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

Re: ...

[lorem_ipsum]

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=8013

Re: ...

[lilchiva.livejournal.com]

Okay. This appears to be a blog from a nice lady who is attempting to navigate the tiresome quagmire of "2nd vs. 3rd wave feminism vs. POC vs. GLBT issues". I suppose you thought the content of this was a self evident response to my comment. It wasn't. Could you please help me out with what you are trying impart here?

I, for one, am grateful she didn't add to that hot mess by also mentioning class.

Re: ...

[lorem_ipsum]

I may have misread your comment to which I was replying, but I thought you were suggesting that not only are African Americans the reason that Prop 8 passed, but that Prop 8 was put on the ballot while an African American ran for president specifically because the homophobes knew Obama would get out the vote. My reply to that, if that is indeed what you were saying, was to point specifically to this:

And now I feel that a giant snowball of blame game is about to roll over and crush me on this front. Who voted for Yes on 8 is clear now, as exit polls show 70% of blacks, (with black women at 74%) voted for the amendment. That's about 20 points higher than any other racial group. But the blame needs to be put into perspective - blacks represent only 6.2% of California's population and they were about 10% of those who voted.

I forgot that the blog post I grabbed that from was not entirely relevant to this discussion.

Don't forget the Latinos!

[lilchiva.livejournal.com]

I am mostly saying what you think I am saying. I am saying that all the "marriage " bills (not just Cali), with the exception of the bill in Arkansas, were timed to capitalize on the way POC seem to vote. (We can get much deeper into that if you want.)

Let's just look at California:

Prop8 has tentatively passed by 52%. Okay by your own statistic that means seven of those points came from black people. Obama won the state by 61% to 37%. If we assume that everyone who voted Mccain also voted "yes". You are still talking 15 Obama points also voting "yes". Even under the most generous tabulation that means 6.5 of those points came from Obama blacks. With whites and other POC Obama voters making up the remaining 8.5.

White voters were about 63% of the vote. Since white voters split roughly evenly between Mcain and Obama and on Prop 8. (white women voted "no" more), that actually means ALMOST ALL of the 15 Obama "yes" points were POC. With Latinos and "Other" comprising the remaining 8.5. So yeah, uh, pretty much black and Latino Obama voters passed this.

Here's the breakdown by race:

On Prop 8

Whites - 51% no
African American - 70% yes
Latino - 53% yes
Asain - 51% no
Other - 51% yes

Percentage of voters

White (63%)
African-American (10%)
Latino (18%)
Asian (6%)
Other (3%)

People who voted for Obama

Whites 52%
African-American 94%
Latino 74%
Asian 64%
Other 55%



I am getting my statistics from CNN (http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#CAI01p1)

Still, I don't think any of that matters as much as gay people actually setting their own agenda. Just say'en.