#proposition 8

While rewatching Psych, I have been thinking about what audiences today versus audiences at the time would have thought about the references to the issue of same-sex marriage, and what it says about voting this November.

(This post contains some spoilers for Psych Seasons 3 and 6.)

A lot happened in California related to same-sex marriage while Psych was airing. In 2004 (two years before the show began), same-sex marriage was briefly legal for one month, though the licenses issued were later voided. It became legal again in June 2008 for a little over four months until Proposition 8 was passed that November, which modified the California Constitution to make the definition of marriage be between a man and a woman. This time, marriage licenses issued in 2008 remained valid.

For those who don't know. Prop 8 was put on the California ballot after same-sex marriage was legalized, to illegalize it again. It was worded weirdly and up to the election and after was a really ugly time, and when it passed it was like a pall was cast over the queer population. Everyone was cheering Obama's win, but Prop 8 had passed, too, and that made it hard to celebrate.

Ultimately the CA Supreme Court struck it down because it created two classes of queer people: those who were able to marry in the time it was legal, and those who could not marry, which was unconstitutional.

At the time I was regularly attending a church service for the queer population, which I'd become aware of at Pride that year, and post-election it was just us grieving and coming together to support each other. We spent the entire election season huddling together for fear it would pass, and engaging in activism and protest.

A married lesbian couple I knew woke up (pre-election) to find that their lawn was covered in Yes on 8 signs, and they tore them down and set the pile on fire in the center of their driveway (the signs were plastic but they were too upset to care; their kids woke up to see the sea of hate on their own lawn). One of their neighbors had done it, and another neighbor let them know who it was.

There were regularly picketing Yes on 8 protestors (including kids) at nearly every corner, encouraged by the LDS to do so, all weekend long, like a constant caravan of hate.

I visited a friend/classmate who was Mormon (but not a bigot) and her roommate came home and started ranting about a car that had a sign that Yes on 8 was bigotry. It was my car and I said so, and she turned beet red and retreated to her room. She didn't have the courage to keep talking shit TO me.

The Catholic church removed a popular priest from the church just off campus because he said Prop 8 did not jive with the universal love of Christ. He became a symbol of the movement against Prop 8.

I hand-made a sign for a protest against Prop 8 he headed after it passed that read "Marriage is about love, not genitalia" and I made it into the local paper (with my back turned).

On my way to said protest, I was wearing a pride flag shirt that asked "When can I vote on YOUR marriage?" and I stopped at a Starbucks for caffeine. A large man decided to stand super close and growl "Never" in an attempt to intimidate me, then left in fury when I laughed at him. He was not the first person to try to intimidate me, nor was he the last.

Sometimes I wonder if young queer folks know just how bad it was a mere 15 years ago, and if they understand how terrifying it is to hear the rhetoric by bigots who intend to strip our rights or worse.

I bought a copy of this book a few days ago at a thrift store. Inside of it was a letter a gay LDS person wrote to his bishop in August 2008. It was during the Church's attempt to pass Proposition 8 by committing time, energy, resources, and money of the members in California to the Church's stance.

Four years ago today, the Supreme Court began a historical debate, which lasted two days, and which focused on the issue of same-sex marriage; and both cases brought before the Supreme Court were actually led by women.

The debate was twofold: on March 26th, the Supreme Court heard arguments about the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the California initiative that had banned same-sex marriage back in 2008, and the following day, the debate was centered on the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, a federal law passed in 1996 (#thankyouBillClinton) that restricted the definition of marriage to the union between a man and a woman. The Wall Street Journal has transcripts of the debates, and you can read a few articles here, here, and here, talking about the justices felt about these issues at the time.

March 26th was centered on the Hollingsworth vs. Perry case. In 2009, Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier had been denied a marriage license in Alameda County in California because of Prop 8; they decided to file a complaint, and thus became the plaintiffs in the case, along with Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarrillo, who’d also been denied a marriage license in LA County (though Perry’s the name that remained for the legal designation of the case).

Kristin Perry & Sandra Stier celebrating during Pride in 2013. Photo taken by InSapphoWeTrust

March 27th was focused on the United States vs. Windsor case. Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer got married in Toronto in 2007, but resided in the sate of New York, which did recognize their marriage in 2008. But Spyer died in 2009, and though Windsor inherited Spyer’s estate, she found that she couldn’t claim federal estate tax exemption for surviving spouses because of DOMA. This led to Windsor filing a lawsuit in 2010 against the federal government. Eventually, in June of that same year, the Supreme Court ruled that legal same-sex marriages couldn’t be denied federal benefits, and basically overturned Prop 8. Following which, same-sex marriages in California promptly resumed and Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier got to be the first ones married in San Francisco.

Conclusion: as always, queer women are the change we want to see in the world.

But it's also terrifying. It's infuriating. If you're not angry, you should be. We should be livid. We should be screaming. We have come so far in such a short time and yet, we're backsliding right back to where we were before.

On that note, if you haven't seen the live stream that was put on in 2012 by a ton of A-list actors about California's proposition 8, you absolutely should. It's still up, on YouTube, free without ads. Don't watch it just for Matt (his role is small), watch it because it's important. Because it's funny, and infuriating, and terrifying, and because it's really, really good.

Here, I've linked it for you. Enjoy.