While the US votes for a new president, the states of California, Arizona and Florida will also vote today on state-constitutional amendments outlawing marriage between gay men and women.
Proposition 8 (CA), Proposition 102 (AZ) and Amendment 2 (FL) are attempts to deny gays and lesbians equal rights by defining marriage as solely the union of “one man and one woman.” If the anti-gay, “pro-family” lobby has its way, many gay families will no longer be recognized as families, and future generations of gay men and women will never have the same rights as heterosexuals to build a marriage and a family.
If you live in any of the affected states, get out and make your vote count, if not for yourself, then for the sake of gay families now and in the future.
We also encourage you to share your thoughts and discuss the issues here on this thread. In particular, keep us updated with the latest news from where you live.
COME TO CANADA!!!!!!!! 🙂
Now Dan, what if all the GLBT Canadians had left before Canada got marriage equality? Everyone has their hour 😉
I hope this is ours!
I hope it is California’s hour aswell.
It wasn’t meant as a serious comment.
A triple slam today would be a near mortal blow to the anti-gay religious right. Be sure to vote — at least on this issue, if nothing else.
I was at a no on 8 rally yesterday in a conservative part of California. Almost everyone agreed to vote no. I convinced two people to vote no(plus there was one person who thought yes was no). We had a crazy church guy who carries a cross come out and start singing. It was a stark contrast, and people came out to watch in droves. Funny thing though–they were laughing at him essentially. He embodied what is wrong about the yes on 8 campaign.
If proposition 8 passes in California, I’ll still be encouraged by one thought:
Ten years ago, it would not have required a desperate effort by the religious right, fueled by millions and millions of dollars, to reinstate legal prohibitions against marriage for gay people.
Today, after throwing everything they have into this fight, the best the forces of intolerance can hope for is to squeak through with a narrow win. And even if they do prevail in this vote, they know the tide of history is running against them.
Many black Americans are speaking today of their utter disbelief that, after so many disappointments and setbacks in their struggle for equal rights, one of their own may become president tomorrow. A victory in California would be a similar moment for gay people–to see our right to live with integrity affirmed not just by the courts, but by the vote of our fellow citizens.
We might not get that moment today. But I think we are all confident it will come.
Looks very much like the anti-marriage equality amendment in Florida will pass.
I voted no.
…and If you want to find out who did or not, go to:
http://www.sfgate.com/webdb/prop8/
I can’t seem to link directly to anything using exgaywatch.com’s link feature. I blame the natural humidity ex-gays give off.
When I started watching the FL results, it was at 63% passing. Now it’s 62%. It needs a minimum of 60% to pass. I still have hope (or possibly naivety).
Looks like the Arizona and Florida props passed. Sigh. They’re still saying that California’s seems too close to call.
Hi there, I am an exgay survivor. I spent three years and thousands of dollars trying to change my orientation because I trusted my religious leaders that change could happen. As a matter of fact I spoke on the phone with his righteousness Stephen Bennett on a couple occasions (trust me, you don’t want to disagree with that guy). It was a long, disillusioning process. Luckily, I came out with my Christian faith in tact, albeit with a very different interpretation of things. I finally feel free and am very angry with the religious right and the fact that they get away with telling people that change is possible for anyone when there’s no evidence of it. There are so many people like me who I’m sure were suckered because we had faith in people who are supposedly Godly. Well, now I see the election results today and it looks like all three states where those in the equal rights movement have supported the side of equal rights are going to see their hopes dashed. I was depressed about this earlier in the night and then livid that people’s hearts and lives get put up for a vote in the first place. However, I think the silver lining is that Obama won the presidency with a very large increase of Democrats in the Senate. It’s very likely that we could get some key judges appointed that would interpret the constitution consistently and maybe these stupid amendments can get overturned in the supreme court. Idk…i’m trying to look at it optimistically. I just want to marry the person I love like anyone else. Does anyone see the possibility of the civil rights bill being extended?
I am frankly shocked by California’s passage of Proposition 8. Not so much by Florida’s, but I am saddened. That is my home state. Several of my relatives, who claim to love me and are usually civil to my wife and trust us with their kids, voted for the amendment anyway. I dreamed of getting married at the Daytona International Speedway one day. I accepted that it would never happen. Now I have to understand that my own blood relatives decided to make damned sure that it could never happen.
I have LGBT friends in Florida who are very upset. I don’t want to come back home for Christmas, as I have for the past four years. I’d rather fly my brother and his wife up here to NYC–they’re the only ones I’d really like to see. I had the State of Florida tattooed over my heart just before I left to live with the woman who would become my wife. I can’t stand to look at it right now. The only consolation for me is that the people who voted for these horrible amendments are as upset about Obama as we are over the amendments.
I’m sure some LGBT people love Arizona and Arkansas, too, even though their home states don’t love them back.
There’s nothing stopping people in these states from marrying in Massachusetts or Connecticut — or, soon, New York State — and then returning home and holding very public religious ceremonies confirming the marriage.
Gay couples and gay-affirming faith traditions allowed hetero-only ads to speak for them in the failed campaign against Prop 8.
