Recently in Civil Rights News and Views Category

I've made a big decision.  It is time for me to move beyond blogging and into direct activism.  I made this leap about two months ago, and it is only fair that I share that decision with my readers.

Thank you all for reading my blog, viewing my videos and lending your support.

Please join me in the struggle for LGBT civil rights.  Learn more at One Struggle, One Fight and read about my story, here, and here.

Yours,

Ryan

Hi,

I cannot tell you how important this email is to me as well as the cause that lies behind it.  These are my words and they are coming from my heart.  I ask you to take a few minutes of your day today to read them.

As a gay man, I've dreamed of finding the right man to spend my life with.  I'm a traditional guy in some ways, and I've always hoped and prayed that I could one day marry that man, settle down, and live the American Dream that we've all grown up hearing about throughout our lives.

In today's volatile economic times, the one thing that has brought me continual joy is the knowledge that I am finally treated equally under the law.  I have the right to marry.  This right is not only priceless but runs to the core of my very being.

I've come such a long way.  At the age of 16, I vividly remember telling my father that I'd rather be single and lonely for the rest of my life than to be gay, because to me, being gay was an abomination.  I know far better now and realize that it is abhorrent for anyone to hate themselves or others because they are gay or lesbian.

Unfortunately, a group of people -- some ignorant, some scared and some homophobic -- are trying to take away the right away from me and so many people that are close to me.  They've introduced a ballot measure in California, known as Proposition 8, that will eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry.

This fight isn't about a group of nameless people who want to wreck traditional marriage.  Rather, this is about the people that are near and dear to us, share in our laughter, hold us when we cry and help to make our world such a beautiful place.  Please consider that when you read my request.

I ask you... I implore you... please help us to keep our right to marry!

This cause extends beyond California, transcends our personal preferences and drives to the core of a founding American principle - a fundamental right to equality for all.  This right was enshrined in the Declaration of Independence... that all men are created equal... and rings true today.  Please don't let a misguided group of people alter that course of history and write discrimination into the California Constitution.

Don't let other people treat us like an abomination.

Please join me in donating your money, time or effort to the No on Proposition 8 campaign. 

For more information, or to donate, please visit http://www.NoOnProp8.com.

Thank you,

Ryan

In yet more good news for open minded people, the SF Chronicle reports that the latest Public Policy Institute of California poll indicates 55% against, 41% for and 4% undecided:

"That 55 percent looks pretty strong," Baldassare [the President of the Public Policy Institute] said. "Now the supporters not only have to convince the undecided voters, but they also have to convince people who already have decided to vote no."

Simply, I want to reiterate... this evil and thinly veiled attempt at instituting bigotry at the constitutional level is not passing.

Two things happened today that I think are worth noting:

First, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the latest Field Poll shows that support for Proposition 8 is declining.  It has been steadily doing so since the Field Poll began polling on the issue a few months ago.  At this point, 38% of those polled support Proposition 8, which is down from 42% as of the last poll in July.  55% are now against Proposition 8, up from 51% in July.

Let's keep working hard, but I reassert my position that Proposition 8 isn't going to pass.  My conviction on this is only strengthening as time goes on.  It bears mentioning that Prop. 8 supporters have raised over $6 million more than anti-Prop. 8 organizations.  For a detailed look, check out this LA Times page.  Still, the tide is on our side, and that says a great deal.

Second, this isn't necessarily major news, but thanks to Brad Pitt for coming out on the right side of things and donating $100,000 toward fighting Proposition 8.  I generally don't pay much mind to celebrities, but I think he deserves some gratitude for this.

I encourage everyone to keep giving their time, money and efforts to fight Proposition 8 as they can.

On Friday, the Los Angeles Times endorsed voting against Proposition 8:

We fervently hope that voters, whatever their personal or religious convictions, will shudder at such a step and vote no on Proposition 8.

...

