Ever since Proposition 8 passed Nov. 4, enshrining heterosexual-only marriage in the California Constitution, demonstrators from Sacramento to San Diego have staged daily marches and protests to express their anger and disappointment that homosexuals will continue to be treated as second-class citizens. It's a stirring movement, reminiscent of past civil rights struggles, but it raises a troubling question: Where were these marchers before the election?
Like nearly every aspect of the fight against Proposition 8, the recent protests come too late to make a difference. Opponents of the measure ran a disorganized campaign that consistently underestimated the strength of the other side. Apparently lulled by poll numbers that showed the initiative was likely to fail, the campaign's fundraising efforts were lackluster -- until it discovered that the Yes on 8 side was raking in millions from Mormons and members of other churches. By the time fundraising began in earnest, there wasn't time to mount a strong opposition.
Same-sex marriage advocates produced only one hard-hitting commercial, depicting a pair of Mormon missionaries ripping up the wedding license of a married gay couple, but didn't air it until election day. The campaign made little effort to reach out to the African American community, whose large turnout and overwhelming support of Proposition 8 were enough to put it over the top. And while it's nice that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger now says he hopes that the courts will overturn the initiative, he was all but invisible before Nov. 4.
The failure of leadership extends beyond the governor. If there was a public face to the No on 8 campaign, it was San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who is (notoriously) heterosexual. Where were the gay leaders? It's hard to imagine the civil rights movement of the 1960s succeeding without Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X, or to imagine the women's suffrage movement without the likes of Susan B. Anthony.
Wresting equal rights from a society reluctant to grant them isn't easy. It can take years of nonviolent resistance, passionate speeches and even in-your-face radicalism. If people who voted yes on Proposition 8 say they didn't see it as a civil rights matter, that's because until now there has been nothing resembling a civil rights crusade by the gay community. Courts can assist downtrodden groups, but they never have and never will be enough to guarantee equality on their own.
The fight for gay equality won't end with Proposition 8; it will continue until the battle is won, in California and across the nation. Supporters should take some lessons from the many mistakes made in this round.
Oh my goodness, where to begin with correcting all the fallacies in this editorial?
- Black people DID NOT "put Proposition 8 over the top" as the op-ed false claims. The blogger shanikka has pointed out in a much-celebrated diary on DailyKos.com, there are simply not enough Black people or voters to be responsible for the margin of victory of Proposition 8, which right now is about 540,000 votes out of 11.5 million cast.
- NO ON PROP 8 DID NOT "r[u]n a disorganized that consistently under-estimated the strength of the other side." This is simply "blame the victim" thinking. The NO ON PROP 8 campaign was pitted against both the Mormon Church AND the Catholic Church, who made passage of Proposition 8, their #1 electoral priority, more important than the Presidential election, and instructed their believers to treat it as such. Which do you think is more powerful, the LGBT community or the Vatican and Salt Lake City? The No on Prop 8 campaign did not underestimate their opponents, but they did underestimate the depths of decption the campaign would stoop to in order to enact discrimination. The No on Prop 8 campaign did the best they could, with the resources they had at the time. In late September, the Yes on 8 folks had a 5-8 million dollar advantage, and were tied or slightly ahead in public polls. It was Brad Pitt's $100k donation, followed by the Spielbergs which started turning the fundraising disadvantage around, and by the end of October the campaign was regularly raising a million dollars a day online. It should be noted the ANNUAL budget of Equality California is less than $3 million dollars. By the time the NO ON 8 side got the resources it needed, there were only a few precious weeks to election day. Did they run a perfect campaign? No. No campaign is ever perfect.
- San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newson WAS NOT the "public face to the NO ON 8 campaign." Maybe he was the face that heterosexual people noted, but I was very much aware that Geoff Kors, Kate Kendell and Lorri Jean appeared almost everywhere in the media and online, speaking out against Proposition 8.
- The NO ON 8 campaign DID make efforts to reach out to the African American community. As readers of this blog know, I helped manage a press conference presenting Black opposition to Proposition 8. The Barbara Jordan/ Bayard Rustin Coalition had multiple people working with it to raise awareness about why members of the Black community should vote No on Proposition 8 for the last month of the campaign. There were multiple efforts to reach out to all communities of color. Were they effective? Clearly not. Were they supported or funded directly by the NO ON 8 campaign? See Point #2 above! The campaign had limited resources until mid-to-late October! There were Black-specific materials developed but they were not actually created and distributed until the Saturday before the election. That's much too late to actually have time to influence the election. But there's a difference between not making the effort and not doing it well.
What is disturbing is that so much false information is being promulgated in the media about the battle to defeat Proposition 8, and then the affected communities are making erroneous conclusions and assertions based on that misleading reports. The Los Angeles Times (whose reporting has generally been excellent on Proposition 8 overall) did a great disservice to the community with Tuesday's editorial.
