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I had heard a rumor about this earlier this morning, but Mike Jones at The Circuit is the first to confirm it: Rich Raddon has resigned from his post as the director of the Los Angeles Film Festival. Raddon, who is a practicing Mormon, first submitted his resignation last week, when it was revealed that he had made sizable donationto the campaign in support of California’s anti-gay-marriage Propositon 8. The FIND Independent board who govern LAFF chose not to accept the resignation, but instead met, talked it out and took no action. The conversations calling out Raddon for putting his money where his beliefs are did not stop, and when Raddon submitted his resignation again last night, LAFF accepted it.
UPDATE: As I commented below, I didn’t mean above to take a stance one way or another on any of these issues, and I think if anybody had read what I wrote carefully rather than jumping to conclusions, they would see that. But because nobody seems interested in actually reading anything carefully and I don’t have time to defend an innocuous statements from the instant emotional responses of everyone on the internet, I’ve deleted a paragraph in which I essentially said that this is a bad situation for all involved.
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We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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Why is that it’s okay to deny someone else’s rights on the basis of religion? Screw up your own family but stay out of the lives of others! Raddon is free to be a bigot but he gave money to strip away the rights of co-workers and donors to his festival. I may hate adultery, but if I snap photos of my neighbor and send them to his wife, I shouldn’t expect Christmas cards from that same neighbor.
Gays and lesbians and friends of gays and lesbians are major supporters of the LA Film Festival - a festival which promotes diversity. Raddon works with gays and lesbians. How did he think his co-workers would react? How did he think donors and supporters of the festival would react? To me, this is a win-win situation. If Raddon wants to earn a living off of the work and support of diverse peoples, he should support the rights of diverse peoples.
Well, Karina, I am willing to bet that if this Prop had stripped rights away from blacks, Jews, or any other minority group, you would have an opinion. It is not an “ideological argument” and the fact that you would call it that says very clearly where you stand. You refer to this as “bullying”….where are your comments about how the Mormon Church (& others) flat out lied about the issues and rallied an entire community to discriminate, spread lies and hate? Individuals like Raddon absolutely have the right to discriminate and hate and the people being targeted also have the right to respond. I know many Mormons who did not support this Prop or donate $. Raddon decided to show his support and donate a sizable chunk of money to strip people of civil rights. When you make this kind of decision. you don’t get a free pass to continue working with and for groups of people that include the very people you are discriminating against. I’m sure there are plenty of film festivals that do not support minorities or diversity that he can run. And quite honestly, Karina, I find it disgusting that you are whining about his career when millions of people have been stripped of a civil right and when once again, millions upon millions of young people (many, many of whom are the biggest supporters and contributors to your field) are being told by a religious group that there is something wrong with them and that they are second class citizens. That is the crime here, not this guy’s job.
I’m not “whining” about anything. I just said this is a bad situation for everyone involved.
This just sucks. I know Rich personally, and he is not a bigot. This “off with their heads” response from the GLBT community is reaching ridiculous levels. If Prop. 8 is affirmed at court, and the issue of same-sex marriage shows up on the ballot again, you can be sure that the opponents of SSM will be putting up all kinds of ads featuring the witch hunts, terrorist activities (mailing white powder to multiple Mormon temples), vandalism, and violence spewing from the so-called “tolerant” and “progessive” GLBT community. This backlash is going to haunt the GLBT community for a long, long time.
This just sucks. I know Helmut personally, and he is not a bigot. This “off with their heads” response from the Jewish community is reaching ridiculous levels. If the confiscation law is affirmed at court, and the issue of jewish ownhership of private property shows up on the ballot again, you can be sure that the opponents of JOOPP will be putting up all kinds of ads featuring the witch hunts, terrorist activities (mailing white powder to multiple Nazi party offices), vandalism, and violence spewing from the so-called “tolerant” and “progessive” Jewish community. This backlash is going to haunt the Jewish community for a long, long time.
I think it is scary, regardless of where you stand on the issue, that if you believe in something you can be pressured to leave your job. I mean, in all honesty, who in their right mind would say that Raddon was treated fairly (regardless if you think he is a bigot)? Do Bigots not have the right to free speech or at least support a movement with their own $?
I realize this could be off putting to some but I don’t see prominent church members being pressured to resign their church memberships because they gave money the other way. Can you imagine the uproar if that happened?
Show me the fallacy here and I’ll back off the hypocrite button.
I voted against Prop 8, but the tactics being used by the gay community in the wake of it’s defeat are appalling (and in some cases, probably illegal).
It’s one thing to protest peacefully, but disrupting traffic, picketing the businesses of those who supported Prop 8, sending white powder to the Mormon church (here in Los Angeles and elsewhere), publicly burning copies of the Book of Morman, not to mention setting up a “blacklist” website with the name of those who supported Prop 8 are beyond the pale and totally repulsive.
That sucking sound is the last of my support for this issue going down the drain, and it’ll be a cold day in hell before I support any of the gay community’s causes again.