Playing the Obama Card in California's Fight for Gay Marriage

While the presidential election has preoccupied the minds of most progressive Californians, there is a ballot initiative which, at this point (with our guy in the lead), merits at least as much of our attention, if not more. Proposition 8 seeks to amend California's constitution by adding the phrase "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." For clarity's sake, a "yes on 8" vote means eliminating the right to marry for gay and lesbian couples (which the California Supreme Court recently recognized is a right protected under California's Constitution), and a "no on 8" vote means preserving marriage equality and equal treatment under law for all Californians.

While early polling showed "No" winning, a recent infusion of cash (much of it coming from out-of-state donors) and subsequent ad campaigns (with the usual "activist judges" meme and bogus claim that schools would would be forced to "teach our kids that gay marriage is okay") have boosted Prop 8's chances of passing. The latest polling shows "Yes" winning, 48%-45%.

Yesterday, Andrew Sullivan implored Obama to get involved and cut an ad for the "No on 8" campaign. Not because of Obama's general popularity, but specifically because of the weight his word would carry with African-Americans, who disproportionately (more than any other racial group) support Prop 8 (58%-38%):

Memo to Obama: make an ad. Speak loudly. Defend equality. Defend it when it might actually lose you some votes. Show us you are not another Clinton.

It would be courageous and maverickly progressive, but the arguments against Obama getting directly involved with the Prop 8 campaign are strong and obvious. Obama and Biden have staked out a moderate mid-ground on gay marriage and no one in the campaign is eager to rekindle a culture war in the waning days of a campaign which has them headed for victory. It would be precisely the type of distraction from the economy that the McCain/Palin camp has been yearning for.

But Obama's usefulness in the Prop 8 campaign doesn't have to be as explicit and direct as Sullivan envisions. Indeed, Obama does have a role to play in convincing African-Americans to help defeat Prop 8, and he's already laid the groundwork. On January 20, 2008, the day before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Obama gave a speech before the congregation at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. During his speech on Scripture and Dr. King's legacy at Dr. King's church, Obama said the following:

For most of this country's history, we in the African-American community have been at the receiving end of man's inhumanity to man. And all of us understand intimately the insidious role that race still sometimes plays --- on the job, in the schools, in our health care system, and in our criminal justice system.

And yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that none of our hands are entirely clean. If we're honest with ourselves, we'll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King's vision of a beloved community.

We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them. The scourge of anti-Semitism has, at times, revealed itself in our community. For too long, some of us have seen immigrants as competitors for jobs instead of companions in the fight for opportunity.

(quote at 10:42 into video)

And during his acceptance speech in Denver, Obama intoned, "I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination."

To be sure, Obama's statements fall short of unqualified support for same-sex marriage, but they go to the heart of the No on 8 campaign's themes (equality and dignity), and the No on 8 campaign would be wise to incorporate them in advertisements. In fact, they'd be foolish not to use them. Here are a few tips: buy ad time on BET, on the CW (during "Everybody Hates Chris"), and TBS (during "Tyler Perry's House of Payne"), and pass out fliers with Obama's quotes this Sunday outside AME Churches. Even if Obama's direct participation in the No on 8 campaign is a non-starter, he has provided enough material to move public opinion a few points in the right direction. And with only 3 percentage points currently separating "yes" and "no", that may be all that's needed.

Comments

[FJRinLA]

WHY THE AFRO-CENTRIC FOCUS HERE?

Hey, here's a point of clarification for Andrew Solomon and others seeking to put this all on African-Americans.

That same poll shows Latino support for Prop 8 at 47%-41%; and they make up 23% of California voters whereas Blacks are only 6%.

So Latinos represent 11% of the Prop 8 votes while the 58% of Blacks they bemoan represents only 3.5% of the "YES" votes Prop 8 is getting.

So maybe Solly should get a "We Are The World" chorus of Latino pols with the Congressional Sanchez Sisters, GOV Richardson and LA Mayor Villaraigosa sharing the lead roles to cut an ad against Prop 8. Why the focus on Black Americans or the National Ticket during such an important election when Latinos are where the real votes are and there are plenty local Latino leaders who could/would risk little-to-nothing to call out their base.

[FJRinLA]

There is a very effective commercial here in Los Angeles that has moved me to vote Yes on 8...and it is the ad where they claim that CA schools will be able to follow MA schools and start teaching gay marriage as an approved option or alterrnative.

Firstly, I don't want my 5-year old son to come home with that same-sex textbook depicted in the commercial. I would like to know if such a textbook and therefore such a curriculum even exists. If it does, then I hope you can appreciate the following:

I am not against same-sex marriage at all. I would vote for the next Proposition to change the Constitution to specifically include same sex marriage if it stipulates that NO types of marriages or household variations including parents would be taught, described or otherwise encouraged by the public schools. Let's just leave a little on the blank canvas of my son's mind for me to fill in on my own terms and in my own time.

[Nathaniel Bach - Huffpost Blogger]

The "threat" to our kids is a red herring, and apparently it's worked to distract you. Here's the No on 8 campaign's rebuttal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIL7PUl24hE

[Basilk]

This is an excellent article. I tried to alert the "no-on-8" campaign, hopefully they will mine this web footage and make some useful ads

[Glenn1441]

Call me naive, Mr. Bach, but suggesting at this late stage that Obama even subtly make a move to further endorse gay marriage, particularly as he leaves the campaign trail to visit with his ailing grandmother, would be suicide.
I am a gay man, 42-years old. I live i New York. My view on many social issues is this: A vote for Barack Obama, who, for sake of argument, ultimately wins the White House, is not only evidence of tremendous progress in a nation haunted by ghosts of racist violence, but that same vote is also a vote for keen intelligence -- a quality sorely missing in Washington for a long, long time.
Obama threatens white men and women on many levels. His skin color, combined with his intellect, reserve and liberal views, cannot support the weight of Prop. 8.
Had our candidate been white, I would likely think otherwise. It is my hope that with a wide-reaching Democratic win in November, the momentum for progressive government will begin.
And while it is utterly ridiculous to think that I must continue to wait for what is rightfully mine -- equality under the law -- I have learned, the hard way, that comprise is necessary, and in the case of Prop. 8, a necessary evil.

[Researchguy66]

Here in Florida, almost half of Democrats (45% as of Quinnipiac Survey 9/8) support an amendment to the state constitution to ban gay marriage (our Prop 2). Shameful!