Just say no

You know we try to remain relatively agnostic about politics here at Popnography -- unless there's a killer punchline or it's crossed the pop culture tipping point into territory where everyone is talking about it all the time. Here in California, our little Proposition 8 has definitely become the number one queer topic of conversation. (Prop 8 is the proposed state constitutional amendment that would overturn this year's historic state supreme court case legalizing same-sex marriage.)

Numbers aren't looking so good this week -- see Advocate's top-notch front-line coverage here -- and the push for major money to sink into TV ads is at a fever pitch. So are attempts to find new ways to say voting for Prop 8 is (as Pete Wentz said) totally lame, like this viral ad put out by the Courage Campaign:

With similar urgency, in partnership with Equality California, Regent Media (our parent company) is pushing up the release date of the award-winning documentary Saving Marriage to this Friday in select cities.

I suppose it was only a matter of time that my own obsession spilled out here. For example, I never should have started looking at this public records data from the California Secretary of State, where they track donations to any political campaign, including the money going into the various Yes on 8 and No on 8 efforts. And to be clear: Voting yes on 8 means no more gay marriage. Voting no means no more homophobia. Got it?

A few fun and frustrating findings from the big list of donations: Of course, there's Fall Out Boy's $50,000, but also $350,000 from Jon Stryker, #39 on our Power 50 list this year. Plus:

> Michael (the ex-Mr. Arianna) Huffington, $100,000
> David (king of the Gay Mafia) Geffen, $50,000
> Tony (Angels in America) Kushner, $15,000
> John (Go) August, $10,000
> Linda (non-blonde) Perry, $5,000
> Chelsea (E!) Handler, $5,000
> Greg (chief GayBC producer) Berlanti, $5,000
> Paul (Crash) Haggis, $5,000
> Martina (Subaru's finest) Navratilova, $2,500

Disclaimer: Drawn from here and here, though these and others may have given through different PACs. Play along at home by searching through these pages yourself.

Comments

[vampicorn]

Paul...Haggis? Really?

No, really? Damn it. Now I'm conflicted in my sworn hatred of him. Thanks, Popnog. :/