KnowThyNeighbor.org Expands to Oregon (Official Press Release)

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Tom Lang, Co-Director, KnowThyNeighbor.org (978) 335-0477
Contact: Aaron Toleos, Co-Director, KnowThyNeighbor.org (978) 821-4620

Oregon’s Anti-Gay Petitioners to Have Names Posted Online at KnowThyNeighbor.org

Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA, September 5, 2007 – KnowThyNeighbor.org, the gay rights organization that drew national attention for posting online the names of over half a million anti-gay petition signers in Massachusetts and Florida, announced today that it will be expanding its efforts to Oregon where anti-gay rights groups are seeking to overturn two new laws: one granting domestic partnership benefits to same-sex couples and the other expanding the state’s anti-discrimination laws to include sexual orientation.

The petitioners have until September 26 to collect about 55,000 signatures on each of two petitions.  If they are successful, the new laws will not go into affect as scheduled on January 1 and could be overturned by voters on the November 2008 ballot. KnowThyNeighbor.org will post the names of those that sign these petitions on their website sometime next month.

“This is about responsibility,” said KnowThyNeighbor.org co-director Aaron Toleos.  “Petition signers are making a choice to be directly responsible for a discriminatory and dehumanizing attack on fellow taxpaying citizens and should not be allowed to do so under the cover of darkness. Our website hopes to drive home the gravity of this situation and encourage potential signers to be fully connected to the very real and hurtful consequences their actions will have on gay individuals, couples, and their children.”

As in Massachusetts and Florida, KnowThyNeighbor.org expects that Oregon’s pro-equality citizens will visit the website, discover the names of people they know, and make an effort to confront those people about their actions. "These conversations can be uncomfortable for both parties,” explained Toleos, “but they are desperately needed if people are to understand how important these basic rights and protections are to the gay community."

Tom Lang, a gay married Republican, and Aaron Toleos, a straight married Democrat, founded KnowThyNeighbor.org in July 2005 to counter a proposed anti-gay marriage amendment in Massachusetts. That amendment was defeated with over 75% of the state legislature voting it down. The organization expanded to Florida in 2006 where it partnered with Christ Church of Peace in Jacksonville to post almost 400,000 names online. The Florida battle continues and another 300,000 names are scheduled to be posted in the next few months.

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Comments

[Paul Jamieson]

Don't believe Aaron Toleos for a minute. I am from Massachusetts and have personally been threatened and harassed because of signing the petition. Books ordered in my name, my phone number given out with the intent of calling my wife and children. Even People driving to my house and yelling names and swears as my children play in the yard. If this isn't intimidation - i don't know what is. Aaron Toleos lives down my street but still hasn't shown the courage or fortitude to come to my house for this "discussion". Know thy neighbor my foot. They will call you a Nazi, and a KKK man and demonize you if they don't agree with you. Yes go to the blog and see the hatred they espouse,

[Paul Jamieson]

All because of

LET THE PEOPLE VOTE!

Cowards

[Paul Jamieson]

Toleos - when are you going to come to my house and have a discussion?

Why are you so afraid?

You want to know thy neighbor?

He and his family are waiting for you.

I have met a few people in Boxford who have told me about the "radical" Toleos.

They had a good laugh when I relayed my experience with you.

I am waiting.

[Paul Jamieson]

And I hope you and Hosty come by when my children are here so they can tell you how "retarded" their father is.

Please come to my house and visit my Homophobic, Nazi family!

Please - if you have any guts at all.

Please come to my house and tell me how I was molested at an early age!

I beg you to come and confront your demon once and for all.

[musclehippy]

Can I come too?

[John]

If what you say is true, Paul, then you are learning that there is a price to pay for publicly announcing your bigotry.

[Tom]

The ONLY way I'd go to Paul's house is for a total make-over for this whacko!

[Lula]

PAUL SAID:

"Cowards"

AND...

"Toleos - when are you going to come to my house and have a discussion?

Why are you so afraid?"

AND...

"Aaron Toleos lives down my street but still hasn't shown the courage or fortitude to come to my house for this 'discussion.'"

AND...

"Please come to my house and visit my Homophobic, Nazi family!

Please - if you have any guts at all."

RESPONSE:

There ya go talkin all macho again, Paul, when in the end, you wussed out of meeting me vis-a-vis, when you were the one to propose the meeting in this instance.

You're such a fraud.

You'd like newbies to the blog to believe you are the voice of reason and righteous outrage, but it is YOU who have earned yourself hostility from your opposition...

*** The things you have said about us are beyond any form of harassment. ***

Folks from Oregon, Mr. Jamieson says:

"Don't believe Aaron Toleos for a minute."

But it is Mr. Jamieson who is not to be believed...

Wish to see for yourself?

Just review the archives and read exchanges between "THE PATRIOT" and anyone else...

You'll see just how innocent and how much of a "victim" Mr. Jamieson is.

[Lula]

PAUL SAID:

"They will call you a Nazi, and a KKK man and demonize you if they don't agree with you."

No.

We will compare you to the Nazi and KKK mindsets if you demonstrate behavior indicative of such mindsets.

Paul said, "see the hatred they espouse," but the hatred has been his contribution...what he's received in response is nothing but unadulterated rage at his offensive dehumanization of us.

