Intolerant Jackass Act

I’m sure all of you heard about the proposed ballot measure called the “Sodomite Suppression Act” which would, among other things, sanction the killing of gay people in California by “bullets to the head or by any other convenient method” from about a month ago. Now activist Charlotte Laws has filed for her own measure to combat McLaughlin’s ridiculous (horrific) proposition called the “Intolerant Jackass Act” and, while it mostly just targets McLaughlin, it seemed to me to be a good example of the traditional liberal, pro-queer, San Franciscan voice. It says: 

The way her measure is written sounds very San Franciscan to me—using irony and a mocking tone to comment on and bring attention to an important social issue. Its vocabulary is as formal and unforgiving as that of McLaughlin's proposition to point out just how crazy and hateful homophobes can be (this time in California, but even more so throughout the country.) We have been talking about how San Francisco is not quite as liberal as we might assume, with its military history and imperial city status, however, hearing that this was being proposed in California was still shocking to me. Obviously most people are not as extreme as this guy is, but the idea that gay marriage shouldn’t be allowed is just as blindly prejudiced and hateful in its own way. Also, we know that McLaughlin isn't alone in his beliefs... there are bound to be other people like him around the country who actually think that shooting any passing gay person in the head is a reasonable thing to do.
Anyway, even though this all happened a month ago, I thought it would be relevant to what we’ve been talking about in class because, for instance from reading the Monarchs and Queens essay in Infinite City, we see how much of a queer culture SF has and how that open-mindedness is usually thought to be a California thing. However, while California has a history of being thought of as one of the most liberal states in the country, in events like this (or with Prop 8 passing and not being lifted until 2013) it shows itself to maybe not quite as uniformly progressive as it seems (or as we may wish it was.) In talking about her proposition, Laws said “I wanted the world to see that California is a very tolerant, open-minded state and that he is a lone voice, a minority voice, and that my ‘Intolerant Jackass Act’ actually reflects the sentiments of Californians.” Generally, I would agree with her—obviously he would be a lone voice in proposing something this extreme—but I wonder if her San Franciscan-esque gay-rights activist sentiments (which we UCSC students agree with) are really as “Californian” as she believes. Regardless, her idea was brilliant and reflects something that really is San Franciscan—speaking up against prejudiced ideas about any one group of people and fighting for gay rights.