Guest Post: When Pride alone is not enough

As you know if you read this blog, I rarely feature guest posts. This is one of those exceptions and it happens to be an extraordinary opinion piece by someone I consider to be one of my best friends, Gloria Nieto.  Additionally, I'll make this pitch even if she hasn't asked me to do so: If you know of any job leads for one fierce Latina lesbian please feel free to contact her through Twitter. Details at the bottom of this post...

Photo: Gloria Nieto appearing on Orgullo Latino, an In The Life pride month special airing on some PBS stations.

When Pride alone is not enough
by Gloria Nieto

June 19, 2012

Ah, the sun is out, the bees are buzzing, the Pride flags are unfurled all over the country and many LGBT people across the globe are planning what to wear to the biggest parade of their year. The change in décor can mean only one thing - Pride month is upon us!

I have been lucky enough to get a couple of spots on national media this June, which together encompass some pretty big portions of my life right now – and where I am, unfortunately, is not cause for unambiguous celebration.

In The Life, the national LGBT newsmagazine airing on PBS, is doing an episode, “Orgullo Latino,” on Latino/a LGBT people during this month of Pride. I am in that show because of my involvement with what used to be the national LGBT organization, LLEGO. It used to be based in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, it no longer exists.

I was also featured in a recent report on NPR’s All Things Considered about long-term unemployment. I am now three-plus years without a job with no change in sight. I am no longer getting interviews for anything. It has always been my contention that I am past the expiration date for employment these days. I have all the basics one would think an employer would want: marketable skills, a history of success and even awards.

But I am fifty-seven years old. I am pretty sure that the dye job doesn’t cover the wrinkles popping up around my eyes. As I said in the NPR interview, I am looking at the prospect of never working again in my life.

I am now in the group of people I have always worked to assist: Those with diminished opportunities and limited resources, and who are struggling to make it one month to the next. My physical condition, which no one can figure out, does not allow me to just take a job at the local Michael’s or PetSmart. I am on disability, but I don’t have insurance.

This can make Pride month difficult. The long-term effects of this unemployment on my psyche and sense of self-worth are really an enormous detriment to facing every day with any kind of hope, let alone Pride.

Being unemployed does not help when it comes to experiencing pride – and nor does not having a national LGBT Latino organization. We are not there at the meetings at the White House. We, the Latino LGBT community, don’t have a representative for our very specific concerns regarding immigration, schools, hate crimes, and employment discrimination.

In my previous life as a member of the Democratic National Committee, I was able to have conversations with candidates like John Kerry, Howard Dean, Tom Udall, Bill Richardson, Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin. I was part of a small meeting with President Bill Clinton in the White House. As a Latina lesbian, my experience was different than many of my colleagues who were there representing their respective interests. For example, I was not there to represent the transgender community because that is not my experience. Being supportive of my brothers and sisters does not make me an expert nor make me a representative of communities I am not part of.

In the same way, I don’t expect our national organizations to represent my experience as part of the broad advocacy of the LGBT communities. I do, however, expect to see Latino representation at all levels in every organization. I think this has been missing for a while.

In that regard, also, some of us who are unemployed and have a rich history of success, failure and breaking barriers are still ignored. Somehow we are no longer valued in so many different places, and all our skills are wasted while we try to find things to do and ways to be helpful. We continue to seek to show our Pride in whatever way we can in the limited ways we can do it.

I volunteer at a couple of different places now. I am learning more about urban farming. We eat the potatoes I grow, and the tomatoes are hopefully coming in big bunches soon. There are onions and garlic, squash and cucumbers. My animals are happy because I am home all the time.

During Pride month, I will continue to be proud of who I am in my community and with my family and neighbors. My Latino community will continue to find ways to support each other in the ways we know. It is my hope that some day we will find a way to recreate a national organization that speaks for us in our distinctive way. Until then, seguiremos celebrando nuestro Orgullo. We will continue to celebrate our Pride.

About the author: Gloria Nieto is a Latina lesbian activist and a native Californian. She has spent many years in the contact world of politics working on campaigns, as a member of the Democratic National Committee, President of the Silicon Valley LGBT Democratic Club and as a founding member of Marriage Equality Silicon Valley. She is also the only Latina lesbian to have ever spoken on the floor of the National Democratic Convention.  She currently writes for City Brights - the online blog section of the San Francisco Chronicle - and at Miss Wild Thing. Gloria lives with her esposa, three dogs and three cats and is an avid gardener and Sharks fan.

