Pledge to Repeal Prop 8: Restore Marriage Equality

by: Robert Cruickshank

Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 10:42:47 AM PST

The more I look at the passage of Prop 8 and the reaction to it - the outpouring of anger, the determination to not let this stand - the more I realize that we have been here before.

In 1963 the state legislature passed the Rumford Fair Housing Act, outlawing racial discrimination in the sale or rental of property. Housing segregation was one of the main targets of the Civil Rights Movement and the Rumford Act was a major victory.

But it also provoked a conservative reaction. In 1964 the California Real Estate Association put Proposition 14 on the ballot, a constitutional amendment repealing the open housing law. A former actor named Ronald Reagan launched his political career serving as the spokesman for the campaign, especially in TV ads. Despite a major mobilization against Prop 14 - leading to, among other things, the Berkeley Free Speech Movement - Prop 14 passed by a 2-1 margin in November 1964.

It was a bitter blow to the California civil rights movement. The anger it provoked was so intense it led to the Watts Riots the following summer. But the main reaction among the California civil rights movement was to organize. By 1970 activists had forced the Democratic Party in CA and in DC to embrace open housing and enshrined it in law as soon as Prop 14 was overturned by the US Supreme Court.

Many Californians are asking us "what now?" The protests we have seen are the beginnings of a new civil rights movement - the marriage equality movement - but we need a grassroots movement to make this movement grow and succeed. And to do that we need a goal. A court case doesn't sustain activist energies - something the civil rights Movement, which was organized long before Brown v. Board or Reitman v. Mulkey and achieved its main successes by mounting the most effective and important grassroots movement in our history, understood quite well.

The goal, then, ought to be a repeal of Prop 8. We can and must do the groundwork, field organizing, and outreach to block by block reverse this defeat and show Californians the importance of restoring equal rights - exactly as the civil rights movement did 40 years ago.

The birth of a new Marriage Equality Movement -- the civil rights movement of the 21st Century -- is unfolding before our eyes.

Movements are visceral and popular, often borne of outrage and anger. What we are witnessing on the streets and online is a community of people who have come together to say: "These are our lives. This is our time. This is unacceptable." Organized from the bottom-up by thousands of ordinary people in the last 48 hours, this people-powered phenomenon is exponentially growing by the minute, online and offline.

This is our moment to stand strong together -- gay and straight -- and say that we refuse to accept a California where discrimination is enshrined in our state constitution. Please show your support by pledging to support our campaign to repeal Prop 8 and restore marriage equality to California.

Our email to our members is over the flip.

"Not everyone was as jubilant about the gains for marriage as (the) Family Research Council and our supporters. This morning, FOX News posted photo after photo of the anti-family rioting in Los Angeles..." -- Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, a powerful right-wing religious think tank that helped lead the campaign to pass Proposition 8.

Dear Robert,

"Anti-family rioting."

That is how the religious extremists behind Prop 8 are characterizing the protests that have spread across California in the aftermath of Tuesday's passage of the ballot measure that eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry.

I was at the heart of one of these amazing marches in Los Angeles on Wednesday night. And it was anything but "anti-family rioting."

It was history in the making -- thousands of passionate Americans spontaneously speaking out against enshrining discrimination into the California state constitution.

We are witnessing the birth of a new Marriage Equality Movement -- the civil rights movement of the 21st Century. Organized from the bottom-up by thousands of ordinary people just like you in the last 48 hours, this people-powered phenomenon is exponentially growing by the minute, online and offline.

You are at ground zero in this movement. And we need to take it to the next level -- a new initiative campaign to repeal Prop 8 and restore marriage equality to California. Please pledge your support now to repeal Prop 8 -- then forward this message to your friends:

http://www.couragecampaign.org...

California had the chance to do what no other state has done and uphold equality for all. Instead, a slim majority decided to strip fundamental human rights from a minority. As Jonathan Stein writes at Mother Jones:

"The decision violates, violently, the image of my state that I have held with such pride my entire life. California is a wonderful place for a lot of reasons, but foremost among them is the way in which it welcomes people."

Movements are visceral and popular, often borne of outrage and anger. What we are witnessing on the streets and online is a community of people who have come together to say: "These are our lives. This is our time. This is unacceptable."

This is our moment to stand strong together -- gay and straight -- and say that we refuse to accept a California that enshrines bigotry into our state constitution. Please pledge your support now to repeal Prop 8 and restore marriage equality to California -- then forward this message to your friends:

http://www.couragecampaign.org...

Thank you for mobilizing your friends to fight the religious right and restore marriage equality to California.

Rick Jacobs
Chair

P.S. My friends Zach Shepard and Geoffrey Murry helped spark Wednesday and Thursday night's marches in Los Angeles, activating their social networks via email and Facebook. These two young lawyers have never led a protest in their lives, but they decided to take matters into their own hands, along with thousands of other concerned citizens shocked at the passage of Prop 8.

Like Zach and Geoffrey, you can help build California's new Marriage Equality Movement today by taking action in your own community. Will you start by pledging your support to repeal Prop 8 and then forward this message to your friends?

http://www.couragecampaign.org...