from Lambda Legal

[rm]

Today, as the ballot counting for Proposition 8 in California continues, Lambda Legal, along with the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the ACLU, filed a petition in the California Supreme Court on behalf of Equality California and six same-sex couples urging the court to invalidate Prop 8 if it passes. The petition charges that Prop 8 is invalid because the initiative process was improperly used in an attempt to undo the constitution's core commitment to equality for everyone by eliminating a fundamental right from just one group — lesbian and gay Californians. Prop 8 also improperly attempts to prevent the courts from exercising their essential constitutional role of protecting the equal protection rights of minorities. Whatever the outcome of the election or the lawsuit, we and the California Attorney General agree that existing California marriages are valid, and Lambda Legal will work in the courts to protect these marriages if they are attacked.

The news from other states with ballot measures affecting LGBT people was extremely disappointing. Florida's Amendment 2, which excludes same-sex couples from a constitutional definition of marriage, was approved by a vote of 62 to 38 percent — a narrow margin because constitutional amendments require a vote of 60 percent for passage in Florida. In Arizona, Prop 102 also was approved and will amend the state constitution to exclude same-sex couples from marriage. In Arkansas, voters approved a ballot measure that prohibits unmarried individuals or couples from fostering or adopting children effectively excluding gay and lesbian individuals and same-sex couples from the pool of adoptive and foster parents. In one state victory, Connecticut voters defeated a call for a constitutional convention that was promoted by groups eager to eliminate the right to marry for same-sex couples.

Last night's results also brought us hope. The election of Barack Obama as president presents exciting new opportunities to advance equality at the national level. Lambda Legal is committed to working with the new administration and the entire civil rights community to enact an inclusive employment nondiscrimination law, as well as fair and inclusive immigration and hate crime laws; to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the federal Defense of Marriage Act; and to implement better policies for those with HIV. And once these laws and policies take effect, Lambda Legal will have new tools at its disposal to do what we do best: fight in the courts against the discrimination that LGBT people and those with HIV experience all across the nation.

Comments

...

[keith418.livejournal.com]

More on this here.

Liberals hate it when minority groups don't play along. Like I said, it may just be a problem that's easier for people to ignore. Dan Savage has more here.

This has been instructive

[lilchiva.livejournal.com]

Notice how you are getting attacked for making privileged arguments but nobody is touching my "Gay people need to get it together" gambit. Why oh why, is it always so much easier to blame the man?

Re: This has been instructive

[lorem_ipsum]

I was just thinking of how to word my objection to your intimation that gay people are oppressed because they're lazy when I happened to scroll down and see this.

Re: This has been instructive

[lilchiva.livejournal.com]

That's not my argument at all. I am saying that until the queer community starts being proactive, as opposed to reactive on issues, we will continue to be at the mercy of others. This will continue to happen. No one gives you rights, you have to take them. Letting judges and people who want you dead frame the discussion is no way to win. We have to actually make it happen ourselves.

Having to vote "No' on a proposition, in order to preserve a liberty, is the very essence of reactive. It's marginal behavior. How much different would this discussion be if it had been about voting "Yes"? If we chose to be the ones who set the agenda instead of them? In this life, you have to affirm. You have to actually stand for something. That's not easy but that's exactly what it takes.

Tell me what about that you really disagree with.

You know that Obama is actually against gay marriage, right?

[lilchiva.livejournal.com]

You have got to be kidding. Most Gays actually are coasting on changing attitudes toward more freedoms. Did the eighties teach you nothing?

Homosexuals only mobilized after about 1/3 of an entire generation of gay men died. Up until that point, people were busy vitriolically defending their right to the open bath house. Even then, the biggest most effective action was led by rich upper middle class white heterosexuals. It wasn't homosexuals who were making quilts and petitioning Washingtion. It was, for the most part, the striaght familiy memebers of people who had died.

There is a myth that goes "people did not start worrying about AIDS until heterosexuals started dying of it". As if, up until that point, there was this massive organized homosexual movement that was being virtually ignored. That's not really true. What happened when the straight people started getting HIV was that straight people became more politically active. Straight people were far more responsible for raising tolerance awareness, controlling the blood supply, and getting research done than anyone else.

If you think I am full of it, just check out how many ads for bare backing there are on Craig's list. Count the number of bathhouses in your nearest metropolitan area. Look at the WHO's statistics for HIV infection in developed nations. Ask people. Many will tell you it's a "Dead Issue", that we now have pills for that, that they try not to think about it, that it's all minority women, and that you are bringing them down. Most people don't even realize that the drugs don't work for everyone. I, off and on, have spent eighteen years doing volunteer work for HIV education and hospice work. I have say, that my experience, suggests that these attitudes get worse, not better, every year.

When the conversation shifts to something as non life threatening as martial rights, it's even worse. I can't tell you how many people I know who have bought houses together and have chosen to raise children together, who then break up and act like it all never happened. That's not everyone and I am not going to pretend that it is. Still, that's not at all uncommon.

A number of years ago, I went out and worked toward getting a Civil Union bill passed in Texas. We couldn't even raise enough signatures. Later when the defense of marriage bill was coming up, I went out to raise money to fight it. I got maybe three grand from the people in my community. Most of that money came from straight people. Yet, as soon as the bill passed the great wailing and gnashing of teeth commenced. If that's not coasting, then tell me, just what the fuck is that?

Get It... Straight

[keith418.livejournal.com]

It's okay to hold one minority group accountable for giving money to support the homophobic proposition (Mormons), but it is NOT okay to hold other minority groups accountable for voting for the bill. That makes sense. That is logical.

And that isn't patronizing? What exactly does this kind of patronizing effort indicate?

We all really do look alike, ya know.

[lilchiva.livejournal.com]

Dude, everyone knows that all Mormons are white. Only homosexuals get to be minorities and white.

Hey! Maybe that's why all the other minorities hate us.