Fighting back against the anti prop 8 blacklisters

Washington Times:

After giving $10,000 to California's Proposition 8 campaign last year, Charles LiMandri began receiving some unexpected correspondence.

"I got about two dozen e-mails and hate phone calls," said Mr. LiMandri, who lives in San Diego. "They were calling me Nazi, homophobe, bigot. I tried to engage people once or twice - I said that Proposition 8 had nothing to do with being bigoted, it was about preserving marriage - but people don't want to engage on the issue."

As a lawyer, however, Mr. LiMandri knew what to do with the e-mails.

"I collected them and turned them in to the lawsuit," he said.

Those e-mails are now among hundreds of exhibits in a landmark case challenging California's campaign-finance reporting rules, which require the release of the names, addresses and employers of those who contribute $100 or more to ballot-measure committees.

The lawsuit argues that those who contribute to traditional-marriage initiatives should be exempt from having their names disclosed, citing the widespread harassment and intimidation of donors to the Proposition 8 campaign.

Proposition 8, which stated that California would recognize marriage only between a man and a woman, was approved 52 percent to 48 percent in November. The initiative overturned a California Supreme Court decision in May declaring that the state's marriage definition unconstitutionally discriminated against gays.

Intimidation tactics range from letters and e-mails to death threats, proponents say. A Sacramento theater director was fired after opponents of the initiative publicized his Proposition 8 campaign contributions.

"Anybody who's in California knows that it's very widespread," said Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, one of the biggest contributors to Proposition 8 and a joint plaintiff in the lawsuit. "Every donor has a story. I talked to a $100 donor the other day who had a note in his mailbox that said, 'I know where you live and you're going to pay.'

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It should already be against the law to stalk those you disagree with. He should look at the stalking laws to attack the people making the threats. If those laws are not strong enough to deal with the problem the legislature needs to address the problem by making it illegal to stalk or threaten someone because of their political contribution.