Reply #336: I live in the fucking Gay Mecca of the World

[27inCali]

I might have some fucking clue of what I am talking about.

I am echoing the criticism I have heard from many in the community who didn't realize how organized and ready the other side was until too late.

during the summer I lived in the Central Valley and saw no presence whatsoever from the no on 8 side.
Sure there was a lot of activity in the city, but it was just all the Liberals having a feel good moment with each other instead of going out and doing the hard work of pressuring the apathetic and shaming others into not voting for it in the less Liberal areas of the state.
Like I said, no massive demonstrations until after the vote.
I think a lot of people assumed it was California, the big Liberal state and that it was just not going to pass and underestimated the enemy.
Given the relatively close margin of 4% every last drop of effort that wasn't made really was the margin of the difference here.
I don't begin to claim there weren't a lot of smart people who were ready to put the time in, but a lot of people didn't get it.
The truth is that everyone, gay or straight in SF have a tendency to become insulated and to start assuming that most of the rest of CA are almost as Liberal as us, because if you live in a kick-ass place like SF, there really is no reason to leave, especially if you are gay and have to worry about getting jumped in some podunk valley town (I've had more than one gay friend who moved to SF from some other part of the country ask me to take them on a tour of the valley because they've never been there and are just curious) the the truth is that San Francisco is the most Liberal city on Earth, the Penninsula is also pretty Liberal, Berkeley, just as Liberal if not more, Oakland and San Jose are a notch or two down on the Liberal scale, East Bay places like Danville or Dublin are actually surprisingly Conservative, the Central Valley is getting more Liberal, but is closer to being a recently converted red state like Virginia were there the dominant trend is still center-right.
A lot of people, gay and straight, underestimated how much work would need to be done in the Valley to achieve victory.
Hopefully we've learned our lesson now and will be more prepared when we rejoin the battle in 2010.