Editor's note: This guest post has also been cross-posted at LGBT POV by journalist Karen Oacamb.  Karen ads an introductory note that is well-worth reading. Read her comment here.

Related:

• The full episode of In The Life's Orgullo Latino can be seen here.
• Gloria Nieto tweets at @sjgloria

Guest post: An interview with Roland Palencia, pt. 2

 

PHOTO [L to R]: Roland Palencia next to recently elected Equality California Board Members Dolores Huerta and Rabbi Steven Jacobs.

This is the second part of a two part interview my friend Gloria Nieto conducted a few days ago with incoming Equality California Executive Director Roland Palencia.  In Part 1 (click here), Palencia discussed his Guatemalan background and the violence that marked his youth, his coming out experience as a college student, and his extraordinary history of activism in the Latino LGBT and HIV prevention community of California.

In this segment of the interview, Palencia discusses the role of Equality California in other progressive social justice issues.  He also touches on President Barack Obama's "evolving" views on marriage equality and the pros and cons of challenging Proposition 8 in the immediate future.

We pick up where we last left off. Palencia is discussing Equality California's failed efforts to defeat Proposition 8 at the ballot and some of the "No on Prop. 8" campaign shortcomings...

GLORIA NIETO: Well this brings me to my next question. What can you do to heal what has happened between the campaign and Equality California? What are you going to do to heal this gigantic rift which I believe needs to be recognized? And how can you change the perception of others in the state who feel the same? Because you have a board where you have to pay to play. It is not representative. As much as I love Dolores Huerta, she is not my representative. To me there are problems in terms of communication and representation [Huerta, pictured above, is the co-founder of United Farm Workers of America and was recently nominated to the Equality California board of directors].

ROLAND PALENCIA: No, those are real issues. I think the fact that I have been involved in the community for so long [means] I understand some of the issues. I want to meet with people. I want to hear what people have to say. I want to have a conversation. How do we integrate activists more in to the organization and figure out a way so that is a part of what we do? The reality is that we don’t have a common conversation. We don’t have a language we can in some ways that we can converse around. You know what I am saying?

GN: Yes.

RP: So we are going to have create that, little by little or however it takes. There’s a question of access. Who has access. What kind of resources? What kind of decision making? I think that is going to be an issue that we really have to think about. The other thing is I really want to create a different framework in terms of how we approach our community engagement. By that I mean we need to take up issues that matter to all of our communities.

For instance, health care. I have been involved in health care. We have to expand our notion of what community issues are. I think marriage is definitely an important issue. It is a critical one. In addition to it being a civil rights issue, it is an economic issue. We know that families that are legally protected also have a better chance of being economically stable, especially those families with children. So we have to frame this as a civil rights issue but also as an economic justice issue.

We need to take up other issues that hugely impact our communities and I mean all our communities. Health care is definitely one. Access to affordable health care is a big issue in our community. We have an opportunity with health care reform to create alliances and to create coalitions that have one goal. That one goal is to create access to affordable health care. Right now the state of California got $10 billion to do a program over the next three years called Bridge to Reform.

GN: I am on the board of the Santa Cruz Women’s Health Center so I am really aware of that program.

RP: So you know that one of the goals is to enroll 500,000 people before 2014. I think we need to be part of those efforts. We need to demonstrate our competence in other areas that impact. That’s one approach that I think is going to help to definitely start creating coalitions. Health care will impact women, people of color, single gay men, married LGBT couples. I mean you name it. There are close to 7 million Californians who do not have health care. I mean that’s a huge number of people affected. This is rich with opportunities for coalition work and to provide palpable benefits to our communities.

