The bigots are gathering signatures again.

April 1, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

The prejudice-mongers are at it again, collecting signatures to put an initiative on the fall ballot in California to permanently deny the possibility of same-gender marriage in this state. They claim, as of April 1, to have 881,000 signatures of the 1.1 million needed. They have three weeks left to make the deadline.

This is no April Fools Joke.

The California initiative frustrates me, primarily because it is such personal issue for me and my partner. We are not looking to destroy anybody else’s marriage, but to protect one another within a personal covenant that has equal protection under the laws of the state and federal government. We have waited for more than four years to see if the California courts would uphold or restore our marriage rights – by declaring that Proposition 22 does not ban same-sex marriage. We’re still waiting for the California Supreme Court decision later this spring after oral arguments were heard March 4.

Our opponents are so-called Christians who see us as a threat to their heterosexual marriages. That is like saying that if we drive a BMW, we are somehow “cheapening” the BMW in our neighbor’s garage; or because we have bought a house in the neighborhood we are trying to destroy the neighborhood.

Our opponents know that their arguments don’t hold water, and their arguments aren’t meant to stand up to scrutiny. All they have to do is to enlist public bigotry, in the hopes that if a majority of voters in California are prejudiced enough, discrimination will be written into the California constitution and deny us our simple right to justice for the rest of our lifetimes.

That would be bad enough if it weren’t for the fact that they peddle their prejudice in the name of Jesus— the one who included everyone and excluded no one.

There is no mechanism in the constitution to give the Supreme Court judicial review over a constitutional amendment. So if a prejudicial law is written into the constitution it will sit there for a generation or more until a sufficient social change makes it possible to repeal the evil. But even a future repeal cannot undo the harm that is done to those of us who simply want some protection from the arbitrary and heartless grinding of social systems. Last week we heard the story of a gay man who first learned that his partner was dead from the evening news broadcast, because the hospital refused to give him information since he wasn’t legally a family member.

Week after week, month after month, these sad and tragic stories continue, not merely because our over-grown and unwieldy government systems actually hurt people, but because all the other systems and entities in society which are required to abide by public policies and laws are powerless in complicity with prejudice. Where this actual prejudice on the part of individuals in decision-making positions (for example, an evil H. R. director in a company), they can easily hide their prejudice behind government regulations which appear to support them. Lawsuits usually force these organizations, corporations and entities to back off from their prejudice, but it is time-consuming and expensive to fight for each right, one at a time, hoping that a court of law will vindicate us and our quest for simple justice and equal rights.

Worse yet, injustice falls more heavily on the poor. Those who have greater means (money) can hire enough attorneys to craft their wills, irrevocable trusts, and other contractual relationships to protect their life partners and secure their assets, in a manner which attempts to replicate the rights of civil marriage without the automatic protection it affords. For those who do not have such means, doing all of this is an impossible burden.

And perhaps worst of all, prejudice seems always to have more money than justice. Right-wing conservative donors with big bank accounts always outnumber open-minded ordinary folks. They seem to always be ready to write big checks. From today’s www.365gay.com news story,

Among the major donors to Protect Marriage are a group of San Diego County businessmen. Developer Doug Manchester alone has contributed $125,000, prompting gays to urge a boycott of his properties. Manchester owns the Manchester Grand Hyatt and the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina.Mission Valley developer Terry Caster has donated $162,500, Carlsbad car dealer Robert Hoehn gave $25,000, and La Jolla businessman Roger Benson has given $50,000, according to state records.It raises a fundamental question of justice with broader implications, but one I’ve never heard anything about: why is it that the initiative process permits signature-gatherers to be paid per signature? This means that big money can buy the votes needed to put something on the ballot which would never get there if it really come up from the grass roots. The initiative process is not voter imitative, but special-interest initiative. LGBT leaders have used this process, too, but I think it should be made much more difficult to get any thing slapped on the ballot because too many screwball things come up in every general election, and an ill-informed electorate is asked to make decisions which affect other people’s lives when they don’t really know the consequences. Lack of information, combined with native prejudice, makes for a bigotry machine which is very hard to stop.What can we do?For one, “decline to sign” any petition put in front of you about gay marriage;

Two, get involved with Equality for All and help the efforts to stop the signature gatherers;

Three, contribute to our side of this issue — even if you don’t have or don’t want a permanent spouse, you still have a stake in this battle because if we lose our chance to secure marriage rights, what other rights will the extremists try to revoke next?

Fourth, keep on coming out—telling your story and being honest about your life, because it is the best tool we have to convince other people in our society that we are not trying to destroy their lives, or values, or marriages, simply to hold our heads up high.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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