NYers Respond to Prop 8 Ruling With Their Feet

Responding to a decision by California's Supreme Court that upheld a state constitutional amendment that banned gay marriage there, thousands took to the streets in Manhattan to object to that ruling and demand that New York's State Senate pass a same-sex marriage bill this year.

"I have a message for our friends in the State Senate," said Scott Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, to loud applause and cheering at a May 26 rally held at Union Square. "The time has come to pass marriage equality in the Senate."

The rally and march was one of more than 100 held across the country on the day that California's highest court held in a 6-1 ruling that Proposition 8, an initiative approved by voters in that state last year, was constitutional (See Arthur S. Leonard's analysis of the ruling). That same court ruled in May of last year that a 2000 law passed by California voters that banned gay marriage was unconstitutional.

Between that ruling and the November 4 vote that reversed it, roughly 18,000 gay and lesbian couples married in California. In a perplexing portion of the recent ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that those marriages were still valid.

While the crushing Proposition 8 vote led to recriminations and charges that national gay groups and initiative opponents in that state had blown what should have been a win for the gay and lesbian community, the May 26 ruling was expected though still disappointing.

"The decision by the California Supreme Court today is heartbreaking," said Cathy Marino-Thomas, board president of Marriage Equality New York, one of the groups that organized the march and rally. "What happened to equal protection under the law?"

Since the Proposition 8 vote, three states -- Iowa, Vermont, and Maine -- have approved same-sex marriages, either through legislation or by court ruling, and New Hampshire is on the verge of adopting a marriage equality law as well.

In New York, the State Assembly passed a gay marriage bill on May 12 by a vote of 89-52, and activists have been pressing the Democratic-controlled Senate to approve the law. As of May 26, no vote was scheduled in the Senate and that body adjourns in 24 days. The bill was introduced by Governor David Paterson on April 17, so his approval is a lock.

Speaking at the rally, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, an out lesbian who represents Chelsea, called on the crowd to aggressively lobby their state senators. "Make it so the State Senate can do nothing else for the next 24 days," she told the crowd.

The rally followed a march from Christopher Park in the West Village, a small park on Christopher Street near the Stonewall Inn, where riots that came in the wake of a June 1969 police raid have come to be seen as the launch of the modern gay rights movement.

The crowd, which grew steadily larger along the route, went down Washington Street, headed up Sixth Avenue, and then went east on 14th Street to Union Square.

Gilbert Baker, the artist who popularized the use of the Rainbow Flag in the lesbian and gay community, made nine banners with varying messages for the march and he continually altered which banner led the march.

While the chants and signs clearly tied the ruling and the Proposition 8 vote to anti-gay bigotry, there were also indications that some in the community are growing impatient with President Barack Obama.

One of Baker's banners featured two images of Obama facing in opposite directions and the signature slogan from his presidential campaign "Yes we can" connected with "No you can't."

Two men in the crowd in the crowd held signs that read, "Yes we can" with an asterisk and then text below it, looking like a footnote, that read "But not if you're gay."

Corey Johnson, another march organizer, broadened that complaint to include the Democratic-controlled US House and Senate. He urged the crowd to join an October 10 march on Washington to seek a "fully inclusive civil rights bill" by the end of the year.

"We want that from this Democratic Congress, this Democratic president, and we want it before this year is out," Johnson said.

By: DUNCAN OSBORNE
05/26/2009
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