Stung by passage of a ban against gay marriage, some California gays and lesbians marshaled online resources to promote boycotts aimed at businesses where key executives financially backed Proposition 8.

Leaders in Sacramento's gay community, however, are urging their supporters not to go in that direction – exhortations that may get drowned out by the online groundswell.

Lester Neblett, executive director of the Sacramento Gay & Lesbian Center, advocates spending with businesses that support gay rights, as opposed to the kind of protests that targeted the Music Circus and Leatherby's ice cream.

"The gay community has a lot of discretionary money available to them. They can use this wisely," he said. "We're continuing to encourage people to support people who support us. That's been the word that we've tried to get out to the community all the time."

While acknowledging the pain and anger caused by the proposition's ban, Outword publisher Fred Palmer said he was against boycotting a business because of an individual's contribution.

Positive spending, he said, is more effective. "That's when we can speak the loudest," said Palmer, who is president of the Rainbow Chamber of Commerce.

Boycotts as political statements have history.

The Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott of the 1950s and the California grape boycott begun in the 1960s are examples. In those cases, protesters targeted abuses of minorities such as segregation and oppressive working conditions.

The current boycotts, however, target people and businesses because of political donations, and these contributions are protected as free speech.

"Organized boycotts in particular to punish that speech does at least raise some questions in my mind under the First Amendment," said Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition.

"It's a very, very strong consumer tool, but like anything else, it can be abused," said Fred Taub, president of Boycott Watch. In this case, he believes it is misused.

"This is not a matter of civil rights," Taub said.

The last assertion, though, was roundly rejected by leaders in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transexual/transgender community. They consider support of the ban an abuse of their rights.

"We want civil marriage," said Tina Reynolds, who started a group called Equality Action Now in response to the anti-gay marriage measure. "We want everybody to (be able) to have civil marriage and (others can) do whatever you want in a church.

"We want to be equal," she said.

She doesn't seek a boycott to do it. "Not to go out and protest in front of a store. … I think I'm moving this away from protesting at all the Leatherby's."

Events may be moving away, however, from the leaders who seek a non-adversarial approach to expressing support for same-sex marriages.

"I have no doubt that the people behind No on 8 are not interested in anger-infused retaliation," wrote danah boyd in an e-mail response to questions. boyd, who uses the lowercase for her name, is a scholar of social networks at the University of California, Berkeley.

However, those who are promoting protest and boycotts are independent.

"They are not connected to the supposed leaders. All they know is that their rights have been taken away and that the majority has successfully curtailed the freedoms of the minority."

The protesters use informal social networks to band together and create boycotts like the one that swept Scott Eckern out of his position at California Musical Theatre.

The fact that these networks now benefit from the Internet may make them more powerful than the traditional organizations and their leaders.

"People are definitely broadcasting to their personal communities with increasingly rapid speed," boyd said.

They also have the benefit of electronic databases that were not as accessible in the past. Even, say, in 2000 when Proposition 22 against gay marriage was passed.

Newspapers, including The Bee and San Francisco Chronicle, have posted readily usable databases taken from state records, showing who donated to and against Prop. 8. And, they have been popular reader features since appearing.

Groups promoting boycotts of Utah, California and specific businesses have arisen on Facebook, as have groups belittling the boycotts.

Their effectiveness, so far, is unclear.

Californians Against Hate, a group founded in Southern California, made use of state databases to produce its own "Dishonor Roll" of donors to the anti-gay-marriage campaign, even before the election.

The group already has spearheaded successful boycotts, including against the Manchester Hotel Group, said Fred Karger, founder of the group and a longtime political activist.

"If people stand in our way," he said, "there'll be consequences – economic consequences."

Call The Bee's Carlos Alcalá, (916) 321-1987.