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08/06/2010
So about that guy in the 'groom' tee...
If you've been following the Prop 8 news, you might've seen or heard reports about a couple of anti-equality activists who were on site on decision day wearing "bride" and groom" tees. Everyone from MSNBC to the San Francisco Chronicle to "The Daily Show" to the AP have featured the couple, presenting them as a simple portrait of Prop 8 support. In fact, when "The 700 Club" featured the duo in their own report, co-host Terry Meeuwsen talked about how with them in spirit she is. The meme is that they are a committed couple and nothing more.
But here's what none of them are telling you: The male half of the couple, Luke Otterstad, has a thoroughly incendiary record of over-the-top, overheated anti-gay activism! A few years back, Luke and his father Dick began touring around California in vehicles that they called "The Truth Trucks":
In fact, we're pretty sure that they single-handedly caused this nation's automotive crisis. Although we can't prove that.
But what we can prove: That one or both of the Otterstads used to show up at local places, particularly schools, and condemn anyone who so much as farted in a gay-friendly manner:
Protesters Luke Otterstad of Placerville and Tim Bueler of Rohnert Park were positioned directly across the street from Roseville High as students arrived for the first day of classes Thursday morning.
Carrying signs and banners with slogans such as "Homosexuality is sin" and "Gays hate God," the pair said the demonstration is part of a regional tour to promote their message. "We want to get homosexuality out of our public schools and we're touring Northern California schools to do that," Bueler said.
Roseville High Students Face Anti-Gay Protest on First Day [News 10 (archived)]
Sometimes they'd even bring the devil along with them:
DEVIL ATTENDS SODOMITE PLAY AT GOLDEN SIERRA
Devil, Superintendent among few attendee's at local high school "gay" play | November 13, 2005
Garden Valley, Ca - The sodomite play, "The Other Side of the Closet" drew few attendee's at Monday night's showing at Golden Sierra. Approximately 30 peopleshowed up for the event, with under 10 of high school age. Among the attendee's were B.O.M.U.S.D Superintendent Rob Schamberg, GSHS Principal Audrey Keebler, School Board member Charlie Rose, and numerous other staff members. The Devil was also seen entering the school.
Luke Otterstad, who picketed the event, commented, "although we regret that sodomy is promoted in our schools, we are pleased that the play had such low attendence." Most alarming to GaymarriageNO.org was the amount of school staff in attendence. Martin Luther once said, "I am much afraid that schools will prove to be great gates of Hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where The Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt." -
We concur.
The now-defunct GayMarriageNo site (archived)
Because who doesn't love a good costume drama?
The Otterstads used to share all of their exploits on a website that they called "Gay Marriage No." A website where they also tried to connect homosexuality to pedophilia:
The now-defunct GayMarriageNO site (archived)
The Otterstads also got entrepreneurial with their site, launching a spinoff called "No Gay Gear" where they sold clothing and even offered to create custom protest banners for churches and activist organizations.
The Otterstads had the nerve to liken their anti-gay cause and wares to the late Dr. martin Luther King Jr.'s fight. Because why not, right?
Nowadays the Otterstads are mainly involved with the "Church of the Divide," an unaffiliated home of worship that earned national attention in 2007 when followers protested Davis, California's First Baptist Church for not kicking out a local county clerk/recorder who supports same-sex marriage:
And so on and so on. Search for any amount of time and you will find mounds of Otterstad eyebrow-raisers. Street corner firing & brimstoning has sorta been their 21st century hobby.
So *this* is the face of Proposition 8?
Well go right ahead, social conservatives: "Groom" young Otterstad all you want. In fact, go ahead and put the guy in the Devil costume in your next ad. No, no -- we insist!
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