Another one is education. There are issues I need to vet with the board. We know that education is the big equalizer or at least has the potential to be. We also know that having access to higher education is a seminal experience for LGBT people. Most of us came out in college where we were able to get away from our families a little bit, from our traditional settings, rural, urban, what have you. We started to find people like us, people we could relate to in a number of ways. So for many of us, we came out in college. Obviously, kids are coming out a lot earlier. Aside from the fact that it is an economic justice issue to have access to an affordable, quality education, it is also part of our movement. It is where we shape our identities as activists many times. So this whole thing that is going on with the community colleges, 400,000 fewer students are going to be able access community colleges in the fall of 2011. I think that is like a stake through the heart of our movement. That means 400,000 fewer students are not going to have access to an education. This will have an economic impact and I think this is an economic justice issue.  But also in terms of activism, it really will deplete our troops. We have to start linking these things. We have to start looking at the fact that all these things are connected. All these things impact us in terms of civil rights and economic justice.

The other thing is I think, that and the reason why I am saying civil rights and economic justice we have to create a movement that is not only about civil rights. It is definitely about civil rights. But it is about economic justice. If we don’t take care of the economic justice part of it, we will have an incomplete civil rights movement. I think that one of the reasons why we still have a Latino underclass and an African American underclass and poor, white underclass is because we haven’t really dealt with the issues of economic justice. I think we need to go beyond the civil rights issues.

GN: You are making me cry. This is where so many of us live, having a commitment to full social justice. When the Arizona law first got passed,(SB 1070, anti-immigrant bill) I wrote something for Karen Ocamb’s blog (LGBT POV). I just got attacked with people saying immigration is not an LGBT issue. I am just wondering, what are you going to do? I don’t know that the organization is prepared.

RP: By the way, I don’t start the job until July 5th so I am just starting to figure these things out. But I know for a fact that they have a Beyond Borders outreach program. Part of that is to start educating the community on immigration issues, to start getting activists sharing with each other and to do coalition work. Equality California got a lot of flak for opposing the Arizona law. They got a lot of hate mail. I think that is a good sign. Immigration is a civil rights and economic justice issue. We have to frame in that way. It is a civil rights issue because the rights of people are being trampled upon. No human being is illegal. That is such a demeaning and dehumanizing term. But also it is an economic justice issue. Our economy depends a lot on that labor. We have a consumer society that loves cheap things, inexpensive things.

We, in some ways, are conspirators to having undocumented labor. The only way the system can produce what consumers want is if we lower the wages of those people who produce those things whether it is here in the US or outside. And we are saying “Fine.” If all of us benefit from having less expensive food and clothing, from less expensive housing then you can go down the line and document what undocumented labor contributes to the economy. Then we need to take care of those individuals who create those benefits for us. It is a hard conversation to have but I think we need to have that conversation. I mean the same people who are putting the anti-gay propositions on the ballot are the same people who are anti-immigrant.
So if the gay movement becomes anti-immigrant we are basically strengthening our enemies. We need to be really watchful about that. We have what I would call a hypocrisy economy where we want the benefits of the hands of the labor, the undocumented labor where we want the hands but not the whole body.

GN: I have a question about the education bill that was moving in Sacramento [The FAIR Education Act]. I was wondering why there wasn’t more of an effort to educate us about what was going on in Sacramento? I think the effort was being done just through social networks. I hope you will address that because that is not an inclusive way of communicating. About the wins and the losses. I would like to see more of an effort to educate us and for us to go show and lobby. I would like to have diverse people show up.

RP: We have to figure that out and somehow work on creating a mechanism to have people more involved, more informed with the tool so we can create that movement that we are talking about. I think that will be a real challenge. How do we create that loop with communities and with individuals who want to be involved and make a difference. We have to look at the legislation. You were asking me about how to get more connected to the community. Of course there is a process. It will not happen overnight. I was giving you a framework and an approach.

Equality California has passed about 71 bills. We need to do an analysis in terms of what does this mean about localities. We need to see if these bills create partnerships with local activists to start implementing those at a local level so that it really has an impact on the quality of life in those communities. It is not going to be in every community but we have the ability to not take over but can be the nervous system, connecting the synergy with best practices. To share what does work, what doesn’t work. To find out what is unique about one place, to know what is not unique about one place. I really want to create that network, that nervous system, that backbone to connecting our California movement a little bit more.

