Who signed the Act 1 petition last fall? There’s a list, y’know?
Back in October, Initiative Act No. 1 was a pretty heated topic. It was the measure that prohibits adoption or fostering a child by unmarried people who live together in Arkansas.
The measure was approved by voters and although there’s no way to see who actually voted for it, the names of the 84,000 Arkansas residents who signed the petition to put Act 1 on last year’s ballot are now available for public viewing online. But that’s not all. Anyone who signed it will also find that their addresses and an image of their signature from the day they signed is also available in a permanent, searchable database compiled by a Massachusetts gay rights group, KnowThyNeighbor.org.
The Pro-Gay Advocacy Group is most famous for releasing the name of signers of anti-gay petitions in Massachusetts in 2005 and later in Florida. Yesterday, they turned that attention to Arkansas in what the group is calling a strategy to “generate the dialogue between both sides of this issue.”
“These petition signers need to stand behind their signatures and be responsible for this dehumanizing attack on the gay community,” said Tom Lang, the organization’s director. “It’s disgraceful that they have chosen to exercise their prejudice at the expense of children who are now being denied access to loving adoptive and foster parents. Such activity must be challenged and cannot be allowed to pass under the cover of darkness.”
By law, this data is freely available to the public but until now, you’d have to actually go down to the secretary of state’s office and request to see it. Now that it’s all online, finding a particular name or list of names is a lot easier. Besides being searchable, the database can be filtered by Last Name, First Name, Address, City, Zip and County.
Need proof? Here’s a list of the nearly 1500 people who signed the petition in Fayetteville.
Comments
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Evan McDonald
April 28, 2009
I think that foster kids need homes, not bickering legislation, but still don’t think that those who opposed it should have their home addresses and signatures posted on the internet just as I wouldn’t want fundie groups getting ahold of same-sex advocates’ information.
Naming names I’m all for, but I fear this will only result in damage, not progress.
Lankford
April 28, 2009
The list also serves as a great comprehensive list of old people in your neighborhood.
Ramona
April 28, 2009
Evan: It is public information. Anytime you sign a petition to be given to the Secretary of State, that information is public.
mel5545
April 28, 2009
bravo for putting this out here!
rambone
April 28, 2009
Wow. Woodland Principal Anita Lawson is on this list.
George
April 28, 2009
It’s a total travesty that Act 1 passed. It makes no damn sense to me. However I see what Evan is saying. I realize it’s public info, but what’s the point of compiling this list with addresses? Are we supposed to go harass our neighbors for signing the petition? If this was a list of people who signed any sort of pro-gay petition and the list was used in a similar fashion, would we be so supportive?
I guess it is a good way to eliminate confusion. I might have thought our basketball coach was on the list, but the address listed for Jonathon Pelphrey comes up as Leverett Townhouses. I’m pretty sure coach Pel doesn’t live there.
a. brown
April 28, 2009
It’s an invaluable tool for voting with your money. You see a business owner’s name and address on there, don’t shop there anymore.
It does have shades of torches-n-pitchforks, but if someone’s going to vote to take away someone else’s rights, I’m sure they feel strong enough about it to own up to it.
Timbo Scramble
April 28, 2009
Well, I’m embarrassed. My mom and my grandmother signed it. geez.
Milky
April 28, 2009
All I know is that someone who signed it lives on Beav-o-rama lane.
Me
April 28, 2009
I know petition results are public, but adding the online database seriously discourages me from ever signing a petition again regardless of the subject. For example, I didn’t sign this petition, but I did sign the petition to lower the priority for marijuana offences in Fayetteville. Now that I see how accessible those names can be made, I will not be putting my name on any future marijuana petitions. I think this does much more harm to democracy than good. I can stand by my signature like the website states, but when I sign a petition I don’t expect that; if I did, I would be the one gathering the signatures in the first place.
