Measure 9

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Amazing Grace reminded me of this, so I'm posting it here

This is based on a nightmare or possibly nightmares I had 20 years ago,

For the younger readers, at that time the Oregon Citizens Alliance (OCA) had gotten a ballot measure passed overturning an executive order by the state's governor that had forbidden discrimination based on sexual orientation by state agencies.

Emboldened by that success, they had put another measure on the ballot. This one forbade the state, or lower levels of government from "recognizing" homosexuals, sadomasochists and witches. With language that said that recognizing included issuing any sort of license or permit.

And there may have been something about schools saying anything "positive" (essentially, worded such that the only allowable mentions would have to be negative). Or that may have been part of the one they tried the next election.

Supposedly the bit about licenses and permits was supposed to keep them from becoming "professionals". You know, doctors, lawyers etc. But as some folks pointed out, the actual wording allowed a lot more.

Campaigning on both sides got rather heated. And then there was a firebombing of a house that a number of folks in the state capitol who were important in the campaign against Measure 9 lived in. It later turned out to be totally unrelated to the campaign (idiots got the wrong house!). But at the time it really ratcheted up the fear.

Now consider that at the time I was on the Board of a local BDSM group and before the ballot measure went public we'd done some publicity that included photos of all the board members. And while not strictly gay, I was definitely bi.

So against that background...


Everyone had heard the warnings. Many times. "First they came for the Jews..." and all the others.

Alas, the very title of one warning that was once well known summed up the problem. Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here. Maybe it's still available from Project Gutenberg in your country.

Just like we'd been warned, it started out by targeting a group "everyone" could agree was bad. Actually, several.

Measure 9 was the ballot initiative. It targeted homosexuals, sadomasochists and witches. Lumping them together like that helped convey the impression that they were all the same sort of sick, dangerous people.

Of course the people backing it made sure to trot out the old lies about them being dangers to children and all the rest.

And the quest for equal rights was twisted into "no special rights".

So the measure "merely" said that state and local governments couldn't "recognize" gays and the rest. Oh yes, they weren't to be allowed to get licenses or permits.

The backers piously claimed that they just meant things like professional licenses. Can't have them being doctors or lawyers. Or, heaven forbid, teachers.

The voices protesting that as written the law went much farther were called alarmists. Obviously nobody would actually try to do any of those things.

The violence against some of the opposition swayed some voters, but it was too little too late. Measure 9 passed. And became part of the state constitution.

It progressed slowly at first. Some professionals found that they couldn't get their licenses renewed. And other folks couldn't get ones.

There was muttering. But still most people weren't really affected.

The first major disruption was when the OCA (the folks who'd introduced the bill) presented the state with a list (gained by various means) of most "out" gays, lesbians, pagans, and kinky folks.

They'd done some interesting stretching and a lot of folks wondered how exactly they managed to class some folks as "homosexual" or "witches".

The big problem was that they demanded the state obey the law and withdraw recognition from these folks. Professional licensing and a lot of permits went.

People tried to fight, but before they could, they ran into the problem that the OCA's lawyers were arguing that these "homosexuals" (or whatever other category they'd placed them in) couldn't file the court papers to challenge.

It didn't help that they'd started with folks who were out. So they couldn't exactly claim that they didn't fall into the targeted class.

Some folks moved out of state, others found other jobs.

Though moving out of state wasn't as helpful as you'd think. Seems that the win in Oregon had prompted groups in other states to put similar laws on the ballot. Many were amendments to their state's constitutions. And far too many were passing.

The real turning point was when it was successfully claimed in court (just as the measures opponents had feared) that it really did cover all licenses and permits.

They graciously allowed the state to issue special ID cards on the grounds that they needed to be able to identify us even if they wouldn't let us drive anymore.

Within a few years of that, we were swiftly becoming unpersons. Unemployment (for us) soared because businesses didn't want to deal with the extra hassles involved with employing us.

To "help" us, they set up a program to provide housing for us, and work. But away from normal people where we wouldn't be a threat.

Of course, by then not wanting to accept this "generosity" from the state was apt to get you arrested for something. After all, you must be up to no good.

I commented to a friend as the bus carried us into the camp, "Gee. They don't have Arbeit Macht Frei over the gates."

Neither of us laughed. After all, we were fairly sure it was gallows humor. If not now, soon...

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Terrifying...

I thought about clicking "Good Story" but that just seemed wrong. No, there's nothing wrong with the tale; it's very well written. But I just could not bring myself to associate "Good" with something so chilling. It hits far too close to home. It is far too plausible an outcome.

Fortunately, it's a "road not

Brooke Erickson's picture

Fortunately, it's a "road not taken" story. Though as the Radical Religious Right (RRR, by deliberate analogy with KKK) gets more desperate, their desires for that sort of thing become more and more obvious.

And yes, it *could* still happen. Worse, religious "missionaries in many countries are responsible for stirring things up for even worse outcomes (Uganda's attempt to establish a death penalty for homosexuals, for example).

But keep in mind, that this was tidying up a *nightmare* (possibly a repeating one, after 20 years, I don't recall for certain).

Oh yes, at least one of the figures responsible for Measure 9 (either one) and other OCA crap is still around and active in various anti-gay & anti-trans measures.

