BREAKING: California Supremes uphold h(8), existing marriages

According to the SF Chronicle, the California Supreme Court ruled 6-1 to uphold Proposition 8, but also decided that the 18000 or so gay marriages performed are valid and will remain so.

This is exactly the slicing and dicing predicted by many commentators. The RWAs can remain happy in their ability to remove fundamental rights from an oppressed minority, the progressives can remain happy that nobody had their marriages annulled. A new constitutional amendment will undoubtedly be on the Cali ballot in 2010 and will remain so until it passes and sticks. Time and demographics are on the side of liberalism in this case.

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No Racism: African Americans Are Not Who Funded And Passed Prop (h)8

(Protest at Mormon Temple, Los Angeles, 6 November 2008; Photo by Meghan Quinn for The Advocate)

No Racism: African Americans Are Not Who Funded And Passed Prop (h)8

In follow-up to the excellent post by Minstrel Boy this week concerning the blow to lesbian/gay rights in California, as well as my addendum and especially all the excellent comments and discussion which ensued, I'm copying in here a letter I just received from Kathryn Kolbert at People For The American Way. She urges all of us to not resort to racism in our efforts to understand this defeat and strategize about what to do next.

Let me be clear: Lesbian and gay people in this country are not any whiter than the general population. African Americans who are not gay are no more likely to vote against lesbian/gay rights than white non-gays. Yes, it was definitely people who voted for Obama who also voted against lesbian/gay rights in California, in Florida, and elsewhere -- but to assume those voters were primarily African American is racist, folks. And, it is falling prey to the deeply pathological lie that we are somehow not all in this together, that we must fight over who gets a piece of the pie.

To my lesbian and gay comadres, I'll say again what I've been saying for decades -- racism is as much our issue as marriage rights. If you don't have a multi-issue approach toward liberation, you are in trouble from the outset and you will not have my support for your endeavors.

The reality is that our human rights have been the flashpoint, the money-maker, the grease on the wheels for the Religious Right for decades now. The Advocate states "the Mormon Church raised, depending on estimates, anywhere from 48% to 73% of the money behind the effort to pass" Proposition (h)8. So, if you want to take an effective stand, get on board the effort to have tax-exempt status stripped from the Church of Latter Day States. One website explaining this option, to stop taxpayer subsidies of intolerance, also has a petition you can sign. The United Kingdom has taken preliminary steps to strip the church of its tax-exempt status. You can support the courageous stance of Mormons For Marriage, who are publicly opposing their church's oppressive behavior. You can join those who are organizing protests outside Mormon temples, as reported in this Advocate article.

And, as Minstrel Boy told us, by clicking the links below you can donate to
Lambda Legal Services
or
ACLU
or
National Center for Lesbian Rights.

To this list, I'm now adding:

The National Black Justice Coalition, a civil rights organization dedicated to empowering Black same-gender-loving, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. The Coalition works with our communities and our allies for social justice, equality, and an end to racism and homophobia.
and
The Audre Lorde Project, a lesbian, gay, bisexual, two spirit and transgender people of color center for community organizing, focusing on the New York City area. Through mobilization, education and capacity-building, ALP works for community wellness and progressive social and economic justice. Committed to struggling across differences, ALP seeks to responsibly reflect, represent and serve our various communities.

The letter from Kathryn Kolbert:

"Yesterday, I sent an important edit memo to our partners and members of the media. Similar to the finger-pointing and back-biting going on in some Republican circles over their electoral defeats earlier this week, our side has been engaging in a bit of the "blame game" over the painful defeat of marriage equality in California. With passions inflamed and many people feeling understandable frustration, we must be careful to take stock of strategic missteps and areas where we need to improve the equality movement in a constructive manner, and not engage in destructive scapegoating.

"Here's an excerpt:

"The past 72 hours have brought an extraordinary range of emotions -- great joy at the election of Barack Obama and defeat of John McCain, and sadness and anger at the passage of anti-gay initiatives in Florida , Arizona , Arkansas and California . That sadness has turned to outrage at the speed with which some white gay activists began blaming African Americans -- sometimes in appallingly racist ways -- for the defeat of Proposition 8. This is inexcusable.

