Prop 8 and Gay Rights: Finding a Path Foward
TNG reader John, who is slowly working on getting a Ph.D. in political science at the University of Maryland, submitted this post following the passage of Proposition 8 in California. He lives with his dog, who is also his research assistant.
As I write this, still delirious with the joy of Obama’s victory (and a lack of sleep), and still very much overwhelmed by the outpouring of emotion that I witnessed on the streets of Washington, DC last night, I am also trying to come to grips with what appears to be a devastating result regarding Proposition 8 in California. Though the result is not yet official, with 95% of precincts reporting, it appears very likely that Prop 8 will pass. [Ed. note: the LA Times is calling it as having passed, as of early this afternoon.] As I try to reassure myself that all is not lost, that we will live to fight another fight, I take comfort knowing that Obama’s rise to the presidency was truly improbable – that our country can change, can do the right thing, though it may fuck up a bunch of times before finally getting it right. This is what I saw on the streets of DC last night that gives me hope.
Shortly before 10 PM, a few of my closest friends and I departed their apartment on 13th and Massachusetts in search of a celebration. We knew we wanted to go to U St. and see if anything interesting was happening. We had all done some door-to-door canvassing in Virginia and Pennsylvania at various times during the campaign, and there were rumors that other Obama volunteers would be gathering there to celebrate. We wanted to pass by the corner of 14th and U, where the riots that destroyed much of the city following the assassination of Dr. King forty years ago all began. What a perfect way to commemorate the historic significance of Obama’s election, we thought. Apparently, many of you and our fellow DC neighbors agreed.
Once we got to 14th and U, the enormity of the event began to sink in. People of most all walks of life gathered to cheer, hug, scream, shout, laugh, smile, dance, and, for me anyway, give out more high fives than they ever thought possible. Seriously, I must have high-fived about a thousand people last night. I saw tears in the eyes of black faces and white faces. I hugged strangers. Hugged. I’m from Jersey – we don’t hug strangers; we flip them off. And it may seem at first glance that I did all of this in celebration of the results of a presidential election. But this was so much bigger than that, so much more important than a mere election. This was the culmination of years and years and years of struggling for the kind of social change that produces an America in which a black man was just elected president in a landslide. A black man just won Virginia, former home to the capital of the confederacy. A black man just won Indiana, former home to the national headquarters of the KKK. And the fact that this celebration of what we as a country can accomplish when enough of us struggle together for progress all took place at the corner of 14th and U, where such an ugly episode in the troubled history of race relations in this country took place just forty years ago… Well, I remain overwhelmed.
I am overwhelmed when I think about listening to Obama’s victory speech blaring from the car radio of a young black man who just happened to be filling up his tank at the Sunoco station on 15th and U when the rain started pouring down harder and harder. A crowd filled the space under the awning of the gas station as we listened to our new president summarize what we had all accomplished in this extraordinary campaign. We cheered, hugged, high-fived, and grinned ear to ear with each other – complete strangers united by our desire to move forward together.
I am overwhelmed when I think about the cars honking their horns and pedestrians cheering right back at them from the sidewalk as I made my way through 18th St. in Adams Morgan. I think about going to Chief Ike’s for a celebratory shot and beer and hearing the lead singer of the reggae band on stage doing her best to ad lib Obama-inspired lyrics to celebrate the moment. More dancing. More joy. We did it. We really did it. The numbers scrolling on the bottom of the screen of the TV above the bar – Could he win Montana?!?!… Dole got her ass kicked! The TV shows a live shot of a crowd gathered at Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, DC. Of course, we had to go.
The walk back downtown, all the way to White House, the people’s house, our house. A sign hangs on the fence in front of the White House: “Welcome Home Malia & Sasha”. Chanting. Singing. Banging on the drums. Hitting pots and pans. Elation.
And now, the cold reality that slightly more than half of California’s voters are either too bigoted or so woefully misguided that that they think it necessary to amend their constitution in order to demonize my love. It really stings. It’s really tough to reconcile the highs of last night’s celebration with the lows of this morning’s crushing disappointment. It would be easy to question whether we really had a place in last night’s celebration. How is it possible that we both live in a world in which Barack Obama can be elected president and one of our most progressive states can pass such a cruel measure?
