Gay rights backers file 3 lawsuits challenging Prop. 8

[lunatica]

Lawyers for same-sex couples argue that the anti-gay marriage measure is an illegal constitutional revision. Backers of the measure attack the suits.
By Maura Dolan and Tami Abdollah
November 6, 2008
Reporting from San Francisco and Los Angeles -- After losing at the polls, gay rights supporters filed three lawsuits Wednesday asking the California Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8, an effort the measure's supporters called an attempt to subvert the will of voters.


Lawyers for same-sex couples argued that the anti-gay-marriage measure was an illegal constitutional revision -- not a more limited amendment, as backers maintained -- because it fundamentally altered the guarantee of equal protection. A constitutional revision, unlike an amendment, must be approved by the Legislature before going to voters.

The state high court has twice before struck down ballot measures as illegal constitutional revisions, but those initiatives involved "a broader scope of changes," said former California Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grodin, who publicly opposed Proposition 8 and was part of an earlier legal challenge to it. The court has suggested that a revision may be distinguished from an amendment by the breadth and the nature of the change, Grodin said

more at the link....


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gaylegal6-2008nov06,0,220763.story

[AntiFascist]

1. Gay marriage was instated by the courts because of the equal protection clause...

it is obvious that any amendment trying to undo that ruling should be considered a major revision.

[Ian David]

2. DONATE!

www.eqca.org

[stopbush]

3. So if freedom of speech was outlawed only for women, it would

not involve "a broader set of charges," according to dumbass Grodin?

[NJPuggle]

4. As a No supporting straight, I have an idea

Could there be organized an arts boycott in California to really make it clear? I saw someone post a proposed wedding boycott, where the GLBT community no longer assists with straight weddings, but I don't think that's strong enough; plenty of straights with equal artistic gifts will swarm in and take the jobs, and bitter straights whose weddings were impacted would likely strike back by no longer hiring uncloseted members of the community for anything. With straights being the majority this would be destructive. I propose something like orchestras and radio stations refusing to entertain Californian audiences with symphonies written by gay composers for instance:

Leonard Bernstein
Aaron Copland (kiss your western and cowboy music goodbye)
Benjamin Britten
P.I. Tchaikovsky
Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert & Sullivan

This is just five and it goes on far from there. I find myself remembering a line from Bernstein's "Mass", which I'm listening to playing in the other room right now. Stephen Schwartz wrote these lines for the sneering, wondering, anti-Christian evangelist ensemble song "God Said", quoted from "Mass":

God made us the boss
God gave us the cross
We turned it into a sword
To do the will of the Lord
We use his holy decrees
To do whatever we please...
And it was good - yeah! And it was good - yeah!
And it was goddamn good!

Cretins. This is all so going to backfire on these bigots.

[lunatica]

7. You just gave me an idea

One way to show that gay people are part and parcel of our culture is to point out famous historic figures who contributed hugely to the advancement of the world's culture. It could be part of the fight to show that being gay is no different than being straight when it comes to issues that have enriched humanity.

It should be part of a campaign. They're going to be forced to think when their favorite composers, writers, playwrights, leaders and heroes turn out to be gay people who never harmed anyone and who brought art and music and film and tradition to all of us.

[NJPuggle]

11. I agree

I think you have a great campaign idea in that. I want to see it happen, but I don't know how. I work in television and could put together a spot, but there is no way I could afford the airtime costs it would demand. :(

Why is it I cannot be rich and own the universe???

[lunatica]

13. I was thinking of something like an ad, then to turn it into a poster

Something that could be sold for a few dollars and hung in storefront windows, etc., of businesses that support gays or are owned by gays. Seeing the names of famous people who everyone admires has to make a difference for many people and it forces people to pay attention to facts rather than smears.

[NJPuggle]

14. Human faces. Human achievements. Human tears.

Human rights.

Tough to ignore.

[lunatica]

15. They can't demonize you if they see a person who's better than they are

Many of their favorite people will turn out to be gay. If they boycott every gay person then they lose. Let them go back to their red enclaves and get the hell out of Dodge. I don't care what they think as long as they stay away from the rest of us. They're welcome to go live their lives in peace as long as they allow everyone else the same right.

[NJPuggle]

16. Amen!

And you know I was just thinking that today: there is such a divide in this country - those of us who are dreaming, reaching deeper, reaching higher, giving from deeper, becoming more human, more loving, more compassionate, more aware - and those who want to remain in the old hatreds. I was just thinking today, "This situation is worse than the British faced with hardened convicts when they shipped them off to Botany Bay in Australia. Why don't we offer these haters tickets to another land someplace where they may hate freely, and leave the rest of us alone?" Some have already suggested Tehran and other places, and they themselves are muttering about emigrating to Alaska and Puerto Rico, but I wonder why I get odd looks when I suggest the moon?

Hell, build a penal colony on the moon and send them there. After four centuries of systematized hate pointed at people who look like me, millennia of hate towards people with a gender like mine, millennia of hate towards the Jews, and millennia of hate towards people who simply love each other, and an eternity of hatred towards anyone creative, kind, compassionate, gentle or intelligent, haven't we all taken enough?

The moon.

Now.

Edited to add I am only somewhat joking about this.

[Duncan Grant]

18. This poster hangs in more than one LGBT non-profit:

http://www9.mailordercentral.com/teachingforchange/prodinfo.asp?number=GAYS

[Shallah Kali]

19. What about YouTube? Start with the internet and see if it can't be taken further.......

?

[Ms. Toad]

8. You would need to be careful to avoid impacting

the income of artists who are living or who have recently died.

Copyright law generally permits royalties for life + 70 years. Anytime the music is played, a royalty is paid to a multi-layered groupd of people (the composer, the person who arranged the music, the performers, and I am sure I am leaving out some), each of whom have copyrights for roughly life + 70 years. Cutting down on the performances cuts down on their royalty income (or the income of the surviving heirs).

[NJPuggle]

9. That's a good point I hadn't thought of... but

I think the artists involved would have given all they had for the right to be seen as equal. I can't even imagine what Leonard Bernstein would be thinking today. Can you imagine the speech he'd give from New York? :(

Cali let us all down yesterday.

[Ms. Toad]

10. The giving needs to be voluntary -

being the subject of a boycott is not voluntary.

[NJPuggle]

12. Good point

Where does this point our next work? What should we, can we, do?

[Ms. Toad]

17. My belief has always been

that until there is no one in this country who can honestly say, "I don't know and love someone gay," we will be fighting a losing battle. Personally, no one who knows me, on anything more than an extremely casual basis, could make that claim.

Identifying famous people who are gay certainly does put a face on it - but it is still an unknown face. The most important thing is getting our stories out to our families, friends, and neighbors. For those who are straight, if you have been given permission to share the stories of your GLBT friends and family - you can help tell the story too.

Find your local Equality group. Find your local PFLAG group. Pitch in and help. If you have money, donate money. If you have time, donate time. Participate in family lobby day with your state legislators. Write letters to the editor. The more our sexual orientation and gender identity become familiar, in the way that "straightness" is familiar now, the easier it will be to achieve equality.

This is sort of the Obama strategy - I heard that part of how he won Ohio was that no one in the state was more than 38 miles from an Obama for President office. We need to make sure that no one in the country is farther than a handshake away from someone who publicly identifies as GLBT.

[HockeyMom]

5. They should go to Florida too

The way the Florida amendment is worded it not only discriminates against gays, but anybody in a domestic partnerhip.

[Lex]

6. Exactly. Constitutional rights aren't put to a popular vote. That's crazy.

How do you think it would've turned out had the South been able to put to a popular vote on whether African Americans got their constitutional rights?