Randi
April 28, 2009
I am the director of the Arkansas based organization, CAR -www.artisticrevolution.org, that is partnering with Know Thy Neighbor to publish this list.
We do not believe that it is appropriate for any group of people to have their rights voted on at the polls. Indeed, not one single progressive human right in this country was ever won at the polls.
We did not enter into this lightly. And we regret that many will feel discomfort as a result of having their signature publicized. However, we felt that it was imperative that this information be published. As a member of the LGBTQ community, a parent and a grandparent raising a grandchild it has been difficult and more than just uncomfortable to find my rights, mylife and my family coninuously under assault by Jerry Cox and the Family Council.
Not long after the tragic loss of Act 1 at the polls, we were contacted by Tom Lang of Know Thy Neighbor, a Massachusetts based organization that specializes in posting on their website for public viewing the names of all of the individuals who sign ballot petitions that further disenfranchise members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community. Until now the primary focus has been on anti-marriage initiatives. We deeply appreciate that Tom Lang and Know Thy Neighbor understands how important what happened in Arkansas is to not only LGBTQ Arkansans and our allies, but to the rest of the nation.
At no time was the welfare of children ever the primary intent of Jerry Cox and his Family Council Action Committee. Children in the most need were placed in the unfortunate position of being a political football to support Mr. Cox and the Family Council’s systemic efforts to disenfranchise the LGBTQ community in Arkansas. Jerry Cox publically stated in a news broadcast that Act 1 was indeed about blunting the homosexual agenda.
The Family Council was also the author of the 2004 Constitutional Amendment that banned not only same sex marriages, it also prohibited any form of legal family recognition for lesbian and gay couples by forbidding civil unions and domestic partnerships.
Additionally Act 1 significantly shrank the pool of potential quality parents offering safe and loving homes to children who were in desperate need of homes. Act 1 did little to increase the numbers of married heterosexual couples signing up to adopt or provide foster care. Act 1 also banned unmarried heterosexual couples from adopting or providing foster care. Act 1 went further still; taking away the rights of parents to leave their children to relatives or friends who are unmarried couples – straight, lesbian or gay.
CAR is dedicated to shining the light on the bigotry that continues to disenfranchise LGBTQ Arkansans.
We are encouraging our membership, all LGBTQ Arkansans and our allies to see if their family and/or friends are on the list. And if they are, we are asking them to engage in a respectful dialog about the issue of equality for ALL Arkansans.
We know that ultimately it is is OUR stories, OUR faces and OUR names, that are the core of creating the change needed to move hearts and minds. We must continue to remind our fellow Arkansans that ALL Families Matter!
NOTE: CAR DOES NOT advocate nor endorse in any way derogatory/negative actions based on the publication of the Act 1 petition signatures information. Our intention in publishing the list is to shine the light while promoting and furthering the dialog regarding equality in Arkansas.
Total Bastard
April 28, 2009
@ Randi:
“we regret that many will feel discomfort as a result of having their signature publicized”
Bullsh!t.
Evan McDonald
April 28, 2009
Shining a light is an excellent idea. I also believe, as it states on the website, that people who “take people’s rights should never be allowed to do so under the cover of darkness”
But signatures? That combined with the name and address is a recipe for fraud.
Scott Stapp of Creed
April 28, 2009
You’ve been called out by a guy on the internet, Randi. How does it feel?
Randi
April 28, 2009
Scott, it’s part of this work to be called out, sometimes it’s less pleasant than others
Scott Stapp of Creed
April 28, 2009
Speaking of less pleasant than others, I see Shirley Lucas on that list. Sorry you hate the gays Alderman Lucas! I don’t see Sarah Lewis on there though so hopefully Ward 4 isn’t entirely spoken for.
Cathy Stinkypants
April 28, 2009
I am interested more so in getting involved in change. What is out there to over turn this act? How can I help?…
Randi
April 28, 2009
The ACLU is currently pressing forward with a lawsuit.