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HATRED AND ANGER, AND MR. JAMIESON ROUTINELY CHOOSES TO ACKNOWLEDGE THIS FACT.

Again, just read entries by "THE PATRIOT," his old monicker.*

I especially love the entries in which "THE PATRIOT" mocks those suffering from AIDS, or - oh, yeah! - the time where he called us "perverts" and "shiteaters." I really loved those ones!

Yes, people, judge for yourself by reviewing the archives.

* Mr. Jamieson has, in the past, been banned from KTN due to his relentless hostility and nastiness towards the gay community...Hoping to go undetected, upon re-entering the blog, he returned as "THE PATRIOT." Part of his MO is to manipulate newcomers to the blog by "behaving himself" (i.e. taming down his vitriol) and playing the victim for his intended audience.

[The Patriot]

Just can't get enough of me eh?

I see your obsession continues

Ok Lulu the liar

Prove to everyone that I am Paul Jamieson

[John Hosty-Grinnell]

Paul knows I will meet with him. Earlier in the KTN blogs a guy named Mark who is 50 with a heart condition was blogging here and Paul tried to bully him by saying things like, "Where do you live?" I replied with my address and told Paul to come visit me. He is a coward, a bully, a liar, and a bigot. No one in their right mind would be proud of his behavior.

[John Hosty-Grinnell]

Why should we tell you what we know Paul?

[Lula]

PAUL:

"Prove to everyone that I am Paul Jamieson"

I'll let them compare your posts to that of THE PATRIOT and let them decide for themselves.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist.

But as JH said, "Why should we tell you what we know Paul?"

I've always said this, Paul. One of your major oversights has been your underestimating the intelligence, resolve, and resourcefulness of your opponent.

In that regard, you very much personify the failure of the opposition to ban gay marriage here in Massachusetts.

You took for granted your status and position as a first-class citizen and it was your undoing.

[ryan charisma]

and you're an asshole.

[The Patriot]

Just as I thought

More lies

No proof

All slander and bigotry

Do I have to open my etiquette school again?

You know when you call me Nazi or asshole or fuckwad and I respond with the appropriate gay slur?

[Lula]

Oooooohhhh...I get it.

Your at work reading the blog but you now can't chime in as "Paul Jamieson" while clocked in, but your OCD has kicked in and you just HAD to chime in, so you've now made this surprising reappearance as THE PATRIOT to cover for your impulsiveness.

YOU shold be called Lulu, Paul...cuz you always got one.

A REAL lulu.

[Lula]

"No proof"

Thanks for the laugh, by the way.

[ryan charisma]

the JIG is up.

and you're gay slurs do nothing but exemplify your bigotry.

I call you an asshole because, well,
you are one.

but the insult is personal. only you are an asshole.

you pull out community encompassing slurs,
well then, that makes you the "IMUS" of this board then. doesn't it?

Dumb bitch.

[Lula]

PAUL:

"You know when you call me Nazi or asshole or fuckwad and I respond with the appropriate gay slur?"

RESPONSE:

You choose to be a hypocrite, then.

On two counts.

You're always going off on what a model Christian you are...well, so much for "turning the other cheek" I guess, huh?

Second count...

You addressed a perceived hatred with hate itself.

That strips you of the right to say things like "Yes go to the blog and see the hatred they espouse."

You are choosing to use your own hatred to combat a perceived hate.

You are in no position to criticize anyone for spreading hate, having said that.

And a reminder, you've flat out told me you hate me.

I have never said the same to you.

So whose condoning the spread of hate?

And get over yourself. My interest isn't so much in you as it is in what you represent.

[John]

"only you are an asshole."

I don't know about that. I am a charter member of the Asshole Hall of Fame.

[Lula]

But for the record, Paul, you ARE an asshole.

Ryan's point is spot on.

I am calling YOU an asshole because...you act like an asshole.

Now, if you come back with "Pedophile Poofter," "Shiteater," "Faggot," or the like, the price of exacting your juvenile tit-for-tat revenge on me is your offending ANYONE reading who is gay...

Of course, though, in the past, you've been more concerned with getting even than with acknowledging that you've offended and dehumanized onlookers who had nothing to do with the exchange.

But you don't care, and THAT, my friend, speaks volumes about how much respect you have for people who are gay; it only adds weight to the claim that you BELIEVE the words you are using.

[Lula]

Leave it you, John.

[Jane Know]

Paul/Marty:

i think you slipped yesterday when you accused the KTN people of "threatening your children" over at Opine. you were signed in as "Marty," the infamous ex-gay who is now married and bitter.

stop telling lesbians to kill themselves.

you are one sick bastard.

i would gladly come to your house and inform your children just how psycho you are. how their dad is so cowardly and homophobic he posts anonymous suicide-obsessed messages on women's blogs.

is this what you're teaching your kids? and you STILL think your marriage is the best for children?

[Lula]

Jane, what is that URL? Opine.

Thx!

[Lula]

CORRECTION:

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HATRED AND ANGER, AND MR. JAMIESON ROUTINELY CHOOSES TO ACKNOWLEDGE THIS FACT.

...should, of course, read:

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HATRED AND ANGER, AND MR. JAMIESON ROUTINELY CHOOSES TO DISMISS THIS FACT.