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Loading ...Protests mark gay marriage rollback
11.06.2008 9:27am EST
(Los Angeles, California) Actor George Takei and longtime partner Brad Altman were the first to receive a marriage license in West Hollywood when a court cleared the way for gay marriage earlier this year.
Best known for his role as Mr. Sulu on “Star Trek,” Takei on Wednesday was disappointed but philosophical about California voters’ decision to yank that right by passing a constitutional amendment restricting marriage to heterosexual couples.“There are going to be heartbreaks, setbacks and sacrifices to be made,” he said, “but we will soldier on.”
The passage of Proposition 8 stirred anger, protests, lawsuits and a deep sense of loss among gays in California. At least three legal challenges were filed by Wednesday night and others were being prepared, ban opponents said.
More than 1,000 people took to the streets against the ban in Los Angeles and West Hollywood, blocking traffic. Police said at least four people were detained.
Hundreds also gathered on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall. Some held candles and carried signs that read, “We all deserve the freedom to marry.”
It was unclear what would happen to the estimated 18,000 gay and lesbian couples, many from other states, who married after same-sex marriage was legalized in California in June.
On the other side of the issue, supporters of the ban hailed the outcome of the vote.
“Government did not create marriage, and neither politicians nor legislators have the right to redefine its basic meaning,” said Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage California.
“Common sense, and concern for the common good, trumped ideology, bigotry and power politics here in California,” he said in a statement.
Andrew Pugno, attorney for the coalition of religious and social conservative groups that sponsored the proposition, said they planned to defend the measure, saying the legal action is “an insult to California voters and an attack on the initiative process itself.”
Among those voting for the ban was Denise Fernandez, 57, of Sacramento. “I believe a Christian is held accountable, and we have to make a difference.”
Many gay marriage supporters had hoped that a strong Democratic turnout for presidential winner Barack Obama would cement the right to marry extended by the state Supreme Court in May.
But the success of Obama, who does not support same-sex marriage but had opposed the gay marriage ban, did not translate into a win for gay marriage. Amendments to ban gay marriage also were approved in Arizona and Florida.
With 99 percent of precincts reporting Wednesday night, 52 percent of those voting in California favored the ban versus 48 percent against.
In the Castro, San Francisco’s gay neighborhood, the marriage ban’s success squelched what had been a boisterous celebration Tuesday night.
A crowd swarmed from the neighborhood’s many bars into the streets immediately after Obama was declared the presidential winner. Police cordoned off a block in the heart of the district as disco music coursed through giant speakers.
But the party was over a few hours later.
“It’s very disappointing,” Michael Walker said outside the Moby Dick bar, resigned that the measure was going to win. “It’s discrimination.”
In downtown San Francisco, a city where a majority of residents voted against the ban, residents were disappointed by its success.
“I feel sad,” said Venkaf Mannava, 30, a computer programmer who is married with three children. “It’s a personal decision and we should not say how other people should live their lives. They should be free to love and marry who they want.”
Despite intense disappointment, some newlyweds took comfort in the fact that millions of Californians had voted to validate their relationships.
“I’m really OK,” said Diana Correia, of Berkeley, who married her partner of 18 years, Cynthia Correia, on Sunday in front of the couple’s two children and 80 relatives and friends. “I hope the marriage holds, but we are already married in our hearts, so nobody can take that away.”
In Los Angeles, Altman said having the state recognize his marriage to Takei was “extremely meaningful to me, but our relationship will continue and we will live long and prosper no matter what happens on the legal front.”
I think that we are fighting in the wrong field. We are using the courts and legislature like the women and racial minorities used, but our opponents aren’t fighting there. They are fighting at the constitutional level. If they make a constitutional amendment to ban our marriages, we should introduce an ammendment to repeal that ban. This would show them that we can undo their victories and that no state is safe from losing its ban on our marriages.
In order to change things, we need political clout. We need to organize in a way that all of them, Democrat and Republican, need to stand up and pay attention.
I have been talking to some friends, and it seems that we allow ourselves to be marginalized. If you look at the swing states in the Presidential election, many of them had a sizable Black community which voted en banc with Obama. In states where there was a very small Black community, such as WY or ID or AK, Obama did not win. Same applies for Latinos. And the youth movement.
