LGBTQ+ leaders
in California are pushing to remove the archaic same-sex marriage ban from the
state's constitution. (Allison Joyce/AFP via Getty)
LGBTQ+
lawmakers want to remove Prop 8 from California’s constitution amid fears the
Supreme Court could overturn same-sex marriage protections.
LGBTQ+
advocates worried rulings enshrining same-sex marriage across the US could be
next after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in June.
Conservative
justice Clarence Thomas suggested the decision to gut abortion
rights could open the opportunity to reconsider “all of this court’s
substantive due process precedent” including rulings that legalised
contraceptives and same-sex marriage.
Members of
California’s LGBTQ caucus have pushed for a ballot measure to have voters
officially remove Proposition 8 from the state’s constitution. Proposition 8 was approved by voters back in 2008, and
provided that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognised
in California”.
A district court ruled Prop 8 was unconstitutional in
2010, but the measure still has remained in the state constitution until it can
be removed by a voter appeal.
Assembly
member Evan Low, a San Jose Democrat and chair of the California legislature’s
LGBTQ caucus, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he was
horrified to see the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade.
“It’s a
nightmare to relive this pain that we thought we put away tightly and neatly in
a little box,” he said. “I’m just lost for words to know that we could relive
this again.”
Low said he’s
long wanted to remove Prop 8 from the state’s constitution, but some advocates
believed it would “poke the bear”, creating an unnecessary fight.
He believes
Californians’ views have evolved since Prop 8 was first approved, and that
people would vote to overturn the hateful ban.
“Californians
believe in love, simply put,” Low said.
Margaret Russell, a professor at Santa Clara University, told KGO it was “wise” for lawmakers to “look at this” and try to remove Prop 8 from the California constitution.
She repeated
the point that the recent Supreme Court ruling could put other previous court
decisions at risk, including the 2010 ruling striking down the same-sex
marriage ban.
“The very fact
that the Supreme Court of the United States is looking at this again means that
that lower 2010 decision could be revisited,” Russell said.
Sources
involved in the discussions told the San Francisco Chronicle that
LGBTQ+ lawmakers considered if the measure to strike down Prop 8 should appear
on the ballot this November or wait until after the 2024 presidential
election.
The group
reportedly decided to wait until 2024 as there was a worry the effort, if put
before voters this fall, could compete with other pressing resources. This
included a desire to focus on abortion rights.
But organisers
have already drafted language for the amendment and are seemingly ready to move
on it when they feel the time is right.
Samuel
Garrett-Pate – a spokesperson for Equality California, one of the state’s
largest LGBTQ+ advocacy groups – told the San Francisco Chronicle the
focus is “100 per cent” on “safeguarding access to abortion and reproductive
freedom”.
“Any
conversation about a 2024 ballot measures won’t come until after November 2022
because we can’t afford to take our eye off that ball,” Garrett-Pate
said.
Carolyn
Wysinger, president of SF Pride, told KGO she thinks it’s
necessary for Prop 8 to be removed from the California state constitution, and
vowed to keep fighting until it is gone.
“We have come
so far with things and opinions about same-sex marriage, but so many people are
just coming to that opinion that they are just now realizing how vulnerable it
still is,” Wysinger said.
She added that
LGBTQ+ advocates have to remain “vigilant” even in a “blue state like
California”.
SOURCE: PINK NEWS
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