Yesterday, voters in California have chosen to eliminate a civil right of an entire category of citizens. This is the first time in the history of the California constitution that a right that has already been granted to people has been taken away again. I am deeply disappointed by the fact that the protection of a minority group has been eliminated by a simple majority vote.
In the past months, I have engaged myself in the fight against Proposition 8, feel proud to have been part of this campaign, but wished that I could have done more. However, I don’t regret the path that I have taken, for I have learned a lot more about the LGBT community, made friends and were very inspired by some of the events.
In the past months, I was phone banking for the No on Prop 8 campaign, donated large amounts to the campaign, and talked to people about the issue. My fiancée and I were holding “No on Prop 8” signs at the Halloween parade in Hollywood (fully dressed in our costumes, too), and we got a lot of cheers and support from people (no surprise in Hollywood of course). I went to the No on Prop 8 rally in San Jose a couple weeks ago, and also put up yard-signs at busy traffic intersections in my pre-dominantly Yes-On-8-neighborhood (though the signs were removed the next day). I stood at the San Jose Caltrain station with our No-on-Prop-8 signs only to be ridiculed by bystanders. One of them making sexually-explicit motions with his hip, and laughs as he says he doesn’t support gay sex (as if proposition 8 is about that).
On the campaign trail, I met Scott who is a Vietnamese American homosexual who hasn’t come out of the closet with his family yet. I wonder how difficult it must be for him to do so. When Scott prompted me if I have came out yet, I told him to his surprise that I am heterosexual, and he appreciated my support. The stories continue, as I went with him to the LGBT center in downtown San Jose, where I meet a support group, who in the midst of taking turns sharing stories of this fight for equality. Among them, I meet a straight woman, whose ex-husband was gay and married her in the background of societal expectations. Her marriage ended in a divorce, but she understood her ex-husband's dilemma and since then has been an activist for LGBT rights.
On the day before the election, I went to a training to be a poll captain to take a group of volunteers to the polls to talk to voters, pass out leaflets and work on election day. The training room was overflowing with supporters of all ages, genders, race, and sexual orientation. It didn’t matter whether you were gay or straight, because people in the room understood that this was a civil rights battle, and the speaker there told us how touched he was how many supporters turned out. I feel how energized this group of volunteers were, and how everyone in the room understood the enormous significance of a defeat or victory of Proposition 8 will have for the rest of the country. We were trained in working and negotiating with poll workers, learned about the legal rights of campaigning at a poll site, learned how to deal with the opposition and other incidents. It reminded me of the bold African Americans who underwent training for non-violent struggles in the days of the civil rights movement.
On election day, I woke up at 4:30am and called the headquarters to get the list of numbers of the volunteers to make wake-up calls. By the time I arrive at the headquarters, volunteers were already lined up and signing up for shifts. Assigned to my team was Scott again (who was happy to see my dedication), this Caucasian guy who was a walk-in volunteer and another Vietnamese girl from Hanoi, who was here in the US on a study abroad program. She woke up at 4am to take the 1-hour bus and light rail ride to the headquarters, since she didn’t even had a car. Scott and I were very impressed by her progressive thinking and commitment to this cause and thought that many Vietnamese Americans have a lot to learn from her.
As we hold signs near our designated poll in the culturally-diverse Rivermark area in Santa Clara, voters were very receptive of our cause. Sure, there were those who would give us the thumbs down and even the middle finger, but a lot of people honked in support. In contrast to that, in the evening, when I was taking another team to another poll site in the very “hostile” area of Campbell, people physically pulled their kids away from us, as if we would turn them gay by the forces of eye sights. People were very upset and asked whether we were even allowed to be here at the poll site.
Yet, in the midst of all the negativity, there was car that turned into the parking lot. A little kid maybe in the age of 6 or 7 stepped out of the car with two women. The kid made some sign with his hand and pointed at us, and at first I thought it was yet another graphic slur, but then I realized he was giving me a thumbs up. As the three of them came closer to us, I realize that this was the lesbian couple with their adopted kid. They thanked us for being here and never thought that they would see No on Prop 8 supporters come out to this rather hostile area. I was touched to see this happy family go to the polls and wonder how they can explain to their child that their marriage is nullified should Prop 8 pass.
As the polls close at 8pm, I returned to headquarters to return the material, gave a report, and then rushed to the Silicon Valley Obama Election Night Celebration up in Mountain View. Right at the moment Obama was giving his speech, my fiancée text-messaged me the disturbing early exit-polls of Proposition 8: it was leading by almost a 10% margin. Ouch, how bittersweet the moment was for me feeling goosebumps as I watch the African American president-elect giving his speech, and fearing that prop 8 is bound to pass at the same time. I decided not to tell my friends who came with me to the party about the bad news and allowed them to enjoy grasping this historic moment for the civil rights movement.
Later in the evening, Scott called me who was having his own election party with his partner at home, and I tell him about the disturbing exit polls. I feel bad for the LGBT community and wonder how they are taking the news.
By 11pm or so, as I leave the Obama party, I drove back to the California Democratic Party headquarters in San Jose. People were still around celebrating Obama’s victory there too, but only a few volunteers from No on Prop 8 were around, huddling over a computer screen to check the election results as more precinct results come in. The room was unusually quiet. This was the place that was so noisy during the phone banking campaign, where it was difficult for me to even hear what the other person on the line was evening saying, but now the laptops and cell phones were just lying around like weapons void of their ammunition the day after a battle.
I head home by 1 or 2am and doze off in front of the TV rewatching the Obama speech. Today, as I follow the results of Proposition 8, it seems clear to me that it’s unlikely to be defeated. By now, while the margin of Proposition 8 has narrowed to a 5% difference, I realize it will take a miracle for the majority of all absentee and provisional ballots to be voting No to be necessary to defeat this discriminatory proposition.
It has been a hard and long-fought battle. I wonder how those who voted Yes on Prop 8 can be happy and cheerful at this time at the expense of ruining and devastating the lives of so many others. I find it ironic that Californians managed to vote on the same day to grant chickens “human” rights but decided to take away fundamental rights from people.
Yet in the end, good things came out of this for me. For one, I made new friends. I look forward to introduce my fiancée (another LGBT activist) to Scott and meet his partner some day. I have found a new hero in Kate Kandell, who I thought was the best spokeswoman the No on Prop 8 campaign can ask for (her interview appearances on NPR were absolutely great). At last, this campaign made me a truly proud heterosexual gay activist, and I am certain that I will continue this fight, when it comes around again…. and for certain it will.
Proposition 8 passes this year by a razor-thin margin, but if I may remind everyone that Proposition 22 (that prevented California from recognizing same-sex marriages) back in 2000 won by a 22% margin, I hope people realize that this is a significant trend of progression. I really foresee that it be a matter of another three decades until same-sex marriage will be recognized not only in California, but also on a federal level. It will be a time when people look back at 2008 with a contempt for how we have voted, the same way we now look back to half a century ago when everyone was opposing interracial marriage.
Until that day comes, I will be there fighting for it.