With all of the hoopla and celebrating over the Obama victory, many Americans may have looked past the country’s continued rejection of fundamental civil and human rights for gay and lesbian people. The Christian Science Monitor reports:
Same-sex couples will no longer be permitted to legally marry in the Golden State. With 95 percent of the vote counted Wednesday morning, a ballot initiative to ban gay marriage headed for a narrow victory. It’s a public repudiation of a landmark state court ruling in May that found same-sex couples have a right to marry. Voters in Florida and Arizona also approved constitutional bans on gay marriage on Tuesday. Just two years earlier, Arizona was the first state to defeat a gay marriage ban at the ballot box.
A gay friend in Florida writes, “A really bad night for gays in Florida and California, very upsetting, despite Obama’s victory.”
Gay rights is the civil rights issue of our time. Those who oppose them are simply on the wrong side of history. (For some perspective on what being on the wrong side of history means, check out what the daughter of George Wallace has to say.).
While stabilizing the economy and dealing with what Paul Kennedy dubbed America’s imperial overstretch have to be the new President’s first priorities, if Obama is to fulfill his historic role and transformative promise, he cannot back away – in fact he must lead – on this fundamental issue.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Rich – Let’s not forget Arkansas who voted to prohibit unwedded couples (aimed at same-sex couples) from adoption.
Are we seeing a battle for the protection of traditional “marriage” or more of an attempt to protect the idea of a family in the U.S?
One of the arguments against gay marriage in this country is that children need a mom and a dad, not two dads or two moms.
Whatever it is… deeply disappointing
November 6th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Another note… 76% of African Americans who turned out to vote in California voted YES for Proposition 8. The widest margin of any group who voted in CA.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:22 am
It does seem as we take a step or two forward the we then take another one backwards. And it seems America is able to get past one issue at a time but will need to wait on the next big step forward.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:23 am
These “successful” ballot propositions designed to limit the definition of family and marriage should probably serve as reminders for what the Obama victory meant — and especially what it did not.
The victory did likely mean Americans are ready to be “post-racial” and that younger Americans of all ethnic and racial backgrounds are finding a way to be involved in politics — to make politics fit their lifestyle. The large margin of victory also had something to do with how unpopular George Bush is, and how badly his policies have failed.
But the United States is still a very religious country by international standards, and a socially conservative one. The Obama victory was not about the country becoming less socially conservative (as much as some of us would like to read it that way — the evidence just isn’t there). Obama likely has no political capital to spend on gay marriage rights — I’m guessing he’ll avoid the issue.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:36 am
I’m very disappointed and angry about Proposition 8. I’m gay and voted for Obama. His current statements on gay marriage are contradictory and incoherent (so much so that his statements against the proposition we used by supporters of proposition); they were probably made for political purposes. I expect him, now that he has won the election, to use some of his political capital with the African-American community to move them along on this issue. I hope he works with people like Gov. Patterson of New York, who is both African-American and pro-gay-marriage.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:43 am
The organized effort to accept African-Americans as full members of society began about the early 1800s (if not earlier), if we measure it from the time when the Quakers and some other religious circles decided that slavery was immoral. That’s about 200 years before we elected Obama.
Maybe it’ll take a few more years for acceptance of gays and lesbians to reach a majority of Americans. Luckily, the rate of social change has sped up a bit since the 19th century.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:59 am
The Prop. 8 vote in California directly affects me as my marriage could very well now move from a recognized to unrecognized one in my state. I’ve had dozens of emails from mostly gay folks lamenting that the vote put a damper on their election night enthusiasm. I’ve also had several making the point about the exit polling regarding the support for Prop. 8 from African-Americans. It’s from that perspective that I make this comment.
We are winning the gay rights stuggles despite yesterday’s election results. In California, we went from 62% support for a same-sex marriage ban to only 52% support in just six years. Support for lifting the military ban is nearly 2/3rd of the population and workplace anti-discrimination polls over 80%. We are winning.
The scapegoating of African-Americans on the Prop. 8 vote is incredibly unhelpful. 84% of church goers (a third of voters!) voted against us. 81% of evangelicals (17% of the electorate) voted against us. The results are much more complex than a simple analysis that black people didn’t support us. Religious people of all stripes did not support us in overwhelming numbers. Focusing on race is not going to help to change that fact.
On January 20, 2009 I’m sure that a few same-sex couples will marry in Massachusetts and Connecticut. It’s sad that California took a step back and couples here will not have that opportunity here.
But on that same day a black man will stand on steps of the US Capitol built by black slaves and take the oath of office to become the 44th President of the United States.
Sorry folks, but I will not despair nor am I disheartened. That is just too big of a game changer for this country and the world.
Cliche as this may sound, Obama’s victory is all the evidence I need that change indeed is happening. Justice and equality will prevail–perhaps not as quickly as we like–but prevail nonetheless.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
No one expected evangelicals to support gay marriage. I hold Obama, in particular, to a higher standard because his own parents would have been the victims of the anti-miscegenation laws had they not been struck down, ironically, by the California Supreme Court. Karl Rove is sleazy but not stupid. He was very shrewd in picking off socially conservative African Americans in Ohio and other places in 2004. It didn’t work this time (for obvious reasons) but that doesn’t prevent it from happening in 2016.
November 6th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
but that doesn’t prevent it from happening in 2016
Man, Obama’s been re-elected already?!?
November 6th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
No, but he almost certain to run for reelection and equally certain to retain the support of the African American community.
November 11th, 2008 at 1:49 am
Thank you Gary. The perspective on Blacks and evangelicals is right on. For several years when people have talked about evangelicals and working class, they’ve meant only the Whites. In my experience, a larger number of Blacks are churchgoers than Whites, which could explain the election stats. (Interestingly, a higher percentage of my gay friends are Christian churchgoers compared to straight ones. Do you have any stats on that?)
Same-sex marriage and gay rights are a, maybe the, major civil rights issue of our time. But you and Zoe are right about progress. It wasn’t that long ago that being homosexual was a crime in most states, gays were beaten up in the streets, and the medical profession considered being gay a disease. That we’re seriously discussing marriage is a breakthrough in itself.