While California activists hoping for a 2012 repeal are busy “strategizing” and “organizing” and “sending email blasts,” the 2010 repealers are actually putting together their game plan. And not behind closed doors, either!
Some three dozen folks gathered in San Diego to attend what’s to be the first of many meetings to plot the course for a 2010 repeal. First order of bidness: How to collect the required 694,354 signatures (or one million-plus, to account for invalid signatures) to secure a repeal proposition on November’s ballot next year.
And also: How to deal with the split among activists between those who want to fight for a repeal in 2010, and those who want to wait for 2012. Because as former San Diego Acting Mayor Toni Atkins (the city’s first lesbian to hold the post) told the audience: “In my heart, I know the work that you, and that we, are doing on this issue is right, and it is a movement. I do want to challenge you, everyone in this discussion, whether you are a 2010er or a 2012er, I want to caution you and just remind you of a few things: The other side is going to be thrilled that we have a schism in our community and that we are debating this. So let’s be a model of civility. … I’m going to challenge each and every one of us not to make enemies within our own community, not to try to hit below the belt or say the thing that could be lasting after 2010. … Because it doesn’t matter, we are going to win this fight. So, let’s just do the work. We can disagree and we can not be disagreeable.”
But if you come up with a clever T-shirt or bumper sticker — like “Your kid may be on honor roll, but my kid didn’t wait till 2012 to repeal Prop 8” — please commence.
How about we take this to the next level?
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(Photo: Rex Wockner)
Transracial
madness!
2010 in less than four months away!
A new battle next year is both bound to fail and deplete the crucial cash and energies needed to actually win in 2012.
This is a fight to change history — not for in-the-moment point-making.
Relax, regroup and redouble your efforts should be the mantra at hand — some some silly ploy to “agree to disagree”.
This is not a joke — not about individual egos.
Lloyd Baltazar
2010 is the RIGHT choice. Many have debated as to whether 2010 is a better year to repeal Prop 8. REMEMBER: Justice Delayed is Justice Denied.
For each day that marriage equality is denied to the thousands of Gays and Lesbians in California is another unending moment of social injustice and discrimination. It is important to Repeal Prop 8 at the earliest possible convenience because marriage equality can only gain positive momentum at this moment.
Sitting on the couch and waiting for Prop 8 to go to the ballot in 2012 sends the wrong message that LGBT marriage equality is not important enough at this time. We must refute and challenge this wrong idea and repeal Proposition 8 at the earliest possible convenience—-in the year 2010!
RM
I don’t understand why people think 2012 will be a better year to win. Do they think that a presidential campaign will somehow work in our favor? That Obama will spend some political capital helping us?
Chitown Kev
Ah, 2010 v. 2012. I could argue either side of this question.
But you know what I do want?
I want the H8ers to suffer a loss so devastating that they will not come back and put this shit on the ballot again. We could very well win marriage equality in 2010 only to have it taken away in 2012.
I want the bigots to be so fucked up that they realize that they would be wasting their money and their time.
Chitown Kev
Not that I like the idea of civil rights being put on a ballot, by the way. But…it is what it is.
Chitown Kev
@RM:
Well…no I don’t expect Obama to do anything to help us, really.
So let’s not use our community’s resources to help Obama in 2012, either, at least in California, if there is a ballot challenge in 2012. No LGBT Californian should be canvassing or phone banking in, say, Nevada or Colorado or New Mexico or another Western swing state as many did in 2008.
Michael Phillips
We should go back to the polls EVERY opportunity we get 2010, 2012, special elections whatever. Win or lose we wear the marriage equality bigots down every time we engage. God willing each time will go back to the ballot it will also allow the same marriage equality bigots an opportunity to show their true motives of bigotry and control. Yes Maggie Gallagher I mean you…and all who help you…
MackMichael
I’m glad that folks feel passion about our plight in California, and I too want a massive repeal, but as the organizers organize and we rally the troops here, please do not take your eye off the current anti-gay measures that are up for a vote just months away, including WA referendum 71, Maine’s proposition 1.
Markie-Mark
I’m from Massachusetts and I hope you do try for 2010 and I hope you win. But let’s not forget that Californians voted for Obama and then on the same ballot voted for Prop H8. So we were stabbed in the back by Democrats. And I suggest that if we fail in 2010 that we get as many gay and gay-friendly voters as we can to sign a pledge that they will not vote for Obama in 2012. If the Democrats won’t help us then let Obama lose California. We’re helping Democrats and they don’t do anything for us! Where’s the self-respect in that?
Ron
I understand the desire to go back 2010, or EVERY year until we restore marriage equality. But its unreasonable to do so. Why? Because each time we go back to the ballot, we have to put in $40 million dollars. That’s 40 million dollars in 2010, in 2012, and God forbid 2014, if that’s the scenario of going back to the ballot every year. And that’s NOT including the fact that those Yes on 8 will put it back on the ballot as well. That’s 120 million dollars spent (unwisely) when hundreds of thousands California university students at the University of California, California State University, and California Community Colleges watching fees rise. That’s 120 million dollars spend (unwisely) when we have a crumbling infrastructure (ever driven on the 10 going West at the 101, 5, 60 intersection?). That’s 120 million dollars spent when HIV/AIDS programs were cut by the Governor. If we’re going to spend $40 million dollars each time we go to the ballot, let’s make each dollar count.
B
Lloyd Baltazar wrote, “2010 is the RIGHT choice. Many have debated as to whether 2010 is a better year to repeal Prop 8. REMEMBER: Justice Delayed is Justice Denied.”
The issue is rather, whether or not an attempt in 2010 would mean a high chance of having to wait until 2014. If an attempt in 2010 fails and the effort burns everyone out, whether financially or from overwork on the repeal, you might not be able to try again in 2012 even if you could win in that year.
It’s reasonable to ask the people pushing for a 2010 repeal to provide credible estimates of (a) their chance of success and (b) their ability to mount a second campaign in 2012 if the 2010 one fails. A credible estimate is not handwaving.