When Tweets Go Bad...and when good stuff comes out of it


Like learning that supporting same-sex marriage is NOT a political kiss of death!

Yesterday, something wacky happened. Apparently it was the one-uear anniversary of the California Supreme Court siding with the City/County of San Francisco and striking down the gay marriage ban. So the L.A. Times tweeted an article about that. But they didn't really say it was that anniversary, and, oh by the way, the California Supreme Court is once again deliberating about the constitutionality of gay marriage bans, after Prop 8 passed last November). And when you clicked to the article the date on the article was May 15, but the year was down at the bottom in the copyright.

A re-tweeting storm ensued, and I too re-tweeted a re-tweet from someone whom I know and trust. Almost immediately I discovered the mistake and issued a twitter retraction, as did lots of other folks, but plenty of people either didn't issue retractions or didn't find out their error.

I'm sure there will be many media pundits gloating about the lack of wisdom of crowds, to which I might point out it was a traditional media source that sent us off in the wrong direction to begin with, but leaving that aside, it also elevated the discussion of same-sex marriage to a top topic on Twitter for the day, and gave lots of tweeple the opportunity to share information.

Including this tidbit that Polly from LesbianDad shared with me: New Study Shows Pro-Marriage Equality Legislators Win Elections

I had been tweeting that I was disappointed to discovered we were still waiting for the Ca. Supreme Court's ruling, and that I tried to console myself in the face of a possible refusal to overturn Prop 8 by believing that Andrew Sullivan has been right when he opines that court mandates aren't the way to move towards equality, but rather it will be done through winning over more and more people. And that recent moves by legislators to legalize gay marriage were promising, and I wondered how those legislators' re-election campaigns would go.

According to the link/study above: They go OK.

We'll see. I think it may be different to be pro-marriage equality when it is a theoretical position...or a losing position. Now we'll have more legislators who have voted for such measures when they have passed and been enacted.

I hope the study's findings hold true.

So, in a way, I'm glad for the false twitterstorm re: California's Supreme Court, because who knows if otherwise I would have received that encouraging link!

Posted: Sat - May 16, 2009 at 02:27 PM       EmailFeedback

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