But the lesson of this election is not that we have lost our fight for equality. Far from it, actually. The lesson of this election is that the unimaginable sometimes becomes reality. I am 27 years old, and in my lifetime, the idea that we could have a black president was viewed as preposterous. Twenty years ago, Jesse Jackson was pigeonholed and effectively diminished as “the black candidate,” yet now we have a black president-elect. Forty years ago, on the corner of 14th and U, our city started burning in the flames of racial animus, yet last night, on the very same street corner, I, this gay white guy from a working class Catholic family, was high-fiving a 40-something year old black woman with tears of joy running down her face because we had just accomplished something special together.
And ten years from now… twenty years from now… forty years from now… we may be dancing in the streets with people of all walks of life to celebrate a triumph of unity and progress for gay rights. But we have to keep fighting for it. I personally have to do more. Maybe you do, too. This is the civil rights issue of our time, of our generation. I have not seen the exit polls from California, but I would pretty confidently wager that religious and generational cleavages were the two biggest predictors of the vote on Prop 8. The good news is that, in the long run, we are likely to win this fight because our generation is far less willing to demonize our community than our parents’ generation. We have to capitalize on this as we move forward. But most of all, we just have to keep moving forward.
I would love to hear what others have to say about any of this. What caused Prop 8 to fail and how can we learn from those mistakes? What do we do to reframe this debate so that we fight on a playing field on which we can
win? What do you think we can do to make sure we win the next Prop 8? What can you do that you haven’t done already? Did you see anything last night that inspired you?
Per exit polls, the two demographics that swung overwhelmingly in the pro-8 direction were old white people and African Americans (with the latter, at 70-30, tilting more strongly than the former). It may well be that even if the popular opinion stays exactly the same as it is now, a second attempt in 2010 might be more successful, given that it could be argued that the black vote and old-white-people vote might each have been elevated in support of Obama and McCain, respectively. That said, strong outreach targeted at each of those groups could be beneficial if/when we try again.
The other target that should be in our sights must be the Mormon church. Mormons donated as much as 70% of the funding to Yes on 8, as well as countless thousands of man-hours to the cause. I think our community needs to explore various remedies aimed at weakening this church’s capacity to spread its bigotry: its tax-exempt status should be called into question, and legislative strategies should be considered for reducing the ability of churches to participate in political campaigning.
I was completely inspired walking the streets last night. The kind of connection I experienced with all these random people was incredibly exhilirating. I gave some money at a party to help defeat Prop 8, but thats about all. Im indifferent to HRC and the other gay groups. Among my circle and progressive family, its easy for me to forget that being gay is still an issue for so many and last nights vote in contrast with the amazing progress witnessed thru Obama’s victory really brought that into focus. I can’t have the luxury anymore of blowing the issue of gay rights off as inevitable. I think there’s alot of work to do to bring gay marraige to Maryland and DC-two “states” that I think are probably much more realistic targets. While California is a state with ALOT of liberals, its also a big state with ALOT of conservatives to mobilize. I think there might be a better chance in MD or DC just because social conservatives just dont have that kind of infrastructure there. Those are some of my thoughts…
am i the ony one who thinks the guy holding the “no on 8″ sign is really hot?
No, Anonymous. I thought that too.
I’m sorry, but I’m disgusted with the African American community. They “got theirs” and don’t view our struggles at all similar. Hey, I’m white, so why should I care about what racism they face as long as I don’t cause it? The NAACP is dead to me. Jessie Jackson can blow me. Maybe this anger will go away, maybe it won’t. I just refuse to look at blacks as some sort of victimized racial group. To me they are just another bunch of bible-thumping jesus freaks who hate gays. End of story.
Nevermind the fact that there are plenty of African Americans who don’t believe in God and are out about their homosexuality.
No no, we are just “bible-thumping jesus freaks who hate gays”
An education might help you.
i dont know about everyone else, but here at georgetown, i know lots of white, male, gay students who come from very privileged backgrounds, loved hillary clinton, but *somehow* couldn’t get behind president-elect obama (wow, it feels good to say that.) hmm, i wonder why that might be?
so it seems to me that this is infinitely more complicated that “blacks versus gays,” especially considering there is a preeetty good deal of overlap there, and many hetero african americans support gay rights. to me this says that as minority communities, we haven’t come together in the best way possible to promote equality for everyone. and that’s something that as minorities, as americans, and as human beings, we need to work on together.
