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Loading ...Corvino: Prop 8 and the rest of us
Last week I participated in a Prop. 8 protest in Los Angeles. It was a peaceful event, on a gorgeous day, and I couldn’t help but be inspired by the large numbers who turned out to stand up for equal rights.
Let’s be honest, though: after a while, listening to speeches gets boring, and marching in the sun is exhausting. I tried to amuse myself by reading the signs, some of which were quite funny. My favorite: “My two lesbian moms can beat up your six wives.”But then the professor in me kicked in, and I wanted to go around and correct the typos. (“There is no J in ‘religious’, dear, and please don’t abuse semi-colons.”)
So I started focusing on the chants. These have not changed much since I began attending rallies in the early 90’s. “What do we want? Equal rights! When do we want ‘em? Right now!”
After two hours of the same, however, I felt the need to mix it up a bit. “What do we want? Bloody Marys! When do we want ‘em? Right now!” (Honestly, I did think that someone should have provided a proper brunch. Hello, we’re GAY.)
Then my single friends got in the act. “What do I want? That hunk over there! When do I want him? 8 tonight!” I asked, “Why 8?” and they explained that a power nap would be necessary after all this marching.
Some of you might think that I shouldn’t joke about a serious civil rights event.
If you are one of those people, have a Bloody Mary and get over yourself.
While doing so, please reflect on the fact that although the Prop. 8 result was a huge disappointment, in the grand scheme of things the situation for gays in California is not that bad.
California gays will go back to having virtually all the statewide legal incidents of marriage via domestic-partnership legislation. That’s not quite as good as marriage, but, as my dad would say, it’s better than a sharp stick in the eye.
Relative to California, “sharp stick in the eye” is the gay-rights norm in most states, metaphorically speaking.
In my home state of Michigan, not only do we lack domestic-partner legislation, our constitution bans it. And our attorney general interprets that ban as prohibiting public employers from offering health-insurance benefits, for example, to same-sex partners.
This past election day, Florida passed a ban similar to Michigan’s, and thus much worse than California’s Prop. 8. Not only did it pass, it passed with a whopping 62% of the vote. With all the fuss over California, you may not have heard about it.
Arizona passed a ban that was limited to marriage, and thus less obnoxious than Florida’s and Michigan’s (and many others). But Arizona’s ban appeared on the ballot only because of a dishonest last-minute parliamentary maneuver—another story you should have heard about, but probably didn’t.
And for the worst bit of gay election-day news, consider Arkansas, which passed a ban on unmarried persons serving as adoptive or foster parents. That ban was specifically targeted to fight “the gay agenda,” but what it means is that thousands of children who could have stable loving homes will instead languish in state care.
Yes, it hurts to have a right taken away, as happened in California. And it’s an egregious injustice to have minority rights taken away by a majority vote—a close one, no less. But there are other bad things happening to gay people elsewhere, and some of them are horrific.
Please remember that are places in the world where people are hanged for consensual gay sex, and where it is dangerous even to speak out in their defense. Please remember that, just a few years ago, consensual gay sex was illegal in over a dozen states here in the U.S.
If it takes California to get people across the nation marching and chanting about civil rights, so be it. It’s an enchanting place in many ways. But please remember that many of us in the “flyover” states would be grateful to have the status that gay Californians now (quite rightly) find insulting.
I ask you to remember these things, not because they excuse the current injustice in California (they don’t) or render its correction unimportant (ditto). Indeed, one can make the case that California progress (or lack thereof) has a profound effect on the rest of the nation.
I ask you to remember them, rather, for two reasons. First, to remind us of how far we’ve come in short time, all across the nation. And second, to stress that the nation is a large one, with a lot happening in between its two coasts. Please remember the rest of us.
John Corvino, Ph.D. (www.johncorvino.com) is an author, speaker, and philosophy professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. His column appears Fridays at 365gay.com. He is currently traveling in London.