I KNOW THE FOLLOWING IS A FANTASY. We need a state where we are the sizable group. CA and NY are just to big for us to make a bigger dent than the normal proportion. If we began a migration of a huge number of us, we could take over a state or a large percentage of it.
These states have are the easiest to pick off:
State Pop.
Montana 957,861
Delaware 864,764
South Dakota 796,214
Alaska 683,478
North Dakota 639,715
Vermont 621,254
Wash. DC 588,292
Wyoming 522,830
Guam 173,456
US Virgin Islands108,448
Northern Mariana Islands 84,546
American Samoa 57,291
For example, pick Delaware. Beaches. Near big cities of DC, NY, Baltimore, Phillie. And if 100,000 moved to DE, we would make up more than 10 percent of the population. Not much different. But if 200,000 move to DE. We make up 18%. If 300,000 move there, we would be 25%. And if the biggest miracle happened, and 700,000 moved there, then we would be 44% of the state.
We could elect our own Governor. We could elect our own congressperson and Senator. We could have our own judges. We could vote for marriage equality and who would stop us.
We would have autonomy. And the Democrats would have to deal with us in a more deliberate and effective way.
One can dream.
AJC, is has ever been thus.
WE as a people must do everything we can to fight the MORMON PLAGUE.
http://www.mormonsstoleourrights.com/
Please research Mormons and find for yourself how truly evil they are,and let us band together to stop them. I think we need to educate our families, friends, and neighbors to the true evil that lurks for our country.
http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon362.htm
http://mormontruth.blogspot.com/2005/09/mormon-temple-changes-and-how-evil-and.html
http://www.mmoutreach.org/mormon/articles/facts_mormon_wont_tell.htm
I agree with much of what has already been said here. However, I think we should be realistic in our view of this outcome and Obama’s influence upon it. In this case, I believe we lost the battle (prop 8, etc.) in order to win the war (fundamental political change).
Moreoever, while I agree that the relative lack of support we receive from racial minorities is a huge concern, we should take care in how we approach the issue. Obama could help us to reverse their opposition to our equiality but it is not going to be a short term fix. And, as we all know, the minority opposition is really based largely in their religious traditions (particularly evangelicals and roman catholics).
I firmly believe that we need to reframe this entire issue in to one about church and state as opposed to equality for our community. These issues are, of course, one and the same, but it will be far more palatable to the electorate if they are presented differently. And be reframing the issue we can divorce, forgive the pun, the word marriage from the debate.
So, in my view, we should take affirmative steps across the states to amend constitutions. Those amendements could simply say that marriages are peformed by religious institutions and not the government and that government will provide civil unions to any two consenting adults. It would also be vital to avoid threatening those marriages already recognized by the states. This would put us on the offensive and we would have support from those who advocate for church-state separation.
Finally, I fully support the earlier comment about challenging the tax exempt status of these religious institutions. These christian extremists have, indeed, used our tax dollars to fight against the rights of a minority. This is a perversion of the purpose of their tax exempt status and by fighting it we can open two fronts on their bigotry.
Proposition 4, which would have required doctors to inform the parents of a minor before performing an abortion and mandated a 48-hour waiting period before the procedure, was rejected by California voters by a vote of 52% to 48%.
So it looks like some of the same people who voted *against* equal marriage voted *for* abortion. It seems as if the morals of some conservatives are every bit as “relativist” and selective as those of liberals. Since cultural conservatives generally believe that abortion is murder, what this means is that, for many cultural conservatives, murder of the unborn is acceptable, but equal marriage for gays and lesbians is not.
In other words, it’s about power, not principle; and it’s about fear rather than the “evangelical virtue” of charity. People need to be called on their blatant hypocrisy, especially when they insist on flaunting at the ballot box.
John L, we will happily welcome you to the land of the equal and free.
I’m just so tired… Tired of the hatred. Tired of my lack of rights. Tired of oppression in the guise of religion. Tired of financing my own discrimination.
I have no idea what to do about though. Nothing seems to work.
If the GLBT community could just come together and stop funding our own discrimination, perhaps that would help. Perhaps people would realize that we’re a valid and vital part of this country.
(sigh) but I am tired….and Canada is so close by.
Am I delusional? I thought that there were thousands of absentee ballot that needed to be counted.. what happened to them??
I cannot believe for one second that this is the end of it. You cannot keep pushing people into the ground without them fighting back and saying enough is enough. Expect more lawsuits, expect more protests, expect that this is only the very beginning of the battle never seen for human rights and equal rights for all. If the African American community can work towards and achieve equality, so will the Gay Community.
