YOUNG GAYLINGS and LESBIANETTES. A teachable moment. I am getting ready to leave Palm Springs after one of the MOST PROFOUND events in my life: the marriage of Geoff Kors and James Williamson. 20 years ago in about 1994, a group of us noticed that Hawaii was raising the issue of marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples. The right wing panicked and began its anti-marriage campaign. Vermont struggled with the issue of civil unions. And the voters passed Proposition 22 to ban marriages in California in 1990 (YES! There was a statewide battle long before Prop 8). A small and determined group of us rescued and organization called CAPE and transformed it into Equality California. Through the efforts of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and San Francisco Senator Mark Leno, EQCA introduced and passed the first marriage bills in the nation that were then vetoed twice by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. And the lawyers got busy at EQCA to challenge the Passage of Prop 22 in the State Courts. We prevailed and we had a summer of love in 2008 where 16,000 couples got married before the passage of Prop 8 and its eventual overturn in the federal courts and US Supreme Court last year. So, it took 20 years of work to get here! But there were women and men who toiled for years to make it happen largely behind the scenes. And they were almost all present at the wedding of Geoff and James because those 2 boys LOVE us because we were part of the epic battle with them to make this moment real for them and hundreds of thousands of others. It was a grand reunion to have us all fly in from New York, Washington DC, Sacramento, Bay Area and Southern California. I realized last night that this extraordinary group of people may never gather again. So with a bit of sadness coupled to the utmost joy, we DANCED and DANCED at the wedding. Emma was right! Dont invite me to the Revolution if we cant DANCE! I love you all my dear friends: Jim Carroll Shumway Marshall Steven Mele Ginny Foat Leslie Katz Evan Wolfson Minna Tao Kathy Levinson Councilmember Steve Hansen Marc Solomon Kate Kendell Shannon Minter @DavidCodell @DianeAbbitt Bernadette Abbruzze @JoeGuardarrama @AaronMicu Ron Oden Xavier Barrera @JimNickoff @AmeliaCraig Gary D. Soto @MariahHansen and sooo many others. We started out standing for LOVE and changed the world. My life has gone from large gatherings of friends for funerals and memorials because of AIDS to large gatherings of friends for weddings. AND I COULDNT BE HAPPIER to attend another gay wedding ….. Whats next God?
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 16:35:27 +0000
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