From Candace Gingrich:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/candace-gingrich/a-letter-to-my-brother-ne_b_145739.html – A Letter to My Brother Newt Gingrich
Go RadicalRealist! Awesome for dragging out a great Harvey Milk quote and dusting it off. Too many gay men like Corvino have stood on the shoulders of the generations before them. And made a habit of taking what was given to them. Maybe you should write this column and share some relevant history. Corvino should be out of a job after this lame piece of crap…
Amen, Rodney Moore. I bet you appreciate, as a Katrina survivor, what’s most important in life.
In re-reading Corvino’s essay yet again, I see it as not just self-loathing, but loathing of all of us. Ugh.
Corvino, you must be having an off day. I actually liked this essay. I am not sure that I can say that about anything that I’ve seen you post, before. I actually chuckled and your points should be well taken.
P.S. – I’ll take a beer over the Bloody Mary.
Id have to say there wasnt much I liked about this article I agree with a lot of the comment first posted. However I do think that takin a lil time and waitin before we (the gay community) makes another move would be our best bet. I am from CT and so I was lookin for articles on how gay marriage just passed here and how its goin and found one where it said “The Family Institute of Connecticut, a political action group that opposes gay marriage, condemned the high court’s decision as undemocratic. Peter Wolfgang, the group’s executive director, acknowledged banning gay marriage in Connecticut would be difficult but vowed not to give up.”Unlike California, we did not have a remedy,” Wolfgang said. “It must be overturned with patience, determination and fortitude.” maybe we ought to have a lil more patience just for now and save our energy and power for the right time. I can understand how californian gays must feel. I wish more than anything we’d have equal right in this whole country but we dont have that so Im happy for what we do have and continue to fight for equal rights in the whole country
I cant believe what an insult that was to the rest of us Californians, who fought to get what we had which was domestic partnerships but then we were able to marry that was taken away ,and he says be thank full for what we have,which at he moment isn’t much. Just because they don’t fight hard in Michigan doesn’t mean we won’t fight in California. We as Californians wont give up!
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. I think that I’m one of the biggest marriage rights supporters that there is, but you out in California are very self centered. Here is a Clue…. California IS NOT The Center of the Earth. Yes, I don’t like that your marriage rights were taken away from you. Yes, I think that it’s wrong to put Civil Rights issues to a vote. But give the rest of us a break. Ya’ll have far more rights under your Civil Unions law than the rest of us will have for years and maybe decades. How about thinking about others and other states.
I can tell you one thing… This country has been very supportive of your struggles with Prop 8. But make no mistake, those of us that have far fewer rights in the protection of our relationships will grow wearie of those that appear unappreciative of what you do have.
I’ve disagreed in the past with John Corvino’s ‘moral’ teachings and things he has posted advocating accepting moral positions that are not our own. That the moral opinions of others should sway us. That is exactly what has kept us in this 2nd class position and will further erode the bits of rights we already have.
I won’t claim I am insulted by his classifying Californians and our struggle and supposed ‘good’ fortune as beneath his consideration when others don’t have what we do. I will say I am not particularly surprised. He is consistent with bowing to the majority. I am not. We did our part, my husband and I, marrying as soon as we could. We allowed the paper to follow us through the process and spoke on what it meant to us. We made the front page of one paper, putting a face to our family for others to see. We fought fiercely to keep that right on the books. And then we had to face people at work we know voted against us. Yes, other people are in worse situations. But weight this; it is another level of pain to have something and then have it yanked away.
Thank you for belittling our experience. Thank you for making sure that, even on a gay site, we cannot find comfort in our pain. Thank you for showing us that your moral compass points solely negative north and keeping the status quo.
I can’t believe that anyone as ignorant as Mr. Corvino can get tenure.
Constitutional amendments trump statutory law. If Prop 8 is upheld, you can bet that our enemies will use it to overturn the legal standing of domestic partnerships in California, as they used constitutional amendments to do elsewhere.
As for Californians being spoiled a large number of us are refugees from red state hells. I am older than Mr. Corvino and I remember the time when being outed in high school got one committed. I remember being a grad student who had to stay in the closet to avoid getting fucked over by the Provost, Francis Lawrence, who had ruined the careers of gay and lesbian faculty. I had to listen to my advisor’s AIDS jokes at the height of the AIDS crisis.
