by MARK GABRISH
CONLAN
Copyright © 2012 by Mark Gabrish Conlan for Zenger’s
Newsmagazine • All rights reserved
PHOTOS, top to
bottom (14):
Jersey (far right) at assembly point
Equality for All
Canvass for a Cause
Cops
Michael Anderson
Blake
Eric
Jace Watson
Jersey (speaking)
Lisa Kove
José Medina
Drew Searing (left)
Sid (right)
Thomas
Despite short
notice and the threat of rain, over 250 people turned out on the streets of
Hillcrest Tuesday night, February 7, for a march and rally called by the San
Diego Alliance for Marriage Equality (S.A.M.E.) to celebrate a 2-1 ruling by
the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that Proposition 8, California’s
voter-approved ban on marriage equality, violates the U.S. Constitution.
The ruling came
in the case of Perry v. Brown (formerly Perry v. Schwarzenegger),
filed by attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies on behalf of two California
couples, one Gay and one Lesbian, who challenged Proposition 8 in federal court
after the California Supreme Court affirmed that nothing in California’s state
constitution blocked the voters from amending it to define marriage as solely
between one man and one woman. The majority opinion was written by Stephen Reinhardt
and joined by Michael Hawkins, both appointed to the court by Democratic
presidents (Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, respectively). Randy Smith, the
judge who voted to allow Proposition 8 to stand, was appointed by Republican
President George W. Bush.
“Proposition 8
operates with no apparent purpose but to impose on Gays and Lesbians, through
the public law, a majority’s private disapproval of them and their
relationships, by taking away from them the official designation of ‘marriage,’
with its societally recognized status,” Reinhardt wrote. “Therefore,
Proposition 8 violates the Equal Protection Clause” of the Fourteenth Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution.
Marchers
assembled on the corner of Sixth and University in Hillcrest from 5:30 to 6
p.m. Many of them brought umbrellas, then put them away as the rain stopped
just before the march stepped off. Despite rumors that San Diego Mayor Jerry
Sanders, who testified in the Perry
trial on behalf of marriage equality, had been invited to speak at the rally,
the only elected official present was Third District City Councilmember Todd
Gloria, who did the march but didn’t address the crowd. The police kept
marchers on the sidewalk of University Avenue and successfully resisted a
short-lived attempt by members of Occupy San Diego, who joined the
demonstration, to take it to the streets.
Instead of
elected officials, the rally speakers included three members of the Equality
Nine, whose trial on misdemeanor charges stemming from a civil disobedience
action in August 2010 is scheduled to begin in San Diego County Superior Court
March 28. Sean Bohac MC’d the event and Zakiya Khabir and Michael Anderson were
among the scheduled speakers. Khabir reminded the crowd that the Nine had been
arrested for protesting San Diego County’s refusal to issue marriage licenses
to same-sex couples after Judge Vaughn Walker first declared Proposition 8
unconstitutional in August 2010 — a decision which was appealed to the Ninth
Circuit, producing the February 7 ruling.
“We were
expecting marriage licenses,” Khabir recalled. “Instead we were not even
allowed into any of the rooms on the floor of the County Administration Center
where the County Clerk’s offices are. We sat in on the floor and we were
arrested.”
The county clerk
at the time justified his decision by pointing to a “stay” — a delay — in Judge
Walker’s own ruling, which remains in effect even though two federal courts
have now found Prop. 8 unconstitutional. Since the 9th Circuit panel
kept the stay in effect, California counties still cannot issue marriage
licenses to same-sex couples even though three judges in two courts have ruled
Prop. 8 invalid. A sign in front of the rally stage said of the 9th
Circuit decision, “Right on the Merits — Wrong on Delay!”
“The next step
in front of us is the U.S. Supreme Court,” Khabir said. Actually, the Prop. 8
proponents have three choices: they can appeal for a so-called en banc hearing before all 11 judges of the 9th
Circuit, they can appeal directly to the Supreme Court or they can decline to
appeal at all and allow the 9th Circuit decision to take effect. Few
people seriously expect the Prop. 8 supporters not to appeal, and their signals
before the 9th Circuit ruling was that if they lost there, they’d go
directly to the Supreme Court.
“Many people
think that’s a time to wait for a decision to come down from on high,” Khabir
said of a potential Supreme Court appeal. “But I and a lot of other people
disagree. We need to be out in the streets saying it’s not O.K. when rights are
taken away.”
“There is still
a long process ahead of us with the Supreme Court struggle,” Bohac added. “We
need to keep up the pressure in three states: Maine, Washington and New
Jersey.” Maine voters narrowly approved a measure similar to Proposition 8 in
spring 2009 and Queer-rights activists there are going back to the ballot box
to overturn it. Washington’s governor, Democrat Christine Gregoire, has already
signed a marriage equality bill into law and the state is expected to issue
licenses to same-sex couples within weeks. New Jersey’s legislature has passed
a similar bill and it’s now on the desk of Republican governor Chris Christie,
who has threatened to veto it.
Michael Anderson
used his speech to contrast the city’s attitude towards marriage equality
activists with the hostility the Mayor, City Council and Police Department have
shown towards the Occupy protesters in Civic Center Plaza. He said he was
disappointed that Sanders hadn’t attended the rally because “I wanted to ask
the Mayor what was the difference between this group of people and those down
in Freedom Plaza [as the Occupy protesters have renamed Civic Center Plaza].
