Q: How was the list compiled?
A: I downloaded the raw Excel files from the California Secretary of State website's listing
of Prop 8 donors and manually went through more than 30,000 entries to try to parse out those from businesses.
Q: What
counts as a "business" donation? to Prop 8?
A: There are a few categories that get included: (1) Donations made directly
by a business (associations and organizations are listed too). (2) Donations made by the owner, president or CEO of a
business. (3) Donations made by public officials such as mayor, city manager, police chief (this is a pretty rare category).
Category #2 can sometimes be difficult to parse out so judgment calls were made to determine whether the donation represents a business.
In general any person listed as self-employed or whose name matches (or partially matches) the businesses name was included on the
list.
Some hypothetical examples:
Q: What's up with the ALL CAPS?
A:
Unfortunately this is the way the donor information is provided in the Excel files from the California Secretary of State.
Q:
Is the list accurate?
A: All donor information was received from the California Secretary of State's website (there are also
lots of typos which are also present in the source Excel file from the Secretary of State). Due to the difficulty in manually
parsing over 30,000 donations to determine which are business donations, there are likely false positives (individuals who do not
represent a business included on the list) and false negatives (donations that represent a business excluded from the list).
If you are aware of this type of error, please contact me.
Q: My name is published and I don't want it to be.
How can I get it removed?
A: If your name is listed in error (i.e., neither you nor your immediately family have an ownership
or leadership role in the business), please contact me and explain the situation. If your name is not listed in error, then
it will not be removed from the list. You expressed your support for bigotry--now own up to it!
Q: How do you get
away with calling someone a "bigot" because they donated money to Proposition 8? I have no problem with gay people (some of
my best friends are gay) but supported Prop 8 because of personal religious beliefs.
A: Although marriages often involve a religious
ceremony, marriage is a civil institution requiring a certificate issued by the government. Churches have always had to the
right to refuse to perform wedding ceremonies that go against their beliefs (for example, some churches refuse to marry divorced people
or people of different faiths) even though such marriages are legally permissible. Prop 8 had nothing to do with religion but
instead Prop 8 changed the constitution to deny a civil right (courts have long ruled that marriage is a civil right granted by virtue
of citizenship). Someone who supports stripping a legal civil right from a minority group is a bigot. If they know you
support taking away their rights, your gay "best friends" do not consider you a friend in return.
Q: Your side lost.
The majority has spoken. Why don't you just get over it?
A: In a constitutional democracy it is up to the judiciary to
ensure that the rights of all citizens, even an unpopular minority, are upheld and civil rights should never be subjected to a vote.
When the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged in 1967 that bans on interracial marriage were unconstitutional, more than 70% of Americans
were opposed to inter-racial marriage. In fact the majority did not support interracial marriage until nearly 25 years later
in 1991. Amending the constitution to usurp the judiciary and support bigotry is dangerous and unprecedented.
Q:
Can I help?
