THE STORY OF BALLOT MEASURE 9

Ballot Measure 9 is the chronicle of what happened in Oregon during a particularly bitter battle over an anti-gay initiative promulgated by the Oregon Citizen’s Alliance during the Clinton/Bush presidential race. With Colorado, Oregon was one of two test cases in 1992 for statewide referenda by conservative “family values” groups attempting to amend state constitutions to prevent and revoke laws which protect lesbians and gay men from discrimination. The Oregon Citizen Alliance’s Measure 9 went further, tying homosexuality to pedophilia  and sadomasochism, stating it was “abnormal, wrong, unnatural and perverse,” and mandating that schools and government agencies teach it to be such (click here to read the ballot measure).

Lon Mabon, chair of the OCA, called it “a simple battle between good and evil.”  Inflammatory newspapers printed by the OCA and distributed door to door statewide claimed, among other things, that homosexuals regularly ingest and wallow in feces, recruit children to their addictive lifestyle, and are 90 times more likely to be pedophiles. According to the OCA rhetoric, homosexuals want “special rights for wrong behaviors,” not equal rights. Asserting that by seeking so-called civil rights, homosexuals were seeking affirmative action (as well as quotas in the workplace), the OCA explained that homosexuals would deprive deserving minorities of their “special rights” and take jobs away from other citizens.

Statewide, the resulting virulent discourse on the dangers and morality of homosexuality thrived, and in this climate of fear came the inevitable rise of vandalism, harassment, physical attacks and murder, of lesbians, gay men and their supporters. Families were torn apart, neighbor set against neighbor. Leaders wore bullet proof vests and slept with guns under their beds.

Culled from 300 hours of material shot over the nine months leading to the election, Ballot Measure 9 tells a story of driving suspense and urgency, engaging the audience viscerally in the lives of the characters. It is also able to dissect the rhetoric, revealing a more pernicious and far-reaching agenda of divisiveness and intolerance.

Click to download Press Kit with Bios of the Characters.
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