After Hairspray composer Marc Shaiman discovered that Scott Eckern, Artistic Director of the California Musical Theater, donated $1,000 to support Proposition 8, which was a California Constitutional amendment that passed banning gay marriage, Marc took it upon himself to publicly harass Scott having different values. Marc wrote:

Friends,
This weekend, due to it being public record, I learned that a Mr. Scott Eckerd, Artistic Director, California Musical Theatre (where "HAIRSPRAY" was performed last year, one of our first licensed regional theatre productions) donated $1000 towards YES on Prop. 8

Well, I did what I felt I needed to do, I called him right up. "Hi, it’s Marc Shaiman, co-creator of HAIRSPRAY, would you please call me back?" He did. I asked him how a man who makes his life and living working with (and I assume befriending and loving) gay men and women could possibly think we were less entitled to the same basic rights he enjoys. He basically said "it’s not a personal thing against people, it’s my belief regarding the protection of marriage…etc. (I’m paraphrasing his words, but that is the gist of it).

I then told him the idea that money from his salary that was, in a small way, made from a production of HAIRSPRAY had now been put to use to pass this bigoted Proposition truly hurt and sickened me and that no future project of mine would ever play his theatre …

Marc is so caught up in hating those that have different values from his, that he forgets that Christian heterosexuals who voted for Proposition 8 paid to see Hairspray, and other projects he worked on. What if those Christian heterosexuals became offended by Marc’s lack of support for Proposition 8, and refused to see anything he worked on in the future. I’m sure Marc would change his tune, and stop harassing people that pay his bills. Scott has every right to support Proposition 8 if those are his values and beliefs, and Marc has no right to threaten and harass Scott.

People voted FOR Proposition 8, and gay activists need to respect the Democratic process. The more protests I see organized by gays, the less I support their position, and the more I support the rights of heterosexual Christians, and non-Christian heterosexuals, who want marriage to remain between a man and a woman. FYI: 70% of those that supported Proposition 8 were black.

I’d like to correct one statement in the video above also. Gays are have special rights under the law. Gays cannot be fired just for being gay. Some people will say just about anything to distract from the topic on the table.