On the day after what many people deem to be a historical election, and a once in a lifetime event, no one seems to be talking about it. At least in California. It seems a little ironic to most people (ok probably 99% of our readers/writers) that many newspapers are talking about how race and discrimination are no longer issues since we elected Barack Obama and yet Proposition 8 passed. It's actually a little shocking, seeing how progressive Californians are with most issues. What went wrong? Some polls (isn't it amazing how dead on the polls were this time?) even had proposition 8 failing at one point, but with all the propaganda and misinformation out there, people were bound to get tripped up.
What would be the best way to avoid this? Education and some more time. There was a time when black people were only considered 3/5th of a person, there was a time when women did not have a voice, and through time these practices and beliefs changed to become more inclusive. The gay rights movement is relatively new (1960's) and most of these other civil rights movements took over a hundred years, and although there has been much progress, they are still relevant issues today. It's not going to change that quickly. Many of these older voters grew up in a time where gays had little voice or little representation in the world, and so for them the issue might be a little more difficult than the open environment you grew up in regarding homosexuality or other moral issues. When you don't have exposure to these sort of ideas when you are younger, you are less likely to embrace them in the future. The times they lived in had different moral standards than the times we live in now. Environmentalism wasn't a hot button issue then like it is now (except maybe John Muir, Rachel Carson, and a few others). Why do you think all the old white guys on all the news channels were focusing on the fact that Barack Obama was African American above everything else? They grew up during the Civil Rights movement, so this is what they are focused on. They see this radical change. Some of the younger ones who didn't live in that time might have focused on something different about the significance of Obama's election, whether it was the immigrant life he struggled through, the American dream he is living, a rejection of George Bush and American militarism, a change from deregulation. Most of the younger people didn't really make his ethnicity a significant issue, which happened to be a tendency with older voters. A lot of the people supporting prop. 8 were misinformed by the advertisement, or simply grew up in an environment that was not very open to the gay community. Rather than criticizing them about how ignorant/stupid they are, lets try to see it from their side (even if you think it is misguided/incorrect) and bring them to an understanding of the situation at hand.
What did we learn? Hope for the future...
It is very easy to change the constitution. You don't need a supermajority to pass these amendments, just a majority of the people. It is just as easy to overturn the ban on gay marriage as it was to instill it. And it seems that in a few years there will be a constitutional amendment that will go to the people in California regarding gay marriage that will succeed and overturn prop 8. The change is happening but it doesn't happen overnight. The best way is to inform and educate the voters, and appeal to the younger voters. This isn't going to get resolved in the courts anytime soon (lets hope it doesn't get in the Supreme Court, at least right now). So lets try and be civil and work towards the future, just like the other parties are trying to do as well (hah).
Photo by LA Wad via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
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Just wanted to say that this is the best headline ever.
This story is great -- with the exception of calling being gay a "sexual preference." Last time I checked, I didn't chose to have to struggle for my basic human rights.
^changed it sorry, i was talking with a friend earlier and they had used that to describe their moral choice and so i used the word. is it better now?
Very well stated.
Bwah ha ha ha. Great article title. The best jokes/tag lines are based, at least partly, on truth.
I do hope there is a way to fight this. The "Yes on 8" people lied through their teeth to get this passed and it worked. I do think there is a hole in the idea in that the people who pushed this proposition so hard did on religious grounds.
So sad but true. My immediate thoughts this morning were we can recognize the need for better rights for farm animals, but take away the rights of a group of people? I don't get it.
It's simple really. The basest of the religious right must have an enemy to call evil and battle against. I guess the gay community is the new evil.
Pathetic.
^ amen ^
"It is just as easy to overturn the ban on gay marriage as it was to instill it."
It won't be. Look no further than Hawaii for proof. And please remember that progress towards equal rights is not the inevitable product of the passage of time. 100 years could bring greater equality in civil rights, or less.
It is easy when you consider the progressive momentum of the last hundred years to imagine that the next hundred will continue on the same trajectory, but do not take this for granted. We can go back to bigotry very quickly and if and when we do, it won't just be gays that suffer.
"The times they are (more slowly than we'd like) a changin'"
maldy: well that is why i said rather than alienating both sides we should attempt to create dialogue and see things in the long run. protests and the like are ok, but it will feed into the fears of those who voted for prop 8 and may delay the progress being made. but that s just my take on it. people don't like change being forced on them , integration/assimilation has often been the best/smoothest transition. either that or revolution. haha.
i heart this article! :) thank you for writing about this. we cannot give up! revolution!!!
I actually really dislike the title of the article and hate the implication that one somehow happened at the expense of the other. It's a travesty that Prop 8 was approved, but come on people. Let's be glad that Prop 2 passed. Both were extremely important and the fact that one "failed" is not the chickens' fault. Please keep the two issues separate and distinct... it's faulty journalism to think that they are anything but.
Exit polls in California on prop 8found that 70 percent of black voters backed the ban. Slightly more than half of Latino voters, who made up almost 20 percent of voters, favored the ban, while 53 percent of whites opposed it.
I do agree that it is unfortunate that prop 8 has put a damper on prop 2. Being the veggie type, I was thrilled that despite opposition by big agribusiness, prop 2 was able to win by a landslide due to the hard work of grass roots activists that got it on the ballot.
I was amazed that in many counties overall, Prop 2 failed. Who the hell are the 40% who voted against it?! The only people it might hurt are the big, factory farming corporations (of which there are about FOUR total in the US), and they need to be hurt in their pockets for the cruelty they create. Take a field trip to a slaughterhouse, kids!
vinestreet...are you serious?
Yes, I'm absolutely serious.
i do hope you know i wasn't being serious with my title. if i was, i'm sure i would have talked about/brought up chickens...
Fair enough. It's nothing personal... the article is very good. The title just rubbed me the wrong way, like those who really wanted Prop 2 to pass (and got their way) need to feel bad that Prop 8 passed as well.
When I first heard about prop eight, I was outraged! I thought gay people were cool and fun to be around and I was never taught in Catechism about hating on gay's or lesbians or any of such that would be called discrimination. I mean I've talked to so many people about this and I got in trouble with my parents so many times for trying to encourage them to say no on Prop 8. My Spanish teacher said something related to the title of your article and I was surprised I had come across it. For the past few days after the results there was nonstop talk about prop 8. The thing is, I don't think that you guys see the views from a Catholic perspective. I mean I'm not trying to say that banning human rights is wrong but I just wanted to get my word out there. No where in the bible will you find that we should hate upon gays/lesbians. No where does it say that being gay and lesbian is wrong. I mean I know that my youth group leaders accept gay people and so do I. I don't see a gay person and say "Omg, ew! He's gay." and run away, I accept them the way they are. I know there is nothing thats wrong with being gay, but I recently learned that for Catholics or Christians, once you take actions upon this "gayness" or "lesbianess" then it becomes a sin. I mean how would you like it if you were forced to do something you couldn't and was totally against your religion? The priests and all Christians have been taught a certain way their whole life and its against our religion to marry two people of the same sex. The priests cannot do it because it is what they were taught, now because they are discriminating against gays. I know for a fact thats not true. Sure there are some people out there who said yes merely because they were discriminating, but it doesn't mean that everyone who said yes is discriminating. This entry may not make any sense or seem as though I'm someone who does not know the facts, but these are things I've talked about with my teachers, friends and elders. I've seen it from both perspectives and I stand in the middle. I know that if I was able to vote, I would've said No on Prop 8. I'm pretty sure of that.
Actually I think Californians showed they like chickens more than farmers.