tagged w/ Prop 8
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Santa Clara – The leadership of the nation’s high-tech industry feels so strongly that Prop 8 is wrong and unfair, that a coalition of key leaders is running a full page advertisement in a major daily newspaper urging Californians to vote NO on Prop 8. The ad, running in Friday’s San Jose Mercury News, includes a list of “Who’s Who of the Silicon Valley”, including the founders and CEOs of Google, Yahoo!, Adobe Systems and Cisco Systems.
Prop 8 would eliminate the fundamental right to marry for same-sex couples in California by amending the state’s Constitution.
Jerry Yang, co-Founder of Yahoo! Inc. said, “Silicon Valley has always been an example for the rest of the country of how diversity and openness help to drive innovation and value creation. This divisive measure is the antithesis of those values that make Silicon Valley so unique.”
Chuck Geschke, Founder & Chairman, Adobe Systems Inc, said, “Equal rights under the law is one of the cornerstones of our California constitution and one of the guiding values for Silicon Valley leaders. Prop 8 would take the extreme step of amending our constitution to strip rights away from one group of people.”
“Today prominent leaders from across California – and around the nation – have become part of the NO on Prop 8 campaign,” said Geoff Kors, a NO on Prop 8 Executive Committee Member. “We welcome the support and leadership of these technology and business leaders who believe Prop 8 is unfair and must be defeated and we look forward to seeing that number grow.”
Below is the text of the ad:
Silicon Valley Leaders Urge You to Stand for Equality.
Vote No on Proposition 8.
As Silicon Valley leaders, we are committed to equality and fairness. We are opposed to Proposition 8 because it would change our state constitution to take away rights from one group of people. It would set our state, and our country, back in the fight for fundamental fairness and equal rights.
Please join us by reaching out to friends and neighbors and asking them to stand for fairness: Vote No on Proposition 8 on November 4th.
Santa Clara – The leadership of the nation’s high-tech industry feels so... more
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Ethan and Heath stop by the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian center to check in on the volunteers who are calling California voters to get the word out about why we all should be voting NO on Prop 8.Ethan and Heath stop by the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian center to check in on the... more
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ethanm
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added this
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3 years ago
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In the midst of Google’s Android mobile phone rollout, the company seems to be in lockstep with its new competitor, iPhone-maker Apple. The companies have been collaborating to get more Google features on the iPhone than ever before, and they’ve also made headlines for both lobbying against ballot Proposition 8, which could amend California’s constitution to preclude gay marriage.
Apple seeded its new iPhone firmware to developers this week, Version 2.2 beta 2, both impressing and aggravating users everywhere. Apple clearly worked closely with Google to expand the Maps application, which now includes full-screen Street View in addition to the existing map and satellite views. The driving directions function now also includes options for pedestrian and public transit directions, subsuming detailed maps of several cities’ entire subway systems in the process.
Less encouraging are the features that are still missing from the device, even after long months of user feedback: copy/paste functionality hasn’t been added, and neither has landscape email viewing, or the ability to receive multimedia messages with photos or video. Another missing piece of the firmware: the ability for third party apps to receive “push” notifications, or run in the background.
Google has also released a new Google Earth application for the iPhone, available through iTunes, that brings the beloved mind-blowing software down to palm-sized (albeit somewhat WiFi-reliant) scale. The iPhone software is similar to its full-grown version, but adds multi-touch zooming and accelerometer functionality; turning the phone allows the on-screen view to pan and tilt. Google has also added Wikipedia and Panoramio entries overlaid on the maps, so that points of interest are presented nearby when the phone’s GPS locates itself on the map.
But Google and Apple aren’t just working on hardware and software -- the two tech giants are also pushing a social agenda in California by donating $140,000 and $100,000 respectively to opponents of ballot Proposition 8. The amendment would legally define marriage as between a man and a woman, and would invalidate even existing same-sex marriages in California.
