Should Proposition 8 recall be put to voters in 2010?
Marriage-equality advocates are split about the timing of a ballot question to overturn the California’s Proposition 8 constitutional marriage ban. Some major backers, including David Bohnett, believe it’s better to postpone a possible 2010 vote rather than risk another defeat. But an informal poll of leaders affiliated with the Courage Campaign shows support for putting the repeal question on next year’s ballot. The deadline to file the question with the state attorney general is Sept. 25. The New York Times (7/26) , San Francisco Chronicle/Politics blog (7/25)
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/should-propos…
Gay marriage and the date debate
Nearly nine months after California voters banned same-sex marriage in the state, gay marriage supporters are ready to ask them to overturn Proposition 8. They’re just not sure when to ask: In November 2010 or November 2012. Choosing a date involves more than sifting through the polling, community meetings and consultants’ reports that have filled the time since last fall’s election with soul-searching and finger-pointing among supporters, culminating in a meeting of the movement’s leaders Saturday in San Bernardino. Generating enthusiasm for a grassroots campaign will also be a heart-based decision, one that has split same-sex couples even in Kern County, where 75 percent of voters backed Prop. 8. Bakersfield resident Jade Haley wants an initiative in 2010. Her partner Alee Gamino thinks that’s too soon. Gamino’s Catholic mother still refers to Haley as “she” and has no contact with them as a couple, who are raising Gamino’s teenage daughter from a previous relationship. On Sundays, Gamino, 34, goes to church twice. She attends a Catholic service solo with her mom in the morning and goes to a Metropolitan Community Church with her partner in the evening. “The churches have thousands and thousands of people ready to go against us,” said Gamino. She looked at 70 people who came to a Unitarian Universalist Church on Thursday to talk about the movement’s next step. “All we have is what’s in this room.” Still, Gamino was among only a dozen people at the Bakersfield meeting called by Marriage Equality USA who supported waiting until 2012. The sentiment for a vote next year echoed one at a similar gathering in San Francisco, while gatherings in liberal bastions such as Oakland and Berkeley leaned toward 2012. “The reaction was really mixed,” said Pam Brown, Marriage Equality USA’s political director, who compiled information from the organization’s “Get Engaged” tour of 40 California cities over the past several weeks. “A lot of people who wanted to wait until 2012 wanted to see what the plan was first before they committed.” A nonbinding straw poll of leaders gathered Saturday in San Bernardino to plan the movement’s next step found that 93 people voted to go in 2010, 49 in 2012 and 20 were undecided. Organizers expect to officially decide when to return to the ballot in a couple of weeks. If they decide on November 2010, the deadline to have ballot language submitted to the attorney general is Sept. 25. This month, several groups of same-sex marriage supporters said not enough has been done to address the faults of last year’s campaign in time to mount a winning drive next year.Churches’ influence
Faults not addressed
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/gay-marriage-…
New straw poll of gay marriage leaders: Overturn Prop 8 in 2010
A straw poll of same sex marraige leaders gathered in San Bernardino Saturday just came in: The majority want to return to the ballot in 2010 to try to overturn Proposition 8. Final count of the nonbinding measure: 93 people voted to go in 2010, 49 in 2012 and 20 undecided.
The next step: Leaders will return to their organizations and then a final decision will be made in a couple of weeks. If they’re going to go for it in 2010, they’d better hurry. Ballot language is due to the Attorney General by Sept. 25.
Oh, yeah. And they still need a leader. And a leadership structure. And a decision-making process.
With that in mind, here’s a juicy rumor for you: Would President Obama confidante Steve Hildebrand be interested in coming out to California to lead the next same sex marriage ballot iniative campaign?
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/new-straw-pol…
Courts unlikely to strike down new domestic partner registry until after it begins
An attorney for those hoping to strike down Wisconsin’s new legal protections for domestic partners says he hopes the Supreme Court will decide their request in a matter of weeks.
But by then, gay couples will have already started registering at county courthouses for the benefits. Those sign-ups begin a week from Monday.
Three members of the Wisconsin Family Action group asked the Supreme Court yesterday to declare the domestic partner registry unconstitutional.
They say it violates the constitutional amendment against gay marriage and civil unions which group members helped pass in 2006.
The group calls it an effort to redefine marriage in Wisconsin. But a spokesman for Gov. Jim Doyle, who included the registry in the new state budget, says it’s just a set of basic protections, and it has nothing to do with promoting gay marriage.
Four of the seven justices would have to agree to take the case, and their new session does not begin until September.
See Courts unlikely to strike down new domestic partner registry until … Hudson Star Observer
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/courts-unlike…
Nominee confirmed for Civil Rights job
The New Jersey Commission on Civil Rights yesterday approved the nomination of a new state civil rights chief who is not admitted to practice law in New Jersey despite two lawmakers’ questions about his residency and commitment to gay and lesbian issues.
Chinh Le, Attorney General Anne Milgram’s nominee, was approved as head of the state Division on Civil Rights by a 6-0 vote of the commission at its monthly meeting in Newark. One commissioner abstained after her proposal for a private executive session between commissioners and the nominee was rejected.
See Nominee confirmed for Civil Rights job
The Star-Ledger
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SF City Attorney ready to lend a hand in federal gay marriage case
Dennis Herrera, San Francisco’s City Attorney petitioned a U.S. District Court Judge Thursday to allow San Francisco to intervene as a party plaintiff in a constitutional challenge to Proposition 8, the voter-approved amendment that bans gay marriage in California. The federal lawsuit was filed in May on behalf of two California couples. San Francisco lead the legal battle that resulted in the May 2008 ruling in favor of gay marriage that was later overruled by Prop 8. “We are long overdue to put anti-gay discrimination on trial based on the facts,” said Herrera in a statement. “The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office has the experience and expertise to aggressively assist in doing precisely that.”See City Attorney ready to lend a hand in federal gay marriage case The San Francisco Examiner
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/sf-city-attor…
