Perhaps we all should avoid using the names of the organizations in our blogging to avoid giving them extra fund-raising ammunition. Just a thought.

My comment on Pam's House Blend GLBT blog was the highest-rated in this thread:

http://www.pamshouseblend.co/showDiary.do?diaryId=9193

This older straight guy has some good news: your suffering in the public arena is bearing fruit, as it did for blacks, only faster and with much less violence. See this Newsweek Poll showing a surge in support for gay marriage after Prop 8: http://www.newsweek.com/id/172399

Ballot initiatives, with all their flaws, get issues on the table and relentlessly expose ignorance and prejudice. As the poll shows, everyone now knows gay people (growing up in the 50s and 60s I knew of none) and it's hard to hate your friends and cohorts for long.

Let me tell you my experience. Colorado in 1992 voted narrowly for Amendment 1 , banning gay rights laws like Boulder (where I live), Aspen and Denver have. (1 never went into effect, all courts ruling it unconstitutional.) Due to all the publicity, I examined my vague avoidance of gays, who I knew were all around Boulder. And i remembered where it came from: the first people I knew were gay had picked me up hitch-hiking around San Francisco when I was an 18-year old vagabond, and had their hands all over me, dumping me on the highway when i resisted. I realized few gays were like that, relaxed, and now enjoy hanging out with all kinds. (Living in a student area helps.)

One of my gay friends (since 1995) is now also my Congressman, Jared Polis, the first male elected to Congress as openly gay. Jared last month announced on radio (see http://spryeye.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-congressman-jared-polis-on-record.html) that he will introduce a bill for BETTER and NATIONAL ballot initiatives later this year. Don't worry! Congress will protect their absolute federal legislative power from being shared with citizens, as they did in 1907 and 1977. But it will start another important and educational conversation. (Jared was the youngest to serve as Chair of the Colo. Board of Education.)

Jared is wicked smart, and calm as Obama. He's thought about this since before I met him in 1995, which happened because we share an interest in government BY the people.

Of course the initiative process needs improvement, and solutions have been generally agreed on for decades. But Legislators NEVER implement them, only making the process harder Some tried to start an initiative to repeal Amend. 1 but realized they didn't have the $ and organization. You can see some of the accepted reforms needed at http://HealthyDemocracyOregon.org and http://cirwa.org and http://Vote.org

Ballot initiatives are the origin of most reforms, such as women's suffrage (passed in 13 states before Congress went along), direct election of Senators (4 states), publicly financed elections (passed by initiative in 6 of 7 states with them), medical marijuana ( in 9 of 13 states) and increasing minimum wages (in all 6 states that tried in 2006). See http://Vote.org/initiatives for more examples and references. The media have seized on the problem initiatives. They generally kiss up to politicians.

Switzerland has had national initiatives since 1891 and vote 3-7 times a year. One result by now is that the Swiss read more newspapers than any other country. Empowering people gives an incentive to educate oneself! You could complain that the Swiss didn't get women's suffrage until the '70s, but they then quickly passed their version of the Equal Rights Amendment, which still hasn't passed here.

Please recall that it was representative government which made sodomy and oral sex a criminal offense. Checks and balances are good. So most people want direct AND representative democracy. Except politicians, the people who buy them, and the lobbyists between.

"The cure for the ailments of democracy is more democracy." -John Dewey

"Participation, that's the salvation of the human race." -Pete Seeger.

I signed Pete up last year as an endorser of the National (ballot) Initiative for Democracy, led by famed former Senator Mike Gravel. YOU can participate at http://Vote.org