Heart-breaking news this morning: a terribly close vote has stripped gay couples in California of their right to marry. The geographic balance shows that the inland parts of California voted for the Proposition and the coast and urban areas voted against it.
Yes, it is heart-breaking: it is always hard to be in a tiny minority whose rights and dignity are removed by a majority. It's a brutal rebuke to the state supreme court, and enshrinement in California's constitution that gay couples are now second-class citizens and second class human beings. Massively funded by the Mormon church, a religious majority finally managed to put gay people in the back of the bus in the biggest state of the union. The refusal of Schwarzenegger to really oppose the measure and Obama's luke-warm opposition didn't help. And cruelly, a very hefty black turnout, as feared, was one of the factors that defeated us, according to the exit poll. Today this is one of the solaces to a hard right and a Republican party that sees gay people as the least real of Americans.
But I realize I am not shattered. My own marriage exists and is real without the approval of others. One day soon, it will be accepted by a majority. And this initiative in California can and will be reversed, as California's initiatives are much more fluid than those in other states; and the younger generation is overwhelmingly - 2 to 1 - in our favor. The tide of history is behind us; but we will have to work harder to educate people about our lives and loves and humanity.
It cannot be denied that this feels like a punch in the gut. It is. I'm not going to pretend that the wound isn't deep and personal, like an attack on my own family. It was meant to be. Many Obama supporters voted against our rights, and Obama himself opposes our full civil equality. The religious folk who believe that Jesus stood for the marginalization of minorities, and who believe that my equality somehow threatens their children, will, I pray, see how misguided they have become. And make no mistake: they won this by playing on very deep fears of gay people around kids. They knew the levers to pull.
But some perspective from someone who has fought this fight as long and as personally as anyone in this country. Twenty years ago, equality of gay couples was a mere idea. Forty years ago, it was a pipe-dream.
In the long arc of inclusion, we will miss our goals along the way from time to time. Today, we have full marriage rights in two states, we have many civil marriages in California that will remain in place as examples of who gay people really are, we have civil unions in many more places, and marriage rights in other parts of the world, as beacons to America. And this is a civil rights movement. It goes forward and it is forced back. The battle to end miscegenation took centuries. These are the rhythms of progress. Sometimes losing, and being shown to lose, shifts something in the minds of those watching as a small group is punished for daring to dream of full civil equality. In this battle we have already had far more defeats than victories. But each time, we have come closer to our goal. And in the hearts and minds and souls of so many, we have changed consciousness for ever.
California has full civil equality in law for gay couples. In time, full civil marriage equality - the only real measure of equality - will follow. And it will spread, state by state, more slowly now, and perhaps more organically from legislatures, rather than courts, which would not be the worst idea. And observing this backlash against us will reveal to many the cruelty of allowing majorities to take the rights of tiny minorities away.
If we had won this, this civil rights battle would be all but over. Now, it isn't. So we get back to work, arguing, talking. speaking, debating, writing, blogging, and struggling to change more minds. The hope for equality can never be extinguished, however hard our opponents try. And in the unlikely history of America, there has never been anything false about hope.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Andrew Sullivan on Prop 8
In the midst of gut-wrenching sadness over the further stripping of equal rights from gay Americans, The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan takes the long view. His column is reproduced here in its entirety.
Coates on Prop 8 Black Vote
The Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about the effect of the African-American vote on Prop 8.
"I've always maintained that you don't have to like black people to do the right thing. Same thing here. I'm not very interested in folks's homophobia. I'm interested in why they think they should be in the business of dictating terms of love to two consenting adults."
Prop 8 and the Black Vote
Sebastian does the math, confirming that black voters did indeed cost gays their equality in California. Again, it is beyond sad and ironic that in flocking to the polls to help lift one of their own to heights that were unthinkable just a few years ago, African-Americans have displayed their utter lack of compassion for gays.
One would think that the brutal discrimination that blacks have faced would give them an innate understanding of the fight for equality. Instead, they have turned away from what should be a natural alliance with the gay rights movement, and aligned themselves instead with an opposing group that shares a different side of their identity: the extremely religious.
In less progressive states than California, religious fanatics need no help from blacks to advance their agenda. Anti-gay initiatives racked up a perfect 4-out-of-4 record yesterday. In addition to Prop 8, Arkansans made it illegal for gays to adopt, and both Arizona and Florida also outlawed same-sex marriage. The only anti-marriage initiative requiring more than a simple 50% majority was Florida, which required a 60% "yes" vote. Sadly, it was the only one that reached that threshold, getting 62% — just enough to pass.
So welcome to the dawning of the Obama era, where he claims that we are all equal... except that he parroted the "marriage is only between a man and a woman" line to win. His cowardice in failing to truly support real equality for every American has brought him his success partly on the backs of the sole remaining group for which legal discrimination is the law: gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered Americans.
One would think that the brutal discrimination that blacks have faced would give them an innate understanding of the fight for equality. Instead, they have turned away from what should be a natural alliance with the gay rights movement, and aligned themselves instead with an opposing group that shares a different side of their identity: the extremely religious.