Going forward, gay couples and their faith traditions must become much more visible. Real couples’ rights were at stake — not merely the sensibilities of Hollywood heterosexuals.
Mike, I understand your point, but please understand that I’m not feeling all that optimistic about the benefits of “visibility” at the moment. FFS, Concerned Women for America used a perfectly nice picture of two men in tuxedoes feeding each other wedding cake as a “scare” illustration. Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi provided such a lovely and public example. And then there are families like mine. I feel like something else is missing, and I don’t know what.
I think now it is up for the courts and the legislation to decide.
One thing I have been thinking about is that Prop 8 defined WHO can get married but if fails to state the PURPOSE of marriage.
The Roman Catholic Church and the Mormon Church state very clearly that the primary purpose of marriage is for procreative purposes. If that is the case, then the state needs to define it as such. By doing so, two people of the opposite sex must PROVE they are capable of reproduction. They must also PROVE in a certain amount of time that they have fufilled the primary purpose of marriage aka they have procreated by having children.
But they must also prove beyond all doubt that procreation can only be accomplished after a couple of the opposite sexes have entered into a legal binding contract. This, of course, is NOT true because unmarried people can procreate without the need of a legal document aka a marriage licence.
If, however, the judicial system and legislative system see marriage as a contract between two people of either gender entering into a legal agreement for the support of each other, as opposed to solitude, in order to work together to benefit each other, and to do so with legal ramifications, then PROPOSITION 8 will prove to be an amendment that is contrary to the California Constitution.
In other words, the PURPOSE of marriage is now what needs to take center stage, and what is at stake with that is not just the relationships of the LGBT community, but those who are heterosexual and single, single with children, married with no children, barren and sterile people, and the elderly.
Mike– this was my take on it. It will be published in the BAR next week.
Time. Energy. Money.
As a recently married gay man, I contributed a lot of each against Prop. 8. I’m sad that we failed to defeat it. But I’m also very angry– and not just about political campaigns fueled by bigotry, conservative religion, and way too much tax-free money–because I could see it coming like a train wreck.
At the campaign kickoff, I asked Mark Leno personally if they were going to do the liberal-tolerance-equality strategy again, pointing out that it has failed repeatedly. Or, were they going to show actual gay people, actual families, and actual lives. You know: reality. He said that focus groups indicated that everybody-make-nice and civil liberties were the way to go. This would affect the undecided voters who were so crucial. I made the same point to HRC’s Marty Rouse and several campaign people, and got the same response. The approach would be political rather than human, in every sense of both words.
Politics may move undecided voters, but it is only as valuable as the last person they talked to. Human connection moves hearts and minds, even people whose minds are made up. People who know gay people don’t usually vote against them. But it’s easy to vote against someone who is invisible, faceless, a menacing other, instead of friend or family, or even someone you just met on the street. And we were quite invisible. We saw the supportive, loving parents, but no gay daughter, no grandchildren. No on 8 seemed totally uninterested in a speakers’ bureau to reach out to community groups and churches; I gave up asking. They wanted volunteers for phone banking and sign waving in the Castro, not personal contact with real voters. At a training we were told NOT to use words like children, because Pro-8 people had appropriated the issue. We refused to claim it, and thus it was used against us. Likewise, don’t talk about this ancient and deeply rooted anti-gay prejudice, either, because by calling attention to a reality in our lives, we might offend people who call us a threat to family, faith, and country.
This all may make sense to professional political people in their world and culture, but not in mine. It fails as a strategy because it embraces THE CLOSET, which is our real enemy, not the Radical Right. The closet is us, making ourselves invisible and unknown, rather than showing the simple fact and humanity of our lives. It is our consent to the lies, our silence in the face of naked prejudice. It is us not standing up for ourselves, and when we don’t, who else will stand with us? I absolutely praise and thank our leaders for their efforts and sacrifices and dedication. But frankly, if our leaders don’t know this, or if perhaps have their own issues of internalized homophobia, they shouldn’t be our leaders. Because here’s the result: we were barely visible, and more people thought that the standard of living of California chickens was more important than the families of their fellow Americans.
Thirty years ago, I worked against the Briggs Initiative. A much smaller group of people, with far fewer resources, in a far less accepting time, succeeded against great odds. Maybe I’m romanticizing, but I seem to remember it was because all we really had to show were ourselves and our lives. We said NO to the closet.
I know this is far from over. We will be back. However, if the future campaign is going to be focus groups, phone banking, invisibility, and cute but irrelevant ads that look good on political resumes but change nothing– don’t expect one minute of my time, one iota of my energy, or one dime of my money.
I understand your position, Jayelle :-), but people need to see average gay and lesbian couples, and single gay parents with kids, and be told that they’re not only OK, but admirable.
In the short term, showing us as ourselves will lose some battles, but it’s necessary to achieve enduring respect and equality.
I believe that letting the false christians of Focus, Exodus, FRC, and AFA misdefine us — or closeting ourselves for tenuous short-term gains — is a sure road to failure.
Furthermore, we mustn’t for a moment let Obama and his advisers off the hook for essentially betraying us.
