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In a decision that is probably wise and shouldn't be too shocking, Equality California announced today that they will put off the ballot fight for gay marriage until 2012, rather than going for it in the mid-term elections next year. The idea here is that not only do more people go to the polls in presidential elections, but there will be a greater change in "voter rolls" in 3 years.
That translates as more of the old people who don't like gay marriage will be dead, and more of the enlightened young folks will be of voting age by then, hopefully tipping the balance from the close vote over Prop 8. Of course, in the unlikely event that that federal lawsuit over Prop 8 gets in front of the Supreme Court by then, this could all be moot -- either for better or for worse. Equality California's full report is here, and the Bay Area Reporter is noting how this may have just come down to a lack of donor funds.
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Will they still be bothering me on all the street corners?
If the 2012 organizers have any sense, no, they wont. I never understood the heavy campaigning in SF. SF is a given, and really just needed a quick, sharp "get out the vote" action, not sustained campaigning in the castro. Thats like protesting outside the vatican for the recognition of jesus.
We needed to be doing heavy campaigning in the inland cities and in southern california (we lost LA? really?) rallying passive supporters to become active supporters to help tilt the balance in communities where the conservative voice dominates because its the only one that bothers to talk. Im certain that in most "conservative" CA communities (one of which i grew up on), for every rallied "im a christian and thats not right," theres a habitual nonvoter who will respond "what? oh. i suppose i dont mind."
So yeah, lets hope you dont get bugged, unless its just to be reminded to vote :)
Oh sure they will. And with this new strategy they'll have a "perfect reason" to keep collecting cash on the backs of the community's fear until at least 2012...how convenient is that!
I have an email from Courage Campaign in my mailbox that I interpreted as saying that they just raised enough money to go ahead with plans to put no on 8 on the ballot.
So EQC decides not to go ahead... when it gets on the ballot are they just going to ignore it?
Jay,
"Of course, in the unlikely event that that federal lawsuit over Prop 8 gets in front of the Supreme Court by then, this could all be moot -- either for better or for worse."
Um, even if the Supreme Court rules against this case, that doesn't stop us from trying to get it in the ballot in 2012, so it wouldn't be moot.
Even though its gonna take longer, as a gay guy im pretty okay with this. I was a bit freaked out at the messaging morass that a 2010 marriage initiative would cause, mostly because it would come across, either intentionally or not as a continuation of the prop 8 fight, which would lead to confused supporters. I could totally see some well-meaning but distracted person mistakenly voting "no" on a ballot measure to repeal prop 8 after a couple years of "no on 8!" messaging.
2010:
"I voted no on prop 8!"
"but you needed to vote yes on prop X to repeal prop 8!"
"omg!"
A 2012 ballot measure means we can reframe the call to action as "vote yes for equality!" or somesuch. Lets face it, 2008 was a fumble. It makes more sense to just start over than continue to fall over ourselves trying to recover from it.