GN: I don’t know that this is Equality California’s job but there seems to be a lot of functioning Latino LGBT organizations in southern California but there is nothing up in northern California. A friend of mine in San Francisco and I tried last year to start a Latino LGBT organization up here. We couldn’t get a fiscal sponsor. We couldn’t get anybody to do that. It just seems like in part of the conversations it seems like it would be a natural fit for you and the rest of the staff could be hooking up people from different parts of the state so we can be having conversations about how do we work, how are we more effective and how to work together to be more united. And if, oh gawd, we have to go back to the ballot in 2012, what are we going to do? For me, 2012 is too soon anyway.

RP: I have some thoughts. We are in a quandary. On one hand we have a Presidential election that gives us an opportunity to get a lot of progressive people out there to vote. Also, we had a bit of a generational shift because we had younger people, we had a number of Latinos become voters. We had a sizeable Latino generational shift. Then we have Obama saying that he is evolving on the issue of marriage equality. That’s an indication that he might actually come out for marriage equality. We don’t know that but it is putting everyone on notice. They are not challenging DOMA. They were really strong on DADT. This is the holy trinity of issues: marriage, military and DOMA. So this is the only missing piece in that triad of issues. So that’s the opportunity.

The challenge is that this election is 18 months from now. We are supposed to have a game plan. We are supposed to have a fund raising plan. We supposed to have our community united, including our allies. Ninety percent of our pro-equality votes are going to come from our allies. The unions are supportive. The faith based communities, the civil rights organizations. The elected officials, you name it, right? We want to know that those allies are going to be there with us. The unions have their own struggles going on. They are fighting for their lives. Not as much in California but certainly they are starting to feel the pressure.

Then we have to add this other piece – the lawsuit. Lots of resources have been shifted to that. They have raised millions and millions. Lots of the pro-equality money has already been invested in this lawsuit. They might not be as comfortable funding a ballot initiative in 2012. This is a very complicated situation where you have tremendous opportunities and tremendous challenges. I think that part of the town hall meetings is to get some of that information but also to have to go outside of our community as well. Like I said, we depend on the 90% or so that are not just coming from our community.

GN: Here, Santa Clara county went for Prop 22 way back when. We flipped this county by like 32 points. I will say because I was outside the campaign that I could run the campaign in a way that I knew was more effective.  

RP: So you had your ear to the ground.

GN: Exactly. A lot of people don’t know this about Silicon Valley. But 64% of the population is either immigrant or children of immigrants. We have the largest population of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam. Obviously it was critical that we get things out in Vietnamese. We had people out there talking about it. That is one of the reasons we were able to change the vote here because of our relationships with the API [Asian Pacific Islander] community. Right now I am working with a group called Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI) to talk about immigration issues here in Silicon Valley. So I am the only non-Asian in the group. But I am doing outreach into the LGBT community, working collaboratively with the biggest Asian group here. So for me that is what it needs to look like – Latinos and Asians working collaboratively in the state of California.

RP: I have just a little more time left. I am just so glad that we connected. We shall continue our conversations.

GN: The last question I have for you, are you going to be moving up here?

RP: I am going to be based in Los Angeles. But I will be travelling throughout the state.

GN: So then the center of the gay universe will be in WeHo now?

RP: You could say that [laughing]. That is one of the things I am looking forward to. I am LA based. I looking forward to working with people around the state. I went to the Courage Campaign’s training in Fresno. We take so much for granted in LA. I was so moved by the courage and passion of people in the Central Valley. It was like going back to the 1950’s. I was just so impressed with the passion and commitment. That inspired me for months. Well even today. It was very touching. I was very touched.

GN: I am glad to hear that. I have really enjoyed this conversation. Thank you for your time.

RP: Thank you. I am sure we will talk again.

Previously:

• Guest post: An interview with Roland Palencia, pt. 1

Guest post: An interview with Roland Palencia, pt. 1

 

PHOTO: Roland Palencia (Copyright: Debra Evans)

Last month the board of directors of Equality California announced they had selected Roland Palencia as their new Executive Director. The announcement surprised many who had not heard his name before, despite an impressive track record in LGBT organizing, philanthropy and business management.  Blogger and journalist Karen Ocamb covered all of this in an interview she posted on her blog last month ("First interview with Ronald Palencia") and Prop 8 Trial Tracker just featured an OpEd by Palencia a couple of days ago ("Marriage equality is an anchor for full social equality").

