Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
Final Thoughts On The Passing of Prop 8
“In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to Liberty.”
-Thomas Jefferson
Equality will ultimately win out. Last night’s passing of Prop 8, against the backdrop of Barack Obama’s resounding win, is bittersweet. Let’s face it; California voted to take away people’s rights last night. It’s one of the most horrible things I can imagine. In my mind, being against equality is not only anti-American, it’s treasonous. It is the exact opposite of why our country was founded on the first place.
In retrospect, it seems the No On 8 campaign lost the battle when they weren’t able to get out in front early and define the message. You say “Proposition 8 changes our constitution to make hateful discrimination legal”, and nobody votes for it. Nobody wants to vote for something that makes them feel they are a bigot, a racist, a hater or discriminator.
It’s a lot like Proposition 2, which cruised to victory last night (yes!). Even if you’re a rib-loving, porterhouse-addicted carnivore who drinks ground beef, nobody wants to be the person voting to hurt animals. No fear-mongering regarding imported chickens from Mexico — or whatever the hell those No On 2 ads were about — is going to change that.
Yes On 8, sadly, framed the issue first with their message: Not voting for Prop 8 would result in marriage being redefined.
It didn’t matter that Prop 8 losing, in truth, would have redined nothing. It didn’t matter that Prop 8 passing is the situation that will now in fact result in a redefinition being put forth. And it doesn’t matter that the logical and clear-eyed among us see nothing wrong at all with marriage being between both man and woman, man and man, and woman and woman.
Nor, apparently, does it matter, that the group behind the Yes On 8 campaign was the Mormon Church, with most of their money coming from Utah. Yes, California, you got played by a bunch of people that don’t even live here.
Court cases will soon follow, no doubt, and it will be curious to see the path the Quest For Common Equality takes.
But to everyone that is torn by what happened last night, remember what our new President-elect said. The work does not stop here. All of the community organizing, the hard work, the donations, and the countless hours by countless individuals investing themselves in their own futures for the first time, allow us an opportunity.
We now know how to be involved. How to be informed. How to take action — through conversation, through sharing art, media, fiscal resources, time; all of it.
The great lesson of Barack Obama’s win is not that one man was better than the rest of us, and he’s now going to change the world. It is that each and every one of us as individuals, acting in unison with one another, can shape our own common destiny. Together, we can achieve what conventional wisdom says is impossible.
It’s not that different from the entrepreneurial mentality, to be honest. A cause is a small business, and you help it grow with hope, faith, time, love, and energy. The Great Empowerment of both the Left and the Right are not that far apart, truth be told.
So today begins a new task, a new journey. A new challenge, for each of us to remain involved. Focused. Cognisant of the world around us, and to never let ourselves fall into that passive slumber so many of us had previously embraced.
The fight for the future of our country — and for Equality — begins anew today.
Update: It’s already beginning. No On 8 Protest Rallies tonight in California.
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I think you hit the nail on the head. The problem with “No on 8″ was strategy and how it was framed. Reality is that this is an EQUALITY issue, not a marriage issue. The ”Yes on 8″ camp does not care about families or marriage. They care about being homophobic, discrimantory. Ultimately I think the issue needed to be presented in a way that made it universal… which it is. This was but one battle in a war for respect for all. On a side note I was PLEASED beyond belief at the passing of Prop 2. Gets us out of the dark ages and on track with Australia, England, and Europe who are all 20 years ahead of us on the issue.
I was pleased as well at the results of Prop 2, as well as 4 last night (I think the cynic in me assumed Prop 4 would win).
I actually did not realize just how behind the times we are in terms of the humane treatment of animals domestically. Would you mind throwing some links my way whenever you’ve got a second? Would like to learn more. (It’s my understanding that Prop 2 changes won’t go into effect until 2015, correct?)
Correct. I will look for links tonight.
I agree that the real triumph of last night was the victory not of the man, but of the movement. Democrats actually put their backs into it and WON something! We gathered our money and our resources, and we didn’t cave in and whine about it, as the stereotype goes. Some of us gave donations and made phone calls and knocked on doors, and WE demanded this change. I hope that we can keep up the momentum, and Obama certainly inspires it. That’s what makes him an awesome leader.Gay rights will be one of the next major civil rights battles. But I’m up for a fight. I hope that when they count the absentee votes, Prop 8 can be defeated, but California is only one place where people want to put homophobia into law.
Such a nice post, Bryan, and I agree; in losing Prop. 8, we lost a battle, but the war is not over. I think this election and the groundswell of individual involvement in the process that produced it hasn’t been lost on anyone, and kids who aren’t quite of voting age yet, like my clever son, are growing up in a time of activism and empowerment. In two years, he’ll be old enough to vote, and in 6 to 8 years, the baby boomers will no longer be the largest voting demographic in America. When that time comes, shit like this won’t fly.
Time is not on the side of this kind of discrimination… and surely a constitutional amendment prompted by a religious argument is unconstitutional?