"As a mother who has raised two children in a 30-year relationship with another woman, I fully understand the depth of hurt and anger at voters' rejection of our families' equality. But responding to that hurt by lashing out at African Americans is deeply wrong and offensive -- not to mention destructive to the goal of advancing equality.

"Before we give Religious Right leaders more reasons to rejoice by deepening the divisions they have worked so hard to create between African Americans and the broader progressive community, let's be clear about who is responsible for gay couples in California losing the right to get married, and let's think strategically about a way forward that broadens and strengthens support for equality.

"Others have taken on the challenge of looking at the basic numbers and concluded that it is simply false to suggest that Prop 8 would have been defeated if African Americans had been more supportive. The amendment seems to have passed by more than half a million votes, and the number of black voters, even with turnout boosted by the presidential race, couldn't have made up that difference. That's an important fact, but when African American supporters of equality are being called racist epithets at protests about Prop 8, the numbers almost seem beside the point.

"Republicans and white churchgoers, among many other groups, voted for Prop. 8 at higher rates than African Americans. There are few African Americans in the inland counties that all voted overwhelmingly to strip marriage equality out of the California constitution. So why single out African Americans? Who's really to blame? The Religious Right.

"Please take a moment to read the whole edit memo here.

"I won't give up on equality and I know you won't either. People For the American Way and People For the American Way Foundation are already developing the strategies that will make our movement stronger. And we'll need your help. There will be several opportunities in the coming months and years for historic gains in LGBT equality and I know I can count on your support in the fights to come.
-- Kathryn Kolbert, President"


(Video from protest at Mormon Temple in Los Angeles, 6 November 2008)

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Proposition (h)8: A Photo Essay

(Robin Tyler and Diane Olson are married at the Beverly Hills Courthouse, Monday, June 16, 2008, in Beverly Hills, Calif. AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

Bravo to Minstrel Boy for the post right before this one, outlining Gloria Allred's excellent legal challenge to California's passage of Proposition 8. Her clients in this case, Robin Tyler and Diane Olson, were among the first lesbian couples married in Los Angeles on June 16, 2008. Robin Tyler has been an on-the-front-lines activist and comedian for lesbians for decades now, and I'm not surprised she's leading this fight as well. One of our generations' heras.

On June 17, at my blog I published a post Old Dykes Getting Married which included a series of AP photos from Robin and Diane's wedding. I'm copying them in here to share with you images which made me cry, and which take this battle from the abstract to the very, very personal. Bravo, Robin and Diane. And bravo to allies like Minstrel Boy, all of those at Group News Blog, and all the folks across the country who Get It. We are indeed your kin.













(All photos from AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

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Gloria Allred Files Against Proposition (h)8

Photo from CBS "The Early Show"

From Gloria Allred:

On May 15, 2008, after we waged a four year long legal battle we finally won a landmark victory in the California Supreme Court for same gender couples who wished to marry in California.

Last night, opponents sought to reverse that decision with Proposition 8 in which they once again sought to restrict legal marriage to a man and a woman. That Proposition appears to have passed by a narrow margin.

As a result, today we will file a writ with the California Supreme Court on behalf of Robin Tyler and her spouse, Diane Olson, challenging its constitutionality on several grounds. In our case in May, the California Supreme Court ruled that the Equal protection clause in our California Constitution protects the rights of lesbians and gays to marry the person of their choice and the court, for the first time, recognized homosexuality as a "suspect classification" under the equal protection clause of our state constitution, thereby requiring a strict scrutiny test which test was not and cannot be met (the court so held) in marriages limited to a man and a woman. Prop 8, if it passes, conflicts with the equal protection clause. If marriage is now limited to straight couples and excludes gay couples then it is inconsistent and in conflict with the equal protection clause. We will argue to the court that Prop 8 is a disguised revision to the constitution which cannot be imposed by the ordinary amendment process, which only requires a simple majority. We believe that then the court must hold that California may not issue marriage licenses to non-gay couples because if it does it would be violating the equal protection clause as straight couples would have more rights by being allowed to marry than gay couples.

