Gay Marriage at Cedar Point: Please help us!

That Mother Theresa chick. Boy, what a douchebag...

Did Mom T support same sex marriage?

I think wearing a tie to work is stupid, so yeah, "the way it is" would never be reason enough for me to be OK with slavery. There isn't much that I don't question, other than the reasons that Donald Duck doesn't wear pants.

slithernoggin said:

Fifty or a hundred years from now, people will look back at the 2010s and wonder why so many states didn't recognize same sex marriage.

50 or 100 years from now, people will look back and wonder why we do things that are currently completely off radar for us. Like only let citizens vote or only let rich people travel or something I can't even imagine.

I bet droids will still be banned from cantinas.

It won't matter, because they won't be the droids you are looking for. You can move along now.

Ensign Smith said:

I bet droids will still be banned from cantinas.

At least us iPhone users will be able to bring our phones in. ;-)

Any church or organization that refuses to marry two people should be seen as suspect by the community.

Any State that calls for a popular vote on a minority is irredeemable.

Seems this has worked its way into the media...

Sandusky Register article

Plus a bunch of other news outlets using an abbreviated AP version of the story.

Also, in response to a post on CP's Facebook page, the park (Tony?) said, "We will not comment on politically-charged issues or articles. Therefore, future postings regarding this issue will be removed. We've already issued a statement saying, in part, that we do not discriminate - and since all can't be treated equally in this instance and politics got involved, we cancelled the promotion. There isn't more to it."

"...we do not discriminate - and since all can't be treated equally in this instance..."

That's about as clear as CP (CF) can get on the issue without offending some of the politicians they need to work with...

slithernoggin said:

Fifty or a hundred years from now, people will look back at the 2010s and wonder why so many states didn't recognize same sex marriage.

That's IF the World still exists.

That's a good point. We might fry our planet with all our accumulating greenhouse gases. Or perhaps spark a nuclear holocaust that would render Earth uninhabitable.

Those are all highly rational concerns. I commend you.

Or the rapture. I'm just throwing that out there.

I'd put even money that the zombie apocalypse beats the rapture (as it's commonly understood) to ending the world.

Hey Guys & Zombies!

It has taken off!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/21/cedar-point-gay-wedding-co...90087.html

http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/311307/45/Gay-couples-protest-lead...ng-contest

http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2013/08/gay_marriage_cont...force.html

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/article/cedar-point/4448216

Hey Jeff, I'd greatly appreciate if you would share these stories related to the coaster industry as news topics on this site and PointBuzz.

Thank you all!

There's a lot of hate and negativity being thrown toward Cedar Point in the comments on those articles.

Edit: going back, there's a lot of hate toward anybody who is not straight/white/Christian, too. That doesn't surprise me as much as it bing directed toward CP

etrainimac said:

Hey Jeff, I'd greatly appreciate if you would share these stories related to the coaster industry as news topics on this site and PointBuzz.

Absolutely not. Thanks to your tantrum, this story has ballooned into something it's not. The headlines from those stories completely misrepresent the park and what really happened. That's at your feet. I hope you're satisfied. This is the kind of crap that damages relationships between parks and enthusiasts.

This isn't going to do anything to advance the cause of marriage equality, it just creates link bait opportunities for "publications" like HuffPo, which is little more than an echo chamber for its readers. You've succeeded only in trivializing the issue and giving cheap "journalism" something to generate page views with.

Yeah, I feel badly for the park and the fine people who work there. Those who know me best know that I am a consistent ally against discrimination and for equal rights for gays.

That being said, etrainimiac, your campaign has given the park (and by extension, park/enthusiast. relations) a black eye it neither needs nor deserves. You've turned Cedar Point into your personal whipping boy. Your tactics have been misguided, self-serving and destructive. You aren't helping advance the cause, only hurting something special and magical. I wouldn't be surprised if CP and other parks that are watching very closely rethink their relationships with enthusiasts, thanks to you. So thanks a lot, asshole.

First of all, I think it is completely inappropriate to call someone an "asshole" here. Is there a level of responsibility and maturity that was not exercised by the couple who pushed on this issue? Yes. Stooping to name calling is just as bad.

While the situation did get blown out of proportion, the blame has to be shared amongst many people and I am sorry but Cedar Point is to blame for some of this negative press. As a friend of many who are full-time Cedar Fair employees and a 35+ years fanboy of Cedar Fair, I feel comfortable saying this publicly. As a gay man I feel comfortable saying this. As someone who has done public relations work I feel comfortable saying this.

From the day this PR stunt was created it was a huge mistake; I am not privy to all the details but anyone with an ounce of common sense knows this is not a road to travel right now when the country is in the middle of a major cultural shift regarding equality for same-sex couples. PR people are PAID to know these things, the role of public relations is to promote a company in a positive light and there was no winning this battle. Bluntly, it is/was a failure of Cedar Point public relations to create and promote such an event and they need to take ownership of that. They did by cancelling the event, but then how that was handled lead to yesterday's media focus.

What inflamed the situation even more were comments from Cedar Point to the media yesterday that started off by saying "this took on a political tone so we cancelled the event." People form an impression in the first several seconds of something they read, what happened yesterday is the LGBT community read those quotes and took it as Cedar Point was blaming the LGBT community for having to cancel the event and threw us under the bus. Reading many of the LGBT media sites and blogs people also felt Cedar Point was being cowardly on the subject when everyone knows that a significant percentage of their workforce is LGBT, how could they not support equality? (Which, for those of us who know many of the management team at Cedar Fair, we know they do...but the rest of the world does not know that.)

Friends asked me yesterday how the situation should have been handled and I wrote a well thought-out and sensitive response that Cedar Point should have released. Everyone agreed with me. Public relations is an art of words, and in this situation thoughtful words were not used and thus here we are today. It needs to be chalked up to a learning lesson for all involved, hopefully those involved fully understand their mistakes and will take great care in the future to avoid such situations.

I'll stand by my epithet. I don't toss profanity around, either on Coasterbuzz in any other online presence, lightly. But in this case, it's deserved and totally appropriate. Etrainimiac's continuing actions display utter disregard, not only for an amusement park he claims to love so much that he wishes to get married there, but to this entire community of persons who love these places so much they devote their vacations, their money, their waking devotion to them. I fail to understand how you can't see this.