Next Steps on Gay Marriage

When the California Supreme Court issued its decision validating Proposition 8, the voter initiative, backed by the religious right, Mormons included, that ended same sex marriage in California after 18,000 same sex couples married there, the Court tried to compromise by saying that those 18,000 same sex couples had the right to remain married in the eyes of the State.

That was the blunder that made a federal law suit possible, although perhaps not strategic.

Yesterday under the banner of American Foundation for Equal Rights, the stars of the 2000 presidential battle before the Supreme Court, Ted Olsen, representing Bush, and David Boies, representing Gore, teamed up to challenge the legal reasoning of the California decision under federal equal protection and due process theories.

The American Foundation for Equal Rights was founded to bring this lawsuit. Some in the LGBT community are wary, because they perceive the fight back in the hands of California voters, hoping to convince people voter by voter that the time has come to promote measures that encourage people to commit to each other in stable relationships that carry economic benefits. They are wary because they are afraid of any Supreme Court ruling on same sex marriage, even with the possible entry of Sonia Sotomayor as a new justice on the court. (The Times also reports that her views on abortion are not clear and shouldn't be assumed by the left as favorable.)

One has to ask whether celebrity lawyers from the left and the right are the folks who should be promoting a strategy to bring the issue of same sex marriage into the federal arena. Elaborate coalitions have been built among same sex advocates across state lines. As was illustrated in New Hampshire and Maine, where recognition of gay marriage is the result of legislation and not litigation, those alliances can effectively use the political system to change people's views.

Like the entire issue, the strategy might be falling across generational lines as well. Demographic analysis of Californians show one important factor: young people favor gay marriage across race and class lines. Older people do not. "First, the demographics favor marriage equality, with 18-to-29-year-olds strongly favoring gay marriage (59 percent to 37 percent). All other age groups oppose same-sex marriage, with opposition increasing the older one gets."

Older folks, lawyers included, are accustomed to using the courts to rectify wrongs. We will have to see whether these two celebrity lawyers are playing the Ann Coulter versus Bill Maher let's attract attention with our cleverness game or truly willing to spend the time and political capital necessary to bring the issue before the US Supreme Court and win.

Pandering to the Right

Why doesn't anyone ever pander to the Left? Because we are tolerant or more patient, is that why? This morning we woke up to the news that Barack Obama had chosen Rick Warren of Saddleback Church to deliver the invocation at the Inauguration.

Why did he have to do that?

Rick Warren is an evangelical who, yes, has focused the Christian population on things other than same sex marriage and abortion, things like Darfur, poverty, the environment, and HIV/AIDS, but... .

And this is a very big, BUT... .

Rick Warren did compare gay marriage to incest, pedophilic marriage, and polygamy. Click here and listen for yourself.

The policy statement from the Saddleback Church: Because membership in a church is an outgrowth of accepting the Lordship and leadership of Jesus in one’s life, someone unwilling to repent of their homosexual lifestyle would not be accepted at a member at Saddleback Church. That does not mean they cannot attend church – we hope they do! God’s Word has the power to change our lives.

What I find so disingenuous about how he speaks here is that marriage hasn't been defined by every culture for five thousand years as between a man and a woman. Many cultures, including Christianity and Islam, defined marriage as between a man and as many women as he could buy.

And since when was Proposition 8 ever a free speech issue?

So I have to act cranky about Obama's choice here, because he could have asked a spiritual leader who didn't have such strong and divisive views about an issue as contested as gay marriage.

One strike, Barack.

Being Out

Our daughter goes to a women's college where many of the students have been openly gay since they had consciousness. This allows them to use their intelligence, creativity, and sheer enthusiasm for life as most other adolescents do. They are high achieving, beautifully conceived young women, all shapes and sizes and colors, too.

This is the difference between her generation and mine. My generation, the Baby Boomers, had to live a lie for a long time before coming out. Harvey Milk was one reason why many in my generation did. I lived in San Francisco then. I knew Harvey. I was drawn to his charisma, and after seeing just the trailer to "Milk" the new Gus Van Sant film starring Sean Penn, I know I will recognize not just the person but the cause.

A group of Hollywood celebrities has created a wonderful musical that is both funny and tries to put an "American" solution on the issue of Proposition 8, the horrendous ballot initiative that just won in California, overturning the California Supreme Court's decision in May that said to deny gays and lesbians the right to marry offends the equal protection clause of that state's constitution. Click here to view the video, which is a lot of fun and has a serious message, too.

There is mounting pressure on President-elect Obama to include within his cabinet an openly gay member. Diversity is more than race. The nominee whose name is being tauted is Mary Beth Maxwell, a worker's rights advocate with a long resume of progressive activity. The position is Labor Secretary. So far, Obama has chosen centrists for the cabinet. Is it time for him to be bold and go beyond the safe and the conciliatory?

There is no doubt that within this economic crisis the rights of workers need to be examined and a new analysis of how we work, how we are insured, how we balance family obligations with work, and how we retire needs to be articulated. Just as the film Milk opens and reminds us of how courageous the "coming out" movement was, we might have reached the time when being out is a plus as a job qualification. There is progress.

Diner Dash

It’s been another nasty day: the sliding stock market, the increased slime of the Republican campaign for the presidency, and basic work tensions.

So I decided to go out for lunch. I chose a diner in a white working class area near my office. I have choices here: I can go Latino, African American, or white. I wanted to eavesdrop on conversations and figured the diner would be a perfect place to put my finger on the pulse of a local community.

Fox News was on. The issue of Proposition 8 was about to come up. That’s the California ballot initiative that would reverse the California Supreme Court ruling that under that state’s constitution, same sex marriage must be acknowledged.

The lead was something like this: elementary school teacher hosts field trip of her students to her lesbian wedding. Nothing like San Francisco!

However, when the story actually aired, it was very different. A parent of a student in the teacher’s class decided to take her own child to the teacher’s wedding. This is not a field trip. This is parental discretion. How that got distorted into a what sounded like a field trip of the entire class to the wedding, well, it’s Fox. Need I say more.

I was pissed. I overheard a conversation between two very assertive white men, mid-thirties, who were talking about how dangerous Obama was. The third man was hesitant, and was trying to focus their attention on the inexperience of Sarah Palin.

Despite my best intentions, I jumped in like a mad woman: Sarah Palin has no knowledge, no education, and no ability to be the president of the United States. Haven’t we had enough with stupid presidents? That’s how we got here.

These men looked at me like I was crazy, and I was old enough to be their crazy mother, too!

At times like this, I wish I had the composure of Barack Obama.