Obama said nothing in our favor. Waiting until the last minute and then calling the marriage amendments merely “unnecessary” is a sell-out. He must quickly learn that there is a cost for throwing his supporters’ lives overboard.
Here is what will happen in my house (I live in FL):
Whenever any Catholic (my religion of birth) or Baptist (or other evangelical) group comes to my door trying to sell their religion or soliciting for one of their charities, they will be met with a very loud and verbally violent tirade, with a request that they immediately leave my property. I have no use for any of them and want nothing to do with them. I won’t threaten them, but I will make it clear that I am not welcoming of their overtures. They can kiss my a**.
Same goes for any solicitation in a public place. I don’t care if people think I am crazy. I loathe them and their religion and take offense. Since their god (note small g) hates my guts, I have no alternative but to assume that they hate me too and mean to do harm to me.
The time has passed for trying to build bridges of understanding.
I also urge other GLBT people to boycott FL, AZ, and CA.
I just sent this email to President Obama via his website:
Dear President Obama,
While I am full of excitement that you have won the election for positive change in America, unfortunately I am writing to you now as a Second Class Citizen. The same night you were declared the winner, I, and thousands of Californians like me, were declared “losers,” unwanted, and unequal. And the sad thing is, on the day of the election, I received a phone call from the Yes on 8 campaign with your voice saying “I am opposed to same-sex marriage.” I saw images of your face for the “Yes on 8” campaign. And so far, you have been silent about it.
I am very proud today to be an American where now it can be said that anyone can be anything regardless of race, but I am also ashamed to be an American because now it can be said that only certain people can have rights and priviledges BECAUSE of sexual orientation.
I pray that God, through Our Blessed Virgin Mary the Holy Mother of God, will give all of us who are in the same situation, the strength to carry on. But we will need you to be there for us, otherwise we will continue to be a nation divided, not by race, religion, or political association, but by sexual orientation. And in that separation, it will be the haves versus the have nots, and it will be a separation built on hate.
May God continue to bless you and all your family. And I await to see the day you are sworn into office. It is a great day for America now, and it will be a great day then when we finally have someone in office who is of the people, by the people, and for the people. I only hope you be sure to include ALL the people aka the LGBT community.
– Alan S
I’m gonna send him a video plea.
The irony of it all was that if it was not Barrack Obama, the Proposition 8 would not have gone through because the African-American voters voted by a big majority for it.
Although Barrack Obama is now the president, and this is a great symbol, real change can only come to the Arfican American community when their realised their inherent prejudice and discrimination even though they likewise have suffered the same. They are not free until they fight for the freedom of others instead of being a stumbling block.
Actually gentle lamb, from what I’ve seen if no African-American voted it appears it would have still passed. The Latino vote was sufficient to put it over the top.
Have you seen how ugly a Prop 8 protest got in Palm Springs? A few videos about the event are posted here: https://voiceofrevolution.askdrbrown.org/2008/11/10/altercation-over-prop-8/
One of the protesters angrily shouts “We should fight! We should fight! We should fight!”, as he harasses the elderly woman in the video. A foreshadowing of things to come in the streets of America if homosexual activists don’t get their way? I hope not.
So, Marcus, are you suggesting that the police should use dogs, fire hoses and batons on the protesters like was done in Birmingham?
As for the phrase “We should fight!” I recall a certain 72 year old man from Arizona saying that repeatedly during the last few months on national TV. Never occurred to me that we should be doing anything to silence him, despite the fact that I didn’t support him and didn’t vote for him.
Wow. Words can’t describe how utterly astonished I am that you took what I said in my post, and decided that that is what I was suggesting. Simply remarkable…
I can’t believe that the anti-gays are taking that single clip of gay people getting out of hand and immediately shoving it in the faces of gay people everywhere – who are (rightfully!) angry and fed up with losing rights – and using this as “proof” that we are dangerous and deserve to be cut down.
Meanwhile, a gay guy’s house and home was just torched to the ground after being spray-painted with anti-gay and racial epithets. Um, think that’s enough to make up for it, Marcus?
We are SICK AND TIRED OF BEING MARIGNALISED AND TREATED LIKE SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS WHOSE PRIVATE LOVE LIVES AND COMMITMENT FOR ONE ANOTHER ARE A POX UPON SOCIETY THAT EATS AWAY AT “NORMAL” “G-DLY” HUMANITY.
I don’t think the phrase “we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it” applies more than this time of backlash and oppression.
I think we should also remember that a rubber band is at its most tense and forceful point – right before it’s about to break.
Angry but peaceful protests are taking place all over the country over Proposition 8. One counter protestor gets into an altercation with some protestors, and the religious right is screaming about gays rioting in the streets.
Participants at public protests and political rallies usually have strong feelings, and altercations frequently erupt when supporters of the two opposing views mix. It’s not as if the gay marchers were searching for old women with crosses to attack. The woman came down to their protest to voice her opposition. That’s her right, and I don’t condone what happened, but it’s neither unusual or surprising when some conflict breaks out in these circumstances.
What might have happened to someone who walked into the middle of a Sarah Palin rally carrying a big Obama sign?