If Prop 8 had said that the California constitution was amended to limit marriage to people of the same race only, would that be constitutional under our state constitution? Of course not as it would violate the equal protection clause and the seminal case of Perez v. Sharp which the Supreme court decided sixty years ago.

We will also argue that Prop 8 improperly revises the Supreme Court’s recent opinion defining the constitutional fundamental right of marriage The state constitution provides that revisions to the constitution requires a 2/3 vote of the legislature or the convening of a state constitutional convention, and a proposition requiring only 50% is not available to the electorate to accomplish the revision to our equal protection clause.

Lastly, the constitutional requirement of separation of powers, we will argue, does not permit the use of the Proposition format to remove and /or circumvent the judiciary in determining the interpretation of what is or is not a fundamental liberty right and who is and who is not protected by the equal protection clause.

The apparent passage of Prop 8 in California has been a heartbreaking experience for our clients, Robin Tyler and Diane Olson, and millions of other same gender couples who have married or wish to marry in California and throughout the nation. All they have asked for is equal rights under the law and equal respect and dignity for their families and their committed relationships.

Our law firm is honored to continue this great civil rights battle for them. We will never give in and we will never give up. We will continue to be the change we wish to see in the world and we will never have another season of silence until same gender couples enjoy the same rights as non-gay couples on this green earth.

This, we are promised, is only the start. The ACLU is also filing, as is Lambda Legal Services and many others.

Glenn Greenwald also suggests that the Democrats in Congress make the field more level by repealing the odious DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) at the federal level.

Far from over, indeed.


Nanadaag onlka'ad

(we fight on, in Western Apache)

UPDATE:

By clicking the links below you can donate to

Lambda Legal Services

or

ACLU

or

National Center for Lesbian Rights


These are all worthy. They can all use our help all the time.

I tell folks when they passed this piece of shit amendment of hate and discrimination, they fucked with my cousin. You do stupid shit like that, you are fucking with me.

Always a Bad. Idea.

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Proposition (h)8 Passes

By Lisa Leff, Associated Press / November 5, 2008

Religious Bigots Think That They've Won

It passed, but this is only the first step. It appears that in their haste to draft something that they felt would be bulletproof, i.e. a constitutional amendment, the Christiopaths, as they are wont to do, operated under a belief that the law was what they wanted to it to be, and not exactly what it was.

The first challenges will come from the more than 18,000 couples (my cousin, the brilliant attorney and his beautiful husband among them) who were married in that brief, shining moment of sensible equality that existed from May to the present time.

Part of their challenge to keep their marriages legal will involve exposing the way that the drafters of Prop 8 disregarded California law in their rush to deny equal rights to our fellow citizens.

To be amended the California Constitution says that a draft of the amendments must pass the State Assembly and the State Senate by a 2/3rds majority, then be ratified by the people in a general election.

Since they had failed twice to get their odious dream through the state legislature, they decided that they would jump the process and take it straight to the people, winning there, only by a very small margin.

This ain't over folks. Not by a long shot.

Breathe. Rest. Fight the fuck on.

Nanadaag onlka'ad

(we fight on, in Western Apache)

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Proposition 8 Remains Undecided

Photo Downloaded from New York Times Front Fucking Page

With Three Million Absentee and Provisional Ballots Left To Count

Proposition 8 in California which will amend the State Constitution to deny the rights of gay citizens to marry, transfer property without taxation, inherit, and even visit in the hospital is close. Too close to call. When I crashed last night the count was narrowing from 54% yes to 46% no. All through the night the gap has been narrowing. Slowly, and steadily.

There's still hope.
There's still hope.