In less progressive states than California, religious fanatics need no help from blacks to advance their agenda. Anti-gay initiatives racked up a perfect 4-out-of-4 record yesterday. In addition to Prop 8, Arkansans made it illegal for gays to adopt, and both Arizona and Florida also outlawed same-sex marriage. The only anti-marriage initiative requiring more than a simple 50% majority was Florida, which required a 60% "yes" vote. Sadly, it was the only one that reached that threshold, getting 62% — just enough to pass.
So welcome to the dawning of the Obama era, where he claims that we are all equal... except that he parroted the "marriage is only between a man and a woman" line to win. His cowardice in failing to truly support real equality for every American has brought him his success partly on the backs of the sole remaining group for which legal discrimination is the law: gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered Americans.
A Bittersweet Irony
Unable to sleep, I finally gave up trying and fired up the computer to find that our worst fears have been realized: With 95% of the vote tallied, it is clear that California Proposition 8 will be approved, stripping us and our loved ones of the right to marry. The unthinkable is happening — a bare 52% majority of our fellow citizens have decided to impose their will on a long-persecuted minority.
The tyranny of the majority is alive and well in America.
The thrill of watching Barack Obama win the presidency was short-lived, as a painful irony became more evident. While much talk centered on whether Obama's skin color would affect the presidential race, it ended up affecting gays and lesbians even more.
Both pre-election polling and exit polls confirm that the huge turnout of African-American voters for Obama put Prop 8 over the top. Exit polls showed Whites and Asians opposing Prop 8 by 53% to 47%, with Latinos almost evenly split. Blacks however, were the only ethnic group supporting Prop 8... by a staggering 70% to 30% margin.
Without the record-breaking black turnout for the first black presidential candidate, the overwhelming and well-documented intolerance of gays by blacks would almost certainly not have enabled Prop 8 to pass.
The biggest irony is that blacks are arguably the most persecuted group in American history. How could they possibly fail to empathize with another oppressed minority? The answer is simple, and clearly seen in another exit poll result: a whopping 84% of voters who regularly attend church voted "yes." This of course includes another historically persecuted minority — Mormons, who spearheaded Prop 8.
Another truly sad irony is the great success of another proposition on the California ballot. Over 63% of voters supported Prop 2, which protects farm animals from unreasonable confinement. That's right — the compassionate voters of California care more about chickens than their fellow human beings. If you were to write this as a screenplay, it would be rejected as too unrealistic. You can't make this stuff up.
So here we are... celebrating the renewed hopes of the country, the ascent of a great and deserving man, and the long, painful journey of African-Americans from slavery to the White House. How tragic that those very people take more direction from their bibles than their humanity.
Our solace today must come from another telling number — both pre-election polling and exit polls confirm that 63% of 18 to 29-year-olds voted NO on Prop 8. The forces of religious intolerance may have won another battle today, but time is on our side.
The tyranny of the majority is alive and well in America.
The thrill of watching Barack Obama win the presidency was short-lived, as a painful irony became more evident. While much talk centered on whether Obama's skin color would affect the presidential race, it ended up affecting gays and lesbians even more.
Both pre-election polling and exit polls confirm that the huge turnout of African-American voters for Obama put Prop 8 over the top. Exit polls showed Whites and Asians opposing Prop 8 by 53% to 47%, with Latinos almost evenly split. Blacks however, were the only ethnic group supporting Prop 8... by a staggering 70% to 30% margin.
Without the record-breaking black turnout for the first black presidential candidate, the overwhelming and well-documented intolerance of gays by blacks would almost certainly not have enabled Prop 8 to pass.
The biggest irony is that blacks are arguably the most persecuted group in American history. How could they possibly fail to empathize with another oppressed minority? The answer is simple, and clearly seen in another exit poll result: a whopping 84% of voters who regularly attend church voted "yes." This of course includes another historically persecuted minority — Mormons, who spearheaded Prop 8.
Another truly sad irony is the great success of another proposition on the California ballot. Over 63% of voters supported Prop 2, which protects farm animals from unreasonable confinement. That's right — the compassionate voters of California care more about chickens than their fellow human beings. If you were to write this as a screenplay, it would be rejected as too unrealistic. You can't make this stuff up.
So here we are... celebrating the renewed hopes of the country, the ascent of a great and deserving man, and the long, painful journey of African-Americans from slavery to the White House. How tragic that those very people take more direction from their bibles than their humanity.
Our solace today must come from another telling number — both pre-election polling and exit polls confirm that 63% of 18 to 29-year-olds voted NO on Prop 8. The forces of religious intolerance may have won another battle today, but time is on our side.
Yes, We're Very Happy That Barack Obama Won...
... but at 12:30 AM Pacific time, with the votes on California Prop 8 only about 60% tallied, and the measure currently passing by about 52% to 48%, I'll wait until I see the final results in the morning before blogging about the election.
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