The protest and rallies on Nov. 15th were in response to the passage of proposition 8, which "revised" California's constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman. The anger over the passage of this proposition has sparked a huge grassroots movement, as evidenced by the protests all around the nation today. But what are we going to do with this amazing amount of energy that has been stirred up? Can we go beyond prop 8 and amend California's constitution to make discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation illegal?
I am not a lawyer and I don't have extensive activist organizing experience but it seems to me, that this is the largest pro-gay movement I have ever seen in the United States. These protests have happened all across the nation, which is freaking awesome! I think the protests, t-shirts, signs, boycotts etc. all do a great job of raising the visibility of the GBLT community, which is fantastic and necessary. But personally I want to move beyond "marriage rights", I want to do more than overturn Prop 8. I want to make it so no law can be passed that discriminates against the GBLT community. So my question to the dKos community is this...
Is now the time to try to pass an initiative to make discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation illegal in California?
At the Sacramento protests volunteers from equality action now were collecting signitures to put an initiative overturning prop 8 on the next ballot. I think maybe we should reach higher. With the groundswell of support that we have, and the re-defining of the marriage issue as a civil rights struggle, why can't we amend California's constitution?
Right now the constitution of California states:
CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE 1 DECLARATION OF RIGHTS
SEC. 31. (a) The State shall not discriminate against, or grant
preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of
race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of
public employment, public education, or public contracting.
Can we amend that to include sexual orientation?
According to California's intiative process all we need is enough signitures...
Initiatives
Often referred to as "direct democracy," the initiative process is the power of the people to place measures on the ballot. These measures can either create or change statutes (including general obligation bonds) and amend the California Constitution. If the initiative proposes to amend California statute, signatures of registered voters gathered must equal in number to 5% of the votes cast for all candidates for Governor in the previous gubernatorial election. If the initiative proposes to amend the California Constitution, signatures of registered voters gathered must equal in number to 8% of the votes cast for all candidates for Governor in the previous gubernatorial election. An initiative requires a simple majority of the public's vote to be enacted.
So my lovely dKos community, is this a good idea? Is this the right time? And is this legally possible? I know there are a lot more experienced and educated people out there than me. Help me flesh out this idea.