this all works now, thanks for explaining.
Well I hope that more celebs decide to follow his example and help to contribute towards the cause. If its anything like the influence even the z list celebs have on people over here then I'm sure you'll get a huge turn-out of voters