Prop 8 - Welcome to Second Class Citizenship

By Dan Kirk on 05/27/2009 @ 01:26 PM

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Like every other organization involved with marriage equality, many of us at Yes on Gay Marriage participated in various events in California. As someone who was born in California and spent a good portion of his life here, I’ve always had some sense of greater security with being a gay man in this state. I remember moving to Arizona in the late 1990’s and realizing I could suddenly be arrested (they still had sodomy statutes on the books just a decade ago).

The passage of Proposition 8 last November greatly shifted my feeling of safety and security living here in California. Today’s ruling by the California Supreme Court reaffirmed that the citizens of this state have legally declared gay and lesbian couples to be second-class citizens. Or, as my ten year old nephew told me when he got home from school this afternoon “It sucks they don’t want people to be gay anymore.”

Today’s ruling wasn’t about gay marriage. It was about process and California’s screwy process of direct democracy through the ballot box. Suffice it to say it’s real easy to change the state’s constitution. All you need is a million bucks and you can get a proposition outlawing gay marriage on the ballot. The message today from the court was merely an affirmation that yes, ballot measures, and elections count.

It’s an example of why we, as Americans should be grateful it is not so easy to change the United States Constitution.

The Federal Marriage Amendment would now be a part of the U.S. Constitution if it was as easy to change that hallowed document as it is to change California’s constitution. While dealing with the federal DOMA law will be difficult enough, and repealing Proposition 8 will be expensive, trying to overcome the Federal Marriage Amendment if it had been passed would be all but impossible. With a firm Democratic Congress, and a Democratic President, it is extremely unlikely the FMA will be passed through Congress anytime soon.

Still, California should serve as a wake-up call and reminder that even in the most liberal of states, we should never rest on our achievements and believe the fight is over. There will always be people out there who ‘don’t want people to be gay anymore’ as my nephew said. Even in California we have a lot of work yet to do.

It is also a reason why we should not be hesitant to demand that DOMA be repealed now, in 2009 instead of waiting until 2011 or 2012.

Dan Kirk has been active in the LGBT rights movement for sixteen years, starting with the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” debates in the early 90s. Helping to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act has become one of his highest priorities.