Where do we go from here?
Last week I attended California’s Equality Summit, a post-campaign review where organizations evaluated next steps for gay rights in our state. The GLBT community was full of anger and grief, which was apparent as screaming, anger, and defensiveness summed up the first few hours of the conference. The No on 8 campaign hasn’t fully taken responsibility for the loss, and have barely identified the areas for improvement in the next campaign. In comparison, the grassroots movement has such energy and vitality and is quick to point to the deficits of the No on 8 campaign.
The California GLBT movement is waiting. The California Supreme Court should hear oral arguments in late February sometime. Because they identified gay and lesbians as a “suspect class”, they need to look very closely at laws that concern this group of people and to make sure that they are above and beyond fair. This idea came from the civil rights era, and it will be interesting how the California Supreme Court sees the case.
In the meantime, I’m compiling a list of gay-friendly religious organizations and doing some work with them in the next few months. In the bay area alone, there are over 300 GLBT-friendly places of worship. While this makes my work significantly harder (you try individually addressing over 300 different religious leaders), I am thankful that my community is so welcoming. Even our local Catholic church marches in the gay pride parade.
Estimates vary, but between 13-17% of Californian Jews voted in favor of Proposition 8. The Jewish community is very largely in favor of GLBT rights, and I think that they will be a great resource and tool for fight that has already begun. Ironically, though, there is no marriage equality curriculum with a Jewish perspective. There is an “interfaith” training, but that really means it’s an educational curriculum with a Christian perspective, as many “interfaith” documents are.
Equality California is holding a Lobby Day on Tuesday, February 17. Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) have both proposed bills to overturn Proposition 8, SR 7 and HR 5 respectively. No matter what happens at the Supreme Court level, we need to maintain a civil rights movement. Discrimination is wrong, and discrimination can happen in other places than a courthouse. There are many laws that need to still come, and there are many laws that must be kept in place.
(P.S. The title of this is indeed a Buffy reference.)
Discussion Area - Leave a Comment