Today I bring you something a little different.  My good friend Gloria Nieto interviewed Palencia a few days ago and focused on issues that are particularly relevant to the topics I cover on this blog.  This is why I was thrilled when she asked me if she could post the interview on Blabbeando as a guest post.

I have chosen to split the interview into two parts. In this post Palencia discusses his Guatemalan background, the violence that marked his younger years in his country of birth and his extraordinary history of activism in the Latino LGBT and HIV prevention community of California.  He also addresses possible mistakes that Equality California might have committed in their failed battle against Proposition 8 and the prospect of going back to the ballot boxes in 2012 to try to defeat the measure.

In the second part of the interview, Palencia goes into the role of Equality California on other progressive social justice issues such as the economy, education, health care and immigration.  He also touches on President Barack Obama's "evolving" views on marriage equality.  But all that will have to wait.  For now, enjoy the first part of this extraordinary interview.

GLORIA NIETO: Tell me what your history is? I understand you are Guatemalan.

ROLAND PALENCIA: Yes, I was born and raised in Guatemala. My family was very politically involved. My father was one of those people, he was a small businessman and also a revolutionary. And he wanted to basically get rid of the military dictatorship that Guatemalans had been living with for many decades. So he was killed. I also had another cousin who was 18 when she was killed. My father remained disappeared for quite a while until we found his remains. You know? Many of my family members went into exile. Some went to Mexico City, Australia, Spain and Vancouver, Canada. Most of them are still there now. My mom was concerned about our safety. She came to the US and she eventually brought us here. The US was providing military aid to Guatemala at that time. So Central Americans were not really eligible for political asylum so when I came here I was almost 18, I was already an adult. I eventually went to UCLA. That is when I started to come out as a gay man. You know colleges and universities are the environment where many of us find ourselves. Also I got a sense of what being a Latino in the US was. Obviously I felt this sharp contrast with my family who were small businesses. We were not rich but we were somewhat prosperous. Basically here there is the sharp discrimination that many immigrants feel that kind of shaped my consciousness and that along that with the fact that I was coming out as gay Latino man really got me to really think about what I wanted to do. About the conversations that people have about both immigrants and LGBT people. So in 1982, I was one of the co-founders of Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU). Which eventually created the leadership that helped to found Bienestar. I don’t know if you know Oscar De La O but he was the founder of Bienestar.

GN: Right

RP:A lot of that leadership came out of GLLU and of course, many of them are dead now. Many of them died of HIV and AIDS. I lost, I don’t know, seven out of 10 friends. It was a huge epidemic and it hit the activist community really hard. So it was unfortunate about that, aside from the human suffering, just the pain that the pain the community had. I can think of Jose Ramirez. He was Newyorican. He was one of those individuals who really involved in the civil rights movement. Many involved with the United Farm Workers. They really had a connection to the civil rights movement. I think that we lost that whole generation. And we lost the consciousness and the solidarity thinking that came along with that.

GN: You know I have also been of the opinion that men of that age - and I wouldn’t say my numbers were as high as what you are talking about - but definitely, I talk about men who I should be growing old with who are not here anymore. I also think because we all grew up with the feminist movement that there was a lot more solidarity with women.

RP: Absolutely

GN: and being able to operate from basic feminist principles of inclusion and equality, that losing so many of that generation, there was a loss of transferring that information, those principles and experience to younger men.

RP: So the hand off in terms of certain values, the basic tenets of the solidarity movement, that whole notion of interconnection and intersecting movements was lost, we lost a lot of that. I don’t think we have analyzed the huge impact that the loss of that generation has had on the movement and where we are now. I can think of Frank Mendiola who was a farm worker child. He was raised in the farms and he became a union activists. He was the one who organized the Gay and Lesbian Center. He was like 24 and he was organizing the biggest LGBT institution. So that is part of my history. In the late 80’s I founded VIVA along with other friends. That was basically and LGBT artists organization.

GN: And then you are a founder of HONOR PAC too?

RP: No, I am not a founder of HONOR PAC. I am on the advisory board.

GN: Oh OK.

