Synapse: Current Issue

If you haven’t noticed, we are in the midst of the gay civil rights movement. On May 15th of this year the California Supreme Court made a monumental ruling [In re Marriage Cases] stating that laws prohibiting same-sex marriages are unconstitutional, thereby legalizing same-sex marriages in the state of California.

Soon thereafter Christian right conservative groups submitted Proposition 8 to the November ballot that would “eliminate the right of same sex couples to marry” by altering the constitution to define marriage as “between one man and one woman.” Two campaigns then formed, the “Yes on 8” and the “No on 8” campaigns. Approximately $80 million was poured into both campaigns, far exceeding the amount ever spent on any state ballot measure campaign. Ads spewing lies and others attempting to refute them broadcast all over the state.

On Tuesday, November 4, Californians voted 52.2% yes on Proposition 8, challenging the ruling by the California Supreme Court on In re Marriage Cases and eliminating the right of same sex couples to marry. In the same night, the United States of America came together to elect the first African American to the highest office in the country, the presidency. All in one night we achieved a monumental step forward in the fight for racial equality while also taking a leap backwards in the fight for LGBT equality with the passage of Proposition 8.

One of the groups with the largest proportion (70%) voting “yes” on Proposition 8 was the African American community. Interestingly, Proposition 2, which mandates an increase in the cage size for livestock thereby providing more humane treatment to animals, also passed. Thus, at least some people who voted “yes” on Prop 8 also voted “yes” on Prop 2, indicating that these people are compassionate and are trying to do what they think is right. Somehow there was a miscommunication with these people regarding the human civil rights at stake in Proposition 8.

This suggests that it is essential for the gay rights movement to educate and share our life-stories with our fellow Californians, especially other minorities, so that they understand that the core issue of gay marriage and the gay rights movement is about equality, similar to the black civil rights and the women’s rights movements. Eventually, we must all come together in solidarity to fight for all of our collective civil rights, not just those that affect us personally.

“A civil right is an enforceable right or privilege, which if interfered with by another gives rise to an action for injury. Examples of civil rights are freedom of speech, press, assembly, the right to vote, freedom from involuntary servitude, and the right to equality in public places. Discrimination occurs when the civil rights of an individual are denied or interfered with because of their membership in a particular group or class.” (http://www.statelawyers.com/Practice/Practice_Detail.cfm/PracticeTypeID:18)

Clearly, denying same-sex couples the right to marry violates their right to equality based on their membership to a particular group, the LGBT community. Although the rights at risk for one minority group may differ from the set at risk for another, both are subsets of the civil rights common to all. Each minority group needs the help of people outside of their group to achieve these rights that belong to all members of our society. Each minority group needs protection from the whims of the simple majority. In the case of Proposition 8, this protection was not allotted to the LGBT community. This argument is essentially the basis of the lawsuit filed against the state of California by the ACLU and other human rights organizations.

It must be remembered that two huge accomplishments were made in the campaign against Prop 8: 1) the LGBT community came together in a way that I have never seen and probably has not happened in at least 20 years and 2) a substantial number of non-LGBT people came in support of LGBT rights – many more than in 2000 when a similar proposition, Prop 22, was voted on. Clearly we are heading towards equality even though we just witnessed a painful setback in the passage of Proposition 8, a historic, unfortunate vote by Californians to revoke the rights of a minority group – something that has never happened until now.

Both the black civil rights and women’s rights movements have taken over a century, and are still being fought. Each movement accomplished each step primarily through the courts and legislature – not through popular votes. Popular opinion throughout most of these movements were against them – those in power wanted to remain in power and white men have been in power for centuries. Women started their fight for the right to vote in 1869 with the establishment of two organizations, the National Women’s Suffrage Association and the American Women’s Suffrage Association, which eventually merged into the National American Women’s Suffrage Association.

In 1893, Colorado was the first state to adopt an amendment granting women the right to vote, followed by 15 more states during the following 16 years. It wasn’t until August of 1920 that the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States granting women the right to vote was signed into law. It took 51 years for women to fight for and then achieve their right to vote. Today, we are witnessing history as more and more states adopt the right of same-sex couples to marry. The ultimate goal is for this right to be granted on the federal level which would secure 1049 benefits in addition to approximately 400 state benefits of marriage to same-sex couples, achieving civil equality with mixed-sex couples.

Rallying on the corner last Monday night at an intersection in Oakland, “No on 8” mixed in amongst “Yes on 8” supporters, I heard an argument by a “Yes on 8” young adult that refuted the similarities between the fight for the right of interracial marriage and that for same-sex marriage.

Their reasoning was that “skin color has nothing to do with sexual activities.” It occurred to me that, first of all, we’re not fighting for our right to perform sexual activities but the right to marry the person we love, and secondly, that statement is only true in the literal and superficial sense. All of the “Yes on 8” supporters at that Oakland intersection were African American from the same church youth group, in fact. It was sad to me that we were set against each other since I would have thought they would have understood the prejudice and discrimination against us in the LGBT community – and that they would particularly understand that separate is not equal. However, to my dismay they were perpetuating the prejudice – calling us “faggots” and telling us to “go back in the closet.” I could not even blame their comments on their youth since there were a couple of middle-aged people amongst them shouting similar derogatory terms – people who had clearly lived through the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

It is all too easy to get angry and put blame on the people and groups who voted “yes” on Proposition 8, but I think we all know that is not the way to build bridges and move forward with our movement. I understand anger and how it is an easier feeling to deal with than sadness, an inwardly painful emotion. However, I think it is important to suffer through the sadness and fight the anger. The future of our movement depends on our ability to reach out and connect with those who do not understand us, and especially with other minority groups who do understand what it feels like to be discriminated against.

The only way to reach out to these people is by sharing our selves and our life-stories with them. First we must show them that we are here, that we exist, and that they already know us and love us. One of the difficulties of trying to claim that we are a minority group that needs protection is that you cannot necessarily tell who we are just by looking at us. We are members of all the different ethnic and racial groups, of all the different economic classes and physical and mental abilities, all religions and all genders – there is no one physical description that encompasses who we are, so we can appear to be invisible. There are people who think they do not know anyone who is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered, and therefore we remain in the abstract to them.

Therefore, I encourage all LGBT people to come out now. We need a massive visibility campaign. Secondly, I believe we must ask people in the other groups in which we are also members – such as the African American, Asian and Pacific Islander, Native American, Latino, physically or mentally disabled, women’s, etc. communities – to join us and us them in fighting for all our collective rights. Together we are strong, split apart we are weak. No more can we accept other minority groups compromising the rights of each other – we must be one in solidarity, because then we become the majority. We must educate each other on our needs – to do this, we must first admit what we do not understand about each other.

To those who think it is futile to attempt to bring all peoples together, I say maybe it will take centuries but we still need to try. There is no giving up. You cannot hold back the Spring.

Jennifer A. Markovics is a visiting post-doctoral scholar at the Nishimura Lab at UCSF/SFGH.

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