In the city of Torrance, a suburb of Los Angeles, the national group MassResistance has successfully lobbied the seven-member city council to vote down a “Pride Resolution” offered by one of its liberal members, Sharon Kalani.
Arthur Schaper, field director for Mass Resistance, is also a Torrance resident. After watching the resolution narrowly pass 4-3 in 2024, he says the same resolution failed last month after one city council member flipped to “no” and a second one chose to abstain from voting.
“Mass Resistance worked with other groups,” he advises, “to fight back against the promotion of a pride resolution by the city council."
Schaper says one group includes Torrance’s Muslim voters. After being contacted by Schaper, they urged city council member Asam Sheikh to vote down the resolution.
After voting “no” last year, Councilman Sheikh abstained this time which counted as a “no” vote.
The second group courted by Schaper was Torrance’s Japanese-Americans. They lobbied a second council member, Jon Kaji, who supported the resolution last year and cast the deciding vote.
Schaper said Kaji also angered the Japanese community last year when he compared the “civil rights” of homosexuals to Japanese-Americans interned during World War II.
That comparison wasn’t forgotten by Japanese voters, who shared their unhappiness with Councilman Kaji before he voted “no.”
Schaper, who has racked up lots of political wins and losses for MassResistance, tells AFN there are lessons to be learned from Torrance and the organized opposition to the “Pride” resolution. The first lesson, he says, is there are many others willing to fight the “promotion of perversion” in your community.
The second lesson is never quit.
“We want to really stress that people don't stop fighting, and don't give up, even if you lose the first time,” he says. “We had a success in the long term. It was great."