I’d like to ask the Police Department and the Mayor to end the police
harassment and illegal arrests against the Occupiers.”
Anderson also
noted that the so-called National Organization for Marriage, one of the groups
that pushed Proposition 8, has targeted the Fair Education Act, a bill passed
by the California legislature in 2010 that requires that students in public
schools be given age-appropriate lessons on “the role and contributions of …
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Americans … to the total development of
California and other states.”
Michelle
“Jersey” Deutsch, staff member of Canvass for a Cause (CFAC) and an Occupy
protester who was roughed up by police and then mistreated by doctors and
nurses when she sought treatment for her injuries, also mentioned the Fair
Education Act and the struggle to preserve it against a Prop. 8-style
initiative. “It is an incredibly important bill, and just like Proposition 8,
there are paid signature gatherers on the streets collecting signatures to
repeal the Fair Education Act.”
Deutsch also
talked about her experience with CFAC, which — as its name suggests —
approaches people on the street and talks to them about marriage equality. “For
the last four years, LGBT [Queer] people and our allies have been working in
the streets and communicating with people who voted against us,” she explained.
“At CFAC, one in four non-supporters we approach end up moving to the side of
equality. Just by educating people and talking through the lies and
misconceptions $42 million campaigns can create, we can move voters to equal
rights.”
“A very happy
good evening to all of you,” said José Medina, a self-proclaimed “straight and
humble” ally and a key member of S.A.M.E. often seen leading chants at its
demonstrations. “Another wall is smashed against those who have stood in the
way of human dignity and progress. For California, a trail of legal victories
has been established that hopefully may persuade the Supreme Court not to even
hear an appeal.”
S.A.M.E. opened
the mike to all comers after the official rally, and got some interesting and
sometimes surprising voices from the crowd. Lisa Kove of DOD FED GLOBE, an
organization devoted to safeguarding the rights of Queer people who work for
the Department of Defense as servicemembers or civilian employees, began her
speech with a disclaimer she gives so often she joked the audience knew it by
heart, saying she was speaking purely as an individual and not representing the
Defense Department.
Kove then talked
about the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and what she called the “loophole”
it left: openly Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual people can now serve in the U.S.
military, but Transgender people still cannot. “Who’s to say they won’t decide
someone doesn’t live up to their standards of masculinity and kick them out for
being Transgender, just as they used to throw out straight women by charging
them with being Lesbians?” she said.
“Also, right now
they have made it where we cannot get married on military bases,” Kove added.
“That violates our right to religious
freedom. I’m a Reform Jew and we believe in marriage equality. We need freedom
for all religions, not just their religions.”
Sid, a woman in
a wheelchair, talked about how the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act” (DoMA),
passed by a Republican Congress and signed into law by a Democratic President,
Bill Clinton, in 1996, stands in the way not only of the military recognizing
same-sex relationships but also prevents American citizens legally married to
same-sex partners overseas from sponsoring their spouses for immigration.
It’s an issue
that affects Sid personally. She met her wife when she was stationed with the
U.S. military in Germany and they were married under German law. “My marriage
is legally recognized in Germany,” she said. “I have free health care there,
but I can’t afford to live there. My marriage is not recognized here. We have no rights here whatsoever.
You should see my wife’s college tuition bills. It’s ridiculous. Let’s get rid
of DoMA now.”
“I’m so proud to
be part of this night,” said Thomas. “I grew up in Lakeside in the 1980’s when
LGBT’s were not considered part of the community. I grew up in terror and it
took me until I was 18 when I came out with the support of a sympathetic
family. Now kids come out younger and younger, and they should.” Thomas also
offered “a prayer for people in Syria and North Korea who are more oppressed
than we are, who can’t come out to a street and protest like we can, and are
living in fear or dying.”
“I was at the
planning meeting for this, and I suggested we all have an orgy, but I got shot
down,” said Eric, who identified himself as Sister Iona Dubble-Wyde of the
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence but said he’d put the drag aside while he
attends college. His advice to the crowd was to “come out as a Gay person or as
an ally, because it’s much harder to hate something you can put a face on. Then
there’s less chance they’ll hate this ‘Gay monster’ they don’t know anything
about.”
One young man
who has come out as a straight ally —
with dramatic results — is Jace Watson, a recent graduated of Scripps Ranch
High School who headed the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) there. “I had a lot of
discrimination against me as GSA president,” he said. “People thought I was
Gay, and when I told them I was a straight ally their jaws dropped to the
floor.” He recalled taking GSA members to Queer-rights protests and “you could
see it in their faces when court decisions came out and people came out in
favor of talking about Queer issues in school.” Like some of the other
speakers, he urged the crowd to act to protect the Fair Education Act.
“Nobody here
knows my name,” said Blake. “That does not matter. We are all human beings. Are
we Gay, white, Black? That does not matter. What matters is our human right to
be who we are. It’s up to every one of us to be out there, be free, go to the
essence of our humanity and be who we are. Be honest, be genuine and come from
your heart. Be honest with your family and friends, your lovers, your wives,
your husbands and the fabulous policemen who are here protecting us.”