Total Bastard
April 28, 2009
That sentence is complete bullsh*t, Scotty Boy.
The whole purpose of this stunt is to create discomfort and to cow people from taking a stand on the issue. Why lie about the intent, when the intent is obvious?
There is a reason we have secret ballots when we vote. This type of thing veers very close to voter intimidation, IMO. Its not a good precedent.
Like “Me”, I also signed a weed petition. I actually voted in favor of the gays. I’d hate to think that my votes and opinions on either issue, which could be used against me by people who disagree with me, would be posted on the internet by anyone but me.
But I also believe in letting people express their beliefs through our democratic process without fear of harrassment. I find frequently in young liberals that they truly don’t care much about Democracy, the Constitution, etc when it gets in the way of their brainless, unquestioning, sheep-herd MTV-brand of Liberalism.
David Franks
April 29, 2009
TB– I posted similarly at The Fayettevillage Voice, but it is relevant to your comment here. The people who signed the petition were not doing so as voters– they did so as advocates of a course of action, expressing an opinion with significant consequences. There is no direct connection between the petition and the votes of those who signed it; in fact, I suspect that many who signed it did so under pressure from peers– either canvassers or others at the canvassing location– and voted against Act 1. Any attempt to make this a matter of the privacy of the vote rather than the public nature of a petition (which appears to be the direction the you and the Arkansas Family Council are headed in) is bogus.
Scott Stapp of Creed
April 29, 2009
You believe in letting people express their beliefs through our democratic process without fear of harassment. OK, well, how do you feel about letting people harass others through the democratic process? Because voting to support a bill like Act One isn’t “expressing beliefs,” it’s taking away rights.
a. brown
April 29, 2009
The discomfort felt by the signers of the ACT 1 petition is nothing compared to that felt by those affected by the passing of ACT 1. The people who had rights taken from them. Don’t shame the KnowThyNeighbor people for using all methods available (and legal) to fight for their human rights.
a. brown
April 29, 2009
Also, there’s a great quote about this on the Arkansas Blog:
“There’s a far greater chilling effect in legislating an inferior form of citizenship for a particular class of person based on prejudice, whether against age, sex, race, religion or sexual orientation. If that suspect class fights back with legal tools — an open records law and free speech — the chilling effect is on tyranny, not freedom.”
Also:
“It’s human nature to want to do mean and embarrassing deeds in secret.”
There’s a piece from Randi there, too. Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.
George
April 29, 2009
I like the point about voting with your money. That makes sense to me. Unfortunately I don’t really have the time to try to figure out what businesses are represented by the names given. Now that would be a useful list to have. It’s completely within my rights to boycott a business that supports this kind of hate legislation.
@Randi – Has your group or Know Thy Neighbor considering doing something more along this line?
bryce
April 29, 2009
I didn’t sign this petition, and seeing this list will keep me from ever signing any petition. Thanks Know Thy Neighbor. You’ve frightened me into apathy.
Randi
April 29, 2009
why would one be frightened into apathy? if you truly believe in what you are signing, then sign away and then go vote for it… just know that it is a matter of public record.
i am sooo about the democratic process. but the fact remains that even so there are some things that we get it that we shouldn’t vote on. for instance what if there was a petition passed around making it illegal for black people, jews, blue eyed people or any other religious, racial, ethnic or group characteristic to adopt or foster children? What if a petition went around to allow the Klan to be the official religion of Arkansas. On stuff like that we get it that it’s a vote we wouldn’t want to see.
