What Harvey Milk Tells Us About Prop 8:
In light of the passage of Proposition 8, Harvey’s message of thirty
years ago remains as vital today as it was then. It is our
responsibility to let our loved ones, co-workers, friends, and
neighbors know who we are, so that those who vote in favor of
discrimination have our names and faces in their minds eye when doing
so.
Although Proposition 8 wasn’t exactly a re-make of Proposition 6, it’s
the same disaster movie storyline pitch: any recognition of
constitutional rights for gay and lesbian citizens will somehow destroy
the natural order and as a result America’s institutions — be they
schools or marriage–will crumble.
Harvey pitched a different storyline: an accommodating democratic society based on constitutional principles, including theseparation of church and state,
and equality for all its citizens will make our country stronger and
freer. But Harvey was more than just a good pitchman. He had an innate
sense of history, and as a result he made his mark on history. Three
weeks after his Proposition 6 victory speech Harvey was killed, and
we’re still waiting for another leader of his ilk to emerge. While we
may not be able to predict from where or when real leaders come,
eventually they do. In the meantime, as we celebrate the election of a
man whose own parents’ interracial marriage would not have been legal
in sixteen states prior to 1967, Harvey we’re still waiting.
The news last night had something along the lines of something like 8% have changed their mind on prop 8. I’m still trying to figure out how to interpret that.
The report was along the lines of putting prop 8 back on the next ballot.
But I’m asking more along the lines of -if 8% have changed their minds so that the prop would not pass this time – 2 WEEKS LATER – and it has such dire effects on a group of people, what is the value of the vote?
Have these 8% seen the error of their ways, or like the typical voter did they flip a coin to vote, or did they dye their hair blonde for the election day and now they’ve dyed their hair red?????
And if the deciding group on this OR ANY BALLOT vote on the basis of trivial whim, how do we protect our election system from them?
whim, hair color, mormon marketing, whatever made vote the way they did, they won on a simple majority.
Which is why the The NAACP, the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and other civil rights groups petitioned the state for the change not to take effect because it set a precedent for a majority vote on civil rights- our certain inalienable — and put discrimination into law.
Which one of your civil rights do you want decided by majority vote?
Like Terrance over at Pam’s Blend said in
this post
You may not be gay, but you may be next.
3 responses Virgotex,
1) Bush took away a huge number of rights without even having a vote.
2) Will the NRA support a vote on gun ownership? And I’m not talking removing guns, I’m just talking reasonable conditions for ownership (gun safety course, background check, do I really need an anti-tank RPG to hunt squirrel?)
3) If guns are our protection for keeping our rights, where were the NRA folks when Bush was taking our rights?
I knew Harvey Milk, campaigned for him for supervisor, had him as a guest at a party or two, and he and my wife were friends. Great man. I can close my eyes and remember the whole day when he was assassinated, ending with the candlelight march on city hall, and Joan Baez leading us in singing “We Shall Overcome” to try to calm everyone down. Those aren’t good memories.
I am here at a forum newcomer. Until I read and deal with the forum.
Let’s learn!