Dolphin’s Dock

And for all the talk about how gay people need to “change hearts and minds,” I think the bigots are the ones changing people hearts and minds this time (but not in the direction they’d like). Yes on 8 announced today (oops it’s after midnight, so yesterday), that despite constant assurance (from Yes on 8!!) prior to the election that the measure would not nullify any existing marriages, they are now filing suit to do just that. Now this isn’t really a surprise (who could possibly have foretold that hateful bigots would be hateful and bigoted?), but this time I really think they’re over playing their hand. It’s the first time they’ve so openly tried to nullify existing marriages (besides when Mayor Newsome started marrying folks on his own, but that move was dubious enough as to not have the same effect). People can manage to convince themselves that they don’t hate anybody while simultaneously voting to prevent others from marrying in the first place, but it’s not so easy to justify knowingly ripping apart existing families.

Preventing marriages before they start is just about as devastating as nullifying them once they are in effect, but it’s harder to see the effect (even, in many ways, for the people most effect; those of us who’d like to get married but can’t). It seems easier to not gain, than it does to lose. Compounding it is the fact that, prior to the vote, many prominent Prop 8 supporters claimed that they had no intention to nullify existing marriages. Now that they’re changing their tune, it’s starting to look like bullying, even to those sympathetic to their cause.

I could be wrong, but I believe the original petition to get Prop 8 added to the ballot specifically stated that no existing rights would be removed by the measure (of course the petition was circulated prior to the Supreme Court’s decision). One potential legal argument against Prop 8, that I’ve heard tossed around a little, is to argue that the SC decision changed everything and therefore the measure actually on the ballot was not the same one that was petitioned for. I’ve thought it was one of the weaker arguments, but the bigots at Yes on 8 may well be giving it more validity with this latest move.

Gay people have been accused of asking for too much, too quickly. Now the bigots are finding themselves in the same position. Unfortunately for them, they can’t afford to wait.