Why California's Discriminatory Proposition 8 Might Not Stand
By Karen Ocamb, AlterNet. Posted January 29, 2009.
New legal actions from businesses like Google to civil rights organizations are threatening to get Prop. 8 off the books.
http://www.alternet.org/sex/121182/why_california%27s_discriminatory_proposition_8_might_not_stand/The anger over the passage of Proposition 8 has not abated. New groups of young activists have sprung up across the nation decrying the constitutional amendment that eliminated marriage rights for same-sex couples in California. In addition to ongoing protests against pro-Prop. 8 evangelical pastor Rick Warren, the new activists are finding creative ways to stay engaged.
The twentysomething co-founders of Equal Roots, for instance, shocked and embarrassed by their own complacency during the battle over Prop. 8, sponsored a rally in West Hollywood of more than 750 people on Jan. 10, the day the new online group Join the Impact called for a national rally to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. The group held a four-hour "action fair," where new activists met older organizers, signed petitions and joined new efforts.
Equal Roots advocates art as activism and prominently displayed an original poster designed for them by Shepard Fairey -- the artist whose posters of Barack Obama have become iconic. Fairey created a special "Defend Equality -- Love Unites" poster for the group, with a hundred or so first-runs expected to be auctioned off later to help support the effort.
