8884: Drop Prop 8.

From USA TODAY…

Why Prop 8 must fall: Civil rights

By Julian Bond

This Sunday we celebrate the 44th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court decision that struck down anti-miscegenation laws that forbade African Americans and whites from marrying.

In the Loving case, a unanimous court held that marriage is “one of the basic civil rights of man…fundamental to our very existence and survival.” The court also held that “under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not to marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed by the State.”

The Loving decision, which was a watershed moment in the civil rights movement, has deep implications today for gay and lesbian couples who want that essential freedom: to marry.

My wife, Pamela Horowitz, and I were married in Virginia in 1990. Prior to the Loving decision, we could have been sentenced to time in prison for that loving act — committed in the state that likes to claim it “is for lovers.”

Of course, prior to the Loving decision, the parents of the current president of the United States would have been committing a felony had they lived in Virginia.

Today, we look at anti-miscegenation laws as a stain on our history and an affront to our beliefs as Americans. In this country, we do not create separate classes of Americans based upon inherent characteristics. Sexual orientation is immutable and unchangeable. It is as much a part of our DNA as our race.

Because I have spent my life fighting to make ours a more just society for all Americans, I’m a supporter of marriage equality. I believe this to be a fight for civil rights.

Fourteen times, the U.S. Supreme Court has said that marriage is a fundamental human right. In Loving v. Virginia, the justices guaranteed that right could not be taken away because of the way we’re born. Yet that’s exactly what happened when California passed Proposition 8, which declared marriage valid only when between a man and a woman.

Last summer, after a lengthy trial, a federal court declared Prop 8 to be unconstitutional, saying that this discriminatory law does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution “the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples.” Almost a year later, the case is on appeal, Prop. 8 still remains on the books, and a motion to throw out the case on blatantly homophobic grounds will be heard in federal district court on Monday.

Prop 8 continues to label some Americans as second class. It denies those Americans the fundamental rights afforded their fellow citizens. Like the anti-miscegenation statutes struck down 44 years ago, Prop 8 serves no purpose but to permit one group of Americans to degrade another.

Mildred Loving passed away in 2008, but on the 40th anniversary of the Loving v. Virginia decision, she reflected on the impact of her case.

“I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight, seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all.”

Mildred and Richard Loving were not political people — they were a committed couple who believed they should have the ability to share their lives together, just as their neighbors did.

As Mildred Loving said four year ago, “That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.”

And that is why Proposition 8 must not stand.

Julian Bond is on the advisory board for the American Foundation for Equal Rights, chairman emeritus of the NAACP, professor of history at the University of Virginia and a scholar in residence at American University.

6367: Dressed For Success And Bankruptcy.

Weekend styles in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Looks like President Barack Obama’s Midas touch isn’t always immediate. Hartmarx Corporation, the creator of Obama’s suits, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Expect to see an Obama Suit Collection soon.

• The New York Daily News reported Bank of America apparently canned Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain for buying a $1,200 wastebasket during an office redecorating. It would be interesting to see the executive suites at Bank of America. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone into their designer trash receptacle.

• Tom Hanks apologized for recently calling Mormon Proposition 8 supporters “un-American.” Hanks’ statement read, “I believe Proposition 8 is counter to the promise of our Constitution; it is codified discrimination … But everyone has a right to vote their conscience; nothing could be more American … To say members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who contributed to Proposition 8 are ‘un-American’ creates more division when the time calls for respectful disagreement. No one should use ‘un- American’ lightly or in haste. I did. I should not have.” The offended Mormons are probably spiritually obligated to forgive Hanks.

6127: Behind The 8 Ball.

From The Los Angeles Times…

Gays, blacks divided on Proposition 8
For many African Americans, it’s not a civil rights issue.

By Cara Mia DiMassa and Jessica Garrison

For Trebor Healey, a 46-year-old gay man from Glendora, Tuesday’s election was bittersweet.

He was thrilled that the nation elected its first African American president. But he was disappointed that black voters, traditionally among the most reliably liberal in the state, voted overwhelmingly to ban same-sex marriage.

He understands that there are differences between the civil rights battles of blacks and gays: For one thing, he notes, gay people have a much easier time blending in. Still, he says, he thinks it’s sad that “people do not equate one civil rights struggle with another.”

Many black voters didn’t see it that way.

“I was born black. I can’t change that,” said Culver City resident Bilson Davis, 57, who voted for Proposition 8. “They weren’t born gay; they chose it,” he added, reflecting a commonly held belief that many researchers dispute.

