I hope "Equality" California doesn't regret its decision...

[homaffectional]

to give the Gropenator a '100' rating for support of LGBT issues now that he has not only vetoed the marriage equality bill (which would have been a first), but announced that he will also do the same to the less controversial bill that would mandate studies of LGBT history in schools.

If they did, they certainly wouldn't let me know, since when I called them and suggested they reserve a '100' rating until after he came out in support of marriage equality via legislation and stick to a '80' or '90' till he actually came through, they rudely hung up on me.

Good going, EqCA. So did kissing up to Republicans pay off any?

[Meldread]

1. Holy crap.

They gave him a 100% rating, and when you called to complain they hung up on you? What the hell? It sounds like someone at Equality California needs to be replaced, or a whole lot of someones.

[homaffectional]

2. Indeed...

they are the ones who spread the Log Cabin talking point that Ah-nold was somehow more receptive to LGBT issues than Gray Davis was, and even Lorri Jean, exec. dir. of the LA Gay & Lesbian Center picked it up and started saying it as well. I wonder if she wouldn't distance herself from those comments now and maybe call EqCA on their idiocy...

[davidinalameda]

3. go back and re-read the press release

they gave him a 100 in 2004

they gave him a 60 in 2005

http://www.eqca.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=9oINKWMCF&b=40338&ct=1696551

[homaffectional]

4. Too late, dwickham...

he should never have gotten a '100' to begin with.

Do they, in hindsight, feel that giving him that '100' was ever likely to 'positively reinforce' him enough to sign a marriage equality bill? If they do, then I'm not sure I ever want a hit of whatever they're smoking...


they should have given him an 80 in 2004, even if they gave him a 60 in 2005.

If in 2006, he gets another rating, it should be 50, at best.

[davidinalameda]

5. most of these groups don't give scores as "positive reinforcement"

it's a snapshot based on the issues

on his behalf, he was a "big tent" Republican who didn't want the Republican Party to be the tool of the right wing

but he has to govern from the right so he won't offend his base and so he'll have a chance to be re-elected

he's a politician-they aren't know for doing the right thing very often

Equality California based their 2005 rating on five issues-he signed 3 out of the five into law

granted that's a very small number and he did veto what I felt to be the most important bill-the marriage equality bill-and I think that should have weighted a bit more heavily but still 60 is a failing score

[homaffectional]

6. I take issue with your assessment...

First of all, they shouldn't be giving him any kind of '100' score for a given year based on the bills he's signed that year alone, even going with your premise that he signed them all (he didn't; see below). He already came out against marriage equality when he was being interviewed for the recall in 2003, so that should have preemptively prevented him from getting a '100' rating. As you say a 'snapshot based on the issues' at the time already had to take into account that he couldn't deserve a 100 because on the lynchpin of whether or not someone is fully supportive of LGBT people's right to live an equal existence, he had already revealed that he wasn't fully supportive.

Also, I was disturbed by the trend by many gay rights activists in which they claimed he was somehow more receptive to LGBT issues than Gray Davis was. Davis would have signed the marriage bill had it come to his desk, and he certainly would have signed this gay textbook bill and every other bill Schmuckenegger actually did sign.

BTW, you seem to not realize there were several minor LGBT bills that Schwarzenegger vetoed. They were never given much, if any press, so they'd be missed, but they were listed on EqCA's website, and so he had already vetoed a couple of them before they made the decision to give him the '100' score.


EqCA not only didn't do its job properly, it hangs up on those who are offering constructive criticism. And they wonder why other states like Massachusetts, NJ, and Washington state are beating them at the marriage game, despite having Gavin Newsom in their state.

Back to the drawing board. EqCA should consider a reshuffle of some of its decision makers.