Scott Lively ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Lively )

Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks

Measure 9 can all too easily

Measure 9 can all too easily become a hellish reality for us if we let it.

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

Arbeit Macht Frei

Elsbeth's picture

Sent a chill down my spine

-Elsbeth

Is fearr Gaeilge briste, ná Béarla clíste.

Broken Irish is better than clever English.

It should.

Brooke Erickson's picture

It should.

Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks

exactly, Brooke

You eloquently summed up why I wrote Amazing Grace.

Some could say that Grace's comparing of the work camp she was in to Auschwitz was way over the top and hyperbolic, and that Hitler and the Holocaust gets dragged up every day. "There are no Nazis here, we would never do anything like that - it just couldn't happen here!

To that I say, yes it CAN happen here.

They didn't open extermination camps in Germany right off the bat. First it was special identification. Then special laws. Then rounding the "undesirables" up and putting them in their own little areas. Then shipping them to "concentration" camps, or slave labor camps. Eventually they became extermination camps. And it wasn't just Jews, as some probably remember from their education. It was Jews, Gypsies, Communists, Homosexuals, and Jehovah's Witnesses - all "undesirables".

Creeping fascism. It happened before, can happen here, and probably will happen again one day if we are not all vigilant and remember the past.

JennySugarLogo.png

And most folks don't know

Brooke Erickson's picture

And most folks don't know that the pink triangle for gay folks came from the camps.

Even less well known is that when the camps were liberated, the homosexuals were sent to *prison*. It wasn't until the 1980s or 90s that the German government apologized for *that*.

Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks

"It Can't Happen Here"

Oh but it could happen and that's the real scary part. Maybe not in the densely populated states, but surely in some of the sparsely populated states and even countries. It is sad that there are still people in this day and age that still think this way, and we all must be ever vigilant in protecting our selves from this sort of mentalities. Interesting story Brooke and nicely done! (Hugs) Taarpa

Have You All Forgotten Already ?

It is not so long ago that the US of A was systematically expelling and punishing its best musicians, scientists, & etc., because of a power-mad and seriously deranged Senator, a Mr Macarthy, in charge of an "Anti-American Activities Committee", running a "reds under the beds" spree, attacking and ruining anyone even slightly open to the idea that maybe helping the poorer to survive was after all not so bad as all that, and making the USA a laughing stock among all the other nations.

Admittedly, the Russians and the Western Allies after WW2 were no longer that friendly, as each was afraid that the other was developing those Atomic Weapons further and might have designs on attacking the other, one day. Indeed, both were actually daft enough to have several proxy wars against one another, in far away and small, unimportant countries, besides both wasting their wealth on the Cold War. Of course, the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction was after all what stopped us having a World War Three, which would have wrecked the whole Planet. That, and the FACT that all those ICBM rockets were very unreliable, so that if the red button got pressed, there were high chances that some would explode in their silos, others would go somewhere other than where intended, and then annihilate possibly one of their OWN cities, or would arrive at target as intended but then fail to go off properly.

Pogroms there were long before that stupid, insane sadist Austrian dwarf, and there have been several since too. After more than 2000 years of persecution we are used to them, indeed they worked like Natural Selection to make us somewhat brighter and better than our persecutors.

Briar

It Can't Happen Here

Brooke Erickson's picture

is a mostly forgotten Sinclair Lewis novel from 1935.

It showed that it could indeed happen here. And if you read it and compare it with some of the stuff politicians and preachers are spouting now, you will be justifiably worried.

Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks

I've read it

Aljan Darkmoon's picture

…and it IS happening here. And there. And just about everywhere. Fascism is on the rise all around the world. More and more every-day people are becoming aware of it.

Stupid Laws

jennifer breanna's picture

The scary thing is that it is starting to happen in the US with their new Genetic Gender Bathroom laws. "Its way to hard to check birth certificates at the bathroom door why don't we stamp a barcode on their arm to help identify them."

What's *really* silly is that

Brooke Erickson's picture

What's *really* silly is that in some places (Oregon for one), the law has allowed TG folks to use the "appropriate" bathroom for years.

We've got a conservative talk show guy bemoaning Obama's executive order, and the Target policy. Not realizing that both of those have *no* effect here because state law has said the same thing (and more) for a decade or so, and Portland and Multnomah county have had laws to that effect for even longer.

For an "interesting" take on things you might want to check this story out:
http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/55415/intended-consequ...

Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks

Reading "It Can't Happen Here

Brooke Erickson's picture

Reading "It Can't Happen Here" is downright *frightening* when you compare it with the politics of the last 20 or so years.

And those "religious freedom" bills so many states have passed or tried to pass don't just let folks get away with doing things to gays. They pretty much excuse *any* sort of discrimination if you claim it's due to religious belief.

Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks

look

look what the American people did just 3 months later...
robert

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Actually...

Aljan Darkmoon's picture

Although Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 2.86 million, she lost the Electoral College to Trump by 77 votes. If that weren’t bad enough, five Electoral delegates pledged to her voted for someone else, while two delegates pledged to Trump voted for someone else. I’m not so sure the American people can be held responsible for that.

Hillary Clinton Leads by 2.8 Million in Final Popular Vote Count - Time

A Historic Number of Electors Defected, and Most Were Supposed to Vote for Clinton - The New York Times