So it comes to this, anti gay bigots need to lie to get signatures for their petition

alonzomourning23

alonzomourning23

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There's competing petitions going around massachusetts, one for an anti gay marriage amendment to the state constitution, the other opposing it. Well, apparently, some anti gay marriage supporters are tricking people into signing it. I heard about this a month or two ago from massequality (I'm on their e-mail list), the main group advocating gay marriage, but it has gotten worse lately. The main tactic is to tell people it's a petition to make it so grocery stores can sell wine, as currently each store can only have alcohol in 3 of their locations. They either get people to sign a wine petition (which is an actual petition, the group running has rejected many recent signatures due to this fraud) and then tell them to sign another piece of paper (the anti gay marriage one) stating it's a backup copy or they just directly show them the anti gay marriage one and tell them it's for wine. Most people assume that the people are actually be honest. The worst part is most of these people collecting fraudulent signatures are actually being paid, by the signature, for their work by organizations opposing gay marriage.

I did run into people asking for signatures in the Burlington Mall, but they didn't lie, I just told them I don't want anything to do with it. I do know a few people (including my mother) who were asked to sign the fake petition when they were at the supermarket, and another who was asked outside of a Target.

They are attempting to pass legislation to stop fraud such as this:

(Boston, Massachusetts) The Massachusetts Senate has passed legislation to outlaw so-called "bait and switch" tactics in the collecting of names on ballot initiatives.

The move follows allegations of fraud by signature gathers paid to collect names to have a proposed amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions on the 2008 ballot.

Last month a joint committee of the legislature held a special session on the growing number of complaints that supporters of the measure had used "bait and switch" tactics to get signatures.

The committee heard from 10 voters, each of whom said signature gatherers tried to trick them into signing the anti-gay marriage petition. (story)

In each case, the voters said they were asked to sign a ballot question about the sale of wine in grocery stores and were then told to sign a second sheet of paper without being told it was the anti-gay marriage amendment. In some cases they said they were told the second sheet was a "back up" sheet for the wine question.

Boston newspapers have been filled with similar complaints.

On Thursday the Senate made deceptive signature gathering tactics a crime punishable by up to $1,000 or a year in prison.

The measure also requires the state to print petition sheets in different colors so voters can distinguish different questions. All petition signature gathering companies would also be required to register with the Secretary of State.

The bill now heads to the House.

If the bill becomes law in the next few weeks, it would give voters who believe they had been deceived until Dec. 7 to remove their names from the anti-gay petition.

Vote On Marriage - an umbrella group made up of the Catholic Church and evangelical groups - needs 65,825 signatures by Thanksgiving for the measure to be considered.

The names would then need to be verified by the state and the question approved by at least one-quarter - or 50 - of 200 lawmakers in two separate sessions of the Legislature.

The question would then head to the 2008 ballot, where it must garner the support of a majority of voters

Vote On Marriage hired a private company, Arno Political Consultants - a firm with ties to Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - to collect the signatures. (story)

Arno was used by Schwarzenegger most recently to help sell his legislative reform package which goes to voters in a special election this November.

The company also has been involved in a number of conservative ballot measures nationwide including the anti-gay marriage amendment in Ohio where there were similar complaints of "bait and switch" techniques being used. The amendment passed by a wide margin last year.

Arno has also worked for the Republican National Committee to register GOP voters in Florida.
Click to expand...

http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/11/110405massAmend.htm

Fox local news is also doing a segment on it.

There were also similar reports last time a petition was passed around a couple years before gay marriage was legalized.

It's bad enough that people are bigotted enough to actually spend all their time attempting to take away a right people have had for a year and a half now (this petition would also revoke the thousands of currently legal marriages), but it's worse that they've resorted to conning people for signatures.
 
Those people should be be prosecuted. I have never once voted democrat in my life and still dont plan too (granted, Ive only voted once :D ), but I am actually all for gay marriage. If I remember correctly the gay population is only about 2% of the United States. It doesnt effect the people who are against it at all if two gay people were to get married. Its flat out discrimination and keeps rights/benefits from people who deserve it.
 
On the fox news special they had a person who came from florida to do this, and then quite after she couldn't stand the deception anymore. She said people could make up to $1,200 a day doing this. The news team took her out to a shopping plaza and had here use the bait and switch tactic on people, giving them the wine petition and then having them sign the anti gay marriage one. It worked on 30 people, and only one person caught it.

According to fox, anti gay marriage supporters have also been accused of defacing petitions supporting gay marriage, and harrassed people who signed the pro gay marriage petition.
 
Ugh this is really disgusting. Here in Kansas an Anti-Gay Rights bill was passed since it outlawed not only Gay Marriage but Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships. On the other hand if people want marriage to just be for straights then so be it HOWEVER you will get none of the government benefits that go with it. After that watch these assholes complain then try to justify why gays shouldn't get the same governmental rights that go with marriage.
 
[quote name='Sarang01']Ugh this is really disgusting. Here in Kansas an Anti-Gay Rights bill was passed since it outlawed not only Gay Marriage but Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships. On the other hand if people want marriage to just be for straights then so be it HOWEVER you will get none of the government benefits that go with it. After that watch these assholes complain then try to justify why gays shouldn't get the same governmental rights that go with marriage.[/QUOTE]
I believe Kansas is the state that also allows intelligent design to be taught in a science class, so it doesn't surprise me.
 
[quote name='docvinh']I believe Kansas is the state that also allows intelligent design to be taught in a science class, so it doesn't surprise me.[/QUOTE]

Massachusetts is not a district in kansas.
 
[quote name='Sarang01']Ugh this is really disgusting. Here in Kansas an Anti-Gay Rights bill was passed since it outlawed not only Gay Marriage but Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships. On the other hand if people want marriage to just be for straights then so be it HOWEVER you will get none of the government benefits that go with it. After that watch these assholes complain then try to justify why gays shouldn't get the same governmental rights that go with marriage.[/QUOTE]

Couples don't have rights, only individuals have rights. You mean privlidges of being married. And I don't know of any specific advantages of being married except that If I die, my wife will legally own all of our propery outright without have to go through probate to gain control of it. This includes the ownership[custody) of children, too.

All marriage really does is cut the government's hand out of the purse in the change of property ownership.
 
Married couples automatically have Power-of-Attorney-like status over the other person if that person becomes incapacitated. Caring for an injured parter can and often is vastly more difficult if you're not married, involving contracts, lawyers, and judges. If you're married, however, you basically just have to say 'We're married', and all that's taken care of.

You then also have insurance, which is almost invariably granted to spouses, but only sometimes to 'domestic partners'. Pensions also often work the same way. Gay partners have regularly been denied court settlements in wrongful-death suits. Many/most states have laws that guarantee the right to unpaid time off if a family member is sick/injured - this rarely applies to unmarried couples. Unmarried couples cannot file for joint bankruptcy (actually, that one doesn't matter so much now that the Bush administration have gutted the bankruptcy laws...) Then, of course, there are the benefits to joint filing of taxes (sometimes, depending on what tax bracket you're in.)

I'm sure there are dozens more, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
 
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