The Problems of Prop 8

On the day Americans removed one enormous barrier to equality, we also erected another. And the two might even have been interconnected. It does seem like some rather sick joke that the increased black turn out that resulted from having Obama on the ticket helped to shift enough crucial votes to reverse a California Supreme Court decision to allow gay marriage. (To be clear, 70% of blacks voted Yes on Prop 8 according to exit polls, but it took a lot of people voting to pass this bill).

As we celebrated American progress Tuesday night, a majority in one of our most liberal states were still willing to accept the tenets of "separate, but equal" while denying rights to some citizens that are available to others.

That said, the marketing of No on Prop 8 seemed, at least from Texas, to be far too scared to say what they were really fighting for. From a reader of Andrew Sullivan:

"I worked for both the No on 8 campaign and the Obama campaign this year and cannot tell you how far apart those two were in style and substance. One was top down, the other bottom up. Ironically, it was the presidential campaign that was the grassroots model, not the state-level proposition campaign. As soon as I started working for the No on 8 campaign I was amazed at the level of scripting: "don't say 'civil rights,' don't say 'constitution,' don't say 'gay.'" I couldn't believe it. 

One of the most brilliant things about the Obama campaign was that they didn't expect callers and canvassers to be policy wonks. They just said "tell your story, let people know why you're voting for him. Connect with people." I can't help but feel at this point that if the gloves were taken off we could've helped people get a grip on the real issues at stake here, which I happen to think is a matter of soiling the state constitution. What was even more confounding was the No on 8 campaign's decision to stay away form polling places at churches and schools. First of all, most polling places are at churches and schools, and second, that mentality buys right into the Yes on 8 brainwashing campaign that same sex marriage is going to corrupt our morals and our children. This idiocy was obvious to everyone that I worked with on the campaign. What was going on with the leadership upstairs?!!!"

More from Rachel Maddow:

Unwilling to make the argument with those that disagreed while shying from the moral equivalence of the civil rights movement in the sixties, the group allowed the heavily funded opposition to vilify gay people. Given the past of the Mormon religion, it does seem rather odd that they would provide the main funding for Yes on Prop 8, but I guess irrationality and hypocrisy make for good playmates. (Again, not to trying to indict the entire religion, just those behind the disinformation campaign).

Take a look at one of the many fear-mongering ads implying that gay marriage would be taught in schools. (Is that a class or something? Math, Science, History, Marriage? Ugh...)

What has become clear after the passage of proposition 8 is that the group didn't attempt outreach in churches. They didn't draw the clear comparisons with the historical shamefulness of making any minority group a second class citizenry. It was three years after the civil rights act that whites were even allowed to marry non-whites in Loving vs. Virginia. Just over 40 years ago, largely on the basis of the same religious fundamentalism that denies gays the right to marry today, marriage was also used as a crude tool to divide. And the failure to bring the populace to those conclusions may have doomed the ability to squelch the bill.

On a related note, too many times I've been hit with the "what do you care?" defense, which I would doubt is just a Texas problem. The majority of straight people probably fall into either the indifferent camp or the against it camp, which proves further problematic for the cause of equality. Not sure how to solve that problem, but I would again think that drawing those historical comparisons might flip on a few light bulbs that oppression isn't only a problem for those who are oppressed.

Comments

[mvellandi]

Thanks for raising this subject; I didn't know about the bigger ironic story. It truly was a travesty in my state for this to happen. The Yes camp spun the initiative on its head to confuse voters, and the No camp wanted to be pc.

[Paul McEnany]

Yup, I was stunned that it actually passed. I knew it was close, but I never thought California of all places would be the first to actually strip rights previously given...

[Paul]

Nice post Paul. I was also surprised this passed - having just moved to San Fran. I was driving through the Castro area yesterday with all of the gay flags flying feeling somewhat depressed and saddened that a minority could be so marginalized in this day and age. But beyond that, I agree that this is a constitutional issue. As a straight person I am equally abhorred that someone else's religious convictions are dictating my constitutional rights. Where does that slippery slope lead to?

[Katie Chatfield]

Howdy Paul
On the other side of the world I was watching my friends and peers in the States experience your election. In in amongst the jubilation was this stream of tweets:

Pizza is ordered, and we're ready to start watching our state & local races. I hope I get to stay married. (no on 8!!)
2:55 PM Nov 5th

CNN just called the race for Obama. And I just heard a bunch of cheering and yelling in the streets of SF.
3:00 PM Nov 5th

The happiness I feel/felt over the Obama victory is being seriously tempered by the Prop 8 results.
4:24 PM Nov 5th

And to everyone who voted yes on prop 8... you may take away my rights, but you can't take away the love my wife and I have. Fuck you. 6:03 PM Nov 5th

Too crushed re 8 to be excited about Obama. Obama is the pretty tablecloth, but when you lift it, you see all the rotting food underneath. 2:25 AM Nov 6th

Now that it's apparently okay to write discrimination into our constitution, who's next? 1:47 AM Nov 6th

I believe that Thomas Jefferson said “the best principles of our republic secure to all its citizens a perfect equality of rights." Keep the fire of the O-Generation burning!

[Paul McEnany]

Paul- I agree it's a slippery slope. I don't necessarily expect it to go much further, but I do think it says a lot about us as a nation when we still feel like some people don't get to be considered equal in every way. It's easier for us to demand change in countries that remove rights from women when our hands are totally clean.

Katie- A bunch of states have passed various statutes that define marriage as only between a man and a woman, but this was the first to actually remove rights already granted. As such, it feels as though this might have sparked something that could speed up change faster than if prop 8 was actually killed. I guess we'll have to see. It'll change at some point, the question is just, when?