Many in the LGBT community are anxiously awaiting 10:01am next Tuesday, when we will find out where the California Supreme Court stands on Prop 8. I understand why the supermajority of marriage equality activists are banking on the Supreme Court of California to stand up for minority rights. I understand the thousands of same-sex couples in California who for years, decades even, have waited to have their relationships validated by the state. My thoughts are with these couples and we all hope one day to help couples across the nation win this battle for equal marriage. As important as marriage equality is to our entire community, i believe we have to remind ourselves that winning the freedom to marry is not the end of our movement. This is not an easy conclusion to come to, however, as we countdown the days until the Tuesday ruling, it has become more apparent that the LGBT community in the long-term would be better suited if the Court upheld Prop 8.
My reasoning below the fold:
First allow me to lay out my points:
- Same-sex couples deserve more than the right to marry: They deserve a welcoming environment.
- The LGBT community has strayed from grassroots organizing, this hurts our community.
- The LGBT community has many unanswered questions regarding how we deal with organizing around race and religion.
- In the wake of Harvey Milk's 79th Birthday, we need to remember that our community shine best when it's taking responsibility for its battles.
Same-sex couples deserve more than the right to marry: They deserve a welcoming environment.
No doubt having the right to marry will, for many same-sex couples, validate their relationship in the eyes of many in their community. Couples should not have to wait for anyone's approval to validate their relationship and access the state benefits from that relationship, however no one can deny the emotional impact community support has on the success of a marriage:
Community ties with friends and relatives are a principle means by which people and households get supportive resources... strong ties provide emotional aid, small services and companionship... friends, neighbors, and siblings make up about half of all supportive relationships. The ensemble of network members provides stable and adaptive support
To truly fight to support same-sex marriage, we have to fight not just for legal access to benefits, but also social access to the benefits of community acceptance and support. I have no doubt that every LGBT organization, from PFLAG to NGLTF to SLDN, is dedicated to that community building that is so crucial to the success of same-sex partners. Regardless of the outcome of Prop 8 on Tuesday this work will remain front and center for many organizations.
One cannot deny however that there is just one event that would bring the topic of marriage equality- and community acceptance and support for LGBT people- front and center again on many a California community center, cafe and dinner table. That one issue is, of course, a ballot initiative fight on our terms to repeal Prop 8. Such opportunities are very rare; California offers us the chance to prevail in the largest state, by majority vote, on an initiative to affirm marriage equality. It pains me to see the potential of this strategy slip away. By fighting a ballot initiative on our terms, we would likely win both the legal right of marriage equality while making tremendous inroads in building the community acceptance that is so necessary.
The LGBT community has strayed from grassroots organizing, this hurts our community.
Grassroots organizing exploded in the wake of the vote on Prop 8, just as much as I expect it to explode if the California Supreme Court upholds Prop 8 (see the amazing organizing being put together for theDay of Decision). The lack of substantial commitment to grassroots organizing in the past few years have led the LGBT movement to resemble a movement that, on the top, is largely unreflective of the changing dynamic of America, both culturally, racially and with the advance of women into long denied roles of leadership.
A few months after the election results from Prop 8, Matt from the blog Interstate Q pointed out another shortfall of our movement:
Although local activists, largely on their own and without strategic thinking and experience, continue to ramp up Join the Impact-style efforts, there’s largely a void when it comes to assisting these community members and activists to organize effectively around issues of common-interest locally or statewide. Where there are seasoned activists, there might not be the organizational and community-wide support system to keep these activists involved and supported in their efforts.
Grassroots organizing is not a "feel good" measure, it is most important because it keeps our movement connected with the very swiftly changing demographics and political realities of America. We need these new organizers to have a path to increased leadership in the movement, because without people who have a contemporary connection with the realities of our society, we will miss opportunities for advancement and coalition building.
Most of us can agree that our defeat with Prop 8 was largely due to a lack of understanding on the top level about the importance of not ceding any ground. Yes we should have had greater outreach to the African-American community, but we should also have fostered more support for our Mormon allies, other people of faith allies and created a movement that had seats at the table not just for those who have already made their way to the top of the movement. If the court were to strike down Prop 8 on Tuesday I would be elated, but such a decision would do nothing to change the reality of our shortfalls as a movement.
With a ballot initiative to repeal Prop 8, there is at least the chance to build the coalition that we couldn't create to stop Prop 8 from ever becoming law. Such a coalition would help us in the long term to affirm our legal rights. We know from other movements that legal victories can often be chipped away by a false optimism in the state's ability and motivation to enforce equality legislation, be it school desegregation, domestic violence/sexual assault laws or a host of other laws/court rulings that should work for us, but often don't.
The LGBT community has many unanswered questions regarding how we deal with organizing around race and religion.
This point can never be brought up enough. Discrimination exists in our own LGBT community and it threatens to implode the movement we've worked for decades to create. We have to recognize the dichotomy of saying that LGBT people should have the right to integrate their identities, while also demeaning people of faith, conservatives, racial minorities, etc. This is by no means a call to political correctness (I love me a good Catholic or Log Cabin Republican joke anyday), I believe that we cal all learn from the Party of No in concluding that demeaning entire swaths of people is not the path to political victory. While I am a principled progressive linking the LGBT movement to other progressive issues, I recognize that there are many activists who integrate LGBT issues with Republican, conservative, libertarian, socialist, anarchist and (gasp) apolitical issues all the time. Our movement needs to provide more space for these varying organizing strategies, while also not being afraid to do our bit to influence the ideological direction of the movement.
In the wake of Harvey Milk's 79th Birthday, we need to remember that our community shines best when it's taking responsibility for its battles.
Nothing should be handed to us on a silver platter. By no means do I think the CA Supreme Court would be doing that if they affirm the minority rights of LGBT people, but I do think that more than a few of the people who read this want the CA Court's support because it's supposedly the easiest path to equality. I cannot conclude similarly. The court ruling to repeal Prop 8, while judicially responsible, would be the harder path for our movement. A ballot initiative offers us so much more potential to build a 21st century infrastructure for our movement. I cannot but hope for the opportunity.