CALIFORNIA
Initiative to ban same-sex marriage meets resistance
By Keith
Pavlik
San Francisco
On March 26 in San Francisco, 190 same-sex couples were
joined in a ceremony presided over by Mayor Willie Brown and
most of the city's Board of Supervisors. While the unions have
no legal standing, the ceremony was in response to the
California "Defense of Marriage Act," a proposition scheduled
for the ballot in March 2000. The act would limit marriage only
to "a man and a woman."
Renowned bigot Fred Phelps--the Baptist minister from
Topeka, Kan., who organized a protest at Matthew Shepard's
funeral--turned out a handful of right-wing extremists to
protest the event. This, however, was overshadowed by a
counter-demonstration and more than 1,000 family, friends and
supporters in attendance at the ceremony. The ceremony took on
the spirit of a rally to defend gay marriage against the
backward ballot proposition.
On March 21, more than 2,000 people had participated in an
"Equality at Home" protest at the state capital in Sacramento.
Called by the California Alliance for Pride and Equality, the
gathering focused on equal rights for lesbian, gay, bi, and
trans people and pledged to fight next year's proposition.
California has been the site of several recent racist and
reactionary ballot initiatives eliminating immigrant rights,
limiting free speech for unions, mandating extreme prison
sentences and eliminating bilingual education. The "Defense of
Marriage Act"--also known as the Knight Initiative for its
sponsor State Sen. Pete Knight--is the latest attempt to turn
back the gains won by the civil rights, women's, workers', and
lesbian, gay, bi and trans movements.
Big-business supporters of the initiative spent more than
$500,000 to get it on the ballot. Recent polls show that less
than 20 percent of voters are aware of the initiative. As more
people learn about it, support diminishes.
A fight is building to counter the slandering ad campaigns
that will certainly precede the vote.
Opponents of the proposition show that marriage in the
United States is not "sacrosanct" but rather an evolving
institution. Extending it to same-sex couples is a natural
development.
John Peter Daly of Los Angeles' Stonewall Initiative for
Equal Rights comments: "Not long ago it was illegal for couples
of different races to be married, but the strength of the
anti-racist movement put an end to that. Our struggle will
unite with the civil rights, labor, women's, immigrant and
youth movements to guarantee this basic right for all."
In addition to the San Francisco ceremony,
domestic-partnership recognition was recently passed in Los
Angeles. Last fall, a nationwide poll indicated that most
people under 35 support same-sex marriage. While 27 states have
already banned same-sex unions, the California initiative
promises to be a major battleground against the right wing on
the issue of civil rights for lesbian and gay marriage.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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