Dennis highlights the success of California's Proposition 8, which amends the
state constitution to ban gay marriage. This was a bitter note in
Tuesday's results, made all the more so by evidence that the surge in
African-American turnout carried the proposition to victory. Gay rights
activists clearly have a lot of work to do convincing socially
conservative blacks, unless they plan on hoping that their high turnout
was a passing aberration.
Other than continuing the slow process
of convincing Americans of the rightness of their cause, or simply
waiting for time to do its work as each new generation becomes more
tolerant, these activists have a few options. Attorney Gloria Allred
has already announced plans to challenge the constitutionality of the
new constitutional amendment - unsurprisingly, this does not seem
likely to succeed. Others are hoping to wait a few years and then
introduce a new proposition to overturn this one - a prospect which
suggests we may see decades of see-sawing court decisions and citizen
initiatives.
In the meantime, what will happen to those same-sex couples who have already got married in California? Eugene Volokh has a good rundown of the possibilities. In brief, it appears quite
possible that their marriages will be converted to domestic
partnerships, either by the courts or by the legislature. Strangely
enough, that would not provoke the ire of many who voted for
Proposition 8 - a solid majority of Americans are comfortable with
something very like gay marriage, so long as it is not called
'marriage'.
Despite the bad news in California, it is worth
remembering that Connecticut and Massachusetts still have equal
marriage rights, that New York recognises marriages in Massachusetts,
and that President-elect Obama has promised to push for federal civil
unions. Time remains the best ally supporters of gay marriage have on
their side.
Gay marriage: what now?
This article is published by Thomas Ash, and openDemocracy.net under a Creative Commons licence. You may republish it without needing further permission, with attribution for non-commercial purposes following these guidelines. These rules apply to one-off or infrequent use. For all re-print, syndication and educational use please see read our republishing guidelines or contact us. Some articles on this site are published under different terms. No images on the site or in articles may be re-used without permission unless specifically licensed under Creative Commons.
Comments
The night Obama won, I cried because I wished my father, a man who helped liberate France, yet who came home to America to be denied his civil liberties, did not live to see this day. The following day I cried because my same fellow citizens who handed Mr. Obama his victory, took away my civil rights. That day on The View, Whoopie Goldberg made a comment about finally being able to "put down her suitcase" because America finally felt like home. I am still carrying mine. Mr. Ash asks "what now?" I don't know. As far as my full rights, I and other gay citizens are still on the back of the bus, but I suppose we keep plodding forward in hopes that some day, we too shall be recognized as full citizens. But I do despair, that like my father, I will never live to see that day realized in America.
Post new comment