There’s a saying by William Gladstone that goes “justice delayed is justice denied.” While in most civil rights cases, this holds true - the faster we are to act, the faster we will have results we desire - for homosexual marriage, the reverse may be the best course of action – “justice delayed is justice granted.”
If we look at the news today, a very interesting thing is happening. Gay rights activists groups are actually in disagreement about gay rights. Many groups, led by Yes on Equality!, are eager to overturn Prop 8 in the November 2010 election. Yes on Equality is fighting to repeal Section 7.5 of Article I of the California Constitution, the “California Marriage Equality Act.” As of now, the article reads: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” Yes Equality’s proposed California ballot initiate would have this section removed.
However, other groups, led by Equality California, don’t believe California is ready yet to repeal Prop 8. While I am a strong advocate for gay rights and legalizing same-sex marriage and admire the enthusiasm of Yes on Equality! I agree with the activist group Equality-LA in waiting until the 2012 election to overturn Prop 8. It is just too risky and costly to rush such a crucial moment in California’s history.
In the 2008 election, both sides spent a total of $81 million dollars campaigning for Prop 8. In the end, 52% voted Yes on Prop 8 and 48% voted No on Prop 8. There are many reasons why waiting until 2012 is the best course of action to win the battle over same-sex marriage.
There are three major reasons that California should repeal Prop 8 in 2012 as opposed to 2010. First, we must wait for financial reasons. Due to the economic recession, all social and political groups are feeling the effects of less money in their pockets. As a result, less people are able to donate money to organizations that fight for LGBT rights. Thus, it is logical to wait two more years to raise enough funds.
Secondly, before we can convince others to vote for same-sex marriage, we need to focus on internal organization. Not only do we need full support from the entire LGBT community, but include our allies and make them pledge their support, financially and volunteering.
Once we have financial support and a strong coalition of allies, we can finally turn to the gathering the support of others who voted Yes on Prop 8 in 2008. It is crucial in this aspect to win over the support of religious groups, conservative groups and communities of color, who statistically tended to vote Yes on Prop 8. However, it is not so easy to convince these groups to repeal Prop 8 if they voted for yet just a year ago. Thus, waiting until 2010 will give us the extra time needed to win over more supporters.
Hey Lora, great comment on the political and financial realities on policy action. Sometimes patience is an important virtue to create sustainable action, and not receive backlash that will hurt progressive movements in the long run.
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The other day, a guy outside Starbucks in the UV asked if I had a minute to help legalize gay marriage. I do have a minute. It is the minute I vote once the initiative comes up on the ballot again.
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This is a very interesting post-- and I do believe that a lot more could be successfully done if these activists were extremely tactful and planned their approach to continue the battle for legalizing same-sex marriage. Undoubtedly, these are the years in which the battle for gay rights will go down in American history. But activists still have a lot of work to do because there is a huge part of the American population that is still not on board. Opinions are definitely changing, but it takes time, and that should be taken into account before trying to race to putting it into legislation.
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