How can blacks be so anti-gay? That is so ironic and hypocritical. I guess they feel they are the only ones worthy of civil rights. They have their civil rights now and an African-American president (whom I also voted for) so they’ll just throw the gays to the wolves. Black men especially seem to have issues with homosexual men. Why are blacks so much more homophobic/heterosexist than whites? I hope the black people will not give Barack Obama an ultimatum to choose between his color or the gays.
OK folks. Let’s get organized. Prop 8 was awful. The Florida amendment that passed with 60+ % is awful. It blocks every alternate path and denies helathcare. I say it is time to resurrect the boycott. Remeber Anita Bryant and the Florida OJ episode? We and our supporters should boycott Florida at least (no vacations there, no Florida oranges or OJ) At this point, we have to hit where it hurts! We could also expand it to Calif if the supoprt is there for it.
I have to Agree with whatJrjrSaid.
His Soultion seems to be Something that the GLBT community should look at; and to, as a Viable end Run arround this Prpo Hate issue in Cal. If the word “MARRIAGE” is Truely the Sticking Point in all of this and what has all the Religious Zealots” all up in arms , and it does except for progressive Methodists and Epescopalians and some Lutherans and oh yes the UU Church, love those people; then PUT HIS IDEAS TO THE ZEALOTS. Change the WORDS. Drop the WORD MARRIAGE and use Civil Unions but Include ” shall endure all THE rights and PRIVELAGES of a married Couple” in the Framework. As far as all of the racist/HATE remarks I have seen , come on guys and girls AREN’T WE BETTER THAN THAT?”
my parents were some of those who are happy the law passed and i was sitting in the car with them when they heard the news. they jumped for joy and laughed while i silently cried in the backseat. you see my mom is the only one who knows i am bisexual. im too scared to tell my dad. he is extremely homophobic and for that reason im scared he wouldnt love me anymore if he found out i wasnt all he ever dreamed i’d be. but im tired of living a straight life and not being able to be myself around my dad. my ex grilfriend wanted me to come out so bad so that we could be together n public. but this news about the ban on gay marraige made me sick to my stomach. the constitution clearly states that we are supposed to keep church and law sepereate. does it really look like were beaing very constitutional? when they ban us from marraige all they are doing is showing the rest of the world that they are scared. they are just scared of change. and we shouldnt get mad and fight them. we should pity them and try to help them understend us and our point of veiw. we should let them know that we are not monsters but were real people just like them. we get hurt just like them. we cry just like them. and we LOVE just like them. they just need to understand that marraige isnt man plus woman. marraige is love plus love. it shouldnt even be considered a prvilage that can be taken away just like that. it is a right. a right the constitution gave us years ago. what ever happened to “all men are created equal?” we really need a glbt friendly president. lets help them to understand us and stop fighting an unwinnable war. were not winning by all of these protests. sure our voices are finally beings heard but its in a negative way. lets try and do this the hard way and the right way.
Let me begin by first introducing myself to you a bit. I have always identified myself as one of the hated evangelical christians. Over the last 18 months or so I have come to have a change of heart about many Gay issues. I truly wanted to see Prop 8 defeated and become very angry at the hate I hear coming from many so called christians. My God commands me to love all my fellow man and what I hear goes against Jesus fundamental teaching. Having said that Truthsayer you are equally wrong in what you say. I understand you are hurt and angry, but more hate is not going to help this cause. Education is what is needed. Predjudice comes from ignorance. Many people voted for Prop 8 not seeing they were denying your rights but simply not understanding why it was important. I had a conversation with my 68 year old mother before the election talking about this issue. To her it was all about saying you were married, why change things for that, I tried to explain all the legal ramifications of Gays being recognized in a legal marriage. She had never heard of that and said she would have to research that information. I know my mom if she saw the importance of the issue she would vote different. Here in Texas it didn’t make a major difference to us this time, but educating the straight population of why it is important will give so much more support than blaming us heteros or the blacks. Provide good role models like Matt Mitcham, George Takai, and Brad Altman and teach why this is an action that needs to be taken and we will win this issue next time it comes up and it will. Just look at the women’s rights and black rights campaigns of the past. It was a slim margin that this was lost by so much better than past elections. I see that with education this could be won the next time it comes around.