Although many of the state’s black political leaders spoke out against Proposition 8, an exit poll of California voters showed that black voters favored the measure by a ratio of more than 2 to 1. Not only was the black vote weighted heavily in favor of Proposition 8, but black turnout—spurred by Barack Obama’s historic campaign for president—was unusually large, with African Americans making up roughly 10% of the state electorate.

The exit poll didn’t ask voters why they voted the way they did. But Madison Shockley, pastor of Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Carlsbad and among the roughly one-third of blacks who opposed Proposition 8, said the vote was understandable. “Black folks go to church, probably more than the Caucasian population, and the churches they go to tend to be very traditional.”

Los Angeles resident Christopher Hill, 50, said he was motivated by religion in supporting Proposition 8. Civil rights, he said, “are about getting a job, employment.”

Gay marriage, he said, is not: “It’s an abomination against God.”

One complicating factor was that both sides in the campaign had plausible reason to claim Obama’s support. The president-elect strongly stated his opposition to the proposition, calling it “divisive and discriminatory.”

But he has also said in public speeches that he opposes same-sex marriage. In the days leading up to the election, some Democrats received “robo-calls” on their cellphones containing an excerpt from such a speech.

“Here is Barack Obama in his own words on the definition of marriage,” the call began.

Then the voice of Obama speaking to a crowd comes on: “I believe marriage is a union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God is in the mix.”

A narrator then urged a yes vote on Proposition 8.

California Democratic Party consultant Roger Salazar was among the recipients of the call.

“They saw the Obama tide coming and they were trying to capitalize on it,” Salazar said, adding that the call was “manipulative and deceitful,” given the candidate’s stated opposition to the amendment.

Still, those efforts, combined with a push by dozens of African American ministers and commercials and mailers arguing that children would be subjected to a pro-gay curriculum should the measure pass, had an effect on voters like Pasadena resident Doris Tucker.

Tucker, who is African American, said she voted for “all the good things,” especially Obama and Proposition 8. “I don’t think it’s right,” Tucker said of gay marriage. “They shouldn’t let it go on.”

On Friday, four leaders of the No-on-8 campaign put out a statement urging cooperation among groups around the issue. “We achieve nothing if we isolate the people who did not stand with us in this fight,” the statement said. “We only further divide our state if we attempt to blame people of faith, African American voters, rural communities and others for this loss.”

In conversations this week, organizers of the campaign against Proposition 8 discussed the racial divide on the measure. Said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights: “One cannot underestimate the effect that … the robo-calls had where people heard Barack Obama’s voice and then they were told to vote yes on 8.”

Still, she added, the campaign could have done a better job reaching out to black voters. “The way you really move votes in the African American community is with conversations, with [real-life] experience … making sure that people see there are African American lesbian and gay people who will be affected by this. That is something we intend to assist our community leaders in doing more of,” she added. “That is a real lesson learned.”

Ron Buckmire, who heads the Barbara Jordan/Bayard Rustin Coalition, a black gay-rights group in Los Angeles, said the vote shows that “there is a lot of work to be done in the black community.”

Buckmire said the campaign should also have emphasized that, at its core, the proposition was about stripping a minority of a right that they had enjoyed. “The civil rights of people should not be put to a vote,” he said. “Period. I would have thought that that message would have gotten through.”

Shockley agreed. Civil rights, he said, has come to mean “one thing in the popular culture”: the empowerment of black people.

But “what people don’t realize is that King said over and over that the victories of civil rights were won for everyone,” he added, referring to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Political strategist Darry Sragow said that the success of Proposition 8 shows that several assumptions about California voters, particularly black voters, proved to be false—namely, that “because you are for civil rights and equality, you are liberal on everything.”

Cara Mia DiMassa and Jessica Garrison are Times staff writers.
Times reporter Dan Morain contributed to this story.

6123: Rolling With The Changes.

Tired news in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Tire maker Bridgestone reported profits slid 40 percent over the last nine months. Maybe the people viewed Bridgestone’s ads and realized they’d get along just fine without tires.

• Circuit City announced plans to close 155 underperforming stores. Didn’t realize the retailer had any over-performing stores. Or even performing stores.

• Joining John McCain and Sarah Palin in the loss column were gay-rights advocates who sought to stop California’s Proposition 8, a measure banning same-sex marriage. The measure passed by a margin of about 52 percent. Executives are undoubtedly celebrating at Omnicom.