The Underground Conservative

Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times (via Jenn at The Political Jungle) writes about the effects of the haters, bigots, goons and thugs of the mob opposing Proposition 8 in California on a woman who donated $100 of her personal money to the successful effort to define marriage as one man and one woman.

As a matter of disclosure, I support Proposition 8 and believe that marriage is one man and one woman. Period.

Margie Christoffersen didn’t make it very far into our conversation before she cracked. Chest heaving, tears streaming, she reached for her husband Wayne’s hand and then mine, squeezing as if she’d never let go.

“I’ve almost had a nervous breakdown. It’s been the worst thing that’s ever happened to me,” she sobbed as curious patrons at a Farmers Market coffee shop looked on, wondering what calamity had visited this poor woman who’s an honest 6 feet tall, with hair as blond as the sun.

Well, Christoffersen was a manager at El Coyote, the Beverly Boulevard landmark restaurant that’s always had throngs of customers waiting to get inside. Many of them were gay, and Christoffersen, a devout Mormon, donated $100 in support of Proposition 8, the successful November ballot initiative that banned gay marriage.

She never advertised her politics or religion in the restaurant, but last month her donation showed up on lists of “for” and “against” donors. And El Coyote became a target.

A boycott was organized on the Internet, with activists trashing El Coyote on restaurant review sites. Then came throngs of protesters, some of them shouting “shame on you” at customers. The police arrived in riot gear one night to quell the angry mob.

The mob left, but so did the customers.

Sections of the restaurant have been closed, a manager told me Friday during a very quiet lunch hour. Some of the 89 employees, many of them gay, have had their hours cut, and layoffs are looming. And Christoffersen, who has taken a voluntary leave of absence, is wondering whether she’ll ever again be able to work at the restaurant, which opened in 1931 (at 1st and La Brea) and is owned by her 92-year-old mother.

“It’s been so hard,” she said, breaking down again.

Interesting to note that the anti-Proposition 8 mob hurt many of their own kind. Also interesting to note the existence of at least one website dedicated to “outing” supporters of Proposition 8 and directing the lynch mob at those supporters.

I’d call people that do such things pieces of human excrement, but even that may not be descriptive enough.

By the way, once we as a society define marriage as a civil right, it’s Katie-bar-the-door. We won’t be able to deny it to anyone for any reason. Imagine the combinations. Brother and sister. Brother and brother. One man and two women. One woman and two men. Two men and two women. Europe has already seen the increased demand for polygamy after opening the door to homosexual marriage.

Of course, the real end game here is the legitimizing of same-sex adult-child relationships. It’s a dirty secret that the advocates of homosexual marriage don’t want to admit.