Amen, Corey. So, what’s the first step?
I would just add that I agree with Corey that is is far more complicated than black vs. gay. Much of the reason why there is more resistance to gay rights in the black community is merely a function of their relatively low levels of education and relatively high levels of religiosity. Furthermore, part of this story is a failure on our part to frame the issue in a way that people would want to support us. In the case of Prop 8, we allowed the Yes campaign to frame the issue as a matter of protecting children and churches’ rights. Regardless of how we might feel about how homosexuality should be dealt with in schools, we will never win the larger gay rights debate if it is debated on these terms. We need to do a better job of reaching out to communities that don’t support us and explaining who we are and what our families are all about. We need to make this debate about fairness and about how these laws affect our families. We need to ask people how they would feel if these measures targeted their families. And rather than assume that African Americans will just recognize the commonalities between their struggle for civil rights and our struggle, we need to make a case, articulate effective arguments on our behalf, and make those arguments over and over again. I personally have my doubts about the effectiveness of existing organizations (e.g., HRC) at accomplishing this, but I think it’s clear that some of the culpability for the failure of Prop 8 rests on the shoulders of the leadership of our own community. Not all of it, but a nontrivial amount of it. Let’s not forget to examine our own strategies while we cope with our anger and disappointment with those who oppose us. We have to be constructively critical of ourselves every step of the way if we want to move forward.
well said… i think as far as working on some of the challenges both within the gay community on the issue of race, and within different ethnic communities on gay issues, things have to start with (a) respect and (b) reaching out and talking to people. i have been trying to break out of my shell and do this a little in my own life, and for me that has meant calling out gay folks i know when they say something racist – or, for that matter, sexist, heteronormative, etc. listening to a lot of gay people i know, it’s not hard to see how there isn’t yet a winning coalition for gay rights. gay men trouncing on gay women? or saying that bisexuals are just indecisive, or not caring about trans people? i mentioned my attraction to a cute black guy to a white gay friend of mine, and he told me that it was “disgusting” that i’d be attracted to someone of another race.
to put it frankly: what the fuck?
if we want to grow the coalition for gay civil rights, the gay community has to support equality for everyone. we have to work within our own circles of friends and remove the prejudices that exist there. and as we do that, i think it’ll be a lot easier to work on a dialog of true civil equality beyond the gay community. hard to expect the african american hetero population to be more supportive of gays if we can’t bridge racial divides within the gay community.
i guess that’s not a great strategy to launch a campaign on or create a non-profit or PAC over, but for me, it’s something to work on doing on my own micro level. i think that the gay rights movement will probably have to be largely a grassroots one in the end, because as we saw this week, court cases don’t do much when the opinion of the people is still against equality. and let’s face it, as much as we need to think about volunteering and organizing and donating and rallying and fighting through courts and congresses, we could also stand to be a little more unified ourselves, not just for what we want for ourselves, but for real equality in this country.
Like John, I think we could have framed the issue better. It’s pretty ridiculous that our opponents are successfully selling these anti-marriage and anti-adoption measures as “good for children”. Where our our stories of how our children are hurt by these measures every day?
The No On 8 campaign chose to keep gay families out of the spotlight, focusing instead on abstract notions of equality for all, which I presume they thought would be less controversial. I think it was a bad strategy. Next go-around, I want to see stories about little kids who don’t have the same opportunities as other kids because they have a mom and a mom instead of a mom and a dad. We should be winning when the debate turns to children.
I’m pretty much behind Corey on this one and the degree of ignorance that people have about how there are definitely class/race issues and divisions within the gay community itself that need to be bridged is spot on.
In response to the anonymous poster who simply wants to spew about religion and blacks being a part of the problem, you need to take off your own blinders and look objectively at why there might be an issue to begin with. First off, Al Sharpton (love him or hate him) is most certainly on board and fully in support of gay marriage and has been active in trying to fight homophobia amongst black religious leaders. It’s definitely an issue and we definitely have allies, so before disparaging a whole group of people maybe you should get educated on the issue.