To be sure, the court overturned Proposition 22, a vote of the people. That is the court's duty when a law is unconstitutional, even if it is exceedingly popular. Civil rights are commonly hard-won, and not the result of widespread consensus. Whites in the South vehemently rejected the 1954 Supreme Court decision to desegregate schools. For that matter, Californians have accused the state Supreme Court of obstructing the people's will on marriage before -- in 1948, when it struck down a ban on interracial marriages.

Fundamental rights are exactly that. They should neither wait for popular acceptance, nor be revoked because it is lacking.

Additionally, a Superior Court judge in Sacramento ruled on Friday that State officials do not need to reword Proposition 8, after changing the language to a proposition to "eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry."  The judge had this to say: "[t]he court is not willing to fashion a rule that would require the Attorney General to engage in useless nominalization."

I'm taking both of these events as signs of the decreasing likelihood that Proposition 8 will pass.  Let the conservatives keep spending their money, fighting off sleepless nights, and living in a time of many decades ago.  Change isn't easy, but it has arrived.  It's time for equality in marriage, and there's no denying it.

It is important that everyone gets out and votes today.  The importance of voting, of our right to vote, forms the backbone of democracy.  Anyone who has experienced voter disenfranchisement really understands the importance of this right.  We've been hearing it a lot lately - from Michigan and Florida.  Two delegations seated at half strength.  Two states filled will people who either voted only to have their vote reduced or not counted, and also filled with people who decided not to vote because they were told their votes wouldn't count.

Today, I find myself disenfranchised, at least to an extent.  I in no way mean to compare myself to the plight of African Americans and other minorities in the 2000/2004 Florida elections (check out the Bush campaign thinking about doing it in 2004) or the countless people who find themselves barred from voting due to state ID laws (check them out trying to do it in Dallas) not dissimilar to the poll taxes used to exclude minorities and the poor in the past.

Yet, I want to demonstrate a point.

I registered to vote.  I'm entitled to vote.  I exercised that right to vote this morning.  I was almost turned away because well meaning but inexperienced poll monitors did not know how to handle my late registration.

You see, I registered later than most people, but I registered on time:

Thus, I was entitled to vote today.  Nevertheless, I wasn't in the white pages of the ballot book, I wasn't on the green pages of the ballot book, I wasn't in the supplemental ballot book and I wasn't in the address book.

I wasn't in a book.

I'm an educated, knowledgeable (attorney, after all) non-minority citizen and even I struggled today to cast my vote. 

Hell, I was a poll monitor for a non-profit voter advocacy group for an election.

It is questionable whether I even cast a vote that will be counted.  I cannot imagine what it would be like for someone who is not a native English speaker, or is a minority, or is poor, or has a mental disability.  What happens to them when they find themselves in a similar situation?  In California.  In San Francisco no less.  I'm not talking Florida.

The situation left me walking away having cast a provisional ballot.  A ballot that will not be counted today.  A ballot that may never be counted.

A ballot that specifically states: "[y]our ballot will be counted and opened if the Department of Elections establishes your eligibility to vote and can verify that the signature on the provisional envelope compares to your signature on your record of registration."

And: "Provisional Ballots will not be included in any semiofficial or official canvass...."

In other words, I'm not part of the initial process, unless I seek a court order.  My vote may or may not count.  After the fact. 

I have news... I'm registered to vote and I proved it at the polling place today.  What else does it take?

USA Today points out that I'm not the only one caught in this Provisional Ballot conundrum:

The use of provisional ballots in the 2006 election by voters whose eligibility was questioned at the polls varied greatly among states, and more than half of them were cast in California and Ohio, a new government report shows.

Also:

In Arizona, Washington, Alaska and California, more than 5% of 2006 voters were given provisional ballots.

This post goes out to all the people that feel like I do right now; or worse.  There's a real problem in this country.  Whether it is failing electronic voting machines, bigots like Katherine Harris, or a failed system that turns away people in a lower socioeconomic class (many of whom are hardworking minorities and blue collar folks), it has an ugly name: voter disenfranchisement, and it needs to be stopped.  It is all shades of the same thing.

This is important stuff.  Register to vote, register early and get out there and vote.  Don't end up like me, the scores of others like me and, most importantly, those less fortunate than me.