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Loading ...Prop 8 repeal bid begins
03.23.2009 11:49am EDT
(San Francisco, California) A group seeking to repeal Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in California, is expected to begin collecting signatures this week to have the measure overturned.
The Secretary of State on Friday gave the group Yes on Equality until Aug. 17 to collect the nearly 700,000 signatures needed to qualify its initiative for the 2010 ballot.It is one of two ballot measures to repeal Prop 8. Earlier this month, two college students were given the OK to start collecting signatures for a proposed ballot measure to strike the word “marriage” from all state laws.
The measure would repeal the ban, and define domestic partnerships as unions between all couples, regardless of sexual orientation.
Prop 8 grew out of last May’s state Supreme Court ruling that opened marriage to gay and lesbian couples. It was passed by voters in November by a slim 52 percent. By that time, some 18,000 same-sex couples had wed.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights immediately filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the vote.
Earlier this month, the California Supreme Court heard arguments in the case. The court has 90 days to issue a ruling.
A Field Poll released after the court hearing shows that prospective voters remain deeply divided over the issue of same-sex unions.
Forty-eight percent said they would vote to repeal the proposition. Forty-seven percent would vote to maintain the ban. Five percent are undecided.
When the 3.5 percent margin of error is factored in it is a dead heat.
Why bother to ask people to vote on minority rights *again*? Civil rights should not be voted on. Isn’t there a better way to accomplish the goal of equality in California (and federal) law?
It’s too soon in any case. We have a MASSIVE job of outreach and education to do. No, we shouldn’t have to DO it; these are our “inalienable” rights that are at stake; but unless and until a more liberal US Supreme Court finally rules once and for all that we’re first-class citizens under the Constitution, we have to free the slaves one plantation at a time.
PS – *I* don’t have any more MONEY to GIVE
If handled correctly this could work. Key words there being “handled correctly.”
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I agree with you coxygru, but we may not have a choice. It doesn’t appear that the California Supreme Court will do what is just, and destroy prop8.
It is absolutely bullshit that we must vote for our rights! Nobody else has had too!
This is a hilarious attempt to undo an major civil injustice! All the religious crackpot groups are prolly laughing their indignant little asses off over this one. How about these two “concerned” straight college students start circulating a petition to ban any and all referendums in the charmingly “progressive” state of KKKalifornia. Oh wait, that would mean that the State of kkkalifornication would then have to actually implement a RESPONSIBLE government! An equally laughable concept. LOL!
Will try to sign this week! Thanks.
Where to I sign?
How long will we continue to play their game? Even if we do manage to restore our rights by popular vote in 2010, what is to stop them from mounting yet another campaign and overturning it once again in 2012? This is nothing more than a delaying action in the Halls of Smoke & Mirrors.
Yes, it is too bad that we will probably have to vote to restore our rights (absent a responsible ruling by the California Supreme Court). But this is what we must do. Not to do so is to accept the November referendum. If we are tired of the fight, we need to make the other side also tired. Surely, even the Mormons and the Catholics will get tired of pouring money into a continuous campaign that does nothing except hurt other people.
I’m shocked at the laziness espoused by some of the people in this thread. We need to stop relying on the courts and start winning the battle to change people’s hearts and minds. Isn’t that what we ultimately want?
I do think that this is effort is way too soon, though. And I don’t think that the same groups whose incompetence was responsible for us losing the last initiative are going to be capable of being successful this time around.
I’m signed on to a few emails lists such as Equality CA and No On Prop8 and such, but I haven’t received any emails about this signature drive to put the issue on the ballot again. This is an un-serious effort made by un-serious people, and they’re going to hand us a back-to-back defeat.
I was a young man when state senator Briggs and the Anita Bryant came up with Proposition 6 to ban homosexual teachers from California public schools. At the beginning of this mean spirited, hateful ballot measure, the bigots were way ahead in the polls. The homosexual community, with the leadership of people like Harvey Milk and Morris Kight, is get out into the straight community and start coming out and educating people about gays and lesbians. The measure was defeated, not by denying who we are, but by affirming it to all those who would listen. I will always have the most profound respect for those two men that I had the privilege to know.
This is a good strategy. Our opponents will have to risk their tax status AGAIN to fight us, AND this keeps them occupied and spending money on this issue, when they should be doing what they SAY they are doing, helping the poor, during this economic downturn. If they choose to fight us instead, that shines a big bright light on their lies, weakening them further for the next time.
I have to agree with tiger I dont I have said all along that it is rediculous because it just goes back and forth and while i think that each time we lose a battle it makes us stronger it does get to be pretty disappointing to have rights then they are gone time and time again
When do we get to vote on str8 marriage?
Trace Said: When do we get to vote on str8 marriage?
That, in essence, is what the two college students are trying to accomplish. If religious groups are getting all up in arms about marriage equality, let them keep “marriage” in their institutions and let the government separate itself from the churches (hey, what a concept!) by dealing only in civil unions. This, I believe, mimics how France deals with the issue.
The sad thing about all these propositions is that Californians haven’t learned the harm the have done to themselves by bastardizing their constitution. The reason why most constitutions need 3/4 majority in the legislature and 2/3 in popular vote is to keep them from being hijacked by special interest groups like California has been doing for decades.
A constitution should be an absolute statement of the values of a people to be used as the standard against which all other laws are measured. It should not have the credibility and durability of a Gallup poll.