California may have a reputation for tolerance but California is also home to Dominionist Christianity and my own adopted city of San Diego hosted a meeting of para-military Christo-fascist organization called “Joel’s Army” to oppose Proposition 8. This county is home to Christofascists who write video games to teach their children to murder gay men.
We also have a very large presence of newly active people. San Diego is a Navy town where a text message can organize a gay rights march of more than 10,000 people in a couple of days.
This movement is not about proposition 8 any more than the African American civil rights movement was about public transportation.
We who live on the coasts have donated generously for decades to causes in “flyover country.” We donated to defeat Jesse Helms, we donate to end DADT, and we donate to help cure AIDS.
California has the only city on earth, San Francisco, to declare itself as a safe refuge for gay people. California is also a cultural leader in promoting acceptance of gay people.
Quit being so fucking divisive.
Corvino! This is no time for Humean complacence. Get some fire in your belly and take it with you.
Frank Said: “We who live on the coasts have donated generously for decades to causes in “flyover country.” We donated to defeat Jesse Helms, we donate to end DADT, and we donate to help cure AIDS.
California has the only city on earth, San Francisco, to declare itself as a safe refuge for gay people. California is also a cultural leader in promoting acceptance of gay people.”
Frank, maybe you have not noticed but DADT and HIV/Aids are not simply “flyover” state issues. It’s funny, I see folk from the “Great” state of California in my “Poor Little Red State” every week. Funny how my poor little red state has a city that has one of the largest gay populations in the country.
As far San Francisco, you can keep it. It’s over priced and over pretentious.
Trace: Are you retarded? What makes you think Californians are being self-centered? We’re paving the way for the rest of the ignorant folk like you who have spent so much time taking crumbs from the crappy culture you find yourself in that you are willing to demonize us for having more?! You need to do everyone a favor and step back and realize that your belief that CA is not the center of the universe is in itself based upon frustration at those who are holding you back. Not the ones working so hard to bring us along.
And at the end of the day do you really think if prop 8 would happen anywhere else it would create a world wide movement? Of course not! CA has always been at the forefront of liberal politics and civil rights for gays and lesbians in the US. The fact that it’s such a nice place that other people idealize and want to visit shouldn’t make you so hateful. People in California spend alot of time thinking about stuff the rest of the country can’t even wrap their heads around. And you know what: The rest of the country and oftentimes world, benefits from that. To deny it’s place in shaping cultural thought and values is mind-blowingly dumb to say the least. And if you’re not buying that argument here’s a very real one: The 9th circuit court of appeals is the most cited jurisdiction after the US supreme court. And the most cited state supreme court? Yeah, you guessed it, California’s. So you sound like a retard when you say CA isn’t the center of the universe. In legal thought and cultural liberalism it is. Get over it.
What happens when somebody doesn’t have anything interesting to write about, and is rushed to do it while sipping bloody mary’s? And here is the result, a big load of nothing.
“We’re paving the way for the rest of the ignorant folk like you who have spent so much time taking crumbs from the crappy culture you find yourself in that you are willing to demonize us for having more?!”
Gee??? What makes me think that folk in California are Arrogant and Self Centered? I wonder where I would have gotten that idea?
I’m shocked at the writer of the article and some of these comments. Californians are being criticized for pushing for progress and equality. The rest of us who have less will “grow weary” of those who fight for equality it was said by one person. Wrong target!! Those fighting for equality are on YOUR SIDE, on OUR SIDE! What will happen if Californians do not fight for equality, and stay home and watch TV? Nothing will change. Those in your home states who do not have what California have, still will not have anything. Asking for less, gets you less. Preserving the status quo, preserves the status quo. We all need to be united to force equality through everywhere. A divided community, by faulty reasoning, is exactly what those who hate us and want to discriminate against us, want. It lets them merrily continue on their way doing the same horrible things. But thankfully I see many more people who agree with my thinking, and are saying enough is enough! We won’t be placated by having a drink in a lounge or by getting a new hairstyle.