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Loading ...Cal Prop 8 protests continue
11.24.2008 9:06am EST
(Sacramento, California) Outrage over the passage of Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage continues in California, despite the state Supreme Court deciding to hear arguments about whether the measure is illegal.
On Saturday, thousands of Prop 8 opponents demonstrated at the California Capitol. LGBT rights groups say they already are preparing petitions for a ballot measure to repeal Prop 8 if the Supreme Court does not overturn it.“We can’t just sit around until June and see what [the justices] do,” Equality California’s Geoff Kors told the San Francisco Chronicle. “We will take this back to the ballot if we have to and get our rights back.”
Kors said that 100,000 people have agreed to collect names to have a repeal proposition placed on the 2010 ballot.
But Kors and other LGBT leaders agree that to overturn Prop 8 at the ballot they will have to be more successful than they were in November at winning the hearts and minds of African-Americans, Mormons and Catholics.
“There’s no road to success that doesn’t go through religion-based homophobia,” Unitarian Rev. Lindi Ramsden told the crowd in Sacramento.
The California Supreme Court last week accepted three lawsuits seeking to nullify Proposition 8, which overruled the court’s decision in May legalizing gay marriage.
All three cases claim the measure abridges the civil rights of a vulnerable minority group. They argue that voters alone did not have the authority to enact such a significant constitutional change.
As is its custom when it takes up cases, the court elaborated little. However, the justices did say they want to address what effect, if any, a ruling upholding the amendment would have on the estimated 18,000 same-sex marriages that were sanctioned in California before Election Day.
The initiative’s opponents had also asked the court to grant a stay of the measure, which would have allowed gay marriages to begin again while the justices considered the cases. The court denied that request.
The justices directed Attorney General Jerry Brown and lawyers for the Yes on 8 campaign to submit arguments by Dec. 19 on why the ballot initiative should not be nullified. It said lawyers for the plaintiffs, who include same-sex couples who did not wed before the election, must respond before Jan. 5.
Oral arguments could be scheduled as early as March, but a ruling would not be likely for months after that.
Same-sex marriage bans also passed this month in Arizona and Florida. California was the only one where gay marriage was legal.
Go back to the closet you say, Ted Miller? You mean where you are?
Get over yourselves, you are all freaks and you do not deserve special rights because of your sexual preference. Grow up, stop wasting tax money that is needed for more important issues and go back into the closet.
get over yourselves, you are all freaks and you do not deserve special rights because of your sexual choices. Grow up, quit wasting my tax dollars and go back into the closet!
Rebecca, I agree that some people are more homo-ignorant then homo-phobic. I also believe some gays like TigerTzu are ignorant to who God really is.
I was 1 of many who prostest for our civil rights Nov.15.With protest still going on in California all LGBT should stop and think,this is not just a California issue.This effect all LGBT and our prostest and voice still need to be heard from all states.Only in groups will our voices be heard and noticed.
The only time I can think in US history when civil rights were acknowledged and then repealed was internment of Japanese Americans in WW2. They might have been targets of racism or discrimination, but by 1930 there wasn’t exclusion at the ballot box or from schools or public accommodations. (Was there?) Eventually there was a reinstatement of rights, followed by an official apology and a compensation program. That’s federal, but federal acknowledgement forces state acknowledgement. Prop 8 was a state issue repealing state-acknowledged equality. So far, even DOMA doesn’t trump a state’s right to choose to acknowledge gay marriages, because that area of law has always been left to states. DOMA just (just!) blocks Federal acknowledgement.
The Cali. Supreme Court already invalidated Prop 22 because it was found to create a suspect class (only gays were denied marriage). There has been no legislation passed specifically allowing gay marriage, or specifically recognizing it as a civil right, and that’s because Arnie twice blocked the Assembly from such a measure. If the state keeps functionally changing the means of remedy from what its own Supreme Court acknowledged was discriminatory action, then the state’s action becomes legally suspect in their own right, yes? No matter what, it’s going to be ugly, but failure to nullify Prop 8 is guaranteed to be the wedge used to invalidate many other state laws which the wingnuts don’t like. Watch and see.
you know, its really funny on everyones different view on how we should get our rights back. some of us are saying fight, while others want to talk it out. I am open minded to both sides, BUT what would be the right thing to do? I know thats the last thing anyone cares about on either side right now, but if you think about it we used to be killed on the spot if people knew we were gay. look at today and all the progress we have gotten since then, we have our own TV programs, we can kiss and hold hands in public without as much hate as before, we can adopt in some places, and we are can even get married in 2 states and some countrys around the world! people are actually taking our rights into thought. things are not going to happen instantly, we know that, but things are and will keep on changing until we get our rights. all it takes is one step at a time, we can do this!
Ron Said: November 24th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Keep spinning your wheels and getting nowhere. It amazes me how bad we are at gaining our rights. If African-Americans took our approach to gaining rights they may still be enslaved today.
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We also wouldn’t be talking about a first black President who sees nothing wrong with gay people being treated as second class citizens and we wouldn’t have seen them blatantly vote in large numbers to take away our right to marry.
I did not hear anything about protest still going on in Cal, not even in the radio. They are hardly noticeable.
We don’t need to win over the homophobes. Many of the people who voted for Prop 8 aren’t really homophobic, they’re homo-ignorant. We need to win them over. In elections, they’d be the swing voters, the Reagan Democrats, and the undecideds. They’re the people who don’t understand our stories. They don’t realize that their vote truly hurt us. We need to make them understand that and to empathize with us. Those are the people who are winnable and the same people the African-Americans won over during the ’60s.
Pat Said: “Altho I empathize with Ron’s plea for a “call to arms,” somehow I do not think that “bloodshed” will win over the hearts of homophobes.”
I do not think anything we say or do will “win over the hearts of homophobes”. The very foundation of their beliefs tell them that we are sub-human and to oppress and persecute us is a mandate from their “god”. If we rely on reason and love to overcome their hate, then you can forget about ever seeing equality in your lifetime.
Altho I empathize with Ron’s plea for a “call to arms,” somehow I do not think that “bloodshed” will win over the hearts of homophobes. That will only give them another excuse to FEAR us. Yet, I do agree that love does not seem to have the power of hate and fear, so I don’t see things going our way fast. But they WILL eventually.
About the only way many gay men will be ready for violence is when their bars start getting raided again and the baths are closed. Thats what it took to get Stonewall started.
Keep spinning your wheels and getting nowhere. It amazes me how bad we are at gaining our rights. If African-Americans took our approach to gaining rights they may still be enslaved today. Rights do not come without some degree of blood and violence. The organized church has no problem with us being beaten and killed in the name of God. We should have no problem with punishing the groups that oppose our rights so strongly. The call for the GLBT community should be a ‘call to arms’.