From my understanding, there were several issues here. The LDS pretty much shelled out a lot of money and apparently the barrage ads that appeared in the final weeks did enough to change some people who were leaning in the direction of voting against it. At this point there needs to be a concerted effort within the gay community to start attacking the organizations and their tax-exempt status. In addition, why not compile a list of Mormon owned businesses and create a boycott list? If we as a community can effectively affect the pocket books of Mormons and get our allies outside of the LGBT community to do the same they might want to start rethinking their efforts.
Dear Anon @ 11/6/08 3:47AM: Way to stand up for your opinion, behind anonymity. I say that reminds me of the people who went riding out at night with sheets on their heads. Have the balls to be open about your opinions, no matter how incredibly fucked up they are.
In all honesty I’d try to overturn this decision in 2010. Your community has obviously made a lot of progress in changing the attitudes of most people with the exception of blacks. But blacks won’t be voting in anywhere near the numbers that they did this year in 2010 (or probably ever again).
Take heart, try again in 2010 when the blacks will be sitting at home crying over all the things Obama never did for them.
RIP Donald Young, black, gay, Choirmaster Trinity United Church of Christ. Murdered southside of Chicago December 2007.
I am upset about this erroneous finger pointing at African-Americans regarding Proposition 8. Why are you so quick to believe whatever you hear? If someone told me 70 percent of gay people voted against Obama my first thought would be, excuse me Jesus, that is crap! I don’t believe it! This political year was fraught with right wing lies. Bear that in mind.
“Religious organizations that support Proposition 8 include the Roman Catholic Church], Knights of Columbus, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) a group of Evangelical Christians led by Jim Garlow and Miles McPherson, American Family Association, Focus on the Family[and the National Organization for Marriage Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, California’s largest, has also endorsed the measure. The Bishops of the California Catholic Conference released a statement supporting the proposition. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) has publicly supported the proposition and encouraged their membership to support it, by asking its members to donate money and volunteer time. The First Presidency of the church announced its support for Proposition 8 in a letter read in every congregation. Latter-day Saints have provided a significant source for financial donations in support of the proposition, both inside and outside the State of California. About 45% of out-of-state contributions to Protect Marriage.com has come from Utah, over three times more than any other state.”
Still, even though gays were fighting to preserve a basic right, it was the anti-equality side in California that seemed to have the most fervor. A symbolic low point for the gay side came on Oct. 13, when the Sacramento Bee ran a remarkable story about Rick and Pam Patterson, a Mormon couple of modest means – he drives a 10-year-old Honda Civic, she raises their five boys – who had withdrawn $50,000 from their savings account and given it to the pro-8 campaign. “It was a decision we made very prayerfully,” Pam Patterson, 48, told the Bee’s Jennifer Garza. “Was it an easy decision? No. But it was a clear decision, one that had so much potential to benefit our children and their children.”
This is your real enemy. Don’t trust exit polls taken when many of these same groups taking them were angry with African-Americans about Obama beating their Christian Right coalition messiah ie Sarah Palin. I think they are pitting one group against the other. African-Americans are less than 7% of the state population, do the math. And they do not have the money to fund a tens of millions of dollars Proposition 8 campaign. Note that they also targeted affirmative action for eradication in another state.
Rather than be upset at the phantom African-American menace, put forth a gay candidate for office and fight like hell. No one gave Obama anything and they will not give gays anything either. Obama stands on the shoulders of a lot of brave people who gave their lives for him to stand on that podium last night.
Never trust exits polls because in all my years of life, no one has ever been seen at a polling place asking anyone anything when they left.
re: Thelea
“I am upset about this erroneous finger pointing at African-Americans regarding Proposition 8. Why are you so quick to believe whatever you hear?…This political year was fraught with right wing lies. Bear that in mind.”
Lies? Finger pointing?
Overwhelming Black and Latino support for Prop 8 has been well documented by mainstream media including the Los Angeles Times, the LA Daily News and MSNBC to name just a few.
Gay racism pisses me off but I neither deny nor excuse it.
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