Secured By The Knights

     The sum of 1.4 million dollars contributed to the “Yes on 8” campaign came, ironically, from a state that is one of the two only in the nation that allows same sex marriages.

      It was the Knights of Columbus, based in New Haven, Connecticut, who provided this financial support to Proposition 8 in an attempt to secure a ban on same-sex marriage in the State of California.

“Marriage is a social institution that is as old as humankind itself. In modern society it forms an indispensable function,” said Patrick Korten, Vice President for Communications of The Knights of Columbus.

      Having nationwide support, The Knights of Columbus are financially able to provide ample funds to support traditional marriage.

“We have been involved in every one of the 30 state referenda that have been held. Every single one of which has resulted in the passage of an amendment to protect traditional marriage,” said Korten.

“California may like to think of itself as the only one that really counts,” said Korten “but in fact in 29 other states over the past decade similar referenda had been held and large majorities of voters have voted for exactly the same kind of constitutional amendment.”

     Based on their religious beliefs the Knights of Columbus do not consider gay marriage traditional and, in fact, it is quite unacceptable to their point of view.

“Every child deserves to have a mother and a father when they grow up,” said Korten. “They do not always contain the ideal but that is the desirable ideal in our view that is absolutely incontestable.”

     A total of six cases challenging Proposition 8 were filed recently in the Supreme Court of California from which three were accepted for review, said Lynn Holton, Public Information Officer from Judicial Council of California.

     According to Korten, the Knights of Columbus currently have no plans to further fight the case of same-sex marriage, because there are several other groups, right now, taking up that fight to protect Proposition 8 against the lawsuits.

“There is no real reason for us to pile on,” said Korten who is confident in a positive outcome from the lawsuits.

“We hope that they (the California Supreme Court) do not go down that road again,” said Korten. “We hope that they will respect the decision of the people of California and allow their opinion, which has now been expressed twice in statewide referenda.”

     According to Holton there won’t be any new updates or information available on the case until sometime next year. The oral arguments are scheduled for March 2009.

“We support the work of those who were seeking to persuade the California Supreme Court to allow the referendum to remain the final word,” said Korten.

     The Knights of Columbus is a nonprofit society founded in 1882 by a priest, Michael McGivney, who formed the organization for Catholic men to join together and perform works of charity.

      The society has grown nationwide as well as internationally over the years.

“From one little council in one little town in Connecticut,” said Korten “we are now an international organization with 13,000 local counsels around the world and we currently have more than 1.75 million members.”

“There are more than 65,000 members in the State of California,” ads Korten.

The Bright Site Of Proposition 8

     Filling gay couples with disappointment and despair, but making gay rights visible to the entire country, the passage of Proposition 8 did bring some benefits to the Castro as well as to the whole gay community, advocates say.

“The level of energy and anger that has come out of its passing is actually starting to reunify the community, not just the queer community but along with our straight allies,” said Ardel Thomas, the chair of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies at City College of San Francisco.

     Gay equality, which Harvey Milk fought for his entire career 30 years ago, is still an issue today, even in a city known for its gay tolerance. Gay marriage was rejected by a majority of society by the passage of Proposition 8.

“If it took the passage of Proposition 8 to remind us – again – that every generation has to fight for its ideals and not take them for granted, then it may be a dark but necessary chapter,” said economist Dean Volker.

     A petition whose goal is to overturn Proposition 8 was available online by the day after the election. Also, many groups supporting No on 8 quickly formed on web social networks like Facebook and Myspace.

“The gay community needs to get behind it and do the work necessary to make equality a reality,” said Jim Lonergan, registered nurse, who has lived in San Francisco over 40 years.

     The fate of gay marriage is now back in the hands of the California Supreme Court. It is a battle that is not simple and is not nearly over.

“I think it is a setback to be sure, but certainly not the end of the story,” said Brandon Leonard, M.A., who got married on Election Day.

“We are gaining ground, we just need to be up there,” said Thomas “History is on our side, if you keep looking, we will eventually get marriage, it just takes some more fighting. It’ll just take some more time.”