RP: The main thing about VIVA is that so many of our gay brothers were dying that we created that organization to make sure that we kept their art and memories alive. One of the impetus for that is that so many gay Latino men were dying we got Latinas and Latinos involved and to really promote our art and the expanded consciousness that comes along with that. So that went on for like four or five years. Then I went to work at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. I was the vice president and chief of operations. Between being a consultant and a full time employee, I was there about eight years. And then I went to La Clinica Monseñor Oscar Romero. I was the Executive Director there. I was the E.D. for four and a half years. After that I started my philanthropic work with the foundations. I became the senior program officer at the California Endowment. Now I have been appointed as the next Executive Director of Equality California.

GN: Well that is quite the story.

RP: It’s a lot.

GN: The Prop 8 campaign did not turn out the way we wanted it to. I am curious what you were able to do at that time. How were you able to help?

RP: I think I am one of those people who wish we had done more. I also know that there were a lot of blind spots. Things that campaign could have done a lot better. We all have learned a lot of lessons from that. I think that one of the lessons we learned was that we have to talk to the people. You know we can’t do these things in a vacuum. WE have to have these one to one conversations in all kinds of community and all kinds of languages. We also have to understand that our opponents are very organized and very powerful and they have a lot of money. They have basically built in infrastructure of churches that are not on our side that they can turn on and turn off. So I was one of those people who was not as involved.

I think it is important to acknowledge that. I gave some money and made some phone calls. I remember on election day I was educating voters. It was outside the voting booths within the legal limits. I was out there for about 10 hours. At the end of the day, they wanted to arrest me. I was definitely involved.

I was involved in the Obama campaign. I went to Nevada to knock on doors. I was involved in the Obama campaign a lot more than the Prop 8 campaign.

GN: Just in terms of my own experience, I have to say that this campaign definitely scarred me. I have to say this was because of the really bad treatment I got from Equality California - and I mean really bad treatment. Here I was running a hunk of the campaign here in San Jose, got talked to like I was a dog. Talked to incredibly disrespectfully, couldn’t get any resources. I would get resources from people in other counties. I would drive to Santa Cruz to get yard signs. You know that is now way to run a campaign. There was an evening when some of the labor folks had brought hotel maids to help with phone banking. We did not have a Spanish script. So they were reduced to emptying the garbage cans and cleaning up. I was crying and crying and crying that night. I still apologize to the union people for that. Then campaign staff person says that they have to check on any scripts to make sure they are culturally competent. Of course! My response in my head though was 'fuck you, fuck you for treating my folks like this'. I worked with Luis Lopez [currently a candidate for state Assembly] to get window signs in Spanish. We generated these signs and offered to folks in San Francisco. We also got them done in Vietnamese, too. We got them out all through San Jose. I offered them to San Francisco and never heard a word. Nothing.

RP: That should have never happened.

GN: No!!!

RP: Those are stories of things that should have never happened. By the way, my activism was with HONOR PAC, not necessarily with the bigger campaign.

GN: But why did HONOR PAC have an office in LA, the were the only ones with an office in LA?

RP: They got some space from Supervisor Gloria Molina.

GN: I know but I am just saying that the campaign never opened up anything in LA.

RP: Correct. There was a relationship. If we go back in 2012, which is going to be a daunting task, these things need to be in place.

* Gloria Nieto is a Latina lesbian blogger. She writes for the San Francisco Gate, in the Chronicle's blogger section, City Brights. Gloria lives in Northern California with her esposa, three dogs and three cats. She is looking forward to having a job before she is eligible for social security

La Opinion backs marriage rights for same-sex couples in California

[NOTE: Above, the latest ad for those seeking to safeguard marriage rights for same-sex couples in California. For more info and to support NO on Prop. 8 efforts head directly here]

In an editorial published today in Los Angeles' La Opinion ("An unnecessary proposal"), the paper asks Latino voters to vote 'NO' on California's Proposition 8 and against efforts to undo a state top court decision legalizing same-sex marriage (It counts quite a bit: La Opinion is the Spanish-language paper with the largest circulation in the United States).

While not surprising (the paper also supported the same-sex weddings that took place in San Francisco under Gavin Newsom's watch back in 2004), the editorial comes at a key time when foes of same-sex couples seem to have the upper hand and Latino and African-American voters are being mentioned as a reason why the ban could pass (not sure I am convinced by the arguments).