But for some reason many still think it’s okay to put the human rights of LGBTQ Arkansans up for a vote. And while denying me my full rights under the law that my birth and taxpaying status would seem to require…the government holds its hand out for my tax dollars and prosecutes me if I have the audacity to think that I shouldn’t have to pay them because I’m am not a fully vested citizen of this country or this state.
people are telling me, “well it’s our democratic right to sign a petition, we did nothing illegal” and my response to that is “it’s our democratic right as well to post the signatures and we did nothing illegal” that’s the funny thing about democracy, it goes both ways
and good or bad… however you see this, it does have people talking all over the state about this issue
if people signed on simply to allow people the opportunity to vote on this issue, well then I’d ask folks to remember this… is it really fair to have a majority vote, (that is based on religious prejudices) on the rights of a minority numbered community??
we are fighting for our lives, our rights and our families…most of the people who are upset about this list are doing it in the comfort of their full equality…a luxuary that myself and thousands of LGBTQ Arkansans and their families do not have…
bryce
April 29, 2009
I’m a nihilist, I believe in nossing.
sofresh-n-sogay
April 30, 2009
these petitions need to be checked against church rosters, so we can begin prosecuting the right people by taking away their tax-exempt status.
Scott Stapp of Creed
April 30, 2009
Professional talking head Dana Sargent and the other douche who anchor the KNWA FOX NEWS EDGE 24 newscast were visibly upset about the Know Thy Neighbor list last night. They made it their lead story and Dana even provided a dramatic demonstration of how easily her signature could be scanned, made into a PDF, printed out, mysterious fourth step, and then VOILA – check fraud! They said it wasn’t a political issue, oh no, it was a “consumer safety” issue. They didn’t mention anything scandalous about denying loving, committed parents the right to adopt orphaned children in Arkansas. Must have been old news.
sofresh-n-sogay
April 30, 2009
yeah, Scott!
step 1: collect underpants
step 2: ?
step 3: profit
knwa just regurgitates ap news and produces exceedingly lame local-interest stories, and the knwa on-air folk are bewbs, most of whom are overly adorned in clown-whore makeup. Really Neille, co-survivor, can we take the spotlight off your overly inflated with aqua-net ego and put it back on the cancer.
sofresh-n-sogay
April 30, 2009
this is like outing closeted gay-haters. I love it! Sadly, I work with some of these idgits.
Randi
April 30, 2009
wow! the majority of the people who have contacted me upset about this initiative usually wind up saying they didn’t know all of the details of what Act 1 would do….
which reinforces the necessity of what we are doing…urging people to make sure they know exactly what a proposed law will do…you can’t count on the presenter of the petition to tell you the whole truth..they are getting paid per number of signatures, or they are adamant believers in what the proposed law will do….they tend to not tell you all of it…yes it’s a democratic process, but it works so much better when people are making an informed decision on ANY issue, but especially on the human rights of any other group
how has devaluing thousands of Arkansas families make any one elses family better?
skalmt
April 30, 2009
I would say I didn’t understand it all either if I had signed a hate slinging petition to take away peoples rights that became public. Just sayin….I call b.s. on those people Randi.
a. brown
April 30, 2009
I think there could be truth in people not totally understanding what they were signing. I was even nervous in the voting booth that I was voting backwards, because the language is confusing. I imagine many people made mistakes on that one (and hopefully some of the bigots did the same).
Turn
April 30, 2009
sign what? vote on what? no way I am doing that. yea way to go if you want no freedom. Fear, lovely to some, abused by others.
a. brown
April 30, 2009
Let me add, “some” to my above comment. I’m sure there were *some* people who effed up and signed it, but not many. Anti-gay apologist, I am not.
Scott Stapp of Creed
April 30, 2009
I can’t ever imagine signing a petition for something that I wouldn’t be proud to have my name associated with. I stood right in front of City Hall and signed my name on the petition to decriminalize (er, low-prioritize) marijuana in Fayetteville. If anyone wants to release those names, more power to you.
I guess I will concede the signature issue to the bigots though. After all, it doesn’t exactly help Randi’s stated cause, engaging the signees in discourse about the issue. But, on the other hand, it is public information, and if it’s “consumer safety” or fraud you’re worried about, it’s not like your name on the petition wouldn’t count if you used a signature different than the one you sign checks with.
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