Apple currently allows equal rights and benefits to employees’ same-sex partners, and has made public statements of opposition to the amendment, which is being brought to a vote due to petitioning by evangelical activists and the Mormon Church. Google has made a similar public statement as Apple’s.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin said earlier this year, "While we respect the strongly held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 – we should not eliminate anyone's fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.”
Voting on Prop 8 will occur on November 4th, alongside the presidential ballot, ensuring that Prop 8 will see record voter turnout.In the midst of Google’s Android mobile phone rollout, the company seems to be... more
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Think twice before voting for hate with Prop H8 (ie, Proposition 8, if you're really that slow). There is no legitimate reason to take the human rights away from human beings and Americans. Let's understand why Prop H8 is simply wrong and unconstitutional.
Arguing that "homosexuality isn't natural" is irrelevant. Homosexuality is legal. Nearly everything we do is unnatural and ‘natural’ has nothing to do with marriage and the legal system. Arguments based on morality and the Bible are equally invalid. All arguments that homosexuality is immoral (and this argument assumes that those making it would be for outlawing homosexuality, not just marriage) arise from religion, which has no place in the legal system. And again, homosexuality is legal.
"Same-sex marriage destroys 'real' marriage" is a baseless argument. Despite the fact that one marriage cannot possibly destroy marriage, it continues to be used despite there never being any back up for it. Britney Spears' sham marriages have done more to degrade marriage. Same sex marriage does not steal your marriage. No one is forcing you not to get married, no one is forcing you to marry someone you don't like, no one is undoing your marriage. To say that it is outright dishonest and low.
Same-sex marriage has nothing to do with families. Many advocates of Prop H8 claim that its about families and that children need a mother and father. Yet single parenthood is entirely legal and to suggest that people may not adopt or have children if they so choose is an incredible violation of personal freedom. However, legally marriage has nothing to do with children. It is simply two consenting adults choosing to be together.
Same-sex marriage will not lead to pedophile marriages or bestiality marriages, as some nutcases claim.These people dishonestly and knowingly ignore the fact that those types of relationships are in the first place illegal and in the second illegal because one party in each of those kinds of relationships cannot give consent. Same-sex marriage does not really change the definition of marriage. In fact, it is Prop H8 that takes rights away from homosexual families and redefines marriage as between a man and a woman only. Prop H8 will take away the rights of children and partners to see their loved ones on the death bed and to get the same rights we all take for granted. Prop H8 hurts children, not the other way around.
Homosexuals have done nothing illegal and are consenting adults. All they want is the same respect and legal status our society sees no problem in giving to shams of marriages like those of Britney Spears. Why is it that those people can marry whoever they please without reason yet homosexuals may not? Why is it that homosexuals must meet the requirement to being able to have children or even wanting to, yet heterosexuals must not? It is blatant dishonesty and double standards. Prop H8 proponents say they support it because the Supreme Court overturning "the will of the people" was undemocratic yet they are turning around and taking private rights away from people.
If Prop H8 passes, I urge everyone to REFUSE to respect marriage. If freedom does not belong to everyone, it belongs to no one, and the same applies to marriage. Marriage is a right, not a privilege, and it means nothing unless it belongs to all consensual human beings. Let's make marriage actually mean something and continue to allow those who truly want it--unlike shams like Britney Spears--have it. If you're still not convinced, think carefully. If you vote yes on Prop H8, you are saying it is OK for the government to control your marriage. You have no right to complain if other people decide that your marriage is illegitimate and no longer legal because it is your second marriage. That means you're fine with the government taking away your right to marry because you cannot bear children. Unless you're a dishonest hateful hypocrite of course.Think twice before voting for hate with Prop H8 (ie, Proposition 8, if you're... more
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Prop 8 backers will tell you if gay marriage continues, schools will be forced to each marriage equality in the classroom; Prop 8 opponents say that's just not true.Prop 8 backers will tell you if gay marriage continues, schools will be forced to each... more
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Students at a community college in Northern California threatened to recall nine members of the Student Government body after said members elected to endorse Proposition 8 on behalf of the school. The recall effort failed.Students at a community college in Northern California threatened to recall nine... more
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