I am taking the liberty to reprint the English version of the editorial in its entirety.

Proposition 8 seeks to amend the California Constitution to expressly guarantee that marriage must be between a man and a woman.

We believe this is an unnecessary initiative that would impose a constitutional restriction on rights now held by a group of Californians whose mutual commitment before the law and society poses no danger whatsoever.

The idea behind this initiative and the title its proponents wanted to give it was the "California Marriage Protection Act".The state attorney general changed the title to the more accurate "Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry."

That right was declared in May by the California Supreme Court, ruling that such a ban is discriminatory. To arrive at that decision, the judges based their opinion on a 1948 legal precedent that determined that it was illegal to prohibit marriage of couples of different races.

It is subjective to claim that the voluntary marriage between two adults is a threat to an institution which, ironically, these people are fighting to join.

The true threats to marriage are lack of communication, infidelity, domestic abuse, and economic pressures.

The driving force behind the measure comes from Evangelical, Catholic, Mormon, Baptist, Orthodox Jewish, and Adventist congregations, with money, sermons, prayers, fasting, and very respectable and respected opinions.

But that does not mean it is acceptable to impose these beliefs on all of society, and much less, change the State Constitution.

We recommend voting NO on Proposition 8.

Related:

• Los Angeles Times: Gay marriage foes ramp up outreach to Latinos
  
• Orange County Register: Latino adults: Marriage desirable, but too 'risky'
• Rex Wockner: Polls flip, gays now losing marriage in Calif.
• Gloria Nieto: No on Prop 8

California Nuptials: Gloria Nieto & Jo Kenny / Matt Foreman & Frank De Leon

Four of my favorite people got married this weekend in California.

Jo Kenny and Gloria Nieto got married on Saturday at their San Jose home surrounded by friends and family on a glorious sunny day. The couple asked guests to donate to the Barack Obama campaign or to the Equality for All campaign in California in lieu of gifts. Equality for All is the lead organization in fighting efforts to nullify the right of same-sex couples in California to marry.

I know that both Jo and Gloria, as so many other people, were mourning the passing of 87 year-old Del Martin on Wednesday, particularly because they personally knew her and her surviving spouse Phyllis Lyon so to be able to celebrate vows in light of the news must have been bittersweet, incredibly moving and life-affirming. Martin and Lyon became the first couple in California to 'remarry' earlier this year when the state officially recognized their right to marry (they had already been married at the 2004 San Francisco ceremonies that pushed California forward on the marriage issue).

I have known Gloria ever since she was a board member of the now-defunct National Latino/a Lesbian and Gay Organization (LLEGO) and have grown closer in recent years. I mean, I did bring her to the Obama side and all! My love to Jo and Gloria and my apologies for not haveing been able to be there to celebrate with them. BTW: The ceremony was officiated (sp?) by the lesbo-rrific councilwoman Jamie McLeod (above with Jo & Gloria). Gloria wants you to know that she is in a tough re-election campaign against a homophobic contender and wants you to support her as well by heading here and finding more about the race. Also, Gloria blogs here.

In the meantime Matt Foreman finally made a good man out of Frank De León (or was it the other way around?). Well, at least they finally stopped living in sin! At least in God's eyes (still, what's up with all that leather? Yikes!).

The boys were married on Saturday in San Francisco with the amazing Shannon Minter officiating (OMG, how LGT of them!). Read all about it in yesterday's New York Times!

Matt I've known forever. At least since he was the Executive Director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project and through his leadership at the Empire State Pride Agenda (he recruited me back then for the agency's board) and through his recent stint as Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. His recent move to san Francisco to become director of gay and immigrant rights programs at the Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Fund means we get to see less of Matt here in New York which is sad. Frank, who I've also known forever, continues to run his great FADesign here in New York so hopefully there'll be future lunches with the happy couple. Congrats Matt & Frank!

Photo credits: Photo of Jo and Gloria courtesy of Ed Rader via Gloria; Photo of Matt and Frank taken in February by yours truly at the Creating Change conference in Detroit, MI, as Matt bid a public farewell to the Task Force.