I wrote to my cousin, the brilliant attorney and his husband (they were married here in June) that even with a defeat, a close defeat like this shows that we have come a long way in a short time. The measure that was overturned by the State Supreme Court in May passed by a whopping 23%. Today, it's too close to call. My cousin's marriage is real. His partner, husband, lover, best friend, and he have been together since college. His husband left offers from "white shoe" law firms to move to the rez with my cousin. They are good people. They, with their long term, committed, faithful, loving relationship are much less a threat to the institution of marriage than I have been with my four shabby divorces and history of drunken, stoned infidelities.

We will win this fight. If it is a longer fight, that's OK. I was bred to the fight like a bird dog. We will win. We will win because we are in the right.

Take a moment, if you will, and check out my buddy jurassic pork's pean to President Barack Obama (I don't think I'll ever get tired of saying and typing that).

Don't worry cousin. WE. FIGHT. On.

Sara chimes in with an update at 12:15:

The Washington Blade just reported that the fat lady ain't yet sung:

Officials from the "No on 8" campaign told reporters Wednesday that they are not willing to throw in the towel in the fight against California's gay marriage ban. They said 3 million absentee and provisional ballots have yet to be counted in California.

As of Wednesday morning with nearly all precincts reporting, Proposition 8 was headed toward passage with a lead of about 400,000 votes.

The California Secretary of State's office is expected to have a final tally of all votes later today or Thursday.

This could still happen.

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The Way Things Shape Up

"Yes on 8" Rally Provokes Spontaneous Counter Demonstration

In our little desert town, we still manage to keep a strong frontier ethic of "your business stops at my fence." We have that whole live and let live thing going on.

Last night a demonstration in support of amending the California Constitution to specifically deny rights to a whole segmet of our population was organized and put on by the self named "Coalition for Christ." This is a loose association between the Assembly of God (John Ashcroft and Sarah Palin's church) and the local LDS ward. Usually those folks are pretty much on opposite sides of town and most other issues.

The faithful had their pre-printed signs, they had their talking points ready rehearsed in order to spit out on cue. There were nearly 200 of them.

Two of my sisters, with their children (except for Dani who was with me, making pies) grabbed some cardboard, a couple of cans of spray paint, and went down to where the demonstration was happening. To make their voices heard.

My sister, Dani's mom, who is a nurse in the prison system here and my baby sister, who is a high school drama teacher said that the counter demonstration was mostly spontaneous, mostly unorganized, but by the end of the whole thing they outnumbered the supporters nearly 2 to 1.

Noting the organization and regimentation of the supporters, and the spontaneous, homemade nature of the opposition I said "Wow. That's really cool. They were the redcoats, and ya'll were the minutemen."

I asked about the singing. Gatherings like that always have singing. She said the "Yes on 8" crowd was singing "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

I asked "What did ya'll sing?"

She said "We Shall Overcome, of course."

Hoookah Hey!

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No on Prop. 8

Mormon Church Funds Prop. 8

The fight FOR Prop. 8 is being funded by the Mormon Church (disclosure: I was raised Mormon; I resigned once I became an adult.) Without the Mormon's having put over $20 million dollars in to California to stamp out Gay Marriage, Prop. 8 wouldn't be even close to passing. Candlelight vigils are being held in Salt Lake City by Mormons against their own church's bigotry.

I'm pretty sure we will win against homophobia, bigotry, and religious intolerance of differing marriage practices -- all of which the Mormon's should remember from their own history -- however it has not been an easy fight. Other than Darcy Burner, this is the other campaign to which I have been contributing.

The below ad is going up right now and will run through tomorrow afternoon/evening. It is WONDERFUL. Feel free to give some donations for the final drive...


Home Invasion

[ Find Your Polling Place | Voting Info For Your State | Know Your Voting Rights | Report Voting Problems ]

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California: No on 8

Miscegenation laws were declared unconstitutional in California by the State Supreme Court in 1948. Let's not waste our time passing a new one. No on 8!

[ Find Your Polling Place | Voting Info For Your State | Know Your Voting Rights | Report Voting Problems ]

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