If you are a California voter who cares about civil rights, no matter how you feel about the politicians, be sure to vote NO on proposition 8, an attempt by homophobes to deny equal marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples.
It didn't take them long to gear up the hate. It was only in June, as I wrote in At Last, that marriage began, yet the proposition was already written and being put on the ballot.
It is time to put an end to second-class citizenship for millions in California.
No on 8
Anglachel
6 comments:
I am not a resident of California anymore. My son, however, with Cleve Jones helps a coalition of LGBT mobilize against prop. 8. I couldn't be more proud.
Koshem Bos,
Kudos to your kid! Polls are tight, but still showing a "No" majority.
Equal rights for all.
Anglachel
In Arizona, vote NO on Prop 102 (marriage is a union between only one man and one women...glad they clarified that it's only one at a time. Wonder if this union has to pay dues to the Republican Party?).
Anyway - this same prop was defeated in 2006 and it's baaacccccck just two years later. Unbelievable what a waste of money these things become.
Thanks for posting on this issue, Anglachel. What does it feel like on the ground in CA on Prop 8? From a distance, it feels grim, but that may just be because most of what we see are (necessary) fundraising pleas that focus on how tight the polls are and how much money the Mormons are pouring into the state. Any courageous Dems willing to expend any of their significant political capital on an important LGBT civil rights issue?
Roxie,
It's hard for me to gauge because I live in the middle of one of the biggest gay enclaves in the state (Hillcrest/Uptown/North Park), so there is very little visible support for the measure, and because I don't have TV, so I don't see the political ads or talking heads reporting. Local newspaper reporting runs from sympathetic to a NO vote to cheerleading a NO vote.
Central San Diego County is about as liberal as it gets south of LA (and I'm measuring all the way to Tierra del Fuego), while the North, South and East county areas are conservative, like Duncan Hunter conservative. Cars from north county have the "Yes on 8" bumper stickers and I often see that combined with Obama bumper stickers. Weird mix north the I-5/I-805 merge.
A news report in the San Diego Union-Tribune today said they are expecting a nearly 80% turnout on Election Day, which is equivocal for the proposition. On the one hand, high turn out usually favors Republican measures in California. On the other, Democratic registrations are high, but that doesn't necessarily translate to being socially liberal especially this round. There are also some concerns about how the voting is being handled. The results will not be tallied at the precinct level due to the combination of the high turnout and the physically very long ballot (19 inches long). Instead, after all voters in line by 8:00 PM have cast their ballots, the ballots will be taken from the precincts to the central office of the County Registrar of Voters in an area called Kearny Mesa, about 10 miles norht of downtown. There, they will have 150 (give or take a few) tallying machines and a select staff trained in how to feed the ballots efficiently.
There's been some huffing and puffing over ACORN locally (about 7% of collected signatures are bogus, slightly but not excessively higher than spoil rates for other groups), and there was some real issues with touch-screen machines in 2004 (like certain precinct workers took the machines home the night before and there may have been tampering), but on the whole the Registrar's office is considered acceptably honest, so I don't think there will be vote tampering. What I do think is that the early results will strongly favor the NO vote due to the proximity of the liberal precincts to the central offices, and that the Yes vote will be stronger as more remote precincts bring in their ballots.
Overall, I think San Diego COunty will narrowly approve Prop 8. Statewide, polls indicate a defeat if liberal Dem turnout is strong.
Anglachel
In Ventura Co, the yards are filled with signs on Yes on 8 standing right next to an Obama/Biden sign. What does it really imply?
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