The Yes on 8 Map

If you haven't heard about this, someone put together a Google map of all the people who donated money for Yes on Prop 8.  It's raised quite a stir.  Including this reader of Andrew Sullivan's blog who wrote this:

"I can only conclude that the practical intent of this map is to publicly shame and intimidate those who supported the amendment.

If my 26 employees, some of which are in civil unions (which were marriages), saw my name on this, how would they feel? What would they think of me? How would this impact our relationship? The really crappy thing is that I may not even know that I was listed or they looked. It would just begin one day with glares, stares, and tension. It would begin to create a hostile environment. Perhaps some folks may quit working for or with me. Perhaps someone may say something or perhaps not. What if I just opposed SSM but, in every other way, was progressive and supportive of gay rights in my public and personal life. Viewers of this map won't know that. All they know is that I gave $50.00 bucks and if I was foolish enough to list my business then all the better to make me a target. There is no call for conversation, dialogue, discussion, debate. Just an implied threat: support stuff like this and have your name posted in the town square for all to see.

This is all about publicly shaming, through the posting of names, folks who supported objectionable public policy."

Andrew's reply was brilliant:

"Cry me a river. You can only shame people if they feel ashamed. And, frankly, if you have chosen to strip civil rights from some of your employees, why should you be able to protect yourself from the consequences? Your employees weren't protected from the consequences of your decision. You helped force them into legal divorce - and you're the victim here?"

Another reader wrote:

"The value of this map, at least for me, would be the same even without the names attached. This map has finally cracked the story I'd been able to tell myself about Prop 8. It wasn't my community that was the problem, the story went, it was all the money coming in from out of state, especially Utah. Well, the map speaks for itself. Scan down the San Francisco peninsula, between San Francisco and San Jose. I live in the middle of that swath of red dots, in what is conventionally assumed to be one of the most liberal parts of the country. I've probably waited in line with some of the people in those red dots at the grocery store or post office, passed them on the street, or seen them at the library. There were no Yes on 8 signs in yards or stickers on cars during the campaign around here, and they would probably have been quickly ripped out had anyone tried to put them up. Well, the Yes on 8 folks aren't invisible to me anymore. I can't keep telling myself that my community isn't part of the problem with such clear evidence staring me in the face."