     It all started on July 17 when same sex couples were legally able to marry in California. San Francisco City Hall added extra operating hours to satisfy the high demand for wedding appointments. It was a big day for the gay community and a significant one in the history of human rights, but not for long.

“The right to marry for gay people will not be an easy battle,” said Lonergan. “There is much more work to be done.”

     When Proposition 8 appeared on the ballot, it claimed to protect marriage as an institution between a man and a woman, attempting to take away the right for same sex couples to wed in the state of California.

“It wasn’t just about marriage, it was a very hateful measure,” said Thomas. “There is no way to read that without reading how incredibly homophobic it is. Regardless of how gay people feel about marriage as an institution, we all recognize the hatefulness behind Yes on 8.”

     Bothered by the fact that gay marriage grew into an enormous issue in just the past few months, Dennis Peron, a gay activist and a friend of Milk’s considers it “a battle that we did not choose.”

“We have so many issues,” said Thomas. “I don’t think that marriage would be the one people would have necessarily gone for, but it ended up being the issue on our plate.“

     Sponsored mostly by out of state religious organizations – Mormons from Utah, The Knights of Columbus from Connecticut, but also independent contributors from around the country, the Yes on 8, gaining over 35milion for their campaign, kept growing and gaining supporters.

“It helped show publicly which side people are on. I'm thinking of the fact that donations to political causes are public record, and now the folks who funded Prop 8 find themselves under fire,” said Volker, noting the well-publicized incident when a regional theater director in Sacramento who contributed money to Proposition 8 was forced to resign.

     On Election Day, City Hall in San Francisco was busy with same sex couples getting married, taking advantage of the opportunity to wed before too late. However even on that day throughout the gay community, representatives of the No on 8 campaign seemed to be quite relaxed about the whole issue of Proposition 8.

“There was a certain complacency about Prop 8 in that gay people felt that right was on our side and that the proposition would fail, that most Californians are fair and would not want to discriminate,” said Lonergan.

“The passage of Proposition 8 shocked enough people who thought California was ‘enlightened’ into realizing that even we in this state have these hurdles to jump, as well as causing a national embarrassment,” said Volker.

     While coping with disappointment some couples decided not to let the passage of Proposition 8 affect their marriage status and lives in general.

“I will not stop being David's husband just because a narrow-minded proposition or a court says that we are not legally married,” said Leonard.

     There was immediate reaction to the passage of the Proposition 8, starting with protests in the city the following day.

“The gays got pretty complacent lately, especially after anti-retroviral drugs took the heat off the fight against AIDS,” said Volker. “It took the passage of the proposition to get people back on the streets and mad as hell.”

     According to Thomas, political activism is more apparent now than it has been before, especially in the Castro. “It’s bringing the community together, I’ve seen more protesters, more energy after it. So in a weird way that’s good, it energized us.”

     In just couple of weeks after the election, from a state issue it became a national one. On the morning of November 15 all around the country supporters of gay marriage and equality stood in front of their local City Halls to express their disappointment and disagreement.

“We should be painfully aware at this point that freedoms can't be taken for granted and that complacency and apathy will never move us forward,” said Tara Walsh who got married on July 17. “I'm forever grateful to the people who wake up every day and devote their hours to making our world a better place.”

     Patience will be necessary now. According to Lynn Holton, Public Information Officer from the Judicial Council of California, there won’t be any new updates about the lawsuit against the Proposition 8 available until March 2009 when the first court hearing is scheduled.

“Hopefully, the courts will reject the proposition, which is a strong possibility,” said Lonergan. “In our system of government the rights of the minority and equal protections under the law are fundamental. The courts have done it before.”

     According to Walsh, the current lawsuit means hope and strength to same sex couples and the will to continue fighting.

“Without the lawsuit, we'd be dealing with a much more permanent and devastating reality right now,” said Walsh. “One that we're not ready to face.”

     Remembering the history of human rights, the gay community is not loosing their hope about the future success of their cause.

“It took 40 years of work to undue slavery and discrimination of blacks in the US and now we have our first black President and